47| No Longer Jobless
"You raze the old to raise the new"
—Justina Chen (North of Beautiful), author
Chapter 47: No longer Jobless
Riya got the job.
She had aced the interview two days ago and got the offer letter a few minutes ago.
The morning after his birthday, Madhan told her about how he lost his phone and credit card. When he came home that night, Riya made him sign a couple of documents which she had filled up for him. It was for getting issued another one. She had also managed to lock his number.
Madhan was impressed by her responsibility. He told her so.
"My dad had lost his wallet once and I had to help him with the whole procedure of blocking the card and getting another one. It was very easy now." Riya shrugged it off.
Madhan also made it a point to distance himself from her. He knew that she was still hurting, and he didn't want to come across as too strong. He had already given in to his temptation more than once. He wasn't going to do it again.
A few minutes after Madhan left, Riya changed into her newly bought office clothes. She wore a white shirt, and tucked it in her black plaited pencil skirt. She blow dried her hair for ten minutes and tied it up in a pony tail.
As for makeup, she applied a little foundation, a deep shade of red lipstick, eyeliner, and some mascara. In short, when she looked at herself in the mirror, she was smoking hot. For a person who went to work, anyway.
Strapping her heels, she grabbed her purse and strutted out of her house.
Riya was ready for her first day at work. She was also ready to surprise Madhan.
Thirty minutes later, she managed to just reach on time. She made her way to the fifteenth floor where Madhan's boss's room, Alan Cook's office was resided.
Her first project was a part of Madhan's. She was expected to oversee the cloud infrastructure. A part of her job is to find out if the existing cloud technology can be optimized.
"Excuse me," Riya said, politely knocking on the door.
The door was half open. Alan Cook looked up. A smile lit his face. "Riya. Excited to have you join our team. Please take a seat," he said, motioning for her to come inside.
Riya walked in, feeling completely welcome. She was anxious to know what her first task was.
"This project is on a tight deadline. The senior cloud architect has been facing er, some emotional issues, so we need you to aid her in the decision making. We would have given her a break, but unfortunately, she's the best we have at the moment. Her name is Jane Matthews. Before you meet her, you need to get the necessary files from Madhan. His office is the fifth office from the right, " he said, seriously.
Riya nodded in acknowledgement. "Thank you for recruiting me. You won't regret it." She got up and left the room.
"I should hope so," he said, and resumed with his work.
Her next stop was at Madhan's office. Was she nervous? She didn't tell him about getting the job. And if he had known about it, he would have asked her, wouldn't he have?
Finally, she made up her mind to act as professional as possible. "May I come in?" She knocked on the door.
Madhan said yes without looking up. Riya had to cough to get his attention, but even then he didn't look up from his files. "The files you need are here," he said, pointing to the right.
Riya was really annoyed, but she was at work. At office, Madhan was a colleague. Not her husband.
"Thank you," she said curtly and picked up the files. When Riya turned to leave, Madhan looked up, with a trace of a smile on his lips.
He checked out her ass. Damn, she looked hot. He wished he could have seen her, but it was all a part of his plan. He already knew about her getting the job. His boss had emailed him when she got the job. After all, they were going to work on the same project.
Madhan was going to take her to a celebratory dinner.
Riya had almost fell asleep in the file room. She was surrounded by loads and loads of paper work. Her job currently was like that of a paralegal's. She had to do a ton of research work for Jane. Unfortunately, she couldn't meet her today. It was almost seven, nearing the end of her office hours.
Riya was satisfied with the notes she had taken. Having freshly completed a certification really helped her. However, she had a lot to learn. Which was why she was in the file room. The file room had a history of everything to do with a project. Since her project wasn't fairly new, she had to dig up a few years' worth of work.
She stacked all the papers and neatly aligned them where she found it. When she turned around, she found Madhan standing a few shelves away.
"So, I usually have business dinners with people I work with for the first time. Sort of like getting to know the person. Care to join me today?" he asked. He looked fixedly at her, causing a blush to creep into her cheeks.
"Okay," Riya said shyly. So he already knew, she thought. He's so sneaky. But she's probably guilty as well, since she didn't tell him either.
Madhan watched her as she deposited the rest of the files. She took her purse when she was ready. There was a little confusion as to who's car to take to the restaurant. Finally they both decided to drive separately since the restaurant was closer home.
Riya was startled to see the rush at Red Iguana. Madhan spoke to a nearby waiter requesting for their eight o clock reservation. Riya watched as the waiter scrolled through the reservation book two days ago.
So Madhan had made reservations two days ago? Now he was extremely sneaky.
The waiter led them to a very private section of the restaurant.
"So, is this where you usually take your employees to dinner," Riya asked, raising her eyebrow. Madhan had pulled her chair out, waiting patiently till she took a seat. Then he strolled over and sat down himself.
"Nah. That was just an act at the office. This is your celebratory dinner."
Riya blushed. "Thank you, Madhan. I couldn't have done it without you. But if you already knew, why didn't you tell me?"
"The same reason you didn't tell me," he winked.
Riya pursed her lips. "It was supposed to be a surprise. You gave me one hell of a nose cut when I asked you for the files."
Madhan chuckled. "Of course. It was a part of the surprise. Didn't want you to catch on. Had you there, didn't I?"
Riya nodded. "Yes you did. Could you brief me a bit about this project?"
"Yep. Why don't we start discussing after ordering?"
Riya looked at the menu card. The prices were inordinate. She looked for the cheapest item and placed her order.
Madhan clicked his tongue. "Riya. We are celebrating." He then canceled her order and chose something else for her. Riya obliged.
"You will be reporting to Matthews, but I'll be overlooking the entire the project. So if you are facing any problems, the issues come to me as well, okay?"
"Who is Matthews?" she asked, confused.
"Your boss. Jane Matthews?"
"Ohhhh."
"I usually refer to my colleagues with their surnames."
"Oooh, so what? I'm Roy now?"
"Yeah, I guess so."
"What if someone says Roy? How do you know whether it's you or me?" Riya asked, snickering.
"Focus, Riya," Madhan sighed. "And like I said, only I refer to them like that. Neither do I nor my colleagues call each other on a surname basis."
Riya became serious after that. "So what am I up against in this project?"
Madhan proceeded to explain about who their clients were and what they stood for. They paused for a while when they got their orders. On resuming, Madhan further explained about what Riya would be specifically working on.
The next day morning, Riya was delighted to go to work with Madhan. She kind of delayed the two of them, and Madhan would have yelled, but she managed to pacify him by doing his tie. It was cute, watching his annoyance being replaced with a blush.
Madhan walked Riya to her new office. It wasn't ready the previous day. Since she was a cloud architect, she had a cubicle of her own. It wasn't as big as his, but big enough for an established engineer.
All the cubicles were made of glass. There was a medium sized brown desk in the center, with a rotating chair, and an empty metallic cabinet in the corner. There was some stationary placed on the table. Riya was ready to work.
Riya couldn't meet Jane today either. She went to the file room and collected all the related paper work and brought it to her new room. She came across a couple of doubts, but Madhan was conducting meetings all day, so she couldn't approach him, although he did call her during lunch and asked her if she wanted to join in a meeting.
Finally, Riya decided to take the work home. Madhan was busy at work, but he wasn't busy at home.
Madhan was shocked to see Riya carrying a pile of files.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
Riya looked at her files pointedly. "What does it look like I'm doing?"
"You can't take the files home."
"What?" Riya was panicking. "There's so much for me to learn, and I have no idea how I'm going to work on the cloud techniques, especially since I haven't met Jane yet and she doesn't look like she's coming to work anytime soon."
Madhan placed his hands on both her shoulders. "Riya, take a deep breath." Madhan was quick to remember not to tell her to calm down. "It's okay. You have time. You can do it. We'll go home, relax tonight, and you can resume tomorrow with a calm frame of mind, okay?"
Riya sighed. If she doesn't finish by tomorrow, then she'll probably spend the night at the office. "Okay fine." Riya went back to the room to keep the files while Madhan went to get the car.
They decided to take away that night. Madhan also had another plan. Maybe they could watch a movie together.
"Do you want to watch a movie tonight?"
Riya, who was looking out the window, now looked at him. It brought back a wish she used to have. She would dream of her and Aakash watching movies at home during the night. Was she ready to change that dream? To watch movies with Madhan?
Her confusion must have shown on her face, since the next second Madhan said it was alright. "It's okay. I understand that you must be feeling tired." It was too soon, Madhan thought. He was apprehensive about what and when was Aakash planning to do it.
Riya looked away, not acknowledging anything. She had to know. "Madhan?"
"Mhmm?" he said, not taking his eyes off the road.
"Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why are you being so nice to me?"
"I thought friends are supposed to be nice to each other."
Riya sighed. "No. That's not what I meant. You must have been terribly hurt from the beginning of our marriage. I was as far from being angelic as possible. Even then, you were nice to me. And when you found out that I loved someone else, you were sad, not angry."
Madhan tightened his fingers on the wheel. What could he say to that? That it was because he fell in love with her at first sight?
"Because. I understand. You are a person who has given up your happiness to provide happiness for your parents. You are a person who's giving up your happiness because you believe you snatched the happiness from someone else."
"You know?" Riya whispered, hoarsely.
Madhan didn't want her to know what Mrs. Sharma told him. Nor did he want her to know he went to London.
"I guessed." Madhan took a left into his apartment driveway. When he stopped the car, he looked at her and said, "When you're ready, I'll be there waiting for you. Even if you think you will never be ready, I'll always be by your side. I can live with our marriage consisting of only friendship." He smiled at her and got out of the car. There was no way he was going to tell her he loved her. He had no idea when it happened, but it happened. Even before they were friends.
Riya sat in the car for a very long time. The tears kept flowing. She didn't bother wiping them away. Her love for Aakash remained, but her respect for Madhan kept getting bigger. Tonight, she was certain she wasn't in love with Aakash. She would always love him. He was her dearest friend. However, tonight, for the first time, she wondered if she was starting to love Madhan.
She hastily wiped her tears away when Madhan came back to the car.
"Are you okay?" he asked, so concerned.
Her tears threatened to spill. "Yeah, I'm fine. I was looking for my phone. Found it," she lied.
Madhan looked at her suspiciously but didn't say anything about it. "I've ordered from Dominos. I'm planning on watching a movie anyway. Zootopia, most probably."
Riya smiled big. It was a hilarious movie. "Count me in. I could do with some laughter right now.
Riya changed into her pajamas, while Madhan dressed in casuals. Just as the movie started, the pizza had come.
Madhan paid the delivery guy while Riya took out the plates and poured Fanta into two cups. In five minutes, they were comfortably seated on the sofa, geared up to watch the movie.
Thirty minutes into the movie, Madhan had laughed at least twenty times, and Riya snorted fanta out of her nose. Her spirits were highly lifted.
Madhan kept the plates away and brought a blanket from his room. It was nearing twelve, and they were freezing, even with the heater on.
Riya, who was feeling extremely lazy, wrapped herself with the edge of his blanket.
They were both sitting on the extreme side of the sofa. Madhan felt a tug and glanced to his side. He bit his lip to stop smiling. So they were on a blanket sharing basis already huh? He got up and went back to his room to get another blanket.
To say that Riya was shocked is an understatement. Madhan's gentlemanliness struck a chord.
"Madhan?"she called out to him, glancing sideways.
"Hmm?" He didn't look at her.
"Do you remember the day you finally had the guts to ask me for my number?"
Madhan chuckled. Turning towards her, he said, "Yeah I do. I won't ever forget the snub you gave me. And the funniest part was that you already had my number."
"Well, I also remember you saying that you were acting gentlemanly. And I said that I was the one who had to say that."
"Yeah. Really bruised my ego," he said, dryly. His eyes widened as he watched Riya remove the blanket off of her and move over so that she was sitting right next to him.
Riya took his hands in hers and was looking at it for a very long time.
"Riya?" he whispered, softly.
She looked up, tears relentlessly flowing down her swollen cheeks. "Madhan. I'm sorry," she choked out, in between her sobs. When she looked at Madhan's pained expression, her waterworks increased.
Madhan viewed Riya's shaking body. Her forehead was pressed to her clasped hands around his.
"Riya, please. Tell me what happened," he pleaded, helpless. Her hands were tightly clutching his.
The bawling still continued.
He struggled to take his hands out of her grip. Lifting her chin up, he cupped her face. It felt like a knife pierced his heart when he saw her grief stricken face. "What happened?" he asked, wiping her tears away.
"I don't deserve you," she managed to say.
"How can you say that?" What had brought that on?
"You are so wonderful and patient with me. I've been a terrible wife to you."
"That's not true. You have been an amazing wife. The only thing you did that I was not happy about was hiding the fact that you loved someone. Riya, you are beautiful. You made me feel wonderful inside. I swear, if I had the chance to redo the past, I wouldn't. I would go through this again, just so that I could be with you, as a friend."
The tears that had stopped flowing mid way through his speech, resumed again. "See? This is what I was talking about," she said, hitting him in the chest.
Madhan held her arms. "Come here, you," he said. Without a second hesitation, Riya crawled into his lap. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and buried her face in his chest.
Madhan stroked her back, whispering that it was okay, in her hair. Riya slowly stopped breathing heavily.
Once her breathing became paced, Riya detached her head from his chest to look at him. "Where does this leave us?" she asked, hoarsely. She could feel the starting of a cold attacking her.
"Friends," he said, firmly.
"A little more, maybe." Friends don't do what they were doing right now, she thought.
"If you say so." He wasn't going to say anything. It was Riya's decision to lead them wherever she wanted to. And once he gets the lead, there was no way he was giving it back to her. Riya was his to dote, love, and cherish.
Riya went back to her original position, and snuggled comfortably. She was getting way too used to sleeping comfortably with him.
And both of them had no idea when they dozed off.
Here's my treat for you guys. To show my gratitude, I'll be updating EVERY DAY for you guys till the book is finished. Well, that's only three more chapters, but still :P
I was tremendously thrilled with the response I got for the previous chapter. Thank you so much for all the love! <3 I know I said I wanted to reach the #1 spot before this book got published. But then, I realized the #1 is just a number. I updated because I'm always so excited to hear what you guys think about the chapter. So with a lovely fan following like you guys, there's nothing more I could ask for ;) So thank you! And I also know I keep thanking you guys :P but it's because I'm feeling really grateful :D <3 I so totally can't wait to hear what you guys think about the ending! :D So tomorrow, at four( Indian Time), be ready for the update. Spoiler alert: it's THE UPDATE ;-)
This chapter is dedicated to:
Ruchimehta17
Thanks a bunch, you guys! For voting and commenting! Means a lot! <3
Special mention to:
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Till tomorrow,
Akshaya!
Edit: I FINALLY GOT THE MEDIA EDIT YAY ^_^
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