I'm so happy that this story has become #1 in #Arhana as well as #Pranbir (Thank you Solely_Pranbir for notifying me)

A big thank you to everyone for giving your love to Arhana and this story.

Aryan and Shahana reached the office and went into Purab's cabin to get the instructions.

"Good morning sir." Shahana greeted Purab.

"Good morning" Purab greeted back lifting his face from the screen of the laptop. "So, you are the Shahana. Nice to meet you and don't call me sir, all of Aryan's friends address me as uncle."

"Ok sir....I mean uncle."

"You must be knowing by now that you are appointed as the secretary of my useless son....." Purab began to give the instructions.

"Dad! I'm not useless." Aryan shouted in between.

"Ok, so, you are the secretary of my son who is of little use." Purab said to Shahana making her giggle and Aryan to whine. "You have to arrange his schedule, help him and all his official calls will be directed to you. In short, you will have to do the same work as Prachi does for Ranbir. Last but not the least, make sure this lazy guy does some work and not just relax."

"Dad, you are embarrassing me!" Aryan complained.

"Did I say anything wrong?" Purab asked Shahana who nodded in no.

"Both of you are conspiring against me." Aryan exclaimed.

"Beware of us then." Purab said giving a side hug to Shahana.

Anyone who would have seen Purab and Shahana at that moment could not have guessed that they had met minutes ago. They looked like family.

Someone was watching them from outside and fuming in anger.

"I can't understand how these middle class girls hypnotize my family members so easily. First Pragya and Bulbul, then Disha and now this Prachi and Shahana!" Alia thought angrily.

She picked up her phone and called a number.

"Is everything ready? I don't want any last minute excuses. Make sure you reach here on Diwali." Alia instructed.

"Don't worry. I'll be there." Bittu answered from the other side.

"Don't inform Sanju about your plan or visit." Alia instructed.

"Why? He is my friend." Bittu asked.

"Because he may get offended and jealous of you. When you succeed in making Shahana yours, he will envy you as he couldn't get Prachi and he may ruin your plans."

Bittu thought for a few seconds. Alia's reasoning seemed valid to him and he agreed.

-----

Shahana was working diligently when Alia came.

"So, you are the new secretary. Let's see how well you work. Read these files and give me an report within an hour." Alia instructed and went away.

Shahana picked up the file and had barely completed reading a page when the intercom rang. It was Aryan calling her to his cabin.

"What do you want now?" Shahana asked irritatedly as she was in a hurry due to the work given by Alia.

"Hey! You can't speak to me like that. I'm your boss." Aryan pointed.

"You are not! Purab sir is the boss here. Why did you call me?" she retorted.

"I need your help with this project. All this statistics and calculation is making me mad." he said.

"Do it yourself, I have other important work." she answered.

"You are supposed to help me. Even dad said that." Aryan said not ready to give up.

"For your kind information, your mother has given me five files to read and prepare a report in an hour. I need to complete that before she flies into a rage." Shahana explained.

"I have an idea. We can exchange our work. Since you are good at calculation, you can do my work easily and I'm a fast reader. This will make our work better too." Aryan proposed.

"Hmm.....I think it's a good idea." she nodded her head in approval.

When Purab came to check on them, he saw them working and helping each other. He smiled at their bond.

Alia came exactly an hour later to collect the report. Shahana handed her the report and Alia began reading them.

"You call this a report! Have you even read anything? I don't know why Purab hired you." Alia began accusing and scolding Shahana in a loud voice.

Most of the employees gathered around the spot to witness the scene. Even Aryan and Purab were there.

"Mom.....It's not her....." Aryan began.

"Don't defend her dear. She may be known to you but we can't ignore her mistakes. The report prepared by her is terrible. I have never seen such a poor result in my life." Alia said.

Shahana was standing there with her mouth shut.

"No mom. This report has been prepared by me not her!" Aryan said before Alia could interrupt her again.

Alia's eyes looked as if they would pop out any moment. She stared at Aryan.

"You are lying to save her, aren't you?" she asked.

"No mom. It's the truth. I'm sorry if you didn't like it. I was facing difficulty in completing the project, so I asked her to exchange our tasks." Aryan explained.

"He is speaking the truth. I saw them." Purab supported Aryan.

"Oh! In that case I need to read it again. I haven't finished reading it." Alia tried to cover up the mess. "What are all of you ogling at? Don't you have work?" she asked the employees in an angry tone who left in a hurry.

Alia too walked away followed by Purab. Only Aryan and Shahana were left standing behind.

"I'm sorry. My mom can get a little dangerous sometimes." Aryan said with a sheepish smile.

"Sometimes? Your mom has some serious problem. Ever since I saw her, she does nothing but blame either Prachi or me." Shahana said in an offended tone.

"Ok, I agree you are correct. I know she is......Wish I knew the true side of her....." he sighed.

Shahana looked at Aryan in surprise at the sudden change in his behavior.

"Is there any problem?" she asked.

"No." he replied and went from there.

-----

The office hours were almost over and Aryan was walking through the office corridors when he heard two of the employees chatting among themselves.

"Yaar Aakash, have you seen the new girl in the office?" an employee named Rohan spoke.

"Yes. She is Aryan's secretary, isn't she?" the other responded.

"She is very cute and beautiful. I like her." Rohan said.

"May be you can talk with her." Aakash suggested.

"Nice suggestion! I don't think she is committed and I'm not that bad looking. I may stand a chance."

Aryan interrupted their conversation with a polite cough.

"This type of chitchats are not allowed during office hours and don't think of approaching Shahana, she already has a boyfriend." Aryan spoke whatever came to his mind at that time.

"Sorry sir!" they apologized and went.

Aryan turned around to face a smirking Ranbir.

"What?" Aryan tried to ask indifferently praying that Ranbir might not have heard the entire conversation.

"Why did you lie to that guy?" Ranbir asked with a smug smile.

"I....I didn't lie....."

"Oh....So, may I know who is Shahana's boyfriend? You?" Ranbir teased.

"No! I meant yes, I lied because.....I felt that Rohan is not good for Shahana." Aryan said unconvincingly.

"You can't lie to me bro. You know what? These are the symptoms of loveria......"

"It's not! I have to go now, dad had called me." Aryan fled from the spot before Ranbir could tease him further.