The Femme Fatale- III- The Catalyst

Read Part 1, Part 2

It all had started a year ago, when the then branch head- Ms. Sunaina Sahni, a divorcee resigned from the company. Everyone in the office was sure that the next boss has to be Anjali. She was hard working and deserving. But the final verdict was in Sunaina’s hand. The day before Sahni’s farewell party, Anjali received a call from her and she was summoned to office after the working hours. She reached the office hastily and was surprised to see Dinesh, her intern coming out of Sunaina’s cabin.
She gave him a questioning look and all he reciprocated was a shrewd smile. As she entered the cabin, she was taken aback to find Sunaina half- dressed sipping scotch. She asked her to come in and have a seat. She was casual. Anjali was still in a shock.
“You must be wondering why the hell did I call you here at this time. Look Anjali, I like you very much, you are a hard working girl and you have a long way to go. Everyone in the office wants you to be the next boss. So did I. But I am changing this decision of mine. I called you here to know the reason behind it. I dint want to back stab you.” She said coolly.
Anjali dint say anything and rushed out of her cabin straight to her car. “So this is it. He has been privately servicing that ‘fair-not-back-stabbing-bitch’ to get the power.” Her mind was racing. She dint want this to happen. “The much awaited, hard earned, well deserved position was so close and someone comes from nowhere and grabs it, rather snatches it. Rascal.” She wanted to call up the company president and letting him know all that was going on. But the conscience inside her stopped her from doing so. It said, “they can go to this low for power, if you too do, what would the difference between you and them?”. She decided otherwise.
The next morning, as expected, Dinesh was announced the un-questioned boss. No one seemed to have been surprised. They all knew it already. Anjali was told that she was the only one unaware of this petty affair going on in her vicinity.
She laughed at herself, “how contradictory is it that a nerd, who I gave no attention to, the one who reported to me, all of sudden has become my boss. I am going to have to report to him now. That Dinesh has out of blues become Mr. Khanna. This is all the game of power which I failed to noticed while I was busy working.”
Dinesh had thrown a small treat- as he called it, actually a lavish expenditure on food on becoming the new branch head. He bought everyone personalised gift- from the office secretary to the office peon, even the watchman was happily blowing his new whistle. Anjali too found a packet with her name on her table. She wanted to throw it away. But she opened it. Inside was hot pink silk lingerie exactly her size. Filled with agony, she marched into his cabin where he sat playing with the revolving chair. She picked his cigarette lighter lying on the table and set the lingerie on fire, stood there staring him until it turned into ashes and marched out with quick steps without even uttering a word.
She started typing a resignation but something inside her head stopped her. She was not going to quit. She was a born fighter. Her dad called her ‘little soldier’. Soldiers don’t quit. They stand back and fight till their last breath. She was a head-strong persona. She decided to stay. If Dinesh was going to throw lemons on her, she is going to squeeze those lemons into his eyes.

Dinesh Khanna changed his personal secretary every two months that is how he earned the prestigious title of "W.K.". One of those frequently changing girls whose names other staff dint even know at time had been creating a scene in the office threatning Khanna to sue him. Somehow he managed to get her mouth shut.
Though Dinesh Khanna tried on her another two times, but he never succeeded. He called her ‘miss-tight-ass’. She ignored him, stayed stern towards him and kept herself busy with her work. She knew that opportunists like him would fall on his knees some time and that will be when she will play him. She waited for that time patiently. Like a lioness waits ready to pounce for her prey to get settled down.

Part IV soon...

 

The Femme Fatale- II-The Blue Orchid

Read Part 1

 

That night, Anjali lay in her bed restless and unable to sleep. She dint want to believe it. Was Sahil a new pawn in the game? Was Khanna that desperate to win her to take the game to next level? She could not mistake. It was Khanna’s voice talking to a shadow when she was returning from the ladies room. He was asking “is she in?”, the other voice replied “seems so”, and he was patting on the shoulder of the shadow saying “you know the next step”. She managed to sneak a look of both brothers coming out in the light.

But she had seen genuineness in those eyes. She could not be wrong in recognising those looks he was giving. The passionate way he held her on the dance floor. She had thought how unlike his brother is he. Sahil was a Khanna too after all. Anything was possible.

There was a battle going on in between her heart and her brain. Her brain was giving her heart a tough time in deciding if it was mere a game and her heart told her constantly that he was not faking. Her brain kept on telling her to back off and save herself.

Amidst the battle there was a third party coming up- her body. She wanted him badly. Even if it was a game, her physical desires for Sahil were not bothered about it. The heart had now a supporter and they over powered the brain and she decided to risk it.

Next morning when she reached the office, she found a bouquet of blue orchids waiting for her in her cabin. It had a note that said “Thanks for a lovely evening. Can I have the pleasure of your company again tonight? Signed- Sahil Khanna” and underneath he had scribbled his phone number.

“How does he know I like blue orchids? This game is well researched.” She thought to herself. She procrastinated calling him back or sending a thank you note. To her surprise, Khanna was being unreasonably nice to her that day. He asked her to convene the meeting she had worked hard to prepare the presentation for unusually.

She called Sahil up during the lunch break and they decided to have dinner together.

“It is going to be a date” Sahil’s words were echoing in her mind constantly. His voice had an appeal hard to forego. Their date was on the dock of a ship- Exotic food and cool breeze.

Later that night she was busy with a report but she found it hard to concentrate on it. Thoughts of Sahil kept coming back to her. He was a real gentle man she wondered. He was not only strikingly handsome, but witty and funny too. He was easy to talk to. She recalled the electrifying ‘good night kiss’ he gave her on the cheek when he dropped her outside her apartment.

She knew he had played his move and now was her turn. Her plan was simple. She was going to fall in the trap and be played. She dint want her opponents to know she was aware of their strategy. And she wanted to manipulate the plan and the players using their own ploy.

Part III coming soon....