Page 25 of That Same Old Love

Mahi walked towards Samrat’s office feeling like an errant student walking into the principal’s office. She was sick and tired of his behavior towards her in the past three months.

He was always so encouraging and professional towards other men and women at work. In fact, most of his employees were in awe of him and respected him.

When she attended the all-hands quarterly meeting a few weeks ago, she listened to Samrat’s speech. It was so inspiring and encouraging that she had goose bumps all over her body. Everyone else was also similarly awestruck, and told her that he was a great orator, and that they waited eagerly for the meeting each quarter, just to listen to him talk about how every small change or role that the employees took part in was helping and transforming the world around them.

But he was being an ass to her. Clearly, their past was still the major driver of his behavior towards her. But there had been times, even during the past months, when he seemed relaxed around her. Especially when Srishti was around. The change in behavior towards her was so drastic that she was beginning to think he had a medical condition. Each time he had a spontaneous smile on his stern masculine face, and then a scowl a second later, she was remembering the song lyrics where it says,you’re hot and then you’re cold or you’re up and then you’re down or you’re wrong when it’s right.

Two words or maybe it was just one word – Bi-polar.

She felt jealous about the people who worked with Samrat. Even though he didn’t have a default friendly demeanor, he was always supportive of their needs. Whereas every time she opened her mouth, and sometimes not even that, her mere presence seemed to offend him.

If she didn’t like her team and job so much, she would have yelled at him a long time ago and would have been eventually fired.

Mahi knocked on the door and went in.

Samrat didn’t look up from his laptop, but said, “Close the door and sit.”

After shutting the door, she sat across from him.

He finally looked up with a grim expression. “You have been warned several times regarding inappropriate office behavior. I just caught you in the act again. An unprofessional physical contact. You are fired. You are to leave by end of the day.”

Shocked and then pissed, she erupted. “What the hell? Again with the inappropriate behavior? Will you stop it! What unprofessional physical contact?” Frowning, she remembered. “Oh my God. That was Senthil from my team, who is leaving for the Palo Alto office tomorrow for a two year project, and that was me hugging him goodbye! Seriously, what is wrong with you? Are you off your meds? Are you really some sort of a bi-polar Tarzan who grew up with no human contact!”

Samrat looked taken aback, but apparently he didn’t want to lose their argument. “It’s not just the goodbye hugs or your other overly friendly behavior. It is also the way you dress. You can dress however you want outside work, but in this office, there is an employee handbook clearly stating the limitations on the attire. No one has complained yet, maybe because they think I have recommended you, but your attire is distracting, and not to mention that it is not safe in the lab.”

Mahi narrowed her eyes and could feel the urge to lash out. The old Mahi who would tear down the person in front of her was threatening to claw her way out, but she controlled herself.

She stood up and she went closer to the glass door. “Samrat, can you please come and join me here.”

He looked confused and then annoyed. “Why?”

She took a deep breath as though to control herself. “I want to show you something. Since you are an inventor and have great observational skills, I want to bring something to your attention.”

* * *

Samrat didn’t want to play whatever game she was playing, but since he was pretty close to getting rid of her from his company, he indulged her. He also knew whatever reasons he gave for firing her sounded ridiculous even to his own ears.

As he stood next to her and felt the awareness grow.

“What do you want to show me?” he asked as he felt equal waves of lust and disdain claiming him. Even though his body was attracted, his head screamed, no. She was stunning, right from her pink toenails to her ridiculously high heels and way up to her carefully made-up face.

Totally oblivious to his internal struggle, Mahi looked towards the dozens of people sitting or standing in the collaboration area. “Oh… I just want to show you what the other women coworkers are wearing and compare that to my ‘slutty’ attire.”

He ignored the word slutty and peeled his eyes away from her to look at what the women employees in his company were wearing. He never bothered with that before, but after observing some of female employees, he could finally understand the point she was trying to make.

It was almost the end of May, and the weather was way too hot and humid. Everyone was dressed accordingly, in loose sleeveless dresses or skirts or even shorts. In fact, sometimes even he turned up in shorts when he worked in the lab to test Stimmulus or other products.

Mahi was wearing a business casual short sleeved shirt with a knee length skirt. He also noticed that her shoes werecomparable to what the other employees wore. All the women looked professional enough even with similar makeup and bright lipsticks on their lips.

Mahi sighed. “Samrat, I’ve already told you that I’m not that mean and aggressive girl from our college days anymore.”

He didn’t want to agree with her because that would mean that he will have to acknowledge that to himself. “Don’t forget rude and immature along with being a liar.”

Her eyes flared, and she snapped out at him. “You were an arrogant ass, who has always felt superior to me with your holier-than-thou attitude.I would never like someone like you Mahi,” she imitated him mockingly.

He was taken aback and a little shocked at the memory from many years ago.

“But I guess one of things that didn’t change about me is that I’ve still got a temper and some pride left,” she said calmly.

---