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Jiya’s heart warmed, hearing her sister’s happy voice.
“I’ll call you soon,” Raashi said, disconnecting the line.
Jiya turned off her phone, feeling relieved that she’d made up with her sister. She let out a deep breath, still feeling out of sorts. She didn’t know what to do about Rohan and how to face him again. Finding no answers, she pulled out her Kindle, but even her usual romance novel couldn’t hold her attention. Her eyes fell on her laptop bag that she’d left on the coffee table. Numbers. Yes, that would work.
Numbers, balance sheets, and account statements were a sure-shot way by which she could lose herself for a few hours and then sleep. She plugged in one of the pen drives Rohan had given her and was soon lost in the data he’d handed her.
There were decades worth of information she had to scan through. It was past four in the morning when something finally began to make sense. She highlighted specific entries on the Excel sheet and cross-referenced them with previous years and then with subsequent years, and that’s when she saw a pattern beginning to emerge.
Her stomach swooped. Something was definitely going on. She only had to dig deeper now. A yawn slipped out of her mouth. She’d look into it tomorrow. She had just five hours before she had to be in the office and face her boss. She hoped she could get some shut-eye before that. Meeting him at work was going to be hard enough, but meeting him sleep-deprived and not fully alert would be a disaster. Shutting her laptop, she returned to the bedroom she’d claimed for herself in this cute two-bedroom apartment the office had rented for her, in a building she’d recently learned was owned by Rohan. She rested her head on the pillow and shut her eyes, still in a fix about the man who’d made her world spin off its axis.
* * *
Some days weredisastrous from the get-go, and today was one such. Nothing was happening right. Her head was just not in the right place. She’d mixed the financial reports of two of their clients and sent them to their CFO via email. She’d immediately realized her error and then had to resend the whole email to him, explaining to him on the phone why she’d resend the files. It had earned her a solid glare from him when he’d passed her by.
Then just when she’d decided to confide in Akash over her dilemma, she’d spilled water all over the worksheets he had printed out for his meeting. It meant he had to take fresh prints and had thus gotten late for the meeting, which was a half an hour drive from their workplace. She’d apologized profusely and had even offered to help him, but he’d brushed it away in his usual affable way.
She was behaving most unlike herself. The idea of meeting Rohan today after what they had shared was making her nervous, edgy, and fidgety. She was feeling out of control when she rarely ever felt that. Throughout the day, each time someone stepped out of the elevator on her floor, her heart rate would kick up, thinking it was him…but it was never him. He never appeared on her floor, nor did he call for her.
By the time late evening had rolled in, she was a big bundle of restless energy. Akash still wasn’t back. Her adrenaline was at an all-time high, and her mind was questioning whether the intensity of that encounter with Rohan was all in her own head. Perhaps, it really hadn’t affected him as much as it had affected her because while she hadn’t had the guts to take the initiative and go face him, he hadn’t sought her out either. She was pondering over this when her office phone rang. It was Rohan’s PA telling her to come up to the conference room on the executive floor at once.
She looked around. None of her other colleagues had gotten that dictate. Everyone was seated in their place doing their jobs. Which meant she was going to be meeting Rohan alone. Her pulse skittered. She took a few deep breaths as she took the elevator to the executive floor on level fifteen. She wasn’t a nervous person by nature, but with this one man, she was having difficulty being her usual cool and composed self.
She exited the elevator and entered the lobby of his floor, rubbing her sweaty palms on her trousers. She looked around and knew from prior visits that the executive floor housed Rohan’s office, a few other senior management offices, and two huge conference rooms, their walls covered with frosted glass. All three of Rohan’s companies worked from this privately owned fifteen-storey building set in the heart of Delhi. Taking a deep breath, she went towards where his PA was seated.
His PA looked up as she neared and pointed her to one of the conference rooms. Jiya took a deep breath and opened the door. She came to a sudden halt because inside, it wasn’t Rohan who was waiting for her, but Janak Sehgal.
Her heart lightened and she rushed to him, flinging herself into his arms.
“Oh my,” he said, hugging her close. “If I knew that was the welcome I’d receive, I’d have come earlier.”
“I’m so glad you’re here, Janak. Today has been hard, I can’t tell you. I thought of calling you at two in the morning, then I didn’t because you’d be asleep, and then I got busy at work and couldn’t call, but now you’re here, and I’m so happy,” she said in a rush.
“Oh Jiya, you’re such a ball of energy, like always.” He sat her down on one of the conference room chairs and took a seat next to her. “Now, tell me what is bothering you.”
She stared at him for a whole second, still unable to believe he was here. He really was a gift from the heavens. Here she’d been having a terrible day, and he’d appeared out of the blue as if by divine intervention.
“How come you’re here?” she asked.
“I came to Delhi to meet with Rohan’s father. Varun was anyway planning to come to Rohan’s office and I decided to come meet Akash and you. Where is Akash by the way? I was told he’s out.”
“Yeah, he’s got a client meeting outside the premises.” She checked her watch. “He should be back soon, though. Which reminds me, Akash told me that you’ve been planning his career in a rather systematic way, ensuring he’s learning from the best. Why have you not charted a similar path for Shauna?”
Given that Shauna was going to lead Sehgal Media at some point, it was surprising that Janak wasn’t training Shauna the same way as he was Akash.
He stayed silent for a long beat before saying, “Shauna won’t be walking the same path as Akash. She has her own destiny.”
Jiya frowned. “I thought that was Sehgal Media. Then why…”
“—let’s talk about you first. Why did you want to talk to me?”
She looked at his old weathered face. Intelligence and warmth shone in his eyes. Janak had been her anchor since she’d been a child. She didn’t know what she’d ever do without his guidance and support. He was the father figure in her life.
She’d never hesitated to talk to him before, but right now, given the dilemma she was in, her mouth was unable to form the words she so desperately wanted to tell him.
She wet her lips and plucked at the gold locket around her neck, and then she looked away from him.
“Jiya, you’re fidgeting too much. This is quite unlike you.” He pressed a hand to her knee to stop the nervous tapping of her foot.
