Thanks to my bad blood's wise-slash-vice decision, I felt stuck. I felt stagnated at work. I felt trapped among my judgmental relatives once again. And I didn't have anything to look forward to anymore.

It was my season for battle wounds and battle scars. I became completely hopeless about life.

At first, I thought that I would be alright after some time. I demolished pizzas and chugged Coca-Cola in the hope of feeling better whenever I felt overly upset. But then nothing seemed to work. The only thing that I might have gained after the interview was some extra pounds, which made my mom and relatives even more disappointed as they feared that it would become difficult for me to find a husband. Like I cared!

So yeah, days passed, weeks passed, and my sadness got only worse. Eventually, I realized that these kinds of wounds they last, and they last, and maybe time can heal but this won't.

Every time I walked into work or someone mentioned to me about Mahesh leaving for New York, my heart ached. I felt a pain that I could not describe in words.

Now, some would have thought of me as melodramatic because after all, it was just a job promotion and nothing else. At least the world had forever made it look like breakups and losses of life were the only things worth grieving about. So, nobody really understood my emotions other than mom. Everyone else tried to console me by saying, "You could always try again". What they failed to realize was that these kinds of career opportunities would not return so easily. It was once in a lifetime kind of thing.

And although, the world may have never spoken about getting heartbroken over missed opportunities, it existed. The pain was real. And it truly made me feel worse than all my other hardships in life.

To lose something that was almost mine, especially when I knew I deserved it was heart-rending! And to deprive me of my one lucky chance without even giving a proper reason, was the greatest form of betrayal that someone had ever done to me.

I hated Arish with all my heart. I was furious about the unfair situation he put me through. And I felt disgusted with myself for even having had a crush on him. Although he looked like a hero, he was nothing but a two-faced villain. In fact, he was the perfect example of "a goodly apple rotten at the heart"!

I despised him so much that I never wanted to see his face again. But I guess, fate had different plans.

One morning, I reached the office, feeling gloomy as ever and as I walked past a random car at the parking lot, I caught a whiff of a cologne that was foreign yet familiar. My senses instantly recognized who it belonged to. And my eyes confirmed it.

It was none other than my bad blood Arish!

I felt anxious the moment I saw him. And I didn't know why.

Was it because of bad blood or mad love? Urgh! Why did I even consider the latter? After all, I didn't have mad love for him anymore, right? It was for sure the beats of a dark heart silently yelling "bad blood" that made me react that way to his presence.

As much as I was angry, my blood also ran cold with several questions in mind. Why did he come? Was he the nephew that Mr. Ahmed mentioned a few weeks back? Was he going to become my new boss? Would I have to put up with him on a daily basis?

Of course, I didn't get answers for any of them. But I knew one thing – it would be like rubbing salt in the wound if I had to work with him at this point!

While he was busy unloading something from his car, I quickly made my way to the door before he saw me. I didn't want to stare at his annoyingly handsome face or even greet him. Maybe in the past I would have purposely walked slow or attempted to start a conversation with him. But not now. Not after what he did to me.

I impatiently pressed the elevator buttons, begging for it to come down soon. Unfortunately, it got delayed than usual. When it finally arrived, I hopped onto it and took a deep breath. It was just me inside. So, I pressed the fifth-floor button and waited for the door to close. It was then that I noticed Arish approaching the elevator door too, accompanied by a wave and a "hello" to me.

How dare he? How did he have the nerve to greet me like we were on good terms? Did he think we'd be fine just like that? Hell no! I still got scars on my back from his knife!

So, I decided it was time to teach him a small lesson.

I was generally not the type of person to intentionally press the close button on anyone on an elevator. But hey, this was different. He took away something valuable from me. It was only fair that I did something in return. Of course, it would never be equal to his level of betrayal. But something from my end.

And I did it. I pretended to not hear or see him and let the elevator door close. God, it was such a satisfying moment. I felt absolutely victorious!

As I sat down to work, my mind constantly kept wondering what might have happened to Arish because he never came to our floor. Did I hurt his male ego so bad with my elevator war tactic that he ran away without even coming up? Or did he get scared after witnessing the look of vengeance on my face? Could be. Anything was possible. After all, we were at war and I was dealing with a weakling here. I mean, men who betray innocent women are nothing but cowards, right? My dad was one. And so was Arish.

A little later, however, Arish came with someone from HR and the big announcement was made! He was officially becoming the head of the Sri Lankan office as I feared. Oh, and to make things worse, I was asked to work closely with him. Because apparently, Mr. Ahmed had given a good recommendation about me to him and therefore he decided to get my support to learn more about the Lankan office and its procedures. I wondered why then he never considered speaking to his uncle before doing what he did with the interview. I mean, Mr. Ahmed recommended me even then, right?

Opportunistic idiot and his stupid lies!

I did not even look at his office room during the first part of the day. Anyway, he was also busy speaking to the Managers about the changes he was going to bring in. So, he wouldn't have noticed it.

By evening, I got a call from my landline. He requested me to join him for a quick discussion. I walked in and the first thing he said was, "I saw you stepping into the elevator in the morning. I even greeted you, but I guess you didn't see me." He spoke as always. Friendly. Same old smile. Not an ounce of guilt. It was like he was not at all bothered by what he did to me.

What a cold-hearted soul!

"Oh, yeah, I wouldn't have." That was all I said. That too as sullen as possible. He did not deserve my smile anymore!

"Alright. So, how are you? How's work?" he asked.

"Not bad." I kept my responses dry as possible. And I also did not return any of the questions.

"Are you okay? Sick or something? You sound quite dull," he said as if he was concerned.

"Sick of your bullshit," I muttered under my breath. He wouldn't have heard it because he asked, "I'm sorry, what?"

"Uh— nothing. I said I am fine," I retorted quickly. I didn't want to end up making my new boss angry on the first day itself. At least not so obviously.

We continued to speak about work afterward. In the middle of the conversation, I noticed that Arish had a black stainless-steel mug on his table. I remembered him telling me before that he was a heavy coffee drinker. Now, that gave me an idea. An idea for a sinister prank.

And I executed it, after a lot of Google search, of course!

When I arrived at work the next day, Arish's office room was open, but he was not be seen. Some of the Managers were missing too. I asked around and came to know that they were getting ready for a meeting in the boardroom. Arish had asked me to handover some documents to him, so I entered his office under the pretext of it despite his absence. While placing the files on his table, I opened the lid of his mug and found that there was hot coffee in it. Great! I knew he would be drinking that either at the meeting or at least after it.

I tore the pepper powder sachet I carried from home, quickly added the whole thing into his coffee, and stirred it well with a small spoon. Nobody noticed it. So, there was zero suspicion on me.

Arish took away a sweet moment from me. So, thanking him indirectly by getting him to consume pepper coffee was not so wrong, right? I mean, it was a little evil, but he totally deserved it.

After a while, Arish walked into his office room, picked up his coffee mug and the files. It was evident that he was going to sip his coffee in a room full of people while discussing something important. I grinned, imagining what was going to happen. At the same time, I felt a bit sad over something – the fact that I might not get to see his reactions live as I wouldn't be part of that meeting.

But guess what? Life suddenly decided to be a wish-granting factory to me!

Arish himself came to me and said, "Hey Zyva, would you mind joining us at the meeting? Only if you're free though. There's something that I need to discuss with you once it's over. I'm sorry if I'm asking for too much."

I didn't like helping Arish at all. He was my enemy. So, I could have easily told him that I was busy and declined his request. In fact, I did have some urgent work to be done. But then, it was a great offer. It almost felt like getting free tickets to be part of the first day first show of a favorite actor's movie. Except that Arish was not my favorite. Of course, he was a talented actor who pretended to be nice in front of me and then backstabbed me too. But he was not my favorite. Not even close. Maybe he was on my 'most hated' list.

So, I agreed to join the meeting just to watch him suffer.

The meeting started. They discussed some heavy topics. I understood some of them and zoned out during most parts of it. I kept waiting for the show to start and got bored eventually. I was even mad at Arish for using me like I was his Personal Assistant. Blockhead!

However, after a while, when he was addressing a new plan to increase market share, he sipped his coffee and Oh My God! You wouldn't believe what happened. His eyes became red and he started coughing vigorously. He was also tearing. I guess living in New York had made his tastebuds bland and maybe he was not used to the spicy life of Lankans.

I mean, all these reactions for just one sip of pepper coffee. What was he? A diaper baby?

What was funnier than his reactions were the ways the others were acting. They started offering him water and tissues as if he were awfully ill. They didn't even know what had happened, but they were all so tensed.

Perfect bootlickers for a backstabbing boss!

I wanted to laugh out loudly, but I couldn't, because that would have got me exposed. So, I covered my face with one hand and tried to control my smiles as much as possible. I also pretended to cough so that the others wouldn't feel suspicious of me for not offering any help.

The meeting was adjourned, and boss baby left the boardroom. After a few minutes, he informed one of the Managers that he won't be able to resume the meeting as there was a burning sensation in his throat and he was also having a headache. And then he went home.

Soon after he left, the news about pepper coffee started spreading among all the employees. Everyone was wondering who would have done it, especially the females. They were genuinely worried about Arish's health. I guess all the women had a soft corner for him just like I used to have. As if he even deserved it!

I wasn't bothered about what happened to Arish after he went home. I was happy that my prank worked. And I was proud of myself for not getting caught. I had committed a perfect crime! I felt so cool about it.

I went home with a feeling of triumph. I did not even tell mom about it because it was my special secret. That night, just before I fell asleep, I Googled for more pranks. And man, I did find very exciting ones!

I couldn't wait to try them all on Arish. But unfortunately, he ditched work for the next two days because he was still sick.

Since he was being such a baby, I planned my next prank around that.

I printed out a picture of the cartoon character 'Boss Baby' wearing only a diaper, captioned it with the same words, pasted it on a card, and posted it to Embark Apparels, addressing it to Arish. This prank was solely initiated to make him feel insulted.

I didn't know when exactly the mail arrived until Arish himself spoke about it to me one day. "By the way, I think someone hates me here," he said so randomly while we were discussing a Marketing plan for the next quarter.

"What?" I spoke with a sour look.

"Remember that pepper coffee incident that day?" he asked with a chuckle. I felt a sense of pride the moment he mentioned it.

"You mean on the meeting day?" I asked.

"Yeah, exactly. Who do you think would have done it?" he asked.

"Umm— I don't know," I replied. I felt nervous. I wondered whether he knew it was me. I couldn't afford to lose my paycheck at that point.

"I don't know either. But I'd really like to know though. Because the same person has sent me this card," he pulled out an envelope from his drawer as he said that.

I looked at it like I had never seen it before and uttered the words, "What the hell?"

"I know right! Why would anyone do this? I'm thinking it's one of the men," he said.

"Why can't it be a woman?" I asked.

"Nah! Women won't do that to me," he said with a smile. What did he mean by that? Did he try to say that women were incapable of such activities? Hello, did he even know that I existed with my super pranking skills?

"Why not?" I asked.

"Because they all love me, don't they?" he asked. It almost felt like he winked too.

Okay, what? Did I say that right?

DID MY HANDSOME-AND-ELIGIBLE-BACHELOR BOSS REALLY WINK AT ME?

What was seriously wrong with him? Was he flirting with me to make me admit the truth? Wait, till I file a case against him for sexual harassment at the workplace, someday after I get it confirmed, of course!

"Uh— I'm not very sure how to respond to that," I said.

"You don't agree with me on that?" he asked again. I remained silent and he said, "I mean, you wouldn't do any of this, right? But men are capable of such stupid pranks."

Stupid? What? Did he just call my efforts stupid? He was stupid. His decision at my interview was stupid. His guesses were stupid. Not my pranks!

"I don't know. I feel like it's a woman with a vengeance doing this," I responded in a rough tone.

He laughed and then said, "Vengeance? Seriously Zyva? What am I?, Batman?" Well, that was funny. Even I let down my guard and giggled for that.

"Oh, but wait. Maybe you are right," he said. Woah, did he finally realize the gravity of his mistake and guess it was me? Looked like that. I expected him to confess and apologize.

But then what he said next disappointed me like hell. "Can't be vengeance if it's a woman. But maybe like a stalker or something. I mean, there should have been a reason why this person called me 'baby', right? Perhaps it's a term of endearment."

I eye-rolled the moment I heard it. It looked like there was no limit to his stupidity. I mean, in what world would a woman imply that a man she likes is a 'diaper baby'? Didn't he have brains at all?

"Maybe this person called you that to insult you. You know, to mean that you are silly as a baby," I retaliated.

"Wait, do babies symbolize silliness? Never mind that. I'm sure this is a woman who is interested in me," he said.

"Or maybe she was interested in you and not anymore," I spoke without a filter this time. My bad!

"How would you know that?" he asked with a doubtful look.

"I-I just said that. I don't know anything about it at all," I quickly replied.

"That's true. You wouldn't know anyway. But if you ever get to know anything, please do keep me informed. I'd really like to find out who this woman is," he said.

Find out and do what? Fire me? Nincompoop!

He was smiling the whole time. It was as if he was enjoying the extra attention. Ugh! The whole point in me doing any of it seemed to be lost.

So, I decided that I had to change my ways of revenge. The pepper-coffee was too harsh, and the mail was too dumb. I had to do find something else that would irritate him. I resorted to my friend Google again and found some interesting pranks related to technology this time.

I visited various websites and subscribed to their newsletters with his official email address. I knew that he would get annoyed when he starts receiving promotional emails related to unnecessary topics like daycare centers, pregnancy tips, women's clothing, tuition classes, and so on.

I also clicked pictures of his car without his knowledge and submitted those to online ad sites, quoting cheap rates, along with his personal contact number. Sometimes, I created ads for random things like hairdressing, language classes, and even food delivery with his number.

I knew these pranks were working because he constantly answered calls during work hours with an annoyed look on his face. He also contacted the IT department often asking them to make his email more secure.

Watching him suffer was a treat to my eyes! I knew that it wouldn't bring back the lost opportunity for me but at least I had the satisfaction of ruining his days.

It made me feel better sometimes.