It's a silver jubilee part dedicated to all my lovely readers out there..

Part 25:

It had to be ninth wonder of the world now. Someone had actually made Randhir smile for the second time in a row.. This time, it didn't just end up as a simple smile rather it made him laugh out from heart. He never remembered when was the last time, he had even dared to laugh. He had a peaceful sleep that night and so did Parth, his best friend. He somehow felt relieved "Now that Sanyukta knows the truth, she wouldn't be too tough on him.. At least I hope" he murmured.

Next morning, Randhir woke up with a smiling face. He worked his way towards the mirror just to catch a glimpse of himself, smiling. The moment he faced the mirror, all he could see was the boyish charm in his face, all his wrinkles that he had developed in the past, seemed to have vanished. Smile had replaced every other sad wrinkle he ever had in his face. "Fair and Lovely" he muttered and patted the back of his head, blushing "You can be so lame at times" he said, tilting his head to peep out of the window. It was closed, her curtains had come down.. "She has probably left to work" he hurried and dashed into the restroom.. He quickly grabbed his phone and found 6 missed calls from Parth.. There were messages too. Parth was the only friend he could ever trust. Many of his messages showcased his concern for him.. "Randhir you there? Buddy respond to my message as and when you see it. Buddy you fine? I hope you are okay.. Whatever it is lets talk it out.. Don't keep things to yourself. And remember, things will be alright.." He had dropped these messages with a time interval of few minutes. Randhir quickly dropped him a message "Hey Bud.. I am doing fine.. Getting ready to office.. Will catch you in the evening" he hit the send button and changed the mode of his phone from silent to Ringing.. He was starting to feel as if the old Randhir is back again. But it seemed Gods had a strange sense of humor. Somewhere something in some form kept reminding him of his past and that morning was no different. The moment he rushed into the restroom, his mobile beeped.. "Its Samyukta's birthday today.. My Angel's birthday today.." his automated voice filled the room.. He had set the alarm in the past just to make sure he doesn't forget her birthday at any cost. He had no idea, the very next year, he would have to forget her as a whole. That's it, the moment he heard it, all his smiles were gone. He threw the mobile to the floor and witnessed it getting broken into pieces and yelled "Don't you ever do that again..Don't you dare!!!" he warned his mobile phone that had already become a piece of useless glass.

When Randhir reached office, he had all those wrinkles appearing back again in his face, especially his forehead area. It felt as if Gods didn't want him to be happy for a considerable amount of time. He was cursed with a temporary happiness, that would bring tears along with it. He dashed into his cabin, and avoided looking at her desk deliberately. However, she followed him with a smile.. She reminded him of the hectic schedule they had ahead of them "Sir, we have so many meetings scheduled today.. 11 AM - The US Executives, 1 PM - Delegates from France and.." he cut her off and signaled using his hand to stop talking.. She hardly noticed his gesture and kept continuing.." 3 PM India Motors.." .. He whispered in a low tone.. "Stop that and get back to your seat.." she missed to read that as well.. "4 PM..."

"I said Shut up and Get lost.." he yelled, that took her aback in shock. She felt bad getting that tone from him, so early in the morning. But before she could react, he picked up a file and stormed out of the room, leaving her wondering "Why is this guy so weird to understand? Shouldn't I be the one yelling at him if at all I hadn't known the truth? Instead he is doing it.. Strange.." she mumbled..

Randhir heard the door, slamming at his back.. "I should stay away from her. I better should..".. All day long, he was in his never ending meetings. But all he could think of was his shitty alarm that screamed this morning.. How would his mobile know what has changed in his life in the past year, It had no idea he had come a long way out of it, or at least was trying to. Every time, he tried to talk, his mind would get attacked by so many thoughts and memories and eventually he would fail. Sanyukta noticed the way he was struggling to even finish a sentence, wherein normally he hardly takes 5 minutes of the whole 1 hour meeting to impress the customers. She had to fill in the void he had created. She covered him up so as not to disappoint the customers or at least she believed so. But the truth was, she wanted to help him, she wanted to avoid people pointing their fingers towards him with questions. He was too busy to even notice that. One of the guy asked "Randhir.. I would like to know how are you going to handle the current scenario, which seems very challenging?" Had it been any other day, Randhir would have charmed the audience with his words. But today, all he could do was to stare at the Date icon in his laptop that kept reminding him of his failure. He barely managed to say "I... will... hand..." before he could finish the word "handle" he froze, Sanyukta quickly diverted the attention of his audience, who were now giving him a weird look. "All he is trying to say is that he will hand it over to me.. Sanyukta Agarwal, Managing Director of FITE, he has already trained me well enough and he just wants to delegate it to me so that I can prove my worth. I promise I would never let him down, nor you guys.. Ah, okay, so coming back to the question asked, we have planned to manage it through.." She explained in detail, all the things that Randhir probably would have said in that situation. She had observed him well enough to reciprocate his words when the need arises. The clients were pretty impressed by the way she spoke. They found her deeply inspired by Randhir. Once the meeting was done finally, the clients rose and shook hands with Randhir "Good job by your sub-ordinate Randhir.. You've trained her well. Keep it up young lady" one of them said to Sanyukta. She acknowledged it with a smile. When they finally left the room, she turned to look at Randhir and found his chair empty.. He was gone..

"He is a living piece of strangeness" she wondered.. When she reached her desk, she found a note by her table. "Come to the terrace.. We have a party going on.. It's a Fridayyyyyy...!!!" Ankita, her colleague had left a note in her table. She wasn't interested to go in there.. She picked her bag and went near the lift.. From there, she could see his car still parked in the parking lot. She got into the lift. Instead of pressing 0 she pressed 5 " May be he's up there.. He might need some help" she so wanted to help him.. Not that she was interested in him, but she was missing the angry Randhir. She would rather see him angry than upset.

Lift opened its mouth when it reached the 5th floor.. She was out there in the terrace. For a moment, it looked like a hangout bar. People were engrossed in their own world, their drinks and few of them were shaking their legs, for the music was loud. She always wanted to stay away from such an atmosphere. But today she forced herself out there, just with the intention of helping Randhir, in case if he needed one. She had to make up for the other evening.. Her eyes rolled all over the terrace, he was nowhere to be found. When she had almost retired, she spotted him at one corner, holding a glass of wine in his hand, staring into empty space.

"He needs help" she mumbled.. She had no idea that she would be the one who would be in need of help at the end of the evening and not him..

TO BE CONTINUED... Finally I update CF after a long wait.. I am truly sorry for not updating the FF's regularly. I would try and update as and when I get time. I hope you guys enjoyed tonight's part.. Do leave your comments, that's precisely why I am still hooked up to writing.. Love you All #Ash