Dedicated to Manasi1105

Diwali was just a week away.

And things just couldn't get better.

It started when Mister Tiwari went home for the long awaited Diwali vacation. According to the reliable sources of the department, he didn't went home for the last three years. He was a hardcore workaholic. God knows when the 40 year old would get married.

As if anyone cared.

It was like a strict teacher leaving the class. The department finally had the office to themselves. They didn't have to pretend to work all the time; They could eat wherever, whenever; They could play YouTube on their computer from a proxy site and no one would give a damn. It was a free reign.

For Pallavi, it was almost the same as before. Especially when it came to Adhvik's strange advancements on her.

"What work did you call me for this time? It's lunch." Pallavi took off her earphones that still played a song she could hear faintly. Even a dunce could sense the irritation in her voice. No one came between her and her songs. Not even Adhvik.

"What song are you listening to?" He asked merrily, sitting alongside his friend who was witnessing their exchange as well.

She sighed in annoyance, "You wouldn't get it even if I told you. It's a Korean song."

His eyes only lightened, "Oh, then, why don't you let me listen? Here, take a seat. We can listen together."

She didn't even bother to hide it this time. "I'm going."

"Oh, come on! Don't be such a spoilsport." He said but she was already walking away. When he said something else, she simply moved her fingers, representing a mouth to keep yapping.

An hour later, she was beginning to think she over- reacted. Maybe she should have sat down. Who knows maybe she would have given birth to another K- Pop fanatic. There's always a possibility even if it's minute.

* * *

"So, what kind of partner you want?" Adhvik asked Pallavi one time, curiosity dancing in his eyes. They were heading towards the pantry.

Now this was the kind of question Pallavi was never tired of answering. She stopped on her tracks and raised a finger, turning to him. "I want someone who is hilarious, you know with a sense of humor-"

"Oh, that I am. Next."

She couldn't help but chuckle at his enthusiasm. It was as if he was holding onto her each word. Strange. "Loving and understanding."

"Done."

"Optimistic."

"Done."

"Tall."

"Like me?"

"More taller."

"Like this?" Adhvik answered, placing a hand a little above his head then hers, displaying their height difference. Indeed he appeared more taller this time. Apparently he had raised his feet up. Pallavi couldn't help but laugh harder this time.

"Handsome."

"Oh," Adhvik answered, excitement dissipating from his face as he hung his head low. "That I'm not."

"Eh, it's okay. You're not that bad." Pallavi forced a smile. Now she couldn't exactly reassure him he was handsome. He wasn't. Although if he could work out on himself then he would definitely look much better. By this time, they had reached the pantry. The pantry could barely occupy three people and it was already occupied so they waited outside. "Um, what about you? What kind of girl you want?"

Adhvik's nose crinkled a bit as he pondered on the question. He then stepped closer in order to lower his voice, "I'll be honest. I don't want a highly clever girl. You know those 'chaalu types'. Next thing you know they get bored and are already cheating on me. So nope. I want a simple, cute, innocent girl. They are faithful."

"You could have just said you want a faithful girl. Just because she's chaalu doesn't mean she will cheat. Anyone can cheat." Pallavi retorted.

"I know. I'm not speaking for every clever, modern girl you know. I just want to increase my chances in catching a faithful one. While I haven't been in a relationship myself but I've seen the world around me and is not very pretty. It makes you wonder if you'll ever get someone who won't be strayed for your entire life."

Somehow the atmosphere got a little gloomy, Pallavi noticed. Adhvik then insisted her to get coffee for both of them as a duty of a junior towards her senior. Pallavi raised a brow at that but agreed anyway. She pressed the button of Cappuccino on the coffee machine and began filling two plastic cups.

"Are you okay with arrange marriages?"

Pallavi offered a cup to Adhvik while thinking about it. Or rather thinking how to answer. "If I were given an option between the two, I'd pick love marriage any day. Problem is, I don't have anyone. I didn't get enough chances to meet a guy. That's why I left it to my parents. Of course they will choose a guy upon my consideration. And I told my Mum I want to date the guy for atleast a year to gain the long, lost boyfriend experience."

Adhvik chuckled at her answer. They passed through the corridor, towards the office with their respective cups. "I'd pick love marriage, too. I don't want to marry someone I barely know. Which is why I'm trying to find one on my own."

"Really, in an office?"

"Office being one of them, yes. So far I haven't found anyone likeable..." The corners of his lips curled up mischievously as he whispered his next words. "But you know what they say, things might be closer to you than you realize. Perhaps she is right here."

"Oh, my, my." Pallavi placed a hand before her lips, faking her shock.
They shared a laugh before returning to their seats.

He was just messing with me, Pallavi thought- more like, convinced herself, despite her heart stating otherwise.

* * *

As time neared for lunch, Pallavi fished out her lunch box from her bag. Tulsi was already asking Adhvik and Pallavi what they brought for lunch. She then went away to wash her hands.

"So Pallavi, what's your favorite food? Or do you like to chomp up everything you see, huh?" Adhvik asked, wriggling his eyebrows.

"Shut up," Pallavi replied, trying to sound angry, although she wasn't. "I like rice with chole, rajma, then paneer with veggies, paratha, palak, brinjal, idli. I love fast food as well." She admitted shyly. There wasn't much she didn't like.

"Okay," Adhvik nodded slowly. "And what about breakfast? What do you like for breakfast?"

Despite wondering why he was asking this, she answered looking up. "Uh, for breakfast I'd prefer sandwich, poha, bread pakora, pasta, semai... Yeah that's it."

"You do not hate my food, right?"

"Um, no but..."

"Then I'll probably make something for you one day. The other day I made something for Harshid, too. It's no big deal. I don't mind making food for someone. That is if I get time." He erased her doubts before she could raise one. However when she still seemed to be in splits, he let out a nervous laugh. "Sounds strange, right?"

"No, not at all! It sounds quite unique and... " Romantic, she wanted to say but instead settled with, "Nice."

Way to be basic, Pallavi.

With that, they proceeded to the testing room. These days Tulsi and Pallavi started sharing their lunch space with Adhvik, Tulsi, along with Rohan and Harshid. Harshid was also a quality engineer like Rohan, the only difference being that he was the senior and the unnamed head of the department. He was also the oldest amongst them all, around thirty three and married.

"So how did you and your wife meet?" Pallavi asked one time. It was one question she would never get tired of asking, especially in cases where it was a love marriage.

"Why? So that you can carve your own story out of mine. Nah, I'll spare the opportunity."

Unlike Rohan, who seemed a little reserved, Harshid was a no-holds- barred kind of person. He always had something wacky to say even at the most simplest question. The kind of person who said anything without thinking. Like Pallavi thought, the office was full of weirdos.

"You want this? It's not Turai." Adhvik asked, offering his lunch box that had potatoes with gobi.

"Just a bite. Thanks." Pallavi said in a small voice as she scooped a part of the vegetable in her chapati. It was spicy when she tasted it. She offered hers to Adhvik and Tulsi in return. The lunch commenced with Harshit speaking up about a funny incident from his dating days. When the talks ended, except for the quiet sounds of spoons and mouths, Pallavi looked around, astonished at what she saw.

Tulsi got a chance to sit besides Rohan while Pallavi sat besides Adhvik. It was a win- win situation. Wait, why is the narrator saying as if she wanted to sit besides him? Wasn't it too early for that?

Just then a middle aged man entered the room and everyone stopped eating, frozen for a moment. He asked Harshid why they were eating in the testing room as it wasn't allowed. Harshid gave some excuse that it was too crowded in the canteen while looking at him straight in the eye, as if intimidating him.

"Ah, forget it." The middle aged man waved his hand, giving up and talked about something work related. He took a last glance at the group with his before leaving the room.

The group let out a sigh of relief.

"Do you think we are going to be forbidden from coming here now?"

"Over my dead body!" Harshid said, drawing an imaginary line through his neck. "We are here as long as I want to be. No worries." Pallavi forced a smile, at his egoistic confidence. Men.

A few minutes later, both Harshid and Rohan left. Tulsi had nothing to do there now that her crush was gone so she left as well. As Pallavi took her next bite, the sound of her crunching, reverberated against her ears in a dark room. It was only then she realized she was deady alone.

With Adhvik.

The next bite became hard to swallow.

"Want some more? I'm about to finish." Adhvik asked, least affected by the situation.

"Uh, no sir!"

"Sir?"

"No, sir."

"You okay?"

"No- um, yes." Pallavi furiously nodded, making Adhvik titter. For the next minute, both remained silent with their mouths speaking up for them.

Their mouths in their food, you dirtbags.

Pallavi suddenly remembered that Adhvik liked corn vegetable so she thought to ask. She glanced at the quiet profile of Adhvik packing up in content. Was it his eyes or was it his silence or was it the fact that she wouldn't see him during Diwali, she didn't know. She held out a spoon that had corn on it, in the direction of his mouth.

"You... want some?"

Adhvik eyes shifted from her hand that held the spoon to her sincere face. The corners of his lips curled up in amusement. Pallavi watched in astonishment as he held her wrist and moved it back to her tiffin. The contents in the spoon fell into the tiffin.

She looked into the eyes that stared right back at hers.

"Abhi nhi. Abhi baht jaldi hai. Par koi nhi, ye din bhi aayega."

(Not now. It's too early for that. But no worries, that day will come as well.)

And left the hold from her hand.

Needless to say, Pallavi eyes were left wide.

To say her heart didn't pace would be an understatement. The sound was reverberating in her ears like a drum. She was afraid he might hear it. Thank God he just smiled and left.

What did he mean by that? How was he confident enough to say that day will come? Was he planning to do something? Would he confess or was he simply messing with her again? These were the main line of thoughts running in her head through the rest of the day.

The next day was as fun as well. Since the team had little to do they sat on their seats passing time with their mobiles. Tulsi was bored. One could say that because she initiated a conversation with Sai of all people. While Sai stuck to the end of his stick by ranting about his ex- girlfriend whom he still missed. In turn, Tulsi shared her story of how she almost got into a relationship with her childhood friend. Pallavi listened to all this with interest. In no time, the other members of the Development department gathered around. What started as a guy whining about his ex turned into a confession discussion by the whole group.

"Actually I had a girlfriend, too." Deepak admitted quietly, making the group hoot. "It's nothing special though. We only dated for four months."

"Then why did you break up?" Tulsi asked the obvious.

Deepak lowered his head to his desk, hesitating. "Because I didn't know her favorite food and bought what she hated."

"What? Seriously?" were the reactions from the group. "Forget it, man. Those girls aren't worth it." Sai assured, patting his back. His attention turned to Adhvik who was apparently very busy with his computer and the only one not active in the discussion. "What about you, Adhvik sir?"

"I'm busy at the moment. You guys carry on."

Pallavi's brows furrowed at his answer. How come sometimes he acted so cheerful and at other times aloof like he had nothing to do with the world. Sai and team persuaded him some more but he didn't take the bait.

"And what about you, Pallavi? You haven't told us anything either." Sai turned to her.

"Oh, believe me. I wouldn't have anything to say even if I want to. My story starts with I had a crush and ends with on someone from xyz place."

Collective laughs erupted from the group. One of them even replied 'story of my life' and hi- fived with Pallavi. Sai urged her to tell them a crush story instead. So Pallavi recited a story of a neighbour next building when she had shifted to a new place. What's more was that they happened to be on the same school as well. She described the number of times they would steal glances, smile, and mumble awkward hellos. Something about him drew attention, only to look away when he looked back at her. He had a face as fair as an Asian, hair that asked to be ruffled and eyes that shone brown in the sun. If it weren't for him speaking Hindi in an Indian accent, she would have probably mistaken him for a foreigner. She concluded him the most handsome of all crushes she had till now.

There was particular moment she remembered where they had the longest conversation. It was during Diwali celebrations when their parents were visiting each other. They talked about festivals and childhood. But the most memorable moment was probably when they went home together by autorickshaw. The car wasn't available that day so she decided to hail an auto. Coincidentally, he happened to be there as well so he suggested to go together. Oh how, she wished that ride could have taken them away to the oblivion.

"What happened, then?"

"Nothing." Pallavi heaved a sigh to Tulsi. "His family moved away a few months after that. We never remained in touch."

The group replied in oh's and aww's. Tulsi believed they would have definitely end up dating if he never went away. Pallavi believed that, too. She remembered how sad she was that day but today, she felt nothing. Just nostalgic.

Pallavi was about to tell them about her college online crush that ended in a mini heartbreak, but then someone spoke something and the spotlight was taken away from her. She let it be. Her gaze shifted to Adhvik who was lost in another world, working like a mad scientist. For a while, she intently listened to them. By five minutes, she couldn't take it anymore.

"Oh come on! These discussions don't happen everyday." Pallavi spread her hands in exaggeration.

"I'm not interested in taking part in his discussion." Adhvik finally spoke, never moving his eyes away from the screen.

So that's what it was about. True indeed Sai started it all when he wanted to rant about his ex. She wondered what happened between them for Adhvik to garner such detest. Men and their stupid egos.

"And I have nothing in particular to contribute anyway. I was never in a relationship." Adhvik continued on.

"Neither was I, but I had crushes and 'if maybe's'. Everyone has them."

He glanced at her direction and smiled for the first time. "That I did."

"When?"

"At college. There was this girl from IT. You know how we engineers have the same classes in the first year. We became friends. Well, sort of. I looked forward to those classes. She was sweet and kind. Anyway during second year at the college festival, she asked me out. I rejected her."

"What, whyyy?!"

"What happened, Pallavi? Are you telling her something?"

"Nothing. You just focus on the cruelty of your ex." Adhvik disregarded Sai's question and turned to an astonished Pallavi. "Because it was never gonna work. Most college and school relationships end in heartbreak. It was not easy saying no but it was needed. She would have left me anyway. That's the validity of young relationships. I didn't want to experience that so it was better not to start anything at all. It would have deflected me from my studies."

"I see." Pallavi answered curtly, feeling immense jealousy at him for being asked out. Moreover, a girl doing it. She must have really liked him. "So no other crushes?"

"No."

"Hey, Adhvik, what are you two discussing?" Tulsi asked, walking to his seat and taking a glimpse to his computer screen. "You didn't share any story with us yet."

Adhvik looked at Pallavi's direction for a second before turning to Tulsi, almost smirking. "Already shared it with whom I wanted to share."

"What's that supposed to mean? Pallavi, what did he say?"

"Huh? Um..." Pallavi faltered, still reeling from the suggestive attack he gave just now. "I don't know what he's talking about. He was just explaining a feature of Excel to me."

Pallavi narrowed her eyes at him, even though he didn't notice. She failed to understand why he didn't share such a trivial story with others. And why her of all people? Was he seriously trying to woo her off? He was certainly the strangest person she ever met.

* * *

Days passed by like a breeze as Diwali grew closer, until it was the last working day. A company granting one week leave for Diwali was almost unheard of. Although Mister Hyoung did inform them about the new model series they would be working on after Diwali. This was like a calm period before the storm.

Sai and Adhvik were sitting on the manager's seat sorting out the number of fancy boxes they just received and which company or person they would go to. The choice were upto them.

"Let's give the smallest one to Mukherjee. That asshole doesn't deserve one anyway." Pallavi heard Sai commenting about it.

"Aree but what about Mister Hughes from Zeedex? That son of a bitch deserves it more than Mukherjee. We should probably make these sweets fall into the ground then give it to him." Both of them laughed at that. It was rare to see Sai and Adhvik laughing like this. Pallavi was intrigued as she got up from her seat.

"Just how many enemies you have?"

"You know what they say about keeping your enemies closer." Adhvik replied back, winking at Sai who frowned. "So what are-"

"Holy cow, they are so royal!" Pallavi commented in awe as she looked at the structure of the golden boxes. More than sweets, they looked like treasure chests that belonged to the King and Queen back in the day. She couldn't help but touch them. "Are you sure there are sweets in them? Why can't we get them?"

"Cos we are their slaves," Sai commenting without deviating himself from the work.

"What are you doing?" Adhvik asked, even though he could see that she was admiring and clicking pictures of the box. Did she like it so much?

"Can't you see? Hmm, now I'll click a selfie with it and maybe put in my status." Pallavi said as she clicked a selfie of her shocked face with the box as if she was seeing for the first time.

Surprisingly Adhvik found this funny as he burst out laughing. "Pray that your relatives don't end up poisoning themselves when they see this. I know my relatives would. They would lose their shit."

Even Pallavi couldn't help but laugh because it sounded weird and relatable. She talked about some relatives who were indeed jealous of her family, not realising what Adhvik was doing when. Her smile vanished as she raised her head to him.

He was taking a photo of her.

"Delete that! Delete that right now!" She demanded while chasing after him as he darted across the room.

"No way! You look so cute. I'll keep this. Let me keep this."

"Um, no. No!" she denied, a bit flustered this time. They stopped running as Adhvik showed her the photo. "Eek, I look so fat in this."

"No, you don't. Why do you self criticize so much? You do look good in photos, you know."

"I do, but not this one... Uh, okay. Keep it and send it to me." she said with arrogance in her voice but that soon got replaced with a shy smile as soon as she turned the other way. How could he compliment her like that, she didn't understand. She didn't understand but she sure as hell liked it.

* * *

The rest of the afternoon was spent in playing truth and dare with the department members and chatting. By evening, the employees were packing up to leave. Adhvik in the meanwhile was confirming his ticket for tonight.

"When will you return, sir?" Tulsi asked as he finished checking his status on the PC.

"15th."

"15th?! But office will open on 13th. What we will do on the first two days without you?" Tulsi whined.

"Kuch nhi. Tum dono bajana uss takle ka sar (Nothing. You two bang that baldie's head)." Adhvik answered to both girls, glancing at the empty seat of Mr Tiwari.

"Not fair!" Pallavi muttered a little while later.

"Oho~" Adhvik exclaimed. He glanced at Pallavi from above as he was crouched under his desk to check up on his CPU. "So when do you want me to come, your highness?"

"Mon- monday obviously." Pallavi pouted. The reason for stating that was same as Tulsi's. Not that she wanted to see him sooner or anything.

He sighed to himself before looking at her. "Fine. I'll try."

A smile escaped from both of their lips.

Thereafter everyone wished each other and left to celebrate Diwali.

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Thoughts. Is Adhvik upto something or just messing with Pallavi? Vote and comment your thoughts.

[Edit- I have shortened the chapter by cutting some scenes. I think it's better now.]

Till next time. xoxo