"Is everything fine?"

I ask nervously, crossing my fingers under the table hoping that it is not bad news.

"Nothing really urgent, at the moment, but something that I think you should know. You can pass by the office anytime you are free." Chavan's voice sounds deceptively casual.

Should I be worried?

"If it's related to the apartment I can pass by today," I offer weakly.

"No, it's not about your apartment; its related to the building. Like I said it's not urgent, but drop in to the office, so I can update you on what is going on."

I breathe a little easy. Probably related to some building maintenance. I guess I won't be kicked out after all. Whew that's a relief!

"Everybody!" Khushboo stands up and calls for our attention. "All of us have been called to XMR now."

As we troop to XMR, all of us are wondering what new developments are going to be sprung upon us. We could feel the buzz of excitement around the entire office as people were informed of the many changes that Vicky had started to implement.

In retrospect, he had already started making changes since he arrived, like the quality of food served in the cafeteria had drastically improved. The after-working hours policy for women, stringent anti-harrassment policy and many more. Again, I mentally hit my head, for never really connecting the dots.

I look around the meeting room as we take our seats on one side of the humongous table. The blinds are left open, letting in bright sunshine and bathing the room in golden aura, its light glistening the metallic accents of the wood paneling on the wall. The office peon enters noiselessly and places glass of water next to each one of us.

Rohit sitting to my right dips his head towards me "Tarana?" Rohit whispers. "Yes?" I whisper back. Although it is just us in the boardroom, the imposing atmosphere of the swanky room, automatically makes us whisper, as if we would disturb the sanctity of the place if we spoke loudly.

"Actually earlier, I had come to ask you something else, but I was so overwhelmed with news of my wedding that I could not think straight."

"What is it?"

"Something I need you to think carefully before giving me an answer."

"Rohit what is it?"

"It's a proposal!" he whispers excitedly.

A what?!!!

My eyes fly up to his, aghast at what he said. Did I hear correctly? Did he not just propose to his girlfriend? Why is he proposing me? What did he think I would say?

Rohit's eyes are shining brightly as he looks at me with an excited grin. I am thoroughly confused.

"What are you saying? What proposal?" I whisper furiously. I am sure he heard the shock in my voice.

"Just hear me out, will you? It's not what you think." He rolls his eyes.

Before I could say or ask anything further, the meeting room door opens and all of us turn our attention towards it. Any thought that I had, goes flying out the window, the second I sight Jeet entering.

He is wearing a perfectly fitting dark blue, single button suit, over a pale blue shirt tightly hugging his taut chest and a navy blue self-embossed tie, looking every inch the powerful businessman. Deep caramel eyes meet mine dead on, before moving to the others, as he takes his seat at the head of the table. His assistant, Reema, a stately and fifty something woman, follows behind taking her seat to his left, opposite us.

"Good morning everyone," Jeet smiles around without paying attention to anyone in particular and especially avoiding eye contact with me. "Hope everyone is doing well." We all collectively murmur our polite response, before he continues, "I aplogise for this sudden meeting but I won't take up much of your time. As you all must have heard by now, Nivedita is being transferred to our UK office. She will be on leave of absence till she joins there."

All of us look at each other, nodding to silently communicate "that's why she is not here."

"So," he gives a slight pause "since the Vice President is also new and has other urgent issues to handle, your department will be working directly under me for this month."

I audibly gasp at the announcement, looking around to see the reaction of the others. They are mostly smiling and nodding, apparently pleased to hear this bit of news. Rohit is the only one, looking down, probably trying to process the information.

I turn to look at Jeet, who is looking at me with some sort of a challenge in his eyes. Like am I too chicken to work under him?

I narrow my eyes and lift my chin up defiantly. I can be and I am a professional. I will not let personal feelings come in the way of my work. Specially, when there are supposed to be no feelings involved.

Jeet clears his throat before speaking, "So now that we have that cleared, the other reason I have called you is that I have to attend a seminar on Monday, where I am one of the keynote speakers and I will also be meeting some investors after that. So, I need the graphics team to work on some animation and presentation for the investors and the PR team to prepare a PR package to present as well prepare a speech."

He looks around to check if we have any questions so far, and seeing that we are still waiting for him to speak, he continues, "So I want Junaid to lead the graphics team on this and Rohit, you will work with me closely to prepare the speech. I may need you to come on the weekend."

"Uh Jeet?" Rohit raises his hand like a timid school boy asking permission to speak.

"I prefer being called Vicky or Vikram please," Vicky sounds a little annoyed. Perhaps he has repeated this line a million times this past week.

"Sorry, Vicky," Rohit goes on a little hesitantly, "but I can't come on the weekend, in fact I cannot even stay late these next two days as it is my Roka ceremony on Sunday and I have many arrangements to make."

"Oh," Vicky says, the disappointment very evident in his voice. "Congratulations, that's good news. In that case, I guess you start preparing the PR material for me to take, while Tarana will help me with the speech."

What? Oh gosh no? Working closely with Jeet? This is not good for my heart.

Is there a way to say no?

I cannot. I do not have a valid reason to refuse. What do I tell him? 'I have feeling for you and it may affect me too much to work with you?'

I look around and see everyone is looking at me expectantly.

"Tarana, is there a problem?" Vicky cocks an eyebrow at me.

"Is everything fine?"