[ 001 ] tera mera rishta purana
Priya stumbled out of her office, rubbing at her eyes; she desperately needed another cup of coffee, maybe all black this time - either that or she needed four mugs of coffee. Coffee that should have been on her desk three hours ago, but her incompetent assistant must have forgotten again, canoodling with the personal assistant of someone else. Which meant she would now have to walk all the way to the common area (which was shared with three other company offices) and pour herself a cup; a cup that would be empty by the time she reached the elevator, not to mention the pencil heels were killing her; it wasn't her fault, not really - she just avoided heels these days, having to run after Diya almost every day after she got back from work. Heels in hand and coffee in the other, Priya was about to take a sip when her phone buzzed; she had no doubt in her mind that it was Kabir - probably asking about the deal and how the paperwork was coming along for market day. She needed to get back, there were at least four pages of paperwork left to do - she was going to do it yesterday but then Diya had asked to watch Beauty and the Beast and she couldn't refuse her daughter. It was then that she collided into another figure, her coffee mug shattering on the floor, while liquid soaked through her dress.
Nikhil tapped the pen against the edge of the table, not even caring that it was annoying the whole board of directors. "How is this due tonight?" he asked and received absolute silence. Idiots. He had hired completely incompetent idiots. "I need a drink," he muttered and hurled himself out of the chair, stalking over to the pantry. Shared pantry. Only for a while however, since their main office was under renovation. "I just want coffee," he whined to himself, unable to push through the crowd. He turned back on his heel, deciding to run down to Starbucks. At least he would get sugar instead. He also needed to check up on his son, make sure his child didn't end up murdering someone on the cricket pitch-- Speaking about that, he should probably start-- "Oh fuck me," he snapped when he walked straight into someone, watching coffee spill over his very expensive oxfords. "Seriously? It's Monday. Seriously."
Priya raised an eyebrow at him incredulously, resting her hand on her hip, the pointy edges of her heels sticking out. She cocked her head to the side, uncaring at the moment that her entire dress had been soaked; it had been incredily expensive too, not that shd'd paid; it had been a gift from Sunny (her ex husband), one of the few gifts she's kept. It would cost an arm and a leg to dry clean, especially aince it was white. "Seriously? You completely soak my dress with your hipster coffee and now you're going to pin the blame on me?" Her eyes roved over him in mild interest before realizing that she's seen him before; never talked of course, but they had shared elevators on the way to the parking lot, and she was sure she had seen him at Diya's kindergarten. Speaking of Diya, she really needed to check her messages; her daughter had always been sensitive, but now even more so after her father had left - Priya often had to leave work to pick up her hysterical daughter from school.
Nikhil would have shot back at the woman, except- well- she was kinda hot. He had also seen her before, he realised but then quickly coughed, not wanting to end up ogling at a woman with unfortunate brown spots on her white dress. Which did make him crack a smile. "You look like a cow," he pointed out and the laugh eventually broke through, stopping when she looked completely traumatised. "Uh, sorry, I didn't--" Hell, he completely meant it. "Do you have an extra, uh, whatever that is. Ensemble? I have an overcoat if that helps...?" He raised a brow when she seemed to be only staring at him, obviously thrown off by his comment. "Miss? Are you all right?" He tapped his foot against the floor, getting uncomfortable with his shoes being soaked.
Priya frowned at him, trying to work out what his deal was; first he spilled coffee on her and then he insulted her before finally aplogizing. She turned her nose up at him, her jaw stuck out in defiance. "I have a meeting to get to, so if you'll excuse me." She turned away from him then, sliding back into her heels; ahe was perfectly aware of all the looks that she was getting from the men in the department, at how visible her lingerie was through the dress and she stormed back into her office, digging out her spare clothes - the one she kept in case of emergencies.
Nikhil let out a resigned sigh when the woman left him standng there, his feet still trying to shake off the darned coffee. He rubbed the back of his neck, feeling the heat rise up. What he needed to do was to go back up and scream at his staff to get the La Senza ad down and then run off to pick up his son. The boy had been having anger issues lately, ever since he came back from his mother. A bad decision, on his part, giving away Neil because his lawyer had told him that his son needed his mother. Bullshit. "Lock this down. I want it done by 11 or you're all fired. I mean that." He pulled his overcoat (which only reminded him of the woman in white) and quickly headed down to the school, trying to find his second grader in the lobby area. There was an instant smile on his face when he spotted the boy, his heart finally feeling at peace at the fact that there were no new injuries on his face that day. "Hey, sport!" he called out, grinning easily even though his son refused to return the smile. Well, he was two hours late. "You're late." "Touche. Now come on." He paused however when he spotted the girl sobbing next to him, one who was obviously younger than Neil. He glanced at Neil, who only shrugged back, though both of them hovered awkardly. The boys weren't very good at crying females. Nikhil eventually crouched down, pushing himself closer to the girl. "Hey there," he whispered gently, trying not to scare her. "What's wrong? Anything I can help?"
Priya was running late, extremely late; she knew that Diya would most likely be in a corner somewhere, sobbing. The last time she had shown up late, her daughter had asked her if she was leaving her too, the way baba had left them. It had taken a lot of convincing, a lot of convincing for her daughter to even come close to understanding. Maybe Sunny could pick her up, she wondered nearing the last resort. "Kabir! That sounds great, why don't we convene tomorrow once you've looked over the budget? And the practicality of the project hmm?" Normally, Priya wasn't at all snappy to her employees - she was a firm believer in treating them nicely - but she needed to get to her daughter. She grabbed her blazer, her hands hovering over the dress. "Kamini," she barked down the hall. "I want you to get this dry cleaned," she ordered, dumping the dress in the poor girl's hand. Her steps were harried, sweat forming on her forehead as she stumbled down the steps to her car. Maybe she had broken a few laws for speeding on the highway, she realized as the car skidded to a halt outside the kindergarten. She glared at the caretaker who immediately wiped the unimpressed look off her face. "Diya? Diya, baby mama's so sorry -- aaj kaam mein--" she broke off when she spotted her daughter sitting next to a man who very obviously had no idea how to comfort girls (she could only pray he had a son, or the child he'd come to pick up was a relative). Her daughter turned to her, and Priya got down on knee level, wrapping her arms around her little girl, rubbing her back. "Nobody's going to leave you baby," she reassured softly. "Mama hain na yahan? Mama kahin nahi jaa rahi," she repeated softly, brushing back her daughter's hair as she pressed a kiss to her forehead.
Nikhil wished the first thing he had noticed about her had been her face or even that body (amazing, by the way) but he was slightly distracted by a wardrobe malfunction she seemed to be having. And even though he knew she was having a moment with her daughter, he wasn't sure if that faulty zip was gonna be noticed by her anytime soon. His son seemed to notice his awkward trepidation and only shoved him forward. Bad idea. He practically collided with the woman-s back and he turned to shoot a glare at Neil before hurriedly turning back to the women, an apology already settling on his lips. "Oh shit," was all he ended up saying, realising it was the cow lady from earlier. "You-uh-well, your blouse-" The only upside to this situation was probably that the little girl had stopped bawling and was now staring at the stranger in front of her with deep interest. "Nevermind,' he exhaled with a random laugh and then wrapped the overcoat around her arms. "Listen, it's cold and uh, you look cold so. Return it tomorrow!" He shot her a grin before tailimg the hell out of the place, a very embarrassed Neil hot on his heels.
Priya watched him leave, her eyebrows raised; when she had noticed him without the lull of anger, he was bloody attractive, and that jawline? She was sure it could cut cheese or something equally as cliche in ways of describing men. She cleared her throat when Diya tugged on her arm, realizing that she had been staring at him for the past three minutes. "Mama woh aapka boyfriend hai?" Priya sputtered at the assumption, shaking her head. "Unka naam Nikhil hai," her daughter supplied and she was about to tell the little girl that she didn't care when she realized she had to return the coat currently on her shoulders, and nodded. Her phone rang sometime after dinner and she glanced at the caller ID - Sunny - she fumbled with the phone, passing it to Diya. "Lo papa se baat karo--- mere paas kaam hai okay?" Priya fled into the bedroom, hiding behind the safety of her laptop while her daughter talked on the phone with her father.
Nikhil turned over with a groan-- Not that there was much space to turn over, considering he had fallen asleep in a damn chair. A swivelly chair. Which meant that the moment he turned over, he effectively ended up turning the whole chair as well, which took him for a spin. "Fuck off," he muttered viciously at the innocent chair, reaching out to swipe his alarm away. He probably needed to work on his morning grumpiness but he was running on three hours of sleep and he had slept in the damn office. He did ask permission from his son before heading back to work. Hey, he was a bad father but not a terrible one. He took a mug of coffee down to the pantry, hoping no one was around at god knew what time it was, not being bothered enough to change into a fresh suit he had in the office. He ran through the presentation in his head, slightly nervous about the client. "La Senza, lure and allure," he said in his morning voice, needing to test out the slogan to see if it would work well. He looked at the reflective metal surface and tried the lines several times, until he was interrupted by a cough that made him turn back with a horrified expression. It was that same woman - how did he keep meeting her everywhere?! "Miss, are you stalking me?" he asked, his eyes narrowing.
Priya snorted, she had been coming in to get a tumbler of coffee because she knew that nobody would be in at this hour; Sunny had offered to take Diya to school seeing as he had to go the same way and she had an early day at work today, when they were going to launch a new line of their contact lenses - everything had to be perfect, and if it wasn't, the entire office knew that Priya would have them on the chopping block. Of course she had been sidelined by Nikhil reciting what had to be the cheesiest line in the history of lines, and she couldn't even grab her coffee and go - not when he was standing right in front of the coffee machine. She had been checking out her reflection in the mirror, making sure she looked alright (why was she doing that?); she had been dressed in a simple peach colored flowy top, paired with a tight pencil skirt, the look had been finished by her usual stilettos. Her daughter usually helped her style whatever she wore, nodding and shaking her head at the clothes that Priya would put out every day. "I just needed my coffee," she answered briskly, before nodding at him. "And you were kind of blocking the machine," she added awkwardly, shooting him a half smile. Her daughter's words popped into her mind, Aapka boyfriend hai? and she shook her head at the floor, a smile crawling up her lips at the thought.
Nikhil frowned at her as she seemed to hold a conversation in her head, suddenly perturbed by this slightly insane woman. “Erm. Are you all right?” A sense of déjà vu struck him – hadn’t he asked her the same bloody question the day before as well? That too, in the same place? “No uh, it’s just… Kuch nahi.” He shot her a smile, trying not to stare too long at her because it would disorient her. He didn’t have the emotional capacity to like anyone, not with a divorce case going on and a traumatised son on hand. And for god’s sake, the woman obviously had a child and therefore a husband – even if she had said something about the father leaving them. Instead, he focused on her shoes, noting the white stilettoes from yesterday. Hell, he was wearing the same damn outfit from yesterday. “Uh, your kid. She’s better now?” He knew he had to go back and prep for his presentation, maybe shave while he was at it, but this was nice too. This awkward conversation of cautious words, whatever it was.
Priya nodded, looking up at him. "Yeah, she's better now-- her dad's going to drop her to school today and then he's got her for the weeken--" she broke off, frowning at herself as she wondered why she was telling him all of this; he probably had a wife, she chastised herself but god, it had been so long since she'd gone on a date, having barely any time to herself in between work and her daughter; the man in front of her wasn't helping either, with his mussed hair and the way he was still looking good in a crumpled suit. She extended her hand eventually once she realized they had been staring at each other for too long. "I'm Priya," she introduced herself, a small smile on her face. This was nice, she reassured herself; she needed to think about something other than her work, or her looming appointment in less than two hours - stress relief was important/
Nikhil met her hand, temporarily surprised by how firm the handshake was. But then again, she was a single mother (he assumed) and everything about her demeanour spoke of silent strength behind the slightly goofy exterior. Which sounded way too close to how he used to describe Sana, his almost ex-wife, and he retreated back his hand along with his smile. "Nikhil," he offered, his hand scratching the back of his head. "Your office is renovating too huh?" This hellhole was specifically dedicated to all the places undergoing renovation and even if it made him sound like a prick, he wasn't used to such cramped places. It reminded him too much of when he had just been starting out his advertising company, when he had three people along with Sana to work their asses off. Plus, their coffee was shit. "Listen, uh, I'm actually starving and there's this pretzel shop around the corner so... I mean I understand if you don't want to come along with a homeless looking man." That was strange. He hadn't consciously decided to ask her out, it had just happened. Screw his presentation, it was in a few hours anyway and there was nothing Nikhil Mishra couldn't handle. Or rather, this was what he told himself.
Priya blinked at him, not having expected the invitation. She paused for a second before hesitantly nodding. "That would be alright," she let out an awkward laugh. "Actually that would be great -- I haven't really had time to grab breakfast so that's actually a great idea," she realized that she had been rambling and she let out a laugh, setting down her tumbler of coffee; she knew nobody would touch it, not with the temper she had on her. The only people who could handle her temper was her husband (ex-husband, she reminded herself), her daughter and her younger brother. She knew that his coat needed to be returned, but it was in her office and she wasn't in the mood to make the six floor walk to get there either.
Nikhil had noticed the lack of a ring on her finger and that had been the reason he had ultimately asked her out. Why the hell not? She was a very attractive woman and he wasn't any less and they were both just going to eat breakfast. On a second thought, he shouldn't even have to reason, he told himself, internally struggling with the notion. He hadn't even had time to like anyone, hearing Sana's accusations in his head all the time. That he was too engrosse in his work, that he had abandoned her, which had pushed her to ultimately cheat on him. He didn't understand her accusations at that time - he still didn't - but that had sworn him off women for a while. Until Priya. "So did you sleep over at your office also or do you just wake up inhumanely early?" he asked her, suddenly wishing he had cleaned up. She looked perfect, like a literal summer breeze and he looked like he had escaped from a mad house. He unconsciously fixed his shirt, sorting the messed up collar out.
Priya laughed at his question. "Uh no, I went home-- but I have this weird thing of waking up really early when I have a deal to finalize and then like today's really important because if this works, I'll get a promotion and it really means a lot to me because--well it does." She cringed at her slip up, not sure what had caused the outburst and let out a sigh, taking a bite of the pretzel. "I'm assuming by the way you're dressed, you had a rough night?" she asked politely, trying to make conversation. She didn't know what it was about him, but talking to him was as easy as it had been to talk to Sunny. Sunny, she wondered if she could ever stop comparing everyone to him, but the pain in her heart told her she couldn't, not when he had been such a big part of her life - they had been childhood friends who'd grown up together, the kind of friends nobody doubted would end up married.
Nikhil scoffed in response, punishing the pretzel with a vindictive bite. "It's normal, really," he sighed after a while, squinting up at their building. "Everyone messed up their dates so we have three days to work on a presentation instead of three weeks." He let out a shrug, not wanting to burden her with any of his work-related problems. "Plus, once we get this gig down, we can chill for a bit, maybe give the staff a day off." He was a formidable boss, one that constantly pushed his team to his limits but always manage to get excellent work from them. Perhaps he had forgotten how to be a husband, he mused silently, while trying to be a boss. "You'll get your deal," he said out of the blue, shooting her a smile. "Trust me, I have a good instinct about this." He was almost reluctant to let her go and hesitated as much as he could, but even he knew there was a point when they both had to leave. "By the way," he called out, a sudden girn on his face. "I give my staff coffee break at four thirty. You should try it. Works wonder." He shot a wink at her and then left, hurrying up to his cabin to get himself sorted.
Priya felt her heart flutter at his wink and frowned down at her feet at the response the small action had elicited. She let out a sigh, making her way up to the makeshift conference center; it was three times smaller than the one at their proper offices, and her makeshift office was quite small as well - she loved her real one, seeing as there were floor to ceiling glass windows that overlooked the city skyline and the entire office had been designed by a professional redecoratir. She remembered when she'd first gotten the promotion, nobody had been happier than Sunny. She closed her eyes at the thought of her ex husband: he was an enigma, that was the only way to describe him really; he made her feel wonderful, like she could do anything she put her mind to. In fact, Nikhil's words had sparked the nostalgia in her. I've got a good feeling about this were the exact words that would leave his mouth, a cocky, self assured grin on his face as he squeezed her hand. The meeting went by without a hitch, everything in place and the investors seemingly bowled over and ready to invest.
Nikhil had aced his presentation - well, sort of. He had mentioned the model name's as Priya, when it was clearly written as Gia. He hid a smile at that, not missing his colleague's jests of bhai, yeh Priya kaun hai?. "I'm cutting your coffee break," he had jokingly threatened them, not that he would do that even if someone paid him to. After all, he was to meet Priya then, wasn't he? Would she have gotten his hint...? Of course she would have, he told himself. Even, he gave a coffee break five minutes early, much to the shock of his staff who knew he was a downright stickler for time. "Get back by five, you bastards," he only laughed at their expression and jogged down to the common pantry, willingly going down all the floors because... He needed to temper his own hopes, he told himself. He always had the bad habit of jumping the gun - it hadn't taken him long to propose to Sana - but he knew this time that they were just skirting along the edge, each with their own emotional burden to carry. He eventually ended up being disappointed, for she hadn't shown up, and he couldn't possibly loiter at the coffee area without looking like a coffee hog. He swallowed his disappointment, giving his staff an early day off so that he could pick up his boy, and maybe treat him to pizza for being so understanding. Or rather, eat his feelings away.
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