"Yeh mohabbat toh nahi hai, fir yeh aatish kis ehsaas ki hai?"

~ Meher ~

Mumbai, India

I sigh looking at the files on my table. Yesterday was a mess. I had been assigned as one of the journalists on the panel to discuss the exit poll of Arunachal Pradesh and a fight broke out between two party representatives. We had a hard time controlling them to the point that even I was being bashed live on the media.

I am never going there again. Discussing politics was not my forte.

Back at work, I started reading the files of the recent crimes that had taken place in the last few years. Ever since the New Year Serial Murders came to light, people somehow got interested in true crime so as a true journalist, I was searching for cases which can increase our ratings.

There wasn't really anything interesting.

My phone dings with notification, from a mere glance I notice that it was from my boss. Leaving my work on the side, I walked towards his cabin.

I knocked twice before I entered his cabin and I already noticed my colleagues, Tanay and Amrita standing there along with Rysa Khatri who was the chief editor of Bedazzled and the top entertainment journalist of AV Entertainment.

"Have a seat Meher," Mr. Yashpal Verma, the senior director of the AV Media Group.

The AV Media Corporation was an umbrella term which covered three main departments — News & Broadcast, Fashion & Entertainment and Advertising.

The News department was primarily responsible for covering all the latest news and what was happening around the world. We were also responsible for producing shows with different concepts— we had our own production house.

Fashion & Entertainment was a part of the print media who were primarily responsible for our fashion and entertainment magazine, Bedazzled and also covered the films and tv side of the media. They closely worked with our fashion firm and our Advertising department.

Well, the advertising department was self-explanatory. We loved the money that was generated from there.

Rysa was from Fashion & Entertainment. She practically had no work here. What was she even doing here?

"Meher," Amrita whisper-yelled, catching my attention. "What?" I whispered back.

"Sir's calling you," I got distracted, yet again. It wasn't my intention though. My eyes clashed with Rysa's. She clearly looked displeased. What was up with her?

"Yes, sir. What were you saying?" I shifted my gaze to him, giving him my full attention. "You are doing an editorial piece for this month. Kabir has asked you for the interview to be featured on Bedazzled."

"What?" My voice had grown a few decibels higher, completely stupefied at the newly assigned task.

"B-But Sir I am—" Rysa suddenly stood up and walked towards me.

The click of her heels made me a little bit nervous, I chose not to look at her direction. She came to stand in front of me and I looked up and close. That lady was stunning. Like straight out of a fashion magazine. And for some reason, she looked pissed.

"You are doing this issue because Kabir has asked for it," she emphasised and now I understood why she was so pissed.

She thought I snatched her work.

I smiled, this was funny, indeed. "Sure," I tilt my head to the side so I could see Mr. Verma, "I'll do it."

"As you should, Miss. Mathur," Rysa answered instead and I took a look in her direction. I took two steps back to avoid her predatory attitude. "But since you are a rookie, I will guide you for it." I hated that sick smile that she was giving me, bitch I am going to be your boss in three months.

"It would be my pleasure, Rysa," I gritted, giving a painful smile.

"Ma'am," she raised an eyebrow, her chewing on the gum increased which annoyed me a little more.

"Huh?"

"Call me Ma'am, Meher, I am your senior after all," she brushed the non existent dust off my shoulders and gave me another one of her not so genuine smiles. "Prada spring formals, I like it." She tapped on my shoulders before she made her leave.

I was standing too rigidly. The moment she left, my shoulders slumped as I breathed relief.

"Oh and Meher," Mr. Verma started again, "Tanay and Amrita interned in the fashion department so they have relevant experience, since you would feel a little too out of place they'll accompany you."

Amrita and Tanay gave me a toothy smile before giving me a thumbs up. I couldn't help but smile.

Maybe it wouldn't be that bad.

"I have interned under Rysa. She is a psycho," Amrita said as the three of us were walking to our desks. "She is a cheap socialite. Fired someone over a wrong sense of fashion."

"Yeah, I remember that. The girl went home crying," Tanay shuddered. "I don't know why we are being thrown into that department when we are actually from the news and have a rusty knowledge about fashion and entertainment."

"Rules can be bent only when you are a Mathur or Raizada," Amrita sighed. "Kabir Sir must have asked for you since you're close, right?"

Those words stopped my brain from working for a while. Close, yeah we were almost engaged to be married. Moments like these made me regret my decisions. So I looked at Amrita and smiled politely, "Yeah, we are very close."

"That's why!" Tanay clapped his hands together. I and Amrita stopped in our tracks at Tanay's reaction. Looking at his absent-mindedness, I realised he wasn't referring to us.

Amrita hit his head. "What?" Tanay scowled at her, rubbing the place where she hit him. He then turned to us excitedly, his throat bobbing up and down in excitement. "Rumour has it, which I definitely believe is true is that Rysa has a thing for Kabir Sir," Something tickled me, and I was suddenly interested in this new revelation. "Tell me more,"

"So whatever PR stuff that happens for the company, Rysa is involved especially when Kabir Sir is there. The funniest thing is that he always calls her by the wrong name," I couldn't help but snort at this new information. My new enemy likes my old enemy who was about to marry me. Tragic, a pity, indeed.

At least this marriage was doing something good— spiting people who were on my hate radar.

"Kabir Sir replacing her with Meher must have been a huge blow then," Amrita said thoughtfully. She turned to me, "You better be careful, okay?" She squeezed my shoulder.

"Yeah," I smiled at them.

* * *

In the next few hours, I, Amrita and Tanay were pulled to AV Fashion's office, not that I complained because I got to see Arya. It was Rysa that was being an annoying little bitch.

The moment I entered the CEO's office, I was enamoured by how Arya had designed it. I had only seen it in pictures but seeing it in real life was another delight. She had outdone herself with this.

The colossal desk was placed at the centre, on the raised platform. Behind her, was the tinted glass wall, which showed the entire Mumbai. On one side, there was a mannequin over which there was a half made design hung over it while there were pages of the designs neatly kept on a shelf near it.

One corner of that humongous room was a seating area, where an L-shaped couch took the room and in front of it was a table, square, matching the length of the sofa. There was a transparent curtains, which I believed was the resting area as I had seen in the photos.

"Welcome!" Arya clapped as she came through those curtains. My mood instantly brightened as I saw my best friend approach me, giving me a tight hug. It wasn't like we didn't see each other every day. It was just pure love and affection that we had for each other, wherever we went.

A cough from behind broke us apart and I turned to see Rysa, with her stern expression and her eyes sending out laser beams at us.

"Good evening, Rysa!" Rysa, too, reached out for a hug but Arya put forward her hand for a handshake. Snorts masked by the coughs erupted behind me and I turned to see Tanay and Amrita cracking up. My eyes gleamed with mirth as I saw an embarrassed Rysa shaking hands with my best friend.

"It's so good to see you, Arya," she covered up with a smile. "How are you doing these days? How's the new collection coming along?"

"It's almost finished, I am going to introduce it through Bedazzled, obviously. The elaborate collection will be featured in our fashion show, for which some time is still left." I was impressed. Arya had made her name in such a little time. We didn't deny that we were all given that opportunity, we knew that it was very important to make the most of it.

"That's amazing! I am so grateful that Kabir has agreed to do it with us, he hadn't done it since—" Her deep fake laugh resonates in the room, the vibe of the room tense. Kabir had not done any in person interviews since Radhika's death. Sure, he attended conferences and what not but he didn't sit down for an in person interview.

Amrita awkwardly coughed and the tension slowly started fizzing. Taking the cue, I looked at Arya so that we could start off with the work.

"Please take a seat," she guided us to the couch and sat in front of us.

"So," Rysa started, "how are we going about the theme?"

And the next two hours went on discussing what we had to do for the shoot. Rysa helped me with the questionnaire, more like nagging me over and over. Most of her questions delved into Kabir's personal life and I wasn't that sure how he would take it. Sadly, I had no say. Plus, magazines like these were more popular for gossip.

This was going to be a weird experience.

* * *

It was late at night when I returned home. Arya had clocked out early and so I ended up coming alone. Since I wasn't that tired, I decided to walk to the bar as I craved a drink. I haven't had a single drink for over a month since I was on medication, but now that I didn't take any more medicines, I might as well drink something.

The bar was located at the back of the villa, right by the swimming pool. When I reached the bar, I threw my bag and coat on the table and grabbed a bottle of whiskey and glass and got myself seated on the bar stool. The tiredness of the day finally washed in, there was a dull throb where my shoulder met my neck. My fingers pressed onto it, massaging it over and over again.

I made myself a drink, I swirled the glass before I took a sip. The liquidy bitter cool taste of the whiskey settled at my throat and I let out a low sigh as I enjoyed the drink.

Then I heard the sound of a water splash. Slowly, my eyes moved over to the pool and I saw something or someone, swimming in the pool, late at night.

So I wasn't alone.

The head of the person finally rose above the water and I recognised him immediately— Kabir Raizada. Kabir's gaze travelled up to me and his lips pulled up to a slow smirk.

He got out of the swimming pool and ruffled his hair to get the extra water out. I gulped looking at him, he was wearing nothing except for his swimming shorts.

I had never seen Kabir Raizada shirtless. Well, not never because there was one time I had walked in on him while he was changing.

I was in school.

And even then, I couldn't help but look at him. From well sculpted shoulder blades to a six pack body, he had it all. The last time I had seen him shirtless, he didn't even have a four pack, let alone a six pack.

He walked over to one of the sun loungers to grab his towel and robe. I leered my eyes away from him and focused my attention on my unattended whiskey.

As the cold glass was about to touch my lips, his hand locked around my wrist which held the glass and dragged it to his mouth. Kabir, still holding onto my wrist, took a sip of the whiskey, a lazy smile lingering on his lips.

I tried to get my hand out of his grip, instead, he got pulled to me, invading my personal space. With his other hand, he got the glass out of my grip and kept it on the countertop, his hand still locked around my wrist.

Warmth spread over my cheeks as I noticed how close we were standing. His face was so close to mine that I could feel his hot breath on my cheeks, the droplets of water falling over my skin.

I was locked between the countertop and him, I had no space to leave.

"Meher Mathur," his voice was deep and husky as he didn't speak in his usual tone, "are you shy?"

My eyes instantly met his as defiance settled inside of me. "In your dreams, Raizada."

He inched closer and I arched back, the edge of the countertop was pressing on my back. His breath smelt like a tinge of alcohol and mint, something was happening inside of me. His head tilted slightly and scanned my face intently. I think I had stopped breathing for a while.

He smiled. "I think you are," he whispered, his voice was like a feather, brushing my cheeks. My cheeks warmed, while all the signals went off inside my head.

"No, I am not," I spat, the annoyance increasing as his smile was widening. His face inched closer than before, his nose was centimetres away from mine. "Even now?" I could barely hear the whisper.

"Yes," my voice wavered slightly, as his hot breath fanned my cheeks. My hand was still under his grip, I did nothing to get it out.

When I watched Kabir coming even closer, my eyes immediately shut the moment I felt his breath on my lips. I was breathing heavily, so heavily that I could hear the sound of my breaths and even Kabir's.

But then, I froze. His lips touched softly over the curve of my ear, my free hand held onto the bar stool for support. "Your defence is weak, Meher Mathur. Try harder."

Cool air hit my body as Kabir left me finally, stepping back, creating a good amount of distance between us. I fluttered my eyes open as I saw him smirk and the realisation hit hard.

No matter how much I hated Kabir, his presence, and his closeness affected me.

And now he knew that. He knew that weakness.

"The weekend is coming soon," he said, as he went to the sun lounger to grab his phone. "The time has finally come for us to be a couple." and he left, just like that, leaving me to curse myself over my stupid actions.

When he left, I finally slumped and heaved a breath of relief. Getting affected by Kabir's closeness was extremely dangerous to what I was signing up for. And the stunt that he pulled today clearly gave away my weakness and now he had an upper hand over me.

I hated how I reacted to his closeness when he hadn't even done anything.

That smirk on his face was now imprinted on my brain and I was sure that he was going to take advantage of it.

For now, we were equal.

Meher-1, Kabir- 1

That's the end of the chapter. The slow burn between them is real! I couldn't help but gush over these two. I can't even wait to write about their lover era, but we are miles away from that geez. Now that we are twenty chapters in, what is your favourite thing in this story? Is there a particular character you like?

Any tips for me?

Do comment on this chapter and let me know your precious thoughts.

How has life been? Give me the deets.

DO VOTE, SHARE AND COMMENT. The last chapter had very few comments, not that I mind, but I would really appreciate some feedback and interaction in the comments so I would know what are your expectations from the story. It would help me to write better.

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With Love,

Akii. <3