Gauhar's POV
I kicked at a stone on the ground as I tucked my hands into the pockets of my jeans trousers, feeling the candies wrapped in crinkly wrapper brush against my fingers as I walked along the familiar street that took me to my father's workplace. The imposing buildings reflect the grey clouds, silently showing off the wealth and influence of their owners.
I looked up at the clouds that hid the sun, making it appear much later than it actually was. I braced myself against the strong bursts of wind that forced me to clutch at my hijab, the chilly bite of the gusts bringing a smile to my face.
I loved how savage the wind was, how unrelenting nature was and how helpless we were in front of it, being able to do nothing but accept it's anger and ferocity.
The terrible weather didn't seem to stop the people walking on the streets from walking over to their destinations, and my worries felt insignificant as I walked amongst the crowd. Everyone was so close but so far away, focussed on their destinations, everyone dealing with their own set of problems.
It always fascinated me how cold and absolutely unbothered we could be to other's perils and how easily they could ignore your pain if you put on a mask of strength.
I felt a rueful smile tug at my lips as I looked up at the familiar building that held memories of my childhood.
The panelled glass that appeared to be mourning as it reflected the stormy clouds floating overhead was no different than those surrounding it. But it seemed to emanate a melancholy the others didn't, it held a lot more stories within it, a lot more dreams and memories.
Memories where I had my father who made the darkest of my moods brighter, my father who made me feel that maybe life wasn't as bad as I had thought it was. I silently laughed to myself as I climbed the steps I'd climbed a thousand times before, realising that despite being familiar everything felt strange to me. Was the absence of just one person enough to suck out the life out of something you'd cherished your entire life and make it alien?
I felt a gut wrenching chill pass through me as I stood before the glass doors barring the entrance to the place. Digging my nails into my palms I willed the pain to kick away all ominous thoughts of losing my father away from my head.
I shouldn't... couldn't think this way.
I rubbed the back of my neck as I entered the building that was the result of years of my father's hard work. I took in a deep breath and closed my eyes as the familiar scent of bustling deadlines, new paper and printer ink filled my nostrils, my ears buzzing with the sounds of people moving about their work.
As I eyed the potted plants set around to enhance the aesthetic of the place I wondered how they managed to survive in a place clearly not meant for their existence. Did they enjoy the lack of sunshine and the cold air conditioned breeze?
My sneakers squeaked against the shiny marble as I made my way to the reception. As I nodded to the people who stopped by to greet me or give me smiles that I knew were meant to be polite but were laced with apprehension. I stood out like a sore thumb among these professional looking people, my dark sneakers, grey jeans and loose black t-shirt in stark contrast to their sleek suits and professional looking shirts.
My mind was set on finding out if things were actually as calm as they seemed. I despised the fact that my father didn't disclose his problems to me, absolutely hated that there was a chance that he didn't trust me enough to confide in me.
I grit my teeth as I forced these thoughts out of my head. I had to make sure that I do something to help him out of it, to get rid of whatever or whoever it was that had caused him to hurt so much that he had nearly left us. I didn't have any time to agonize over my hurtful thoughts and apprehensions.
No matter how true they could be.
I felt fierce anger boil within me as I watched Miss Hudson the receptionist giggle as she talked into her phone, a bagel in her hand. It irritated me to watch her recline against the black leather chair as if she were lounging in her front yard.
It was almost funny to see how quickly things had plummeted since father's illness and it hadn't even been a week.
Or maybe things had already been spiralling out of control and father just couldn't notice any of it. Just like how he had failed to notice that the people that he'd associated with, the people that hurt me ….hurt US were snakes all along.
I plastered a smile on my face as I leaned forwards against the dark marble, acting as if I didn't see her choke on her bagel as her eyes fell on me "Hello Miss Hudson, I hope you're having a great day."
I internally winced at how murderously cheerful I sounded, but I couldn't help it.
"Oh my! Welcome Miss Siddique, what has brought you here?" overcoming her shock she quickly put on a well-practised professional smile on her lips, shoving the bagel into her bag and wiping her hand on her highly tacky and unprofessional flowery skirt.
"Since My father is sick, I came to check up on how things were going on over here." the forced smile hurt my cheeks but I continued to stare pointedly at her, causing her to flush a bright red and tuck a strand of her curly hair behind her ears.
"And I had to meet Mr. Ryder-Cochrane as well concerning some things with the accounts so I would be really grateful if you could tell me where I could find him."
"Ah yes yes, ma'am I will just check if he's there and let you know." She simpered before checking her computer "He's in a meeting right now, but you can talk to Mr. Mishra if you have any concern with the accounts, he can help you out with that. Especially since he's the one who mostly handles them. "
I gave her a curt nod and gave her a tight smile "Thank you very much for your help Miss Hudson, I'll make sure to get in touch with him, I think I would also have to discuss some protocols that the employees here need to follow with respect to professionalism."
That caused her to turn even redder, I pushed my hands deeper into my pockets as I turned away from her. A feeling of sad hopelessness engulfing my heart as I realised how bad things were being handled in his absence.
The thought that things were just as bad in his presence didn't leave my mind, forcing me to wonder how things ended up this way.
As I stood outside Mr. Mishra's room, I contemplated knocking on the plain white door that held the man on the other side. I could hear a dull hum of conversation from the other side that indicated that he was busy speaking to someone. I pressed my forehead against the door, not wanting to disturb the man that had become my friend in a really short span of time.
The thought that this behaviour was extremely unprofessional crossed my mind before I firmly crushed it. I wasn't an employee of this place and hence those rules didn't apply to me ….right?
I could sense from his concern and sincerity that he was worried for the company. And although he was shifty and refused to meet my eyes when I spoke to him, there was something within me that told me that I could trust him. I was aware that Dev knew something that nobody else did, but I had no idea how to extract that information out of him.
But I also knew that I absolutely needed to get the information out of him because the future of this company and the hard work of the entirety of my father's life depended on it.
Having my brain engaged in deep contemplation caused me to lose track of my senses. Which is why I nearly jumped out of my body when the door flew open and I was sent flying backwards, my breath caught in my throat as I waited for my body to make contact with the ground. Sadly for the ground, I didn't quite manage to make the meeting as I realised I had been saved from bruising my butt against the cold marble.
As I opened my eyes which had closed of their own volition as my brain had surrendered to my painful fate, I found that my shoulders had been captured by a pair of hands and I was looking at the strikingly blue eyes that I had admired more times than I cared to admit and that belonged to Dev. His brows were furrowed, as he seemed to surely be trying to understand how I had materialised in front of his door.
As soon as he registered that I was indeed real and not a weird figment of his imagination, he let go of my shoulders like I was a hot potato that had burned his hands, causing me to stagger backwards but thankfully I caught myself just in time to stop myself from meeting the fate that I had just been saved from.