A/n - impressed with the votes for the previous chapters? Nope! And am I still writing? Yup.

Why? Because "Revenge is a dish best served cold" ;)

***Sahana's P.O.V***

"You're really the new employee under Mr.Sharma?" the receptionist asked a bit hesitantly as she led me to my new cubical.

"Yeah. Does he always treat you like this?" I asked her, looking at her trembling form.

The receptionist didn't say anything but nod her head in agreement.

"He thinks highly of himself doesn't he?? Does he always like to show off his power like this?" I asked her curiously.

The poor girl looked at me in horror, and then whipped her head around, as though making sure he's not around us, before answering "Y..yes...he's... an arrogant...p..person"

I'm normally a person of few words {except when I'm with bhai or Riya... I'm an introvert and prefer keeping to myself} but seeing this poor girl trembling like a leaf made me want to somehow comfort her - nobody deserves to live in fear, specially due to an asshole like him!

"You don't have to fear me, or him. He's an asshole. I'm guessing everyone knows that" I said, making the receptionist smile meekly at me.

"I'm Kinjal by the way" she said, extending her hand as we reached the cubical with my name on it.

"I'm Sahana" I said, taking her hand and smiling warmly at the poor girl who returned my smile.

"So tell me Kinjal, why do you fear him? The max he can do is fire you! He's not a monster to eat you up!" I said airily, putting my things on my desk and switching on the office computer.

Kinjal looked at me as though I'm some sort of an alien before she said "A few days ago, Mr.Sharma fired an employee because she did a small typo in the report...and because she played truth-or-dare during office hours"

He really is an arrogant asshole - looks like this office's Dolores Umbridge!!

I couldn't help the smile on my face when I remembered that he too likes Harry Potter! 

Couldn't he have had liked some crap like Twilight or 13-reasons-why or Justin Bieber so it'd have been easier for me to hate him - more!!

Guys I cannot help the teeny tiny soft-corner for Mr.Sharma - because he too likes Harry Potter! Harry Potter {or rather Dumbledore}  taught me to forgive others' mistakes and see the good in them - believe in giving second chances.

"Last year, he fired Samantha...because she was being friendly it seams" Kinjal mumbled.

"What? He fired her because she was friendly? He really is some sort of  dictator in this office, isn't he?" I asked Kinjal through gritted teeth.

Did I say I have a soft corner for Mr.Asshole? Nope I take it all back! If only someone could teach him a lesson! Or if I only got the authority or power or even the guts to talk trash and teach him a lesson....hmpf maybe I could turn into a hulk...no?

No! I hate green!! Maybe someone can turn into hulk and teach Mr.Arrogant a lesson? And about him liking Harry Potter - well, we can give second chances, but giving second chances didn't do too well to Dumbledore himself, did it?! Nope! Asshole Sharma deserves only my hatred and nothing else.

Nothing gives any man the power to treat others unkindly, and like they're filth! Everyone {most people} deserve to be treated with kindness and respect!

"Sahana?" Kinjal called me, bringing me back to reality, and out of the Avengers' and Harry Potter world!

"Huh?" I looked at her.

"I was asking if you'd like to join me and a few of my friends from the office for lunch today?" she asked hesitantly.

"Oh yeah sure... Actually my friend Riya too is joining Mr.Asshole..." I caught myself just in time, but Kinjal giggled and I heaved a sigh of relief {I know she hates the guy and stuff, but still, it's a new place and well, not too good to jump into trusting people so easily!} "...I mean...Mr.Sharma....my friend is also joining Mr.Sharma's team, so is it okay if I bring her too for lunch?" I asked Kinjal, who nodded her head.

"Okay then, I'll call you when it's time for lunch. See ya" Kinjal said and left me alone to deal with the project at hand.

Right...but first let's find out where the hell Riya is.

"Hey sorry babe I'm actually running a little late... I'll directly meet our boss before coming to meet ya" Riya had texted me some 5 minutes ago.

"Okay take your time. Just a little heads up - our boss is the biggest jerk on the face of the Earth" I sent a text back to Riya before placing my phone away and diving into the project.

It was well past 9 when I heard shuffling of footsteps, and Kinjal's voice. I looked up to find 3 guys looking curiously at me, before following Kinjal to the cubicals near me.

"They're your new teammates" Kinjal said, indicating the three new-comers. I smiled at her before she bid me bye and left.

"Hey Kinjal...did you see my friend Riya?" I asked before Kinjal walked out of sight.

Kinjal shivered a bit before saying "She...um....she's in Mr.Sharma's cabin....things don't look good for her" and almost ran away.

I told Riya to come early! But no...madam would rather be late and get a lecture on her very first day from Mr.Hitler rather than come a few minutes early and spend time with me!

Well, still...she's my friend! I'll... I'll tell bhai if Mr.Asshole hurts Riya! That's the least I could do as a friend!

Still looking around every few minutes, I resumed my work, waiting for Riya. It was well past 9:30am when Riya showed up with Kinjal, looking as though she'd just lived a nightmare.

Riya is a really brave girl...what must have the asshole said to her to make her look so...agitated?!

"Hey everything okay?" I asked Riya as soon as she dropped her bag on the table and herself on the chair in her cubical, next to mine.

"Huh? Oh hey..Sahana..." Riya mumbled, as though coming out of some sort of a trance.

Could the asshole hypnotize people? A weird chill ran down my spine at the memory of how he looked me from head to toe earlier today.

"Are you alright?" I asked her, caressing her hair.

"Huh? Oh yeah I came by auto...traffic! So got a little late" she mumbled before switching on the computer in front of her.

"Yeah but I asked if you're alright. Did he give you a hard time?" I asked her softly, studying her facial expression.

"Huh? Who? Oh right...Mr.Sharma...no he's...uh.. no...project...finish on time...catch up later bye" she said and turned away from me.

She looks troubled.

"Riya..." I started speaking but she cut-me off "No Sahana we'll talk during lunch. We're gonna have a team meeting in an hour or so....let's finish a good deal of this work before going to the meeting" she said in a tone of finality and turned away from me, to face her computer screen.

What happened to the talkative,bubbly and border-line-irritating Riya?

But she's right though - I don't want to give Mr.Boss another reason to look down on me!

*** 

It was around 10:30 am when Kinjal called us to assemble at meeting-room 1 for the first team meet.

All the new comers nervously shuffled to the room, where the other team members (probably Mr.Sharma's old team) had already assembled, and to my great surprise, Mr.Sharma was absent.

There were around 10 of us in the room, with Riya busy lost in thought - the idiot didn't even tell me what's wrong. I swear I'll punch that asshole Mr.Sharma if I find-out that he's harassed Riya!

Or better - I'll tell bhai and he'll punch Mr.Sharma for me....but Mr.Sharma does look like he works-out regularly {not that my bhai would have a problem with that! Bhai is very strong...} Nah he doesn't look bulkier than bhai! But what about the set of six or eight pack abs that I could almost see through his well-fitting suit?! Would those abs be as hard as they look? What the heck Sahana??? Why are you thinking like this about Asshole Sharma aka Mr.Boss?! Don't forget that he treats others like a piece of shit and that you absolutely hate this habit of his - maybe I can change it later...what later?

Uffo Sahana concentrate! You hate Mr.Handsome Boss and no matter how sexy he looks, that doesn't change the fact that you loathe his habit of treating others like crap!!

Okay cool now...so where was I?

Yeah right!! Bhai would have no problem in tackling with Mr.Asshole-Boss! Bhai too has a well-built body! He has a set of eight-pack abs..... well if he does then I have only one option left - kick Mr.Sharma in the place where the sun doesn't shine! *winks*

I looked around the room - there were around 4 girls in the team, including me and Riya. Even with like 10 people in the room, there was pin-drop silence, with all of us looking at one another nervously, and avoiding eye-contact - like we were all 4th graders, waiting for the school Principal to come and talk to us any minute now.

I know what my problem is - I'm an introvert and have no balls {literally and figuratively} to go and approach someone {and especially a stranger at that!} but what about these remaining people?

There can be only two explanations for this - either all of these people here are also introverts like me {which is very unlikely} in which case they too are fearing approaching me like I'm fearing to approach them, or.....the second reason {the highly likely possibility} being that they all fear Mr.Sharma and hence want to keep their distance, just in case them approaching us wouldn't sit well with Mr.Arrogant-asshole-boss aka Mr.Sharma.

Before I could over-think the situation any further, the shuffling of footsteps and opening of the door broke the silence of the room {The room really was silent like as though the silenceo charm had been applied to each one of us!} making all of us gaze intently at the new-comer, who happened to be none-other than the man of the hour {man of the hour my ass! More like asshole of the hour!} aka Mr.Arush Sharma.

Maybe it was just my imagination or probably my deepest hope - I don't know which of these, but Mr.Sharma looked nervous, his confidence long gone, small beads of sweat forming on his forehead, his long hands shoved deep into his trouser pockets. 

I don't know why but I felt like laughing at the moment -the tormenting arrogant boss of mine looking so nervous to address his own frigging team was really funny!

I know that even I hate and fear talking to so many people together, given the fact that the people look at you like a hungry lion looking at it's prey, but still - serves Arush right for tormenting us!

Mr.Sharma didn't make eye contact with anyone but passed his gaze over everyone very quickly, well except for the nanosecond larger connection of mine and his orbs.

Call me crazy, but I felt awesome seeing that look of terror on Mr.Sharma's face. A small smirk made it's way to my lips, which unfortunately was seen by him {of course} and the nervousness soon vanished from his face, to be replaced by the same expression that Daffy Duck has before he does something evil!

Looks like I'm in for a big ass trouble!! *gulps nervously*

***Arush's P.O.V***

I cannot believe it.... it's her!!

Both of us were very good in avoiding eye-contact for the rest of the time while I addressed {or tried to torment the remaining new-comers but wasn't exactly able to do it properly thanks to the shock I'd received by just seeing HER in my cabin!!}

After addressing the others, I gave all four of them a similar {yet not as tough} a task as I'd given to Ms.Sahana Aggarwal, and asked them all to show me their progress by the end of the day.

All of them then left behind Ms.Dixit, while I asked her to remain behind. Once everyone else was gone and I was sure that they were all out of earshot, I turned my gaze to her and she too started eyeing me like I'm Lord Voldemort.

"You?" we both shrieked at the same time. The combined volume of both of our voices was a bit too loud.

"Uh Can you please close the door?" I asked her, as beads of sweat formed on my face. No there's no reason for me to fear her except that I can't be an asshole to her!

Riya closed the door before turning to me, with the same expression on her face as was on mine.

"Please don't tell Kabir that you're my boss" she said in a single breath, almost begging me.

"I uh...wait Kabir doesn't know that you're going to work for me?" I asked her, confused.

"When I got the email about the merger, I did mention it to Kabir but didn't tell him that my to-be boss's name is Mr.Sharma. I didn't know that your surname is Sharma...plus, only by knowing that I work in the same office as you Kabir got so excited like he'll ask you to talk to my boss and stuff... It took a lot of convincing and patience to ask him to keep his nose out of my work" Riya mumbled softly.

"But Riya....dammit he already knows that many of your company people are joining my team...the whole weekend I was kinda irritating him regarding the same!" I grumbled, running my hands through my hair in frustration, then swearing and groaning because my hand is now covered with my hair gel from my hair, and also my perfectly set hair, the one I took almost 20 minutes to set, is now looking like a pigeon's nest.

"I am well aware of that...he was supposed to be spending the weekend with me in Lonavala" Riya said coolly, making me feel guilty, and hence resume my work of running my hands through my now already nest-like-hair and grunt in frustration.

Riya looked at me like I'm some sort of an alien, still fidgeting with her fingers and standing a few feet from the door, inside my cabin.

"I uh... I'm sorry...please take a seat" I said, gesturing her to take the seat in front of my desk while I tried to set my hair back to normal.

"But Ar...I mean...Mr.Sharma... Kabir doesn't know that I'm working under you! Or did you tell him?" she asked, horrified.

"What? No! Do you think I want him to bite my ear off with his constant nagging not to give you a hard time?? I'd die... with his constant text messages and threatening phone calls or even possibly un-informed visits to the office" I said, imagining the horrific situations that'd be created if Kabir gets to know that his beloved girlfriend {aka Riya} works for a workaholic-bossy-dictator-kinda asshole friend {aka me} !!

"Good....well, please don't inform him that I work under you!" Riya pleaded, folding her hands as though in prayer.

"I'm all for it, but why though?!" I asked, curiously.

Aren't girls the one who're using their beauty and sex-appeal to get things done easily, in their way?! 

{A/n - I by NO way support this feeling of Arush, but well, experience has showed me that there are guys and girls who do this above thing. So it's not gender specific, but this is just Arush's opinion}

I know Riya might not be like that, as Kabir is all praise for her, but still!

"Well, firstly, I want to be successful thanks to my own efforts and not due to my boyfriend's  influence" Riya said proudly, sitting straight and spreading this aura of confidence.

"And secondly, I doubt that Kabir's influence would make you change your ways" she said, a small smirk forming on her face.

Yeah this girl is all confidence...My face mirrored her smirk when I realized that I am her boss - wait until she sees the Alps of work that I handover to her.... let's see if she's all words or can she work too, yeah?

She probably understood the meaning behind my smirk, because her smirk soon vanished, and she shivered slightly.

"So, Riya, getting back to business....neither me, nor you will ever tell Kabir that we work together. And also, don't ever tell any of your colleagues, not even to your close friends that you know me through Kabir. Okay?" I said, in my cold, business tone.

It worked, and my confidence was back on because Riya's aura of confidence had long vanished, to be replaced by a panicky look. That just boosted my confidence, cockiness and not to mention - my feeling of authority.

Yes I'm an arrogant cocky bastard. Deal with it!

Riya didn't say anything except nod her head in approval to what I'd said.

"Good. Now Ms. Riya, you may leave and go to Ms.Dixit who'll lad you to your cubical. I'll see you later during the team-meet" I said dismissively, before diving into the project at hand.

A perturbed looking Riya bade me good-bye and walked out of my office, making me smirk wider - I was happy - that I had full control over all my employees {not that much over Ms.Sahana, but she too will soon be on track *please imagine an evil laugh kinda like Muhahahahaha*}

***

Lost in my work completely {not even thinking about Sahana - hey really I didn't think of her okay?} I was brought back to reality when my phone started buzzing - an alarm to call my team to the conference hall for a team-meet.

Gathering all the courage I have, I called Ms.Dixit to invite my team members into the conference hall, trying to sound as rude and arrogant as I always do. I was a little relieved to hear Ms.Dixit stuttering at the other side of my call.

I was busy giving myself a prep-talk about staying calm and cool, trying to sound arrogant and bossy and cocky when I talk to my team and definitely not like a person who has a phobia of talking to strangers {with 4 strangers in my team} and a phobia of being the center of attention of a crowd {like I'm a pot of honey and they're all Winnie-the-pooh}  and also glossophobia {i.e good old stage fear which increases in presence of strangers}

I got a bit carried away {almost wanted to run away from office in the fear of having to face so many strangers and also being the eye-candy of my full-strength team} when I got a good-luck message from Kabir and Raj which improved my mood marginally, and I went to the conference hall to meet my team.

I was almost whispering soothing words of confidence and motivation when I entered the conference hall to find 10 pairs of eyes {out of which, 4 pairs of eyes belonged to complete strangers} looking at me, from head to toe, like they were all the people from the groom's side who eye the bride-to-be with this judgmental looks on their faces and the you-suck-bitch and I'm-always-superior-to-you expression that a MIL-to-be gives her DIL-to-be.

I gulped nervously and looked around to find a familiar and comforting pair of eyes, that lifted my confidence greatly, although I looked at them only for a fraction of a second - the power of comfort that only those eyes could give me - wait what?!

To be continued...