Chapter 16 - The Scary Side of Miss. D

"He's really cool," Miss. D relayed as they jogged together. Arjun hadn't prodded her much; he knew she was going to talk about uncle Dinesh herself. He had seen the way her eyes sparkled when she was having an all out discussion with his uncle.

"Told you so," Arjun said quite nonchalantly.

Miss. D slowed down after their fifth lap and started walking, breathing hard. Arjun slowed down too, panting and looking sideways at her, asked, "You were really enjoying pitching ideas to him."

"Yeah, it was fun," she answered catching her breath. "I mean, he was being so receptive of everything I was saying. I guess he was treating me kindly because of you."

Arjun chuckled, amused that she had no idea how impressed his uncle was with her for her own talents. Only she could be so adorably modest and clueless.

He was about to comment that he had nothing to do with his uncle's opinions when Miss. D's phone buzzed. She pulled it out of her pocket and read the message she received.

"Hello Advika, this is Dinesh. Wanted to talk to you. Ping me when you have time."

The surprise on her face might have been too serious, for Arjun got anxious for a moment and asked, "What happened? Who is it?"

"Your uncle," she replied, looking up at him and pursing her lips. "He asked me to call him."

Without waiting for Arjun to respond, she dialled up Dinesh.

"Hello? Good morning uncle," she greeted him trying to sound cheerful despite the anxiety showing on her face.

"Hello Advika, you are a morning person? Great!" Dinesh spoke on the other end.

"Yeah, I have always been," she answered with a chuckle.

"Good. I am leaving tomorrow night to Mumbai. I was wondering if we could meet again before that. Would you be able to join me for lunch tomorrow?

"Yes uncle, I would love that. Does Arjun already know or should I let him know of the plan?"

"No, let's leave Arjun out. He would anyways be busy. We can grab a quick lunch, just the two of us."

Miss. D's eyes widened. She looked up at Arjun who wasn't aware of what his uncle was planning. He gave her a questioning look mouthing, "What?"

She took a moment and then answered Dinesh over the phone, "Okay uncle, sure."

"What happened? You look like you have seen a ghost," Arjun voiced as soon as she cut the call.

She turned to him in panic mode and said, "He wants to have lunch with me tomorrow. Without you."

"Why?"

"I don't know. He didn't tell me. Why?"

Arjun thought for a moment. He realized it was his uncle's idea to tackle the hiring problem in his own way. "I guess he wants to talk to you without being pressurised by my presence."

He could see her visibly panicking. "It's okay Miss. D, uncle Dinesh is a really chilled out person. He's really sweet despite his tough way of talking. You've already met him once. You can handle it."

She nodded, trying to restrain her anxiety.

The next day evening, Arjun was working late in his office. He had been curious about how the lunch between his uncle and Miss. D went, but he was too occupied with work to spare the time to call her. She hadn't called him either. It was past eight when his phone finally rang.

"Hey Miss. D," he spoke breezily, expecting her to say the lunch went well.

"Mr. J, I need to talk to you now," she stated quite determinedly.

"I am still at work. It might take a couple of hours more. Can I come over to you after I am done?" he asked, unsure why she sounded a little off.

"I am in the lobby of your office downstairs, and I really want to see you now. But, I can't come in without a visitor's pass. Will you let me in or not?" she demanded.

It threw Arjun off. "You are here?" He got up from his chair. "Okay, wait, I will call the front desk now. And I am coming down."

"No, that's fine. It will look weird if you come down. I will come up to your cabin."

"Oh, okay, yeah."

If he had been unsure about Miss. D's out of character tone over the phone, his suspicions grew by multi-fold when she appeared in his office looking like she wanted to punch someone.

"Hey?" he said, rising from his chair and trying to understand the situation as she walked in towards his desk.

"Okay, before we begin, I know it is rude for me to interrupt someone during work and office hours. But, I just couldn't wait. Plus, it is well beyond your normal office hours," she spoke fast.

It was just like her to know when she is stepping over some boundaries. Arjun smiled to himself and said, "It's okay. What happened? It should be something serious for you to look so deadly." He paused for a moment and then asked, "Did uncle Dinesh say something inappropriate to you?"

"No!" she boomed. "He was sweet indeed, and very courteous. But, you Mr. J, need some answering to do."

Arjun smiled nervously. "Umm... about what?"

"Your uncle offered me a job, quite a good one I must say. If I have to go through the job market, it will take me at least three years to get a role like that." Her voice was strong, commanding, something that she wouldn't use unless she was at work and making her opinions known.

"Umm... isn't that good?" Arjun asked a little hesitantly.

"Did you know about this, Mr. J?" she asked, stepping towards him intimidatingly. "At first when uncle appreciated my work and ideas and offered me the role to join your team, I was a little unsuspecting. But, when I thought about it afterwards, I realized there was no way uncle would have asked me without consulting with you beforehand." She took another step as she voiced, "So, you tell me, did you know about this? Did you ask uncle to hire me?"

Arjun squeezed his eyes shut for a second and then opened them, giving her a charming smile and owned up, "Uncle doesn't work that way. He wouldn't hire someone just because his best friend's son asked him to. He is quite meticulous when it comes to business. He liked your work and made the offer. Which is why he didn't let me join you for lunch. I didn't task him with this, and I don't hold that much power over him yet. He made the decision on his own. But yes, he told me beforehand; we had a discussion about it."

"Why didn't you tell me?" she was exasperated.

"Because it is up to you two!" he reasoned. "He decided to hire you, and it is up to you what you decide. I am not going to do anything. In fact I told him that if I get involved, if I try to get you on board, you wouldn't accept it. Besides, I didn't want to undermine your capabilities in any way. It was all fair and square."

She stared at him trying to read his mind.

"What did you answer him?" he prodded her.

"That I will think about it," she replied honestly.

"And what did you think about it?" he asked hopefully.

"I don't know," she said turning away dejectedly. "Working with you in the same office; it would be so weird for others, for your whole team if they find out their boss hired his girlfriend as one of the leads of the project. People will talk, and I hate being talked about." She walked slowly towards the ceiling high glass panels lining his office room, gazing outside at the night skyline of the city.

Arjun paused, absorbing her thoughts of fear and then walked behind her closely, coming to stand right by her shoulder to look out of the glass panels at the night sky.

"You know people can see it when someone is being scouted for their talent, right? You cannot hide your strengths and weaknesses, your capabilities and the right to the job when you are working in a team of smart and perceptive people. They will see it within days why we are trying to get you on board," he explained softly.

"Still, I will always be the girl who got the job because her boyfriend is the Vice President of the company." She sounded very much disturbed.

Arjun slipped his hand into hers assuringly as he whispered, "You won't be."

She looked up sideways at him and said, "You never know. Work place romances are never good."

He smiled warmly. "You never know, we can be a formidable power couple who everyone would be in awe of."

She chuckled. "I guess this would be one of the few times we both would be seeing the different sides of a coin."

"It's okay, we will figure it out." He squeezed her hand.

That night, Arjun called up Dinesh to share the important pieces of conversation he had had with Advika.

"I see her fears are valid," Dinesh remarked. "But, we can actually make things go the other way."

"How?" Arjun questioned.

"People talk, Arjun," Dinesh asserted. "It depends on what we make them talk about."

"You know a way out?"

"Yes, I do. I will have my team reach her out officially. When they talk to her they will know why were trying to hire her. And then, when they see how she is hesitating to take the job, they will talk about how much effort we are putting in to get her. When she actually comes onboard, they will talk about how difficult it had been for us to make her accept the offer. They will never talk about your personal ties being the reason for her getting in."

"That's... brilliant," Arjun reviewed. "And it might work really well."

The next evening, when Arjun went to pick Miss. D up at her office, she gave him an ambiguous stare and grumbled, "Uncle Dinesh's team reached out to me today."

"Okay, so...?" Arjun asked, really curious.

"They asked me if I could meet them for an official discussion."

"That's good, right?"

She sighed, glaring at him. "I have told you already how this might pan out."

"And I've told you how it might be different. Look, why don't you just give it a shot? I am not asking you to accept the offer at any cost. You are doing this on your own. Just do whatever you would have done had you gone through the job market route, the way you like it."

She seemed to accept it.

Two days later when she did have the meeting which went on the lines of a job interview, Arjun got a word that the team had actually like her a lot. He grinned to himself. Then word reached him that Miss. D was still considering the offer instead of accepting it despite the many times the team had called her.

Weekend came and they were meeting for breakfast. Miss. D was waiting at a café when Arjun dropped in, speaking as soon as he sat down, "Okay, is it something about the responsibilities of the role? Should I ask the team to translate them to better conditions?"

"Mr. J, it's not about that," she said calmly.

The next day, he brought it up again, "Is it about the compensation and benefits? I believe my team was giving the best terms."

"Nope, not that," she said, eyeing him with amusement.

The next day, he asked her again, giving her a mischievous smile, "Is it because I will be in the team? You are scared you might lose your focus with me around."

She almost laughed but controlled herself by pursing her lips. "Not at all, Mr. J. I am pretty sure it is you who would be losing your mind."

He leaned back crossing his arms and defended himself, "We'll see about that. I am completely different when I am at work."

"So am I," she stated with an equally mischievous grin.

Arjun kept up his daily attempts of convincing and seducing her, till one evening when she pushed him back against the wall in the corridor outside her house, holding him by his shoulders, staring into his eyes strongly and said, "Okay Mr. J, give me some time to make up my mind, will you? I never knew you could be so persistent."

He smirked making her take a deep breath with frustration.