Raghav moaned pitifully into the white kerchief he had pressed to his eyes the moment Pallavi entered his study, slamming the door with all the might possessed in her slender frame. 

"Raghav Rao!!!"

She bellowed ignoring the full body shudder he emitted and a little squeak of agony he let out at the high pitched sound. 

"Not today... Pallavi... please..."

Raghav whispered looking as miserable as he was feeling. Pallavi cocked an eyebrow and meaningfully clicked her sharp sandals to make maximum sound on the floor while tossing her massive handbag aiming to topple the glass paperweight on the floor which it did and shattered noisily and then slammed her palms down on the table with all her might.

The so called Terror of Hyderabad for the first time since she had known him, let out a sound she didn't know he was capable of making. He lurched forward and buried his head in his shaking hands dropping the kerchief on the table and whimpered like a slaughtered rabbit. 

She knew exactly what had happened and repressed the tiny part of herself which was feeling sorry for him viciously till only the vindicated rage remained. 

"You cheated! You two timing bastard! You knew very well that collaborating with the Saxenas would have been my biggest gig. I would have easily covered the losses and won the challenge so you intentionally poked your Pinocchio like nose in my business and had the deal cancelled!"

"How dare you!!!"

She screamed right on his contorted face pleased with the way he turned a nasty shade of green. 

"Do not.... throw your inability to hold onto your clients as my machinations... Had he been convinced by your venture he... wouldn't have cancelled the deal..."

Raghav managed to speak between incoherent pauses. Pallavi glared at him with such intensity that she could have burned him to ashes with just her gaze. 

"Oh! Now its my incapability! So you didn't suddenly made a deal with him and put a clause which forced him to accept the saree orders from the Aurelia's ?"

"...I ... had to... get.. a client for..... paying for the newest branch office abroad.... and... Saxena.. was the only person willing to.... pay that much... The secondary clause was a given... Jayathi Jewels had partnered for the wedding trousseau with Auralia's.. for.. an outstanding contract... so I had to... he could've refused... had you been the better choice.. but obviously you weren't... so... "

Pallavi picked up the brass figurine kept aesthetically on top of his polished heavy wood mahogany desk and slammed it with enough force to rattle the massive glass windows at the side. Raghav's face morphed into an alarming shade of white and he leaped out of his chair, where he was crumpled sideways and ran into the adjoining washroom.

"Very nice excuses! Admit it! You did it so that I won't get it! Saxena's aren't the only ones who could have paid for your deal. I read the papers alright? The Ahuja's are also looking for designers their niece's wedding. They are twenty times more wealthy. So please.. Don't take me for an illiterate fool!"

She smirked hearing the painful retching noises from the washroom. Raghav came back after a few minutes, his black robe wrinkled, face still unnaturally pallid, smelling of his hastily sprayed on cologne, glaring at her weakly. 

Pallavi gave him a most innocent yet frosty look even as her senses started to play it's usual deceitful havoc having gotten a lungful of his musky fragrance. 

"Don't you know, smelling strong scents will increase the hangover?"

She asked coolly as he dropped on his chair, wincing slightly holding his head with a hand and opted to glare at her stonily again. 

"Everything is unfair in business, Saree Ka Dukaan. I thought at this point you should have learnt it. But no, your moral values and insurmountable ethics will never let you win this challenge. I have come to know of that long back. Business and righteousness will never go hand in hand. Never. You have a sharp mind and a designer's talent... what you don't have is the guts to do what it takes to rip your bit from the world. You are too worried thinking who is getting hurt in the process and what morals you have tilted in the process."

He gingerly drunk the glass of water kept on the side and popped in an undescriptive pill which she was half sure, a painkiller which could bring down a full grown horse if necessary. 

"Ahujas are settled here but they are from the North and still follow through their customs. Wedding jewellery designs are a sensitive topic for Indians. And Jayathi Jewells is predominantly famous for its South Indian style.. we do the North but we aren't the best there. In this part of the Country, we rule undisputed. Saxena's have intermarried in our culture. Their's is a fusion wedding. They will accept South Indian styles... and both weddings will be a highly media covered event. I don't want the public image of Jayathi Jewells being anything but the best. I don't want the people going through their Instagram posts and through the lifestyle and entertainment magazines to gossip about anything other than the Bride's jewellery."

Pallavi seemed to listen to him instead of flying into a rage as he had expected again so he continued despite the merciless hammering of his brain and the way his throat seemed to dry up within seconds. 

"And your fault was that you did not include NDA nor any clause that would have prevented Saxena to get his daughter's bridal trousseau done from anywhere after signing the contract. Don't even think of suing him.. his lawyers will rip you apart and that joke of a contract... How many times do I tell you.. to not blindly trust anyone? Everyone is not a saint like you."

He finished rasping and immediately gulped down three glasses of water and groaned, crushing his eyes closed as his stomach seemed to slightly settle somewhat, now that Pallavi wasn't on a rampage anymore... or as it seemed currently, too immersed in her thoughts to retaliate. 

"Arthamaiynda Saree Ka Dukaan?"

He asked when she still seemed to be lost in her own world staring at the corner of the room. She got startled as she looked back at him, like a deer caught in headlights. He felt a pang in his chest seeing her crestfallen expression. 

"I thought I had finally gotten my big break.."

She said somewhat subdued and a lot diffidently. 

"If it makes you feel any better and only because I am too hungover to properly enjoy your defeat, I will reveal to you that I genuinely did not know about your contract with him. I came to know about it after we had already signed on my papers. Even he looked a bit guilty, I feel... now that I think back."

He uttered gently and she looked at him with a strange expression before breaking out into a smirk. 

"I like the hungover, moaning, whimpering version of you much better."

She said saucily and his eyes widened in shock before narrowing in suspicion. 

"You just did not flirt with me in the worst way possible. I do not moan! Or whimper!"

Pallavi burst out laughing and felt her heart skip a beat seeing the crimson seeping into his chiselled cheekbones. 

"Oh... my if only you could have heard yourself last week, Mr. I-do-not-moan-Rao. I thought you must have woken half of Jubilee Hills by the time I was finished."

She chortled in between her words seeing him turn tomato red by then. If she observed more closely she might have even seen smoke starting to come out of his ears. She had no idea that the Don of Hyderabad could blush... let alone look so embarrassed. 

"Shut up!"

He mumbled searching for another glass of water hastily avoiding eye contact with a still giggling Pallavi. The yellow saree clad woman finally took pity on him and raised herself from her chair where she had been seated opposite him and came at his side fluidly. She bent down at his height and checked his temperature with a hand against his burning forehead. 

She could see the exhaustion literally scrawled in bold over his sharp features. 

"Why do you even drink so much when you can't handle it?"

She whispered now, lowering her volume mercifully for the first time since she had burst through the doors. He was looking sideways, body turned towards her but face away as if afraid that she might catch the expression in his eyes. 

"I am glad I can't handle it. I do not know what I would have done had I become immune to drunkenness as well."

He whispered back and she tilted his chin upwards, forcefully making him face her. He felt Pallavi's lips on his forehead next, maybe trying to kiss the ache away. That was a move so characteristic of her that it was painful. 

She would repeat it each time they slept together. 

Unfailingly. 

Leaving breathy kisses over the visible scars carved like a tapestry over his body and also the invisible wounds which somehow she always managed to find. 

Trying to physically suck out the pain. 

However much he tried to make her understand that it will not go away. It will never go away. Her lips will get tired and fall off her face but the agony will forever remain etched on his soul till his body decays in the dust. 

She would just smile tiredly at him, eyes drooped in sleep, hair dishevelled delectably over her glowing sweaty skin and lips red and swollen from his merciless assault. 

"Just because the pain wouldn't lessen shouldn't mean that we stop trying at all."

He blotted the tears in his eyes before they could slide down his cheeks and she dropped a kiss on each of his eyelid. Then she tugged him behind her, holding his arm and he followed her obediently. She took him to the kitchen and started making her special lemonade.

"Nimbu paani?"

He asked amused and Pallavi Deshmukh gave him the brightest smile he had ever seen anyone bestow upon him. Her marble eyes sparkling in mischief and those plump lips parted in mirth. 

"The best hangover cure Ghamandi Rao." 

And Raghav Rao knew, he was forgiven.