"Wow, Dia is a good cook. Way better than you " Himani said before taking the tiffin in her hand.

"I am offended but that is true. I suck." Anya said before taking Kabir's tiffin from him.

"You are not that bad," Kabir said before taking his tiffin back.

"Yeah. You are not great but not bad either," Himani said with a smile.

She narrowed her eyes and pulled the tiffin back. "Thank you. You guys are so supportive."

"We love you, too," Himani said. "Ah, she is really good."

"Of course she is. She is a professional chef."  Kabir said before taking the tiffin back.

"Really?" Himani asked in surprise.

"How do you know?" Anya asked him.

His eyes widened a little. "You told me. How else?" He said before giving her his tiffin.

"OK. Anyway! I am so happy. She did something. I mean something! That is so good. I feel this is a great change. I feel everything will be fine soon."

"Just because she cooked?" Kabir asked with a frown.

"Because she did what she loves. She loved cooking which is why she took up this career."

"She didn't cook before?" Himani asked.

"No. She helped Nani daily but just with cutting and stuff. But she never cooked a meal. I thought of telling her to cook because I knew she would enjoy it, but I didn't want her to think that I want her to work. I thought eventually she would because she loves it but she didn't. Which made me sad. But I am so happy today." 

"That's nice," Himani said with a smile. They all fell quiet after that. It was not awkward it was just quiet. After a few more seconds Kabir said, "It has been two days without any silly or lame jokes which are often funny."

Himani laughed. "Missing him?"

"I hate to admit but yeah."

Anya frowned as she did not understand what they meant. "Oh, Ali!"

"Yeah." Kabir nodded.

"That reminds me. Khadijah has been so sweet to Dia. She even chats with her. So I took her number and messaged her. I asked her, out of curiosity, why she was such a sweetheart. She said." Anya wrinkled her nose. "That she knows how it feels to be helpless. She knows how it feels when no one helps. And I never felt worse."

"Aw," Himani said sympathetically.

"She is a teenager and see her. Looking at Ali I forget they had a terrible childhood. Actually, they both are very cheerful."

"I agree. Who can say they have seen days where they didn't have food to eat or water to drink," Himani said.

"He is an idiot though," Kabir said which made them laugh.

"Anya!" Baskar exclaimed. "Where have you been? I looked everywhere."

"Ah. It is lunch time."

"OK. Done with food?"

"Yes."

"Then come to my office urgently. We have a problem to solve before the end of the day."

"Sure, sir." Anya quickly stood up and followed him. It was the first time Baskar had asked Anya or any of their colleagues to do some work urgently. She knew it was important.

"What is it, sir?"

"I need your help. Please sit."

"Sure." She sat on a chair immediately. "How can I help you?"

"I am so confused. I was told to do everything today without fail. I do not understand what to do. I am panicking."

"Everything is under control. We still have hours before the day ends. We can do this. I will help you."

"Will you really help me?"

"Yes, sir."

"Will you delay your work for me?"

"Absolutely."

"Thank you so much, Anya. I am relieved. "

Anya smiled. "No problem, sir. Tell me how can I help you?"

He opened a big file that was in front of him. Anya had never seen a file bigger than that. Higher-ups, Anya thought. "Help me select this."

"OK."

"Tell me what is better. Rose, Lily or tulip."

"Rose, Lily,  tulip as in? They are the names of some team?"

"Flowers Anya."

"Flowers?" Anya nodded her head. "Flowers? For some meeting? Or are we going to have some event soon?"

"Of course, we are going to have a big event. The biggest event of the year."

"Wow. What is it?"

"You don't know?" She innocently shook her head. "My daughter's wedding! "

"The wedding." She nodded her head. "Of course the wedding." She softly facepalmed without Baskar noticing it. Then she chuckled awkwardly. "I thought it was related to the office."

"Oh no, no. It is related to me." He smiled. "Oh." He looked up. "You think I am taking advantage because I am the boss." Anya raised both her eyebrows and pressed her lips together. "Not at all, sir. Happy to help."

"Thank you. Now, tell me what will look better for a winter wedding?"

Anya's eyes widened instantly. "Ah. sir, I am not a flower person. Not even a decoration person."

"That is fine. Neither am I, but we have to do what we have to do."

Anya smiled. "That is true."

"You know what, we can decide flowers later. That is not urgent."

"Thank you," she said before standing up.

"Let's see the wedding invitations." She sat down again. "I need to say which one I like today because they need to get printed. I love this one."  He extended a card towards her. "This one is simple. It's blue and has a golden border. I feel it is sweet and simple."

"It is."

"Next is this one." He kept a card above the other one. "It has this beautiful peacock on the wedding invitation and the card is simple inside."

"This peacock is so beautiful."

"It is. But this colour is something that bothers me."

"It is good but yeah. It is too colourful."

"Yes! And look at his eyes. "

Anya shook her head. "It looks so scary."

"Yes. And then there is this one which has mehendi kind of design on the corner."

Anya shook her head. "Naah."

"I agree. And the next one is."

"Sir." Anya interrupted him. "Why is she not deciding this?"

"Who she?"

"Your daughter. The bride."

"She is a busy woman, Anya. She is such a hard-working kid. She is very dedicated to her career. She does not have time for this."

Anya smiled. "That is so great. Not at all offensive." She whispered the second sentence.

"What do you think about this floral one?"

"Beautiful."

Anya helped Baskar choose a wedding invitation card, colour of the table cloth, music to be played, arrangements of the chair and lastly the flowers. Every five minutes she tried to escape but Baskar did something to stop her. He was panicking and it was visible in his eyes. After a while, she started feeling sorry for the old man and sat there until he was done and relaxed. By the time she was out of the cabin, it was time to go home.

"What was the urgent matter?" Himani asked when Anya came back.

"Flowers, cards, candles!"

"What?"

"What were you doing in there for so long?" Rohit asked Anya.

"Why should I tell you that?"

"Are you working on something without letting me know?"

"Yes, we were. Company is downsizing and sir asked me to help."

"Why you?"

"Because I am not among those unfortunate people" Anya smiled. "I hope you have a good time here."

Rohit frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Time to go home. Let's go Himani."

Once they were out of their office. Himani grabbed her arm and pulled her closer. "Are they really downsizing?"

"No. I just got angry."

"Thank God. I got scared."

"Where is Kabir?"

"He left just before you came. He said he wanted to go somewhere urgently."

"What's up with him?"

"I am not sure, but there is definitely something."

"Yeah, he is up to something."

"I hope something good."

"I can not be sure about that."

"Ah!" Himani exclaimed when she saw a text on her phone.

"What?"

"My son needs a rose for his drawing class tomorrow. Do you know where I can find one?"

"I don't know anything about roses. I hate it. I hate all the flowers."

Himani frowned at her friend. "And I thought it was just Kabir who was acting weird."

"Let's walk faster. I want to go home as fast as possible."

Himani chuckled. "We need to find a rose first."

"No!"

"He really needs it."

"Then go find it."

"Help me. Where will I find it all alone?"

"Google it."

"You cannot google that."

"I am sure you can."

"Anya." Anya started running which made Himani laughed. "Stop."

"Let's go. We are getting late."

Despite Anya's protest and marathon, she had to help Himani find a florist. It was raining which made it difficult to walk. They looked around and Googled it as well but could not find anything. Disappointed they walked back to the station after half an hour.

"He is going to throw tantrums."

"Of course he will. Drawing teachers are scary."

"I told my husband. I hope he finds it somewhere."

"I hope he gets it. Or your son is getting scolded tomorrow."

"He needs that. He doesn't do his work on time."

"You are a very evil mother."

"Rose!"

"Where?"

"There." She said and started walking towards the lady who had a round cane basket in her hand. The basket had roses and jasmine garlands in it.

"I don't believe this. We walked so much in rain only to find it here! Why didn't you check it here before?"

"Come fast. Look the train is coming."

"Yeah, I am the one who is the cause of us being late."

"Come fast."

Anya sighed and ran. By the time, Anya reached there, Himani had paid the lady. They walked faster and quickly board the train. It was a normal journey where they talked endlessly until it was time for Himani to leave. After that social media apps kept Anya busy. Due to rains, Anya found it difficult to get a bus after her train journey was done. She reached home almost an hour late despite leaving the office earlier than their usual time.

"Why are you late?" Dia came out of the room once the door was closed.

"Rain. I hate monsoon. Were you scared?"

"Worried."

"I am sorry. I know Nani is not at home and you are all alone but yesterday I got late because of all the stuff you asked me to buy and today rain. I am sorry."

Dia kept starring her and even after she left Dia was looking in the same direction. "I did not realise I was all alone in the house. A day before that I was so happy that I reached home safely that I forgot I was alone. Which was ironic because I felt lonely in the crowd but in an empty house I felt better. And then the next day I decided to use my cooking as a way of thanking Anya di, so all day I kept looking for recipes. If it was not for her I do not think I would have realised that I was alone. And now I get nervous every time she leaves the house." She took a deep breath. "My life has become so complicated."

"It's fine if it's complicated."

"What is bothering me is how I did not realise I was alone."

"That is OK. We all don't realise a lot of things."

"But this is annoying. It is bothering me a lot."

"Why? You forgot about it and had a normal day. And ever since you realised you have this fear in your mind. Don't you think it was better before." Dia frowned and listened to him quietly. "And it is nothing to be bothered by. It is just causing more trouble. You have a lot in your hand to deal with. Why are you adding more things to it? This is not even important. If anything, you should be happy. You spent two days without realisation. Two days without fear." She was looking down and was pressing her fingers together. 

"I guess you are right. But it was bothering me because it was not like me. I usually get scared of such things."

"Then who told you to be you? You don't have to be you all the time. Taking a break from yourself is good. It is completely fine to be the way you feel instead of the way you are once in a while."

She liked what he said. It brought positive energy to her. She felt better. It encouraged her to speak. "I wanted to talk about." She stopped in the middle.

"It's OK if you do not want to talk about it now."

"No. I wanted to talk about my husband." She whispered the last part.

"Then go ahead. I am listening."

She looked down again. "But I don't want to talk. I feel scared."

"Hmm." He bobbed his head. "We can do one thing." She looked up at him. He opened a drawer in his desk and pulled out a pen. "Take this." She took it without any questions. Next, he opened another drawer and went through what was in it. He soon pulled out a blank A4 size paper and gave it to her. "You can write about how you feel." She looked at the paper and then again at him. "Don't think too much. Just write whatever is in your mind."

Though Dia was ready to write she could not write anything for a couple of minutes. Her mind was chaos. She could not write it down. But slowly her thoughts started to become more clear. They started forming a correct sentence. She wrote for twenty minutes. She had not written much but she had thought a lot which took the time. Once she was done she folded the paper and gave it to him. "Read it when I leave. Don't read it now."

"I won't read if you want. Just getting it out of you was the motive."

"I don't mind. I would like to know what you have to say about that."

Samar smile. "If you want."

"I had something in mind to talk. But it is silly."

"So? We all are silly. You can talk."

"No. Some other time maybe. It is time for home anyway."

"It is. Anya looks tired as well."

"She must be. She left home early today."

"Then let's call it a day. It's time for me to leave as well."

"Thank you," Dia said as she stood up from the chair. She then turned around and left the room. Samar smiled widely. This was the first time Dia thanked him. It was a change he was waiting for. He stood up and went out.

"Cab is still not here," Anya informed him when he came out of his room.

"OK. You look tired."

"I am. I want to go home and sleep. "

"Eat something first."

"I want to sleep."

"Should I put the mattress here?"

Anya narrowed her eyes. "Very funny." She looked at her phone. " I am leaving. The cab is here."

"Thank you."

Anya narrowed her eyes again before leaving. Samar smiled and waited for them to leave. Then he went to his room to collect his stuff. He organised his desk. He believed he should leave the desk the way he wanted it the next morning. Then he kept a few things in his bag, took his phone and the paper that Dia gave him. He initially thought of taking it home and reading it there but he remembered he made a promise to never take his work home, so he sat on the chair Dia was sitting earlier and opened the price of paper.

I was scared. When I saw him. I thought he will see me. I did not what to go with him. I was scared of that. But when he got hurt, I was upset. I got scared again. I thought he got hurt. But I did not like that I was upset about him. I should not be upset. He is not a good person. At least not to me. I did not like that. I feel scared that I will never get rid of him. He will take me back to that house. I do not want to go. I am scared.