He paused without quite meaning to, watching her work with the same intensity she’d shown since her first day.
When she reached up to massage the back of her neck, the gesture seemed oddly intimate in the empty office. Private. Something he wasn’t meant to see.
He cleared his throat. “Ishani.”
She straightened instantly, hand dropping back to the keyboard. “Boss. I didn’t realise you were here.”
“What are you working on?” He stepped closer, eyes moving to her screen.
“The projections for tomorrow,” she said. “The Singapore numbers came in late, so I’m updating the forecasts.” She tucked a loose strand of hair back behind her ear. “I’ll finish within the hour.”
He glanced at his watch. Nearly ten. “You should have gone home.”
“The data needed to be right.” She said it plainly, as if staying this late wasn’t a sacrifice, just the logical thing to do.
Raghav studied her face. She was tired. Yet, calm, focused and familiar in a way that unsettled him. The recognition came uninvited. How many nights had he stayed just like this, alone in his office, choosing work over everything else?
“Have you eaten?” he asked abruptly.
The question caught her off guard. “I had something earlier.”
He was already reaching for his phone. “I’m ordering dinner. We’ll finish the projections together.”
“That’s not necessary…”
He didn’t wait for agreement. He placed the order with a restaurant that knew his preferences, asked for enough for two, then ended the call.
“Bring your laptop,” he said, nodding toward his office. “We’ll work inside.”
She gathered her things without comment and followed him in. The office lights were dimmed for the evening, leaving the space somehow… intimate.
Outside the windows, Mumbai spread out in quiet points of light against the dark. Raghav paused, captivated by her silhouette framed by the dazzling view. When she turned to look at him, the city lights cast a golden glow around her.
He cleared a space on the conference table in the corner of his office. “Set up here. We’ll spread out the reports.”
Ishani moved to the table, placing her laptop and files down neatly. Raghav took the opposite side, arranging the printouts, suddenly aware of the space between them—or rather, how little of it there was.
“Let’s start with the technology division,” he said, keeping his focus on the papers. “That’s where the board will push back.”
For a while, they worked in silence.
Keys clicked. Pages shifted. Numbers moved from one column to another. Without discussion, they slipped into rhythm. Ishani slid reports toward him before he asked. He flagged lines she’d already pulled up on her screen.
At one point, she frowned at a figure.
“Wait,” she said. “That percentage doesn’t align with the Singapore inputs.”
Raghav stepped around the table, coming up behind her chair. He leaned in, one hand braced on the table as he pointed at the screen.
“Here,” he said quietly. “Look at how it carries forward.”
She felt him before she saw him. Too close.
She tilted her head slightly to follow his finger and looked up.
He was already looking down.
For a second, neither of them moved. The space between them tightened, charged with the kind of awareness that had nothing to do with the numbers on the screen.
