Chapter 15: chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen“Maya, this is unacceptable.” Mr. Desai’s furious face was turning redder by the minute. “What is?” Maya asked before he had a stroke. “You have to ask???” Okay, the stroke was imminent!“Well…” Maya glanced dubiously at the papers Desai was waving in her face. “It could be anything really.”Desai let out a sound like a pressure cooker releasing steam. “You…You…You…”Across cubicles, people were turning to look at them and the unfolding scene. Maya sighed. Ever since she’d come back from that disastrous weekend in Il Cuore, nothing had felt right. She’d been restless and distracted and she honestly didn’t blame Desai for his pressure cooker imitation. It had been two weeks! She needed to forget all about Yash and everything else that had gone down that weekend.“You are not even listening to me!” Desai shrieked. “Enough. I have had enough. Get out. You are fired.” Maya jolted out of her thoughts at that. Fired? “You can’t do that,” she said, slowly. “I’m entitled to notice and severance. I have rights.” “Not if you’re incompetent,” he hissed. “I am not incompetent,” she hissed back. “You’re a terrible boss. Dumb as a rock and entitled as a prick.” “Get out,” he said, turning away from her, dismissing her from his mind and from the company. “Your rights will be sorted out with a decent severance amount.”Maya stared at his retreating back, stunned by the turn her day had taken. One of the juniors in HR came by her desk with an empty cardboard box for her to pack up her things. Maya stared at it dumbly. How the hell had this happened? She packed her things carefully. Two years of personal effects and this was what it had come to. Strangely, she didn’t feel sad. Instead, a huge sense of relief spread through her. She’d hated this job. Her MBA had been in Marketing, branding and strategy, nothing to do with Human Resources. She’d fallen into this job post the accident and the upheaval in her life and somehow, she’d never made the effort to get out of it and find her way back to what she wanted to do. Maybe now she could.“Maya?” She looked up to see Preethi, the HR junior who’d given her the box hovering by her desk. “I’m supposed to escort you from the office,” Preethi said, uncomfortably. Maya laughed, mirthlessly. “Worried I’ll steal the stapler?” Preethi didn’t meet her eyes. Maya shrugged. There really wasn’t any point in making the poor girl feel bad. None of this was her fault. She hefted her cardboard box and made her way out of the office, head held high. It didn’t really matter. No one was making eye contact with her anyway, almost as if they thought her disgrace would be contagious. At the door, Preethi said, hesitantly, “I need your ID.” Maya unclipped it and handed it over, that strange feeling of freedom assailing her again.“Maya?”At the sound of his voice, all feeling drained out of her. She turned with her cardboard box to find Yash standing behind her.“What the hell are you doing here?” she asked, flatly. Preethi discreetly faded away into the background. Yash’s gaze went from her box to her tight face.“I take it this isn’t a good day,” he said.“How very perceptive of you,” she mocked, her gaze taking in his perfectly tailored suit, expensive shades and beautifully shined leather shoes. Acutely conscious of her wrinkled kurta and frizzy hair, Maya was certainly not ready to meet her nemesis on an equal footing today. “Now, I’ll ask again what the hell are you doing here?” “I wanted to meet you and wasn’t sure your family would appreciate me turning up at your home,” he answered, honestly.“Ever heard of a phone?” “Would you have taken my call?” he replied mildly. She wouldn’t have, she had to admit. Maya balanced her cardboard box on one hip and looked at the man in front of her. “What do you want from me?” she asked finally. “Closure,” he replied. “Since that weekend, I’ve had more questions than peace of mind. And I really would like some peace of mind.” “You and me both,” she muttered. Yash reached across and took the cardboard box from her. “Clearly, you have some free time now so…coffee?”She leveled a murderous glare at him before sighing in defeat. “Fine. Coffee sounds good.” “I’m not familiar with this part of Mumbai. Any suggestions on where we should go?” “There’s a café down the road, Bandra Boy.” The ratty cardboard box he held did nothing to detract from his sexy appeal. She rubbed at the ink stains on her fingers and looked at his custom-made grey suit. If only her cranky fountain pen would spit at him like it did at her. But her fountain pen behaved itself and lay quiet in the box. “My car or yours?” he asked, as they walked into the basement parking.“I take the local train, Your Highness, so yours.”He beeped his fancy BMW open and Maya got in, closing her eyes and sinking into the luxurious seat with a sigh. “Alright?” he asked, the gentleness in his voice had her eyes snapping open. She didn’t need his concern, his pity, his fake-niceness. “Go straight down the road and take a right at the T-junction,” she said crisply. “You’ll see a board saying Chai Point.” Closure, she reminded herself. She was doing this for closure.Â