Chapter 6: Coffee on the Rocks - It Started With a Friend Request

Tamanna had managed to reach office early as she had to submit some reports to her senior officials. No one from her team had come in yet. While she was busy taking printouts of the reports, she remembered she had to take her medicines for hypertension. She went and filled her glass with water from the cooler and after taking her prescribed pills, she walked through the passage towards the washroom.

As she went closer, she could hear some strange sounds coming from within. It scared the hell out of her. But with heavy steps she decided to move ahead. Soon she realized that the strange sounds were of someone making out in the washroom!

‘Ooh yeah! Mmm…that feels so good!’ a voice muttered from inside the washroom.

Tamanna was standing just outside the door trying to hear carefully what was being said.

‘Oh dear, you’re too good.’ It sounded like a guy’s voice this time.

She was stunned to hear a man’s voice coming from the ladies washroom. She couldn’t believe all this was happening in office. Though flirting was quite common, especially during appraisals, this was something new to her. Someone was actually making out in the washroom! She didn’t have the guts to open the door and stood outside silently.

‘That was so satisfying, baby. Get up, let me put on my clothes before someone walks in on us,’ the girl muttered again. Tamanna kept wondering whose voice it was.

The moans eventually stopped and there was complete silence for the next couple of minutes.

Tamanna thought of opening the door when she heard the girl say, ‘I don’t think anyone’s out there. I’ll go first. Don’t come out for a few minutes after I’m gone. I’ll give you a ring on your phone signalling everything’s clear and then you can come out.’

Tamanna quickly searched for a place to hide and found a spot behind a pillar. She heard footsteps ahead of her and tilted her head slightly to check who it was.

Oh, fish! That’s Kajal! Is that why she’s been getting leaves and incentives without even doing her work on time? Tamanna thought to herself. She stood there for a few more minutes to clear all her doubts. She was not wrong. The guy was her senior Manager, Mr Verma. He was in his mid-thirties whereas Kajal had just graduated. She had joined the company only recently but took full advantage of her senior, knowing that he was addicted to sex. Tamanna imagined what it would feel like to be with Deep in the same situation and ignored the wrong things that happened in office. Deep was still on probation and his leaves, HRA, bonus, and other benefits were in Tamanna’s hands. She had a huge crush on Deep and wanted to be in a relationship with him in spite of him being her junior. Though she had never shared her feelings with any of her colleagues or friends, the same thoughts kept revolving in her head. She thought that even though she was hiding her intentions from others, surely Deep had a hint about her feelings for him, but he didn’t say anything.

She was drinking water when her phone rang.

‘Hello beta, how are you? This is Mr Dalal this side.’ Mr Dalal was the owner of the house where Tamanna and Aleesha were staying.

He continued, ‘I wanted to inform you that I am looking to renovate our flat. Actually, I am moving to my hometown in a year and thus I want to sell my flats and properties before moving out of Mumbai. So I thought of renovating the flat so I could get a better deal for it.’

‘But uncle, I can’t shift in such short notice. I need at least a fortnight,’ Tamanna requested while on her way to the cafeteria.

‘It’s okay. Try and adjust somewhere else for a month. Once the interiors are done, you can move back in. In fact, why don’t you leave all your furniture in the flat and carry only the necessary stuff?’

Tamanna reluctantly agreed and disconnected the call. She thought of how Aleesha had just shifted and telling her to look for some other place would be really awkward. However, Tamanna had no other option. She had to now find a new residence on such short notice. She remembered that a few of her colleagues lived in rented apartments and thus thought of shifting to one of them for a month. She called Aleesha to tell her about it but her phone was not reachable. She decided to inform her after reaching home at night.

In the meanwhile, she had completely forgotten that she was in the cafeteria and that the counter boy was waiting to take her order. She was jolted from her state by Deep who was patting her shoulders. He had been standing right beside her all this while and, preoccupied in her thoughts, she didn’t hear him come. As she felt Deep’s touch on her shoulder, her world came to a standstill.

‘One Maggi and one apple juice,’ she said regaining her composure.

While walking back with her order, she greeted Deep formally. Deep returned the greeting. He took a bottle of Sprite, searched for his mobile, and called up his friend.

‘Guess what? She again gave me an overfriendly smile. Oh God, I feel so embarrassed when she does that. I am not the type of guy she thinks me to be. I don’t like to use people for personal pleasures. The rumour doing the rounds is that a girl from the other team has crossed all limits to impress her manager. She now gets uninformed leaves and other benefits as well. Even I can get all of these and you know that I am on a third party payroll. So showing personal interest in my manager can actually be beneficial for me and help me in many ways. She has the power to get me on direct payroll but my heart doesn’t agree. Even though I need appraisals desperately, I disapprove of those who take the shortcut to achieve their dreams,’ Deep told his friend in one go.

‘It’s a rather tricky situation. Don’t ever be informal with her. It can send her the wrong signal. But also don’t hesitate to smile and say a few nice words to her whenever you meet her. After all, she is your senior,’ the other guy on the phone said teasingly.

Deep knew there was some sense in his words. He didn’t want to lose his job by making it obvious through his cold behaviour towards her. He disconnected the call.

Deep was a good looking man with a strong built, good enough to charm girls. He had impressed the people in office by his dedication and hard work. He was strictly professional during office hours and never shirked from his work and responsibilities. He had dreams for himself and his family. The dreams also included his future wife though he was not married yet. However, he was against wrong ways of earning money or getting appraisals. He hated politics and manipulation in the corporate world. If it was in his control, he would have forced everyone to follow corporate ethics. But he knew that the real meaning of office ethics was only in management books, which provides a good read but is never actually followed by anyone.

* * *

‘Hey, do you have a back up of our project files? Remember, I had told you to save it when I had shared it with everyone?’ Tamanna enquired. She was on the phone with one of her teammates.

‘How can you be so careless? Just check who has it and give me a call immediately. The system has crashed and I am still in office,’ Tamanna shouted.

She hung up the phone and called a technician to check on the matter. It was already 8:30 pm and it seemed like she would take at least a couple of hours more to finish with work. She had already checked in early today and this sudden issue made her wait even after the office hours, which irritated her. But she was helpless. With higher positions come more responsibilities and thus Tamanna had to wait until the issue was resolved. She was having a cup of tea in the cafeteria when her phone beeped. Her heart skipped a beat looking at the caller’s name. It was Deep!

‘Hello,’ she greeted him after picking up the call.

‘Hi Ma’am. A colleague just told me about the issue you are facing. I have the backup files with me. If it’s urgent, I can reach office in a couple of hours. Should I come?’ Deep asked concerned.

‘Please do. I’ll be waiting. Please try and come as soon as possible,’ Tamanna responded.

Deep hung up the phone and quickly had his dinner. He knew he was not going to be paid extra for helping her out but it would certainly help in making an impression on her and might result in rewards in the future. He reached office around 11 pm. There was no one on the floor except the technician and Tamanna. Both of them were engrossed in resolving the issue and didn’t notice that Deep had reached.

Deep broke the silence and said, ‘I had no idea something like this would turn up. When I got a call, I had just reached home. Therefore, it took me time to come back again. I am so sorry.’

Tamanna just smiled and took the pen drive containing the backup files.

‘I hope you had a peaceful sleep last night because I am afraid it will take at least 4 hours to restart the system again,’ the technician responded.

Deep wanted to bang the system on the technician’s head. He now had to stay back until early morning and had to also be on time for the next day shift. He scratched his head and looked at Tamanna with a raised eyebrow. She thanked Deep for coming on such short notice and told him she appreciated his efforts to stay back until the issue got resolved. After a few hours, the technician restored the system and left. Except for the security guard, the only people left in office were Deep and Tamanna.

After almost an hour, Tamanna asked Deep to join her for coffee while he was busy checking the files on the system.

‘Ya sure, should I go get it?’ Deep asked.

‘No, no. It’s okay. You carry on,’ Tamanna said and walked outside towards the coffee vending machine.

She looked around the office and saw no one was around. She took two cups and placed one on the coffee machine. As the cup was being filled with coffee, she remembered the morning washroom incident. She felt a sensation run through her body. Suddenly, she felt a hand caressing her back, slowly but passionately. She stood still and closed her eyes. After a few seconds, the hand pulled out the shirt tucked in her pencil skirt and reached for her bra strap. She let out a moan, turned around, and opened her eyes to come face to face with the person. To her shock, there was no one around. She couldn’t believe it. She then looked down to see the coffee spilled all over the vending machine. She again turned to see whose hand it was but found no one and realized how desperately she wanted someone to love her. The coffee was still spilling out of the cup. She turned off the main switch of the vending machine.

Damn! The vending machine too had to malfunction now! Fuck man, she thought.

She took both the cups and went back to see Deep still working on the system. She smiled wryly thinking of the morning incident and kept the coffee cup on the desk.

‘Thank you so much, Deep, for all your help. It would have left me in immense trouble if I hadn’t fixed this issue tonight. Maybe we would have lost this project or the company would have faced huge loses. Then they would have shown me the door and asked me to get out. I am really grateful to you for all your help today,’ Tamanna said sipping her coffee in relief.

‘It’s okay, ma’am. For me, work is always the first priority and this was quite a serious issue,’ Deep smiled.

‘You can call me Tamanna. My close friends call me Tammy. You can too. After all, you saved my job.’ She was trying to break the ice between them.

‘Sure Tamanna. Oops! Tammy,’ Deep smirked.

‘I hope you are aware that tomorrow evening our team has organized a party,’ Tamanna asked.

‘Oh yes, I will be there,’ Deep responded.

Even though Deep was getting increasingly friendly with Tamanna, he knew he couldn’t cross his limits. With no one around, Tamanna was enjoying Deep’s company. It was almost like a date for her. She called it their ‘first date in office’. They chitchatted on various topics until the issue was resolved and then called it a day. They winded up all the work around 4 am and then called the security guard to get them a taxi. The security immediately called a cab to drop them home.

‘Be safe and drop me a message once you reach home. Thanks again,’ Tamanna smiled before getting into the car.

She smiled all the way back home. She had spent some wonderful hours with Deep. Once home, she opened her notes on her Galaxy Tab and scribbled:

Sometimes I wonder how I feel about you. Sometimes I am scared of these feelings, as I don’t know anything about you. Still the dreams about you are so vivid and clear that I feel true happiness and my fear disappears. People say dreams have an underlying meaning to them and one should not ignore them. But as I wake up from my dream, I feel alone. You don’t realize what I feel for you. I want you to hear my heartbeats, feel my body, and see my face to understand my love for you. I fantasize your strong arms around me and that makes me feel so safe. Your warm loving body scent sends my heart spiralling out of control. I wish you knew what you do to me. You make me daydream in office and fantasize about you. However, in reality I am all alone without you… It’s the fire of love and it won’t stop burning unless I feel you and your love. One day you will be mine, I will make you mine…