25/11/2019 - Monday - At T nagar, Chennai.

Aparna's P. O. V :

" Is it just your friend, or you take care of the office the same way? " He asked giving me a wicked grin.

He hasn't changed a bit. I didn't know why he was being this close, wasn't he supposed to repel away from me?

Has he forgotten that he is engaged?

" Why are you here ? " Shiva asked me.

" Because your brother asked me to " I said.

Shiva nodded his head silently and walked inside the office. I followed him.

After few minutes, Shwetha walked in and sat beside me.

" What the hell was that? " I murmured to her.

" Sorry, we didn't expect you to barge in! " She said slowly.

" You are definitely mad, your wedding is in a month and can't you wait! " I said laughing.

" Sorry! You don't know how much embarrassed I am right now! " She said.

I laughed back.

Hari walked in with a huge lunch parcel in his hand. He slowly walked to Shiva and smiled at him.

Shiva punched Hari's stomach and walked back to the dining area.

" Lunch time! " Hari said to us coughing with pain.

We walked to the dining area and Hari served us the lunch.

I sat opposite to Shiva and Shwetha sat beside me.

All of us started eating.

" Hema with her friend is coming here today evening! " Hari said to me.

" Okay! " I said.

" Be careful with them. And don't be disappointed if they walk away. " Shiva said.

" Okay " I said.

" And you two, at least lock the door properly if you are doing something here! " Shiva said to Hari.

Shwetha choked on her food and I started laughing.

" Shut up Shiva! " Hari said to him.

" We have PG 13 people here! " Shiva said looking at me.

" Wait, who is PG 13 here? " I asked confused.

" You! " Shiva said to me.

" Really, am I? " I asked him.

" Of course you are! " He said eating his curd rice.

" So, you really forgot what happened that night? " I asked and Shiva choked on his food.

" At least lock the door properly if you are doing something here! " Hari said imitating Shiva.

Shiva shook his head and stared at me.

Suddenly I felt my left foot being trapped between something. I realised within a minute that it was Shiva, he was pulling my leg, literally.

I couldn't focus on my food, but he was looking so normal. I was giving him death glare but he was smiling so innocently.

After few seconds, I felt his foot feeling the length of my foot. I was trying to pull my leg, but couldn't. I was feeling ticklish and was staring at Shiva.

He finished his lunch and finally released my leg. I took a deep breadth and was trying to clear up my mind.

" Hey, are you okay? " Shwetha asked me.

" Something feels so wrong!" I told her tapping my fingers on the table.

" What? " She asked.

" Shiva, he isn't supposed to be this close to me! I don't understand! " I said.

" Just go with the flow, don't think too much. By the way, I saw your leg fight too " She said laughing.

" Come on! " I said and walked back in to the office.

Close to 4 in the evening, the clients came in.

Two curvy ladies walked inside the office. They both must be in their late 30s.Shiva signalled me to talk to them.

I got up and walked to them.

" Good evening ma'am! I am Aparna, the architect. Please take your seat! " I said and made them sit on two rolling chairs near my seat.

" Hi, I am Hema and this is my friend, Latha. " She said.

I nodded at both of them.

" I have had a bad experience before. But Latha insisted that the design done in this office was good. " Hema said. She had short hair dyed in burgundy color.

" I am sorry for the inconvenience that you faced ma'am. But I am glad that you chose us now. " I said with a fake smile.

" I am a yoga instructor. I am planning to have an Institute attached to my home. " Latha said piping in.

" Okay ma'am, I would like to know about the entire site details and the requirements that you have. " I said to her.

" I would send you the site drawing soon. I don't have any specific requirements though. We are a family of Five people." Latha said.

" Ma'am, this is your dream house. We want to make sure that, it is as perfect as possible. Give me an image of how you would want the house to be! " I asked.

" Is Chettinad style housing possible? " She asked doubtfully.

Shiva was shaking his head, signalling me to reject that idea.

" Of course, why not! " I said and Shiva dropped his head in frustration.

" If so, you can do a similar style. " Latha said smiling.

" I would like to meet all the members of your family, you know, to know about all their tastes. " I said.

" That would be amazing! " Latha said.

" Okay ma'am, but before we start the work. I just want you to sign an agreement. " I said and handed her the file. Shiva looking at me nervously.

" Please, this is just for the safety of both of us. I can assure you that, this wouldn't be misused. " I said confidently.

" Okay! " Latha said and opened the file.

Shiva looked at me surprised.

She read the documents and signed.

" Thanks a lot. I am hoping to meet you again soon" I said.

" Me too! " Latha said.

" Where were you when I gave my project here? " Hema asked to me laughing.

I laughed back awkwardly.

" You are really bright, straight to the point and easy to converse. I am looking forward to the design " Hema said to me, and left the office.

I opened my water bottle to quench my thirst.

" Awesome dude! " Hari shouted to me.

" Yeah, good one! " Shiva said smiling.

" Thanks! " I said.

" But, how are you planning to build in Chettinad style? Why did you agree to it? " Shiva asked.

" Well, I feel, we can always learn something if we don't know about it. We can go direct to Karaikudi. We can learn the construction styles and come back! " I said.

" Do you think it is that easy? " Shiva asked.

" If you don't experiment, we would be bored of this job soon! " I said.

" And who will pay for our trip to Karaikudi? " Shiva asked.

" You are getting a project of one crore! Can't you spend some in that travel! " I asked.

" We can take my car! The cost will be cut down! " Hari said excited.

" Okay, we will talk about it after the redecorations are over! " Shiva said smiling.

He was happy, or relived of something. And his smile was effecting me more than I thought it would.

I turned back to my desktop. And I was hating the silence.

" Can we buy some speakers? " I asked Shiva across my table.

" For what? " He asked.

" I would sleep in this quietness. Please. " I said.

" Okay! " Shiva said laughing.

" You bastard! When I asked for one, you said it will disturb your shit! You are partial! " Hari said.

Shiva laughed it off.

After 7 in the evening, Hari and Shwetha left. The interns left silently right behind them.

" How are you going home? " Shiva asked me.

" Auto! " I said packing my bag.

" Can I drop you off? " Shiva asked me.

" No, thanks! " I said, I don't want him to get caught with me. If I am going to be here for two months, this dropping off might become a habit which could damage his name.

But why was I thinking about these! He should be the one worried about these!

Suddenly Shiva started searching for something over his table. He was looking all over the floor.

" Missed something? " I asked him.

" Yes, my ring! " He said nervously.

" Where did you keep it? " I asked.

" Over my table, I was hating that thing. So I removed it after coming into the office and wore it only while going out " He said.

He was not just hating the damned ring, he was hating his engagement!

" Okay, sit down. Let me search! " I said and started searching.

The bottom of his desktops were filled with thick layers of dust. I sneezed as I went too close to the dust.

I got up, took a long scale and pulled out the wires below. His ring was stuck behind the CPU.

I dusted off the ring and looked at it.

It was the same one, I saw in the shop, Anjali liked it so much, but Shiva didn't.

" Thanks a lot! " He said getting the ring back from me. He wore it quickly and looked at me.

" What are you doing Shiva? Why everything feels so wrong to me? " I asked him finally.

" What feels wrong? " He asked.

" This, between us. You, the way you behave with me. What are you doing? " I asked confused.

" Look Aparna, the truth is I am going to marry someone. And I don't like her. I can't accept the reality. Sometimes I wish we could freeze that day we had. Just you and me, nothing in between us.

I know my situation, but I can't do anything about it! But I am really sorry that you felt bad. " He said slowly.

" Accept your reality Shiva! What are you going to get by ignoring it? " I asked.

" I like this illusion. I want to live in it. " He said.

" But I am a real person with real feelings! This play in illusions ,I know what they do to me. " I said.

" I am sorry. This mistake won't happen again" He said and walked past me.

I don't know what took over me, but I hugged him from behind and started crying.

" Why can't you just fucking cancel the engagement? Why can't you? " I asked and suddenly all the tears that got stored up started flowing down.

Shiva stood there frozen.

" Okay, what should we do? What should I do? " I asked him, rubbing off my tears.

" In one day, you have literally turned over the entire office. I couldn't and shouldn't ask anything more from you. I should stop playing. Maybe we were never meant to be together " He said.

" Why? Why us?" I asked him.

" Just my bad fate that i can't do anything about." He said.

" Fine, you can't do anything about that. Atleast do me a favor and stop whatever nonsense you have with me. Let's deal with this as adults. We don't even need to breakup because we didn't have anything to even begin with. " I said.

"Okay, what else you need me to promise? " He asked.

" Let's be just good office mates and have nothing other than our work relationship " I said.

" Okay, I am not going to make another fake promise again" He said and walked out.

Fake promise?