Find me (Mahi and Shivaay) Episode 7, Samm

Heyyo guys! Did you miss me? I’m so sorry to have disappeared without notice, but hopefully, now I’ll be able to continue this ff uninterruptedly. Fingers crossed! 😉 As compensation, I have made this comeback episode really long. Also, please don’t forget to drop your comments; they motivate me to keep writing- now and always.
Sidenote: I noticed the change in layout of Telly Updates and how the Ishqbaaz category has more than 950 pages! Kudos, fellow Ishqbaazians! 🙂
Link to previous episodes: http://www.tellyupdates.com/user/6187/?profiletab=posts
http://www.tellyupdates.com/find-mahi-shivaay-episode-6-samm/
RECAP: Mahi has opened a school cum activity center for slum kids who don’t get enough opportunities in life. And Mona and Ishana work with him too. The Talent Hub is organizing an event and Omkara is supposed to be the chief guest. Mona tries to dissuade Mahi from meeting the Oberois, but he explains his feelings to her and she gives in. Continuing…

MONA’S PERSPECTIVE

I had a ton of work on my hands and this Mishra guy had put me on hold for so long that I wanted nothing more than to slam my fists on the costly looking desk and give him a piece of my mind. But that was not my place and right now- I was the one who needed them, I explained to myself. So I walked up to the busy man and asked him for the thousandth time, “Mr. Mishra, where is Mr. OSO? Is he coming today or not? I told you already- I don’t even need to meet him, just tell me how I can contact him and when his phone will be reachable! How difficult is that?! If it’s not convenient for him, then I can even go to his house, but I need to get this done today. Why don’t you get it?”
The poor guy kept trying to get a word in but at the end he had to wait till I finished my speech. When I was done, he looked at me expectantly until I gave him the ‘go ahead’ and then took a deep breath before speaking again, “Ms. Mona, Shivaay Sir will be arriving any minute now and he wanted to meet you directly. So you’ll have to wait for some time and you may discuss anything regarding tomorrow’s event with him. Please wait in there until he arrives”, he directed me towards the plush sofas I had been sitting on all morning.
But instead of obeying him this time, I went into questions mode and practically badgered the poor man, “Why? Why do I need to meet Shivaay Sir? Omkara Sir will be coming to our event tomorrow, right? Or is he sending his brother as substitute? We’ve invited lots of Omkara Sir’s fans, so he has to be there. Why can’t he come tomorrow? He could have told us earlier if he couldn’t make it, we would have postponed the whole event for him! How could he do this to us?!” I despaired while Mishra looked around helplessly after my outburst. He somehow calmed me down a little and made his escape while I thought of possibilities to avoid any tricky situation.
But my head was spinning with the little piece of information with only one solution in sight- call Mahi. And so I did. I was so relieved when he answered on the third ring itself but not for long. “Yeah Mona, about time I got some good news!” his voice sounded really tired and I could feel his labored breathing so close to my ear for once. My voice got hitched in my throat and it was quite some time before I could talk to him again.
“Your SSO wants to meet me”, I blurted out at last. And the reply was definitely not what I expected. After a few beats of silence, he countered, “So?”
I was shocked into silence until he explained. “Look, he doesn’t know you are with me, and we can’t jump to conclusions until you talk to him. But Mona, will you do me a favour?” Without waiting for an answer, he continued, “If you get to talk to Om, ask him to bring Gauri to tomorrow’s event as well, please?”

I mentally marveled at his talent of shocking me with everything he said and did. Out loud, I managed to ask him why and in his typical way of caring for others, he answered, “The last time I had been there, things seemed fine between Om and Gauri, but I noticed they’d never gone out as a couple before. Shivaay and Anika go out often and Rudra is such a party animal. This could be good for them and Gauri will enjoy herself with the variety of program. Don’t you think so too?” he asked with transparent joy and it automatically brought a smile to my face. ‘Di probably won’t like meeting Om’s wife, but it wasn’t like she didn’t know about her or anything!’ I thought to myself.
Making sure no one was within earshot, I quietly asked him, “Mahi, are you sure about this? I can still get it cancelled or at least postponed until it’s much safer for you.”
Tired of my constant nagging in this case, he sighed, “What do you think? Would I ask you to do it for me if I wasn’t absolutely sure?”
“I think you’re totally fine with it and I hate that they make you feel fine with everything!” I murmured into the phone, well aware that he could hear every word and confident that he won’t overreact either. Just then, SSO made his entry and I had to hang up the call. After a few minutes, I walked towards his cabin, completely unprepared for and unsuspecting of what awaited me.

SHIVAAY’S PERSPECTIVE

I had reached the office, but my mind, or my heart for that matter, wasn’t ready to let go thoughts of Anika. She was extremely excited with our brand new mission of bringing Om and Gauri closer, and she had been jumping around the whole house all morning without even realizing my mood! When I did make her realize my reluctance in not going to the office, she had conveniently brought up our tashanbaazi days and given me a task to force me to come down here. Although it wasn’t his fault, I mentally chastised Mishra for calling when Anika was holding my phone.
It had been lesser than five whole minutes since I entered my cabin, and I was still going through the mountain of files on my desk when a petite girl walked in. She didn’t exactly have striking features and looked quite the ordinary secretary type. But that impression went out of the window as soon as she opened her mouth.
“I knocked so many times! Why didn’t you answer?” she demanded.
Before I could figure out anything, I found myself answering, “Sorry, I was a little preoccupied with these files.” ‘Wow! Did I just say sorry to a girl?’ I wondered.
She walked over to my desk and sat down like she owned the place! “Oh? It’s okay. So what did you want to see me about? And where is OSO? I haven’t been able to reach him since yesterday!”
“OSO? Om! He’s…” I caught myself just in time and turned the question on her instead, “Wait? Why am I answering your questions?”
“I don’t know! You were the one who made me wait here for so long and you’re the one answering me now, so how should I know?” she replied coolly.
I was speechless. This girl is something else, I decided after a few beats. And then asked the safest question I could think of, “Who are you?” That threw her for a second as she realized the introduction had been skipped. She forwarded her hand across the table as she revealed her identity, “I’m Mona.”

‘Simple, like Om. She must be his fan or something like that. Has she come to request another exhibition? Om will probably say no’, I thought to myself as I shook her hand. She had soft hands but a firm grip, I noted. But she didn’t leave me wondering for long. “I’m the co-founder as well as the personal assistant of the Chairman of Talent Hub. We are organizing our first mega event tomorrow and our chief guest of honour is one of the sons of the family who is our biggest patron. But guess what? That chief guest is nowhere to be found and his brother is wasting my time instead of helping me contact him! And may I know why?”
It took me a few more minutes to get my bearings as I struggled to grasp just how she had managed to make me the guilty party in this! Finally, I decided that she was anything but simple, and ended up answering her question again. “I think you need to meet Om regarding an all-day event at your Talent Hub, right? I want you to invite Om along with his wife, Gauri. Do you know about her?”
I could see that she was confused when she asked, “But I was about to… But why do you want me to invite her?”
I decided to take a risk and confide in her. “I want you to engineer circumstances to bring them closer to each other. Like certain events during the day, or some program in the evening’s agenda that makes them do stuff together or anything. Okay?”
A slight smile had started playing at the corners of her lips now, as if she was seeing something different and liked what she saw. At length she said, “If I didn’t know better, I would say you are not SSO, but another guy I know!” I gave her an incredulous look, but she dropped it there and asked again, “It’ll be done. But, where is the subject of our conversation?”
“He must be back by now. Wait in here; I have something to check with Mishra. Make yourself comfortable”, I said politely and went out. When I returned less than a minute later, she appeared a little shocked, but only for a short moment before the iron control on her expressions was back. I did away with the formalities and handed the big responsibility of taking her to Om over to Mishra. Frankly, looking at his positively scandalized face, I did enjoy feeling like an evil overlord saying to his subject, “Pay up for making me come here!”
The rest of my day passed in meetings and more thoughts of Anika, and these two kept me busy enough to notice the only thing missing from my table.

PRECAP: New twist in Mahi’s quiet life- Mona finds something.

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