Metro Diaries: The perfect symphony

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Jia woke up today morning feeling uneasy. Something just didn’t feel right. She pushed herself through the morning routine to reach office on time. No, she didn’t miss her bus. She wasn’t stranded on the road without a mode of transportation available either. She reached office perfectly on time. 

She flipped through her organizer and began her day putting up one of those fake smiles on her face to ensure no one asked her any uncomfortable questions. That was the problem with working in the same place for last 5 years. It becomes your second home and your colleagues, an extended family. They deem it appropriate to peep in anytime and ask anything to you without giving it a second thought on how you might feel about it. 

Unlike her expectations the first meeting was a cakewalk for her. The client was impressed with their presentation and offered them the contract which was pretty rare for a first meeting. But then she knew the amount of hard work they all had put in behind it. She tried to smile as her team celebrated, but it didn’t reach her heart. If it would have been any other day perhaps she would have been celebrating with them, calling in for pizzas, sending congratulatory mails… doing everything that was called for. And right now she couldn’t even smile whole heartedly. 

She excused herself and went to the lobby for a breath of fresh air. What was wrong, she tried asking herself. It wasn’t one of those days of the month when the world seemed all wrong while she was the only one who was right. Rather it felt like one of those days when it was all upside down, including herself. She wanted to cry but there were no tears that promised to come out if she did, she tried to smile but it seemed as if she was pushing herself too hard to do that. Jia loved her job as a Client Servicing Manager in Akira Designs and was considered one of the strongest backbones of the team. Still today she felt out of place there. Office was now becoming suffocating for her. She decided to apply for a half day and take a break. Maybe that would help her soothe her fraying nerves she thought. 

Source: Google Images
Just as she was walking towards her cubicle her phone rang. “ Adi calling” the screen reflected. Jia let out a huge sigh on seeing that name. Adi. Wharton Educated Managing Director of Alpha Packaging Ltd. Adi whose choice of advertisements was known across the industry. It has his advertising strategy that had brought his company worldwide fame. Adi , one of the biggest clients of Akira Designs. Adi the person Jia was about to fall in love with a year back and sensing his cold vibes had backed off. Since then his presence gave her jitters. 

 Till date she could never figure out what made her misunderstand his casual flirting to be love. She never forgave herself for her stupid assumptions which had led her to behave in a very childish manner before Adi. Nothing was said by either of them but still everything was understood. Jia knew there was nothing between them except attraction but deep in her heart she knew she could never move on from him, as if they had broken off after a long love affair. But then work was work, and come whatever may the golden rule of business says,” The show must go on.” 

She wrapped her thoughts in the safe confines of her heart and pushed them deep inside from where they could never threaten to come out. Putting on her most perfect voice she braced herself to answer the call in the fifth ring.

 “Good afternoon Sir.” 

“Good afternoon Jia. I wanted to let you know that the relevant details as requested by your team have been mailed today. My marketing team was bound to meet you all day after tomorrow but I would want to prepone it to tomorrow. I am leaving for South Africa the day after and I would want this to be done in my presence. “ 

“Sure Sir, it will be done. Give me half an hour I will get back to you with the details of the meeting to be held tomorrow.” 

“Also you were supposed to mail me the samples.” 

“Yes sir my team is currently working on them. By evening 5:30 they should be in your inbox.” 

“Anything else?” 

“No Sir.” 

“You know Jia, at times it is good to say all that you have in heart. Otherwise it gets too late by the time you realize it and then you are left with no choice but to keep staring at their face book pictures and keep wondering what if.” 

Jia’s heart missed a beat. She realized the sudden change in his voice. She thought she knew what he wanted to say. Had it been the old Jia she would have blushed. But this Jia retorted, “Rightly said Sir, it applies to each one of us I believe. For that is the ultimate truth.” 

She tried to keep her voice as firm and straight as possible, not wanting to give out a hint of the shakiness it had developed all of a sudden. The silence that followed was natural. Jia expected to hear the click to signify the call was cut sometime soon when his reply took her by surprise. 

“No Jia, I don’t have such fears. For I know the whole world might leave my side but you will never. And with you by my side, there will never be a what if.” 

And suddenly everything fell into place. It was all perfect, the day, her dress, her mood and her life.

P.S: This post has been selected as the Spicy Saturday Pick for this week by Blog Adda.

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