Obsessive Flames of Love

For the first time in ten days, Tanvi went home. Seeing the busy streets, and buildings she used to roam across gave a nostalgic feeling to her. But the only difference was, that she was not the same woman as before.

Stepped onto the eighth floor, she grabbed her jagged keys and shoved open the weathered door. Strode into her bedroom, hugged her teddy bear, and fell asleep.

In the morning, she stared emptily back into her reflection and half-heartedly freshened up before heading to the office. To hide her pale face, and swollen eyes, she did a little bit of makeup and moved out of her house.

Inside her Office

Sat on the chair with folded legs, Tanvi peeped across the stack of files and sighed. “Huh!! Since I’m not here for a week, piles of work were waiting for me.”

Tapped her forehead with a groan, “But… my mind wasn’t supporting me… to focus on my work.” She closed her eyes in disappointment.

“Let me check the emails, at least.” She thought.

…

Rudra was in his office, and his obsidian-amber eyes were glued onto a business contract they were going to meet. Flipping through the pages, his phone vibrated on the table.

With the tune, he picked it up instantly, “Boss! Ms. Tanvi went to her office today.”

“Hm. Take good care of her.”

“Yes, Boss.”

For the past several days, his heart throbbed for Tanvi by seeing the suffering she instilled in herself by locking herself up and drowning in her deep sorrows.

Now, hearing that she left for the office, his muscles relaxed, “she might be trying to be normal again.” Rudra mumbled, “it’s a good start. We’ll meet soon, Tanvi.”

A decisive smile lingered across his lips when a knock diverted him. “Come in!”

“Boss!!! We need to start going to the hotel.” Maahir informed.

His eyes rolled across his watch and nodded. Without making any further delay, they started.

This was an important meeting for the company. Rudra was more than attentive to even meticulous details. He checked each detail concerning this deal, and he made sure everything was perfect. He wants this deal at any cost.

Soon. Rudra reached the Oberoi hotel and went directly into the private reserve. Greeted each other and exchanged handshakes before occupying the cushiony chair.

With the dim projector light reflections, the meeting went by for more than a couple of hours.

“That was a great deal, Mr. Chauhan.”

“Thank you.”

“We’re willing to work with you, then.”

“Let’s hold an official announcement first. The contract signing protocol will be in a couple of days.” Rudra said.

Everything went smoothly, so his temperament was in control.

…

Tanvi

Sitting inside the depressing windowless box, complete with fluorescent lighting in a biddy position. Her chin rested on her palms, plowed over. Her hair wound up in a bun with a pen sticking out while eating dairy milk silk.

Since chocolate was her favorite to relieve her mind, she’s eating mindlessly, but of no use. While racking her mind to be focussed, her eyes gleamed when an idea popped into her head.

“Coding?” She pondered while brushing her finger across her temples. “Ah! Finally, one good decision.” She dabbed her shoulder and began typing on the screen.

Her eyes glued onto the screen as hours passed by, and she paused in the middle without keeping in a sleep mode. Pushing back from the desk, she straightened, noting with discomfort in all the kinks and crimps in the muscles of her back and neck.

She stretched and twisted her arms carelessly, while her palm pressed on the keyboard accidentally, and the code she wrote had begun running without proper check.

A yelp escaped her rosy lips, “no… no! No! No!?” Her hands shot to cover her mouth. “I guess my destiny had other plans.” Biting her lips, she presumed, “luck wasn’t on my side today.”

Since she’s in a higher position, she had access to all the important libraries. And, her one single mistake crashed their entire department software, which might bring a huge loss since all their private files went corrupted.

Though she didn’t do this intentionally, the loss was way more severe than she imagined. Yet, she doesn’t have a solution in her hands to get this situation resolved quickly.

“What shall I do now?” Panic struck her with the realization.

Soon. All her colleagues and subordinates can’t continue their work since the software got crashed, and it caused a huge commotion.

“I know I’m in trouble for sure, but there’s nothing I can do now.” Tanvi sighed and held her head as dense clouds were surrounding her.

“If I’m in my right shape of mind, I might not do such a huge gaffe.” She envisioned.

They were putting in all their efforts to amend the circumstances that were caused by crashing the software but of no use. No matter how they tried.

Then she understood, “this won’t get solved immediately.” Her quivered mouth wished to say something, anything while facing her colleagues. But nope, words weren’t coming out.

Helplessly she leaned her head back in defeat when the grip on her chair tightened. After some time, her manager called all of them to a meeting, and they instantly assembled in the room.

They occupied their respective chairs, and silence danced in the hall. Everyone was exchanging glances, but none of them were opening their mouths.

“How did the issue occur?” Jitender asked.

All their faces went pale and turned towards Tanvi. She’s more than embarrassed, but she knew she should accept that it’s her fault.

Gulped hard, “it was caused by me.” Tanvi blurted out.

“What? Out of all, you’ve done it?” Jitender shouted.

“Have you gone insane, Tanvi? How can you do such a blunder?”

“Did you know how much of a loss it caused?” He roared at her.

Kept her head down silently since she was at fault, she accepted his wrath. Based on the seriousness on Jitender’s face, Tanvi understood the situation had blown up in a much worse way than they anticipated.

Soon it became evening.

Still, the issue wasn’t resolved, and the entire department’s work was left undone. Tanvi was walking back and forth in restlessness, and the grip on her dress tightened.

Staring at the ceiling in a daze, her phone beeped in her hand.

Glancing at the lit-up screen, a message from her manager, Jitender, popped out, “meet me in my cabin.”

An unsettling feeling occupied her. “This isn’t for good.” She reflected and summed up her courage to step in.

“Why did you do such a mistake Tanvi?” He instantly questioned. She remained silent while her heartbeat increased drastically in panic and averted her gaze.

“Did you know the consequences of committing this huge blunder? You already took leave for an entire week, yet you did this sort of a thing right after coming.” He boiled with fury and scolded her.

Hearing Jitender spoke in such a harsh way, her eyes turned moist, but she was trying with her all to control herself. When she thought nothing worse will happen than this, another bomb shook her.

“You are fired, Tanvi!!”

She was stunned as if the sky fell upon her. Her throat went dry and her legs gave up. Instantly, she held the chair as support not wanting to collapse and embarrass any further.

“I tried my best to save you Tanvi. I know you usually won’t make this kind of mistake. It’s a shame to lose a good employee like you, but there’s nothing I can do about that.” He said apologetically.

“It caused heavy damage to our department and this matter reached to our CEO, Mr. Henry Paul. It’s his order to fire whoever was involved in causing this crisis. I’m sorry Tanvi, you are fired!!” A depressed sigh escaped his lips.

Tanvi stayed still with her eyes going wide and her chest tightened.

“Finish the formalities in the administrative office and leave from here.” He patted her shoulder and left.

“Huh!!!!” She sighed since nothing she can do about it. “I expected some sort of bad news, but firing me from this job…” words stuck as it was a huge blow to her.

She quickly came out, done with the formalities, and left her cabin while collecting all her documents and stuff.

Turned back once and remembered the day she entered this office. A smile spread across her lips, and she waved goodbye to all her colleagues.

Hopped in a cab and reached Slice of lime. Since she lost her job and money. She didn’t dare to go to her favorite places because it costs a lot in comparison to this place.All content © N/.ôvel/Dr/ama.Org.

Glancing at the entrance, she hesitated for a while to step in and finally gave in. Opened her mobile and checked the bank balance, her eyes blurred, “today is the last.” She muttered.

The dim red lights welcomed her in. Her eyes searched for an open table and found one in the corner. “Thank god.” She thought and occupied it.

“Your order, mam?” The bartender asked.

“Tequila.”

Gulped the shots to run away from her sorrows. But nope!!! They won’t allow her to slide, and instead, they’ll chase her more and more.

“First Riaan was gone and now my job was also gone. I don’t know what else is coming on my way. Why was my fate punishing me this hard? What wrong did I do to become like this?” She thought in a pout.

With the scattered empty glasses in front of her, her blurred eyes winced, “get me more shots.” She added to the bartender.