"Still gaping!"

I looked up at her, who was clad up in a red gown that reached till below her knees, looking extremely gorgeous that I couldn't take my eyes off her for about ten minutes straight.

"Why me? I mean, we haven't had a proper conversation for you to have a liking for me."

To which, she stared back at me. There was nothing special about that stare, but I could feel some kind of curiosity in it.

"Because I wanted to get to know you." I raised my eyebrows at her in question. "I knew you were desperate for this job. That's something done by everyone at the company. But there was only desperation in your eyes. There was no love."

"Wh-what are you talking about?"

"Tumhe patha hai Manik? I love my job. Being the HR is not just about interviewing someone. It has a lot of responsibilities. And I'm in love with all those responsibilities. Lekin tumhare aankhon mein wo pyar nahi dekhi mene. You didn't look like you wanted this job because you loved it. But I still hired you because you had the potential. And I still wanted to know why. That's when I came across this."

She forwarded a bunch of tickets towards me. Wrestling match tickets. Skimming through them, I realized these were the copies of tickets that I purchased and threw away.

"I saw you dumping in dustbin once. And then I started to collect all the next tickets." She smiled gently at me, but I could only stare at the tickets in my hand. Tickets to those matches that I missed.

"Aur ek din Dev se patha chala that you love wrestling and wanted to pursue a career in it but dropped it for some personal reason." I looked up at her smiling faintly, nodding at her.

"You don't love your job, Manik." She leaned forward to look at me. "Because you're in love with this." She looked down at the tickets in my hand and I leaned back in my seat, staring at her.

"Aaj thak mujhe logon se bathana pada that wrestling matters to me the most, but for the first time in my life, someone's talking to me about what I desire. That's kind of new to me."

She had her gaze fixed at me, understanding pooling in them.

"You don't need anybody's support to do something that you love. You just need this." She kept her head at her heart and smiled at me. "If that organ is willing to take the risk, I don't see why should anyone hold back."

"Because family is important too. And my parents need assurance in their old age that their son would look after them one day. Making a career out of sports is not everybody's cup of tea, Nandini."

"But sacrificing a career you wish is everybody's cup of coffee nowadays, yeah?" I stared at her surprised at that question. "Apne dil ki suno Manik. Kya patha kal tumhe bura laga tho? That you didn't even give it a try to defend your dreams against those who don't support the goodness it brings to your heart?"

I let out a sigh hearing her.

"It's not so easy, Nandini."

"It is not. I agree. And I'm not asking you to drop this job and go ahead with your dream. Make that your hobby for now. And once you feel like you're going to earn enough because of wrestling, then you can quit this job." I pondered over what she said.

"But wrestling could take a lot of my time. And I wouldn't have that time off job." I argued and she shrugged. "So who's Nandini Murthy at The Vintage?"

I raised my hands at that.

"I don't need any favoritism at work place." I said and she smiled at me. "Who said anything about favoritism, Malhotra? You're going to receive a pay-cut because, you're going to work hybrid from now. And there's no favoritism in here because every employee is allowed to change their mode of work from on site to hybrid, once they complete a year at Vintage. And for you, it's in four months."

I looked up at her in awe. She was doing so much for me to achieve my goals and I would never understand why.

"Why?" I asked before I could stop myself. "Why are you doing this, Nandini?" She stared at me for a while, before looking away.

"I like you, Manik."

I stared at her aghast and all she did was to stare at me expectantly.

"I'm not sure when and how but I do know why." She began after taking a deep breath. "You're so much like my father, who passed away when I was a kid. Ambitious, kind, selfless and gentle. I'm not a girl who could handle guys because let's be real. Most of you guys are so rough and loud. And I'm not a person who could handle a guy who's going to be tough on me. I don't know if you're going to be someone like that one day, but now is good. And I think I'd like to know you better."

I smiled at the innocence in her eyes, before forwarding my hand toward her. She frowned at it. I gestured towards her hand, and she gave it to me hesitantly.

"How about being girlfriend-boyfriend from HR-Marketing Executive?" She smiled widely at it, before tightening her hold on my hand. "It's a yes."

And I knew then and there that she wasn't going to be a temporary "yes" but my permanent partner.

———————The End——————

Hey guys!

How was the story?

Can you guess which movie must have been the inspiration?

With love,
Affu.