Love Happens

This is a story of hatred turned into love. My father and his father were the closest of friends. We both hated each other. Since childhood, he used to play pranks on me, and I was most irritated by it. Once, he put chewing gum in my hair. I totally freaked out. Another day he pushed me when I was trying to learn to ride my new bicycle.

 

We went to the same college but still hated each other and always tried to outrun one another in every manner, be it study sports or dance. We always competed to secure the first position in every possible thing, even during lunch. Who would eat lunch first? We always had a faceoff.

One day, I lost my dad in a fateful car accident. He was rushed to the hospital immediately, but the doctors couldn't save him. The incident utterly wrecked me. He naturally felt terrible for me, but he was unable to comfort me due to our ongoing differences. And I needed a friend at this crucial time, but he never came to me. Ego played the leading part in this.

We both graduated after completing our MBA. After graduating, he joined his father's business, a construction company. Now, he didn't annoy me much and kept a considerable distance from me. It was a relief.

“Karuna, you should work in our office,” his father said to me. “It will be good for you, and Kaushik will be there too.”      

“No, uncle, I don't think I should work in your office,” I replied.

     

“But why, Karuna? It's for your own good,” his father tried to persuade me. “You should keep yourself as busy as possible. It will help you come out of your grief of losing your father. He was my friend too.”

“You know, I hate Kaushik, uncle,” I said. “He will only create more trouble for me.”

“He will do nothing of this sort,” his father asserted. “I will make him understand not to annoy you.”

After much persuasion from his side, I finally agreed and applied for the job. I had to work with Kaushik, and I was not too fond of that fact.

On the first day of the office, Kaushik gave quite a lecture to every employee in his office. First, to work hard and be punctual; second, no lovey-dovey with colleagues; third, no useless time pass.

“Business means business,” he declared. “Strict business for me. Work hard, no love, no time pass. Everybody understood.”

“How can you stop someone from falling in love?” I asked and tried to explain to him about love. “It's baseless.”

“This is my office and you all have to work according to my rules and regulations,” he declared. “Here work comes first and no time for meaningless love affairs.”

“One day when you fall in love, you will realize the true meaning of love,” I explained.

“That day will not come,” he was confident. 

Next, the peon came to me. “Mam, sir has called you to meet him inside his cabin.” 

    

“Ok, I will go right away,” I said and walked up to his cabin.

I went in, but he told me to get out as he was currently in a meeting. How rude? I was damn frustrated, so I went to the cafeteria. There I met a girl, a hot colleague who wore a short yellow dress. I ordered coffee and a pastry and sat to eat. She came and sat next to me.

“Why your mood's so off?” She asked me.

“It's because of our boss. Don't you think he is full of attitude?” I replied with a grimace.

“Maybe a little,” she said with a smile. “We are lucky we got a boss as handsome as he is.”

“Lucky my foot. You don't know anything about him. I have known him since childhood.”

“So, you are childhood buddies?”

“Ewwww! We are not buddies. I hate him.”

“By the way, I liked what you said about love earlier.”

“But he doesn't believe in love.”

“We can make him believe in love. What do you say?”

“How?”

We hatched a plan to distract him. The hot colleague went and did a catwalk, played with her hair, and made some tremendous sexy moves. As the door was made of glass, he saw her but somehow ignored her. All her efforts went in vain. She then thought of another way.

I searched for my cabin but couldn't find it. I asked the peon about it. 

“Where is my desk?” I asked him.

“Mam, your desk is right next to sir’s desk inside his cabin,” he replied. “Now that you are his associate-cum-secretary, he wanted you right in front of his eyes.”

I went inside his cabin and sat at my desk. He gave me loads of work. Once he ordered coffee, but he denied it when I brought coffee for him. He really irritated me in the same way as in our childhood days. Days passed, and he tortured me with lots of work even after working for hours.

One day we had a presentation to make. We bagged a project and started working on it. We both worked for it in the conference room till late at night.

 

“It's almost over,” he said. “Let's call it a night. You should go.”

“Ok, I will leave then,” I said.

I picked up my purse and tried to open the door, but it was locked from the outside. We had to spend the whole night in the conference room. The next day, the peon came and opened the door in the morning. I woke up with a start and rushed to my house.

The other day, I felt sick and fell unconscious at the office. Perhaps Kaushik tried to wake me up and threw water at my face, but I was still unconscious. He called for the doctor. I had a high fever. He took care of me throughout. He brought a bowl of water drenched a cloth in the water, and put it on my forehead. After some time, I gained consciousness and found him beside me.

Our project was a success. A business party was thrown. We both had to attend the party. Kaushik came to pick me up at my house. When I came out, he looked at me as though he was mesmerized by my beauty, huh, utter nonsense. He couldn't take his eyes off me.

“You look beautiful,” he stammered.

“Thanks. It is the first time you have genuinely complimented me,” I said with a broad smile.

We went to the party in his car. Perhaps I imagined or something, but he stole glances at me. A rich businessman tried to flirt with me a little at the party. Kaushik intervened and took me away. I was really surprised by his behaviour.

The next day, in the office, he kept looking at me. During lunchtime at the cafeteria, when I talked and laughed with my colleagues, especially male colleagues, he looked at me as though he didn't like it. He grimaced during those times. I did not know what was wrong with him.

The other day, I met my college friend. We hit it off instantly. We even spent some time together reminiscing our old college days. Even Kaushik recollected him and remembered him having a crush on me. He was scared. He couldn't imagine me being with somebody else. Slowly, he realized he had fallen head over heels for me.

He gifted me a dress and called me to a restaurant. There he put a blindfold in my eyes and took me somewhere. When he took out the blindfold, I saw the whole place decorated with scented candles, roses, and balloons. There was a table for two in the middle with two glasses of wine.

“Will I have this dance with you?” He asked me.

“Umm...,” I stammered. “Sure.”

We danced to my favourite song then he got down on his knees, brandished a rose towards me and proposed.

“I don't know how and when but I think I have fallen in love with you, Karuna,” he said.

“I am totally confused about my feelings,” I started saying. “You know about us. We never got along well. And now you are proposing to me. Those few days you have been taking care of me. That's nice. Even I noticed you looking at me fondly. I need some time to think because I never thought about you like that,” I added.

“Of course,” he said finally.

Slowly and gradually, I started seeing his good side and started understanding him better. He made huge donations to the NGOs and did charity work often. I recognized his certain good qualities. He was a nice man. I realized I had never seen this good side. Maybe, I misjudged and misunderstood him for so long.

I was talking with my hot colleague about how Kaushik fell in love with me. “You know what, Kaushik proposed to me a few days back,” I said to her.

“That means our plan worked,” she said. “You made him fall in love with you anyhow. I couldn't do it but at least you did it.”

“What are you talking about? Listen I...,” I started to say but I saw Kaushik overhearing our conversation. What would he think of me now? He must have felt being deceived by me. But that's not true.

He came towards me, held my hand and dragged me to his cabin. “So, it's all a game for you,” he started confronting me. “Making me fall in love with you. What's all that?”

“Listen what you heard is not cent per cent true,” I said. “It's nothing. You are misunderstanding me.” I tried my best to tell him the truth but he was so angry that he was not in the mood to listen.

He decided to confront me once and for all and came to meet me but ended up witnessing my college friend proposing to me. He saw me there with him, but I didn't see him. My college friend, yes, he proposed to me. Two guys proposed to me. And I was confused totally.

The next day, Kaushik declared his engagement fixed with some other girl in front of the whole office. I was shattered as I realized I had fallen for him too. But there was nothing I could do. He was planning to get engaged with somebody else. Is it so easy to move on? A few days ago, he proposed to me, now engaging with another girl. It's not happening.

On his engagement day, my college friend went and confronted Kaushik.

“How could you do this to Karuna, man?” My college friend tried to explain to him. “She loved you so much that she disagreed with my proposal and now you are getting engaged with someone else. This is not done, man.”

“What are you saying?” Kaushik said to him.

 

“I am saying that she loves you. Why are you doing this to her? Why are you hurting her because of some stupid misunderstanding?”

After all that Kaushik left his engagement and came to me. Then, he hugged me tightly. We confessed our love for each other. We were together finally.