Alright, alright if she wanted to turn the tables on him then she needed to think fast, she'd already made enough mistakes in this lift to last her a lifetime and it was either get this job or sell her body on a street corner and while it wasn't the most off-putting option she'd ever heard, she didn't want to go for the same amount as her local kebab.

Inhaling and exhaling like her life depended on it, she thought back to her favourite acronym that managed to always get her out of a bad situation; WWSKD and what would Sharukh Khan do indeed?

Slipping her heels off, she pressed the button to open the door and chased after him, nose slamming into the door as it swung shut behind him. Falling backwards, she tripped over her own feet and hit the ground, hand on her nose as she blinked away tears.

Neil pulled open the door with force, at first eyes moving from left to right, then stopping at the ground. "What ARE you doing down there?"

Now it was showtime! Wailing as loudly as possible, she held her face. "You broke my nose, you broke my nose, my nooo-oh" She fell silent when he reached down and tugged her up and into his office by her wrist, using her body to shut the door.

"Shut up, just shut up" he covered her mouth, eyes flaring with fire. "I did not break your nose, stop being such a baby" he dropped his hand.

"Aw, is that my pet name? Gotta say" she flicked her hair, "Didn't know you felt that way about me".

Groaning, he swore under his breath. "The only way I feel about you is immense dislike, now get the hell out of my office" he shooed her with his hand.

"Listen, bucko, you'll never find a more cheerful worker than me, I have the uh, funny bones" She shook her shoulders merrily.

Raising a brow, he turned to her in full disbelief. "Wow, you have elbows, I couldn't tell, who doesn't?"

"Many people don't be so elbowist, the media would go mad if they know you only want to employ people with elbows, imagine the controversy". Admittedly, this was not the best of things to do, but the thing to learn about Avni was, that once she opened her mouth, she never shut it.

"Exactly when did I say that?" Neil sat atop his desk, chin placed on his hand as he looked beneath his lashes at her.

"You didn't, but your words could be taken as an insinuation that you wouldn't employ the elbowless, not saying I took it that way, but the media could" she shrugged, fingering a bunch of flowers on the sideboard.

"Are you threatening me, Miss Ayesha?" He wished he hadn't even recalled her name, but he always did have a knack for remembering names once he'd heard them once and up until meeting her, he'd been quite confident about her future as an employee in his place of work, of course, that had all changed now.

"All I'm saying is, if you give me the job we can leave this matter here and never mention it again" Avni hoped this method of blackmail would work, she didn't exactly have another choice other than getting on her knees and begging, but she figured if someone walked in that could give off the wrong idea and she was already in enough trouble as it was.

"So, you're threatening me?"

"Um, if it's working, then yes, if not, then how dare you accuse me of threatening you? I'd never do such a thing" Deciding the best place to look was at her nails, her eyes shot open upon the realisation that her shoes were gone, looking around quickly, she spotted them beside his feet. "Shoe thief, I knew there was something not right about you" Waggling a finger in his direction, she lifted one "But there's only one, where is the other, huh? Are you gonna wear it secretly? Do you have a foot fetish?" Her nose was an inch from his.

Waving his hand before his face, whatever that sandwich was stunk! Neil stepped back "I don't mean to be rude, but isn't that the other shoe on your foot? Maybe you can become Cinderella another day?" He placed his hands on her shoulders, "But, for now, try and think, was there some kind of medication that maybe you forgot to take today?" He'd tried not to get too close, but the woman clearly didn't understand personal space, so why should he?

"You want me to be Cinderella because you want to be my Prince Charming, right? I'll be Desirella and you can be my Desi Prince Charming" she began to courtesy, "Will you accompany me to the ball?"

It took every last bit of strength he had to not lift his foot and drop-kick her across the face right there, he'd never been a man of violence, but something about her brought out his dark side. Massaging his forehead, he exhaled loudly. "If I give you the job, will you shut up?"

"Uh, no, but I will use my annoying antics to annoy others more than I annoy you, thanks" She ran into him, arms wrapping around him which nearly knocked him straight off his feet. "You won't regret it, from now on, I'm your number one gal".

"Uh," he peeled her off of him, his long fingers pushing her forehead backwards. "I said if not when, if you want the job, you have to pass the second part of the interview". Sitting in his desk chair, he shoved his tongue into his cheek."Maybe try not to call yourself my girl in front of other people, they may get the wrong idea" he suggested.

"Oh, of course," She made a zipping motion over her lips, pretending to throw the key over her shoulder. "Our secret is safe with me"

"We don't have a secret" he pointed out while typing at his computer.

Avni pouted "Ah, Khanna, the heartbreaker" She held her heart, "Ouch".

"This isn't drama class, please take your theatrics elsewhere" preferably somewhere very far away from him. "I assume you read through the files that were emailed to you" he looked up just enough to see her nod then looked down again. "I want you to sell me this laptop using the specs that were sent to you before".

Right. This was her time to shine, she couldn't screw it up, but since she'd been a screw-up all her life, her chances weren't great. "Hear ye, hear ye" she started, rising from the chair with her chin held high. "Are you tired of your laptop being as boring as plain oatmeal? Well, say hello to the "Zap-O-Matic Laptop 3000"! It's so fast, that it once outran a cheetah in a game of tag. Need to write a report? It'll autocorrect your typos into hilarious puns. Want to watch a movie? It'll randomly switch the actors' faces with your own. Plus, it comes with a free invisible butler named Sharukh who whispers encouraging messages in the tone of Bollywood like "Bade bade deshon mein aisi choti choti baatein hoti rehti hain and if that doesn't remind you that shit happens but you'll be alright, then I don't know what does" she grinned, clearly pleased with herself.

"So, you don't?" Neil blew out an exasperated breath. "You do realise that none of the things you've said are a capability of the laptop, right?"

"Well, duh, but I wasn't made to sell boring things, Khanna, and if you want something sold, sometimes, you have to lie".

"You do know that's illegal" his brows furrowed.

Huffing, Avni sat back down. "In the real world, I obviously wouldn't do that, but you said sell you a laptop, and sell you a laptop I did".

"A week's trial, unpaid, impress me and I'll hire you, there are some files on that desk there, sit at the desk in the office next to mine and rewrite them correctly, the login details are in a notebook in the top left-hand drawer" he didn't bother to look up at her.

While unpaid work wasn't in her sights, she knew she had to prove herself first, and a week to most people would be nothing, unfortunately, she wasn't most people, but she also couldn't afford to be picky. "Your desire is my command" She bowed and then headed out.

Finally lifting his head, a shadow of a smile came to his lips as he watched her jump into the air, try to fistbump a wall and shake her fist while almost tripping over her own feet- she was absolutely crazy, but her antics were amusing to watch.

+++

Aman crept past the sofa, if he didn't wake Anjali, all would be fine, he could do this. Luckily it was his sister who'd been cursed with clown feet rather than him, but he still had to be careful, Anjali was a worthy adversary and would foil his plans.

He had just reached the kitchen, hand stretched upwards to the cupboard when her sleepy voice shouted out: "No, whatever it is you're planning, take a few steps back and put your hands up".

He pouted, hands beside his head "Bleh, you're so boring, come on, I thought we could make a cake?"

"Nope, I have strict orders from your sister not to let you near anything that involves using the oven in the kitchen".

"Aw" he looked up at the ceiling, "I set a fire once, big deal" he shrugged, glasses slipping halfway down his nose.

"Big deal?" She exclaimed, "Three fire trucks came here and you had no ceiling for weeks, the mark is still there, no" She pointed to the living room, "Out".

He waggled his finger "I will not be stopped, I am a man on a mission" he vowed.

"You're a boy on business, now stop being so whiny and go and watch T.V." She shook her head at his antics, unfortunately for her, his older sister wasn't much better and by deciding to become best friends with Avni, she had to put up with their craziness, but she didn't mind, they weren't hard to love, just incredibly weird and out there.