How quick we judge people

Without hearing their side

Take a moment to think O dear,

And maybe you shall enjoy this ride.

Purity may be rare,

But it is yet to become extinct

You need to let your guard loose

And take from every little hint.

Every event has a reason

Which time shall unfurl

Till then just live in the moment

It isn't that bad a world.

.

.

7 days had passed.

Although for others, seven days seemed very much like seven days, 175 hours to be precise, but for Khushi Gupta, it was more like a jiffy, since the longest hours in the world felt puny to her, ever since her crude, inconsiderate boss ASR had shortened her deadline, making her work on the new designs, five exclusive new designs round the clock.

And although she despised him for such a brutal call, she slowly began getting acclimatized to her work schedule and she would be lying if she said she didn't grow to like it.

For some odd reason, though she was only an intern here at this moment, she still felt immensely close to the whole event, Fleur, already, and wished from the bottom of her heart that if not all, her boss should at least like one out of the five designs she drafted and it should be used in AR's fall collection.

It was a peculiar blend of excitement as well as apprehension bubbling inside her, more so because she knew how volatile ASR's nature was, wherein his mood swings were always giving her a whiplash.

She sighed in relief as she finally assembled all her design drafts together and mentally patted herself, because she really surprised her own self, since she hadn't thought she would be able to complete all these designs in such a short period. But she did!

But a part of her knew that she shouldn't feel complacent, since no matter how much she worked for these designs, for someone like ASR, he might as well just reject all of them, just because he had a tiff against her.

And that thought instantly made her pout.

''Stop it, Khushi. You cannot let a dark lord like ASR make you feel stressed and unhappy. You would get pimples! Jeez! Let's just be happy!''

She told herself and let her ever infectious smile finally curve her lips.

With positivity again building in, she once again looked at her designs, quite proud of herself.

.

.

Arnav Singh Raizada, for a change was not as cranky as his usual self today.

The reason could be many things.

Maybe it was because he was out on a business trip to New York City, and returned this morning, and NYC always eased him on many levels, since he had some of his childhood friends there.

But now he was back to business, and a less cranky version of him was still quite scary to his employees, so they tried their best to let the man maintain his less daunting version for the day, and made sure they didn't cross his path today.

He was unusually calm today.

Maybe it was the jetlag.

Or maybe something else.

He stood straight sipping his black coffee, on the top spot inside his office from where he could get the panoramic view of the lower floor where his employees were working round the clock, all dedicating their everything to make the fall collection of AR: Fleur a grand success.

While everyone present there was totally aware of their boss standing upstairs and watching them like a hawk, a certain someone called Khushi Gupta was completely oblivious to the fact and kept staring at her designs.

Amid all this, what the other employees didn't know was that though their boss had a view of them all, his eyes were particularly darted at a petite, fair figure, decked in a knee length royal blue dress, that is Khushi Gupta.

And the irony was, perhaps even Arnav himself didn't know that his eyes had found their muse in the same girl who had made him agitated to the core in the past few weeks, as they remained fixated on her, as if studying her, witnessing every little movement she made.

Thankfully for him, before it could become all the more obvious that he was so blatantly staring at her, her voice broke his reverie and that made him blink.

''Tom, can you please give these designs to Mr. ASR?''

She told the peon while the latter looked at her confused.

And it was not just Tom who was confused, but ASR too as he heard her say that.

And somehow, that piqued his interest exponentially and he waited patiently to hear how this conversation folded.

In that moment though, what Arnav didn't realize was the fact that eavesdropping was something he had always hated, but with this girl's entry in his life, he was on a spree of breaking his own rules, some intentionally and some unknowingly.

Tom looked at the file in Khushi's hand and as he took it, he saw the beautiful blend of colors and it didn't take him more than a minute to realize that these were designs for the upcoming collection.

And so with a surprised and happy smile on his face, he asked Khushi,

''Wow, ma'am! These designs are beautiful! But why don't you give these designs to ASR yourself? These are just amazing!''

Though Tom asked that question and waited for an answer from Khushi, in reality, it was the mighty Arnav Singh Raizada who actually waited impatiently for her answer.

Reason?

He didn't know.

But a part of him just looked forward and waited with bated breath to know her answer, as to why she wouldn't want to handover her designs to him by herself and chose to send them via the peon.

What he didn't know was that he was in for another shock (as always), because when it came to this female called Khushi Gupta, who quite easily managed to give him a whiplash too, with her unpredictable dialogues.

And now, was no different.

''What to do Tom! You know Mr. ASR na? His mood swings are worst than a pregnant woman. God knows what mood Lord Voldemort with a nose is in today! I made these designs with a lot of hardwork..''

She caressed the file as if it was her newborn baby.

''That's why Tom, it's better you only go. I can't see my designs, my cute color strokes being thrashed by him.''

She added dramatically, making Tom look at her with complete sympathy, but ASR upstairs was a ball of thunder, as his eyes went wide in shock hearing what she said, and his fingers curled into tight fists as he gritted through his teeth, ''WHAT THE!''

He couldn't control the boiling rage inside him and was all set to shout out loud at the audacity of the girl who dared to say all that about him, but that is when his phone buzzed, and looking at the screen he knew it was a very crucial business call that he had to take.

And hence, shooting daggers at her for one last time, he disappeared into the corridor while downstairs, Tom gave an understanding look to Khushi and headed for ASR's cabin to keep the designs there.

.

.

''Why do you hate him so much?''

Kartika's voice made Khushi turn and look at her best friend in the office.

''I don't hate him, Kartika. Not at all!''

Khushi said instantly while Kartika rolled her eyes and added, ''Yeah? Then what was ''Lord Voldemort with a nose, mood swings worst than a pregnant woman, hmm?''

Khushi smiled sheepishly before adding, ''Han so those are facts, right?''

Kartika chuckled and playfully slapped Khushi on the shoulder before saying, ''Babe, I know ASR is this fiery ball of anger, who loves to test our patience, but he isn't that bad. Maybe he has a reason to be how he is.''

Khushi listened to Kartika patiently and knew that perhaps her calling him names wasn't the right thing to do, but the childish element in her told her that no matter how bad one's life goes, they cannot humiliate others time and again, that too depending on their mood. It was not right.

And so, she just nodded at Kartika, conveying she understood what she tried to explain, and went back to her desk, resuming her other work for the day.

As she tried concentrating on the computer screen, a small part of her still tugged at Kartika's words.

''Could there really be a deep reason for him to be how he is?''

When she couldn't find any sensible answer to that, she just shook her head and convinced herself that maybe he was just how he was. No reasons, whatsoever.

''Dark lord!''

She muttered as she went back to typing.

.

.

''Okay, Mr. Daniels. Great then.''

..

''Sure. I will see you soon.''

And with that Arnav hung up the call, letting out a deep sigh.

He cracked yet another deal and ideally, he should be popping a bottle of champagne, celebrating his back to back success, but who was he kidding?

The void that had taken over his life since the past few months was palpable and there was nothing, absolutely nothing that could fill it up.

But then again, he was a man of substance.

He couldn't let one wrong thing define his own life, and though he knew that his recent past made him unreasonable in many aspects, he was not sorry.

People had worst cases of defense mechanisms when tragedy struck and he was not even halfway there.

Well, at least that's what he believed.

So wiping off the last shred of self pity, he regained his composure and entered his cabin.

.

.

The moment he sat on his chair, the sight of a red file on his table greeted his eyes.

And he narrowed his brows instantly as he recognized the file right away.

''Khushi Gupta!''

He gritted through his teeth, the flash of the conversation she had with the peon resurfacing in his mind in no time, and he was all set to throw the same file that very moment, when suddenly the view of the colors inside met his sight, and he was unknowingly stopped in his tracks.

.

.

He reluctantly turned the page to open the file and his fingers automatically traced the strokes of colors on the A4 page as his vision remained fixated on the design and his eyes refused to blink.

An insanely perfect stroke of brush, every minute detail of the outfit that she had drafted on the sheet had a story to tell.

And when he paid more attention, he could finally spot it.

Maple leaves.

One of the most beautiful and cherished essence of the season of fall, and he didn't know when and how, his fingers started turning the pages on their own accord, every blend of color on the sheet holding him captive as he studied all the designs and his muscles began relaxing, taking him to a different world, where he could actually envision all of these designs on the sheet turn into a living reality, but what he didn't understand was just one thing.

Why was he envisioning her wearing all of these?

Her complexion, her curves, her tresses, beautifully molded into these attires.

'Maybe because she made these designs.'

That's what his mind told him, but maybe he was really quite far from reality.

As he finally looked at the last design, all he could recall was Aman's words.

Yes, she was a quick learner and one of the best fresher designers.

But that was what Aman had said and he had blatantly refused to believe.

And even now, though his ego still stood high in its peak, he would be deemed a liar if he said these designs weren't good.

And so taking a deep breath, he stroked the strokes of her designs one last time, before finally closing the file.

These designs were..

Beautiful.

There was no doubt about that.

And from the perspective of a fashion house magnate, he wouldn't step away from using all of them.

He was quite shocked with himself when he decided to do that, especially the very fact that he was actually thinking of using her designs, Khushi Gupta's designs. But well, he had to keep his personal and professional life apart.

At least that's how he reasoned with his instant love for her designs.

Whether that was really the case or if there was any other thing, such as feelings involved, nobody knew it.

Not even him.

Maybe the universe did.

Yes, he was still angry with her for whatever she told Tom, especially hearing the identifier she kept for him.

What was that?

''Yeah, Lord Voldemort with a nose!''

He mentally recalled and his nostrils flared instantly in annoyance, but he took a deep breath to not blast her and controlled his anger, lest she starts a new drama.

Regardless of everything, these designs were damn good, and they were going to be a part of FLEUR.

And so, he was all set to use the intercom to call her to his cabin, when suddenly his cell phone rang and he saw it was his cousin Akash calling from New Delhi.

He instantly disconnected his call, his insides hurting for all the ignorance he harbored for his entire family, but his mind showing him the way of greater good since he was better off all this.

He tried forgetting it all and made a mental note to only devote his entire attention to the upcoming event of AR, when this time his phone beeped, indicating an incoming message.

It was from Akash.

He let out a frustrated sigh before finally taking his cell phone and tapping on the 'Open Message' tab.

What he read next was enough to escort him once again to the gates of agony, where what he was trying to forget, again came back to shatter him, this time many degrees deeper.

''Bhai, Ajay uncle and Maya aunty are getting divorced. Just called you to inform the same. Do give me a call any time you feel like talking. Take care.''

**