Love At Mumbai

"Bye Papa! Love you!" I shouted as I ran out of the front door of our penthouse apartment. My driver, Kamal, opened the door of the back seat to let me in. I started checking my outfit and all my belongings obsessively the minute our car hit the road and Kamal noticed. "You look great, don't stress" I smiled at him as he tried to reassure me. Kamal was like a big brother, he always looked out for me. When I was younger, he used to help me sneak out at night to meet my friends. I took his word for it and stopped fiddling with my outfit. Instead, I leaned back and tried to calm my nerves with the songs Kamalwas playing. Today, I was joining one of the most renowned companies in Mumbai,Chillies Entertainment (CE) and it was owned by Arya patel and his wife. My father has been friends with Mr Arya for years now and I remember meeting their family once or twice when I was younger. When I was seven my parents split up and I moved to Canada with my mother but when she passed away two years back, I moved back to Mumbai to live with my father. When I mentioned my interest in movie productions, my father insisted I worked under CE since it would be a good experience and could kickstart my career. I was skeptical in joining my father's friend's company but I didn't want to let him down. The car came to a halt and I peeped out of the window to look at the building of CE standing tall in front of me. I hung my handbag on my left arm and confidently stepped out of my car while Kamal held the door open for me. The second I stepped into the office, my jaw dropped. The interior designing was marvellous. Every corner of the office was perfectly constructed. I stood there for a moment, admiring the works of Gauri Arya . "Beautiful isn't it?" I looked to my right to see who was speaking to me and I was met with a young Woman, maybe a few years older than me, wearing a big smile on her face. "Yes, yes it is" I replied as I moved forward to introduce myself. "Im Amira, Amira Malik. It's my first day today" She shook the hand I had extended and replied, "Ms Malik, of course, I was expecting you. I'm Layla, I'll be giving you, your tour of the office" She gestured at me to follow her as she led me around the office. Layla brought me to my cabin, it was small but cozy and I was glad I even had a cabin. "If you need anything else, please do ask me." With that she was about to leave and I abruptly stopped her, "Wait" She looked at me strangely but softened her look when I asked her, "What do I get started with?" She told to check my email and all the details have been already sent. I thanked her and finally allowed her to leave my cabin. I was able to settle in quickly since I didn't bring much on my first day. Also, I couldn't wait to dive right into my work. I stretched out a little as I got out of my chair. I had worked for a couple of hours and was honestly getting a lot done but I had a dire need for coffee and decided to take my break. "Hey Layla" I greeted her as I walked into the break room. She was having lunch with a couple of her employees and asked me to join them. "Oh thank you but I just need some coffee" I politely declined her. "You sure? It's your first day, you won't want to faint" said one of the guys sitting on the table, Sooraj, was his name if I'm not wrong. I turned my head back to say, "See you guys around" while I stepped out of the room but since I wasn't looking, I crashed into someone and the coffee from my cup spilled all over. "Oh no, I'm so sorry" I expected the person to be upset but I was not ready to face the angry, stone-cold expression that rested on the face of the man before me. He was dressed in a white buttoned-down shirt which made the coffee stains even more visible. The man's jaw clenched and my heart was almost stopped by his glare. His eyes stared directly into my soul and I noticed something about them. His eyes looked very familiar. Before I could ponder more on where I had seen those eyes, his loud, rough voice echoed in the office. "Are you blind?!" Ijumped at his voice but couldn't say anything as he continued to shout at me. "Who the f**k hired you? You can't even walk properly how the f**k are you going to work in this company" He screamed at me with a stern voice and I was starting to get angry as well so I talked back, big mistake by the way. "Look I know I spilled coffee on you but that was an accident and I don't think you should get so worked up about it" The man's jaw tightened and he took a step forward and looked me in the eye to say, "What makes you think you can talk to me like that" I rolled my eyes and scoffed, "What makes you think you can talk to me like that?" He raised his eyebrow and was now fuming. Layla hurried over and said, "Im so sorry sir, today is her first day, I apologise for her" I looked at her confused, until now I thought he was just a fellow employee. The man was about to speak up again when we heard a woman's voice from behind him, "What's going on over here? Prince what happened to your shirt?" Prince? His name is prince? The woman walked forward and I immediately recognised her. Gauri Arya . She looked at me for a moment and big smile formed on her face, "Amira?" She asked and I nodded with a smile. "You know her?" The man asked plainly. The next sentence washed over any proudness I felt for standing up to the man and it was replaced by embarrassment and fear. "Sweetie this is Amira Malik, uncle's daughter, I told you she'll be joining us and Amira, this is Aryan, my eldest son and of course, the CEO of our company" Oh f**k. ******** It's been a week since the coffee encounter and I hadn't seen Aryan since then, mostly because I tried my hardest to avoid him at all costs. It helped that my cabin was a few levels below his so I didn't see him often. I doubled checked both sides before stepping out of the lift carefully like I had been doing for the past week. I swiftly moved to the front door and exited the building, constantly checking around for any signs of Aryan. Anyone watching me would think I was a criminal. I let out a sigh once I closed my car door and Kamal turned back to give me a strange look. " Just drive" He nodded politely and started making his way out of the parking lot. My car exited the parking lot just as another car entered it. I was already looking out of my window so I saw Aryan in the front seat of the other car and immediately ducked down. I prayed hard that he didn't see me and didn't get back onto my seat until we were far away from the office. Kamal looked at me and I just told him, "Not One Word" and he kept driving in silence. I plopped onto my seat on the dining table with a loud sigh causing my father to look up from his plate in concern. "Oh don't worry about it, just a little tired from work" I assured him I was alright and he brought his attention back to his food. "So how is work?" "Oh it's okay" You know besides the constant hide-and-seek game I've been playing with Aryan. "And what about Aryan?" I choked on my food when my dad took his name. It was as if he read my mind and knew I was thinking about him. "Ami what's wrong with you...here have Some water" He poured some water in my glass and handed it to me. I swallowed my food and tapped my chest lightly to calm myself. My father patted my back and asked me, "Are you alright?" I nodded, "Yes thanks papa" I tried to focus back on the food and hopefully ignore my dad's question about Aryan but unfortunately he asked again. "So you didn't tell me, how's Aryan?" I shrugged and just said, "He's okay. I don't see him very often" Which is true. "Why?" I shrugged again to which my father replied, "He's probably very busy. Such a fine young man he is. Taking over the familybusiness and expanding it. CE has really blown the charts since he took Over" If i didn't know any better, I would think my father was fanboying over Aryan but with good reason though. Papa was right, Aryan may have a questionable personality but he is very intellectual and excellent in his line of work. "You should stay close to him" I looked my dad strangely. This was the man who would punch a boy if I so much as make eye contact with him but here he's asking me to get closer to Aryan. "I asked you to join CE for a reason. It will give you experience and a career boost. Staying close to Aryan will allow you to learn a lot. He would be a good mentor" I knew my father had a point but I didn't want to be close to a person like Aryan. My father shook me from my thoughts when he held my hand lightly and said, "Do this for me will you" I didn't know why this was so important for him but it didn't matter. I would stop the world for my father if he asked me to. The next morning, I wallked into the office with more confidence. I figured if I actually do walk into Aryan I could apologise and clear the air but I didn't think I would actually walk into him...literally. "Ouch" I fell back a few steps once I collided with something hard. But when I looked at what I hit and saw a navy blue shirt, I realised it wasn't something, it was someone.