There are not one but many cuts, they look really deep. Some looked old and some fresh.

It looked like he had purposefully hurt himself, but why did he want to kill himself? Because of the divorce? I wonder

He notices me eyeing his hand and quickly moves his hand away and so I too looked away. I felt my heart hurt thinking of the pain he must have gone through because of the ugly divorce, but perhaps there is more to this.

'This is getting too much, there isn't any generator here' he says, I smile. He too is getting frustrated. All calm and cool façade going away.

'There is but not for the elevator...' I say, I glance at my mobile and notice one stick of network in my mobile and I mentally rejoice.

If Arham wasn't here I would have torn open the elevator door and climbed out of it, but since he is here I am little happy to have him alone with me. I mentally slap myself to think this way, this man is nothing but trouble.

He has become a psycho, trying to kill himself. I shudder.

I am about to dial Mr. Kapoor when I felt another jerk. At that moment I thought I am going to die, the cable must have snapped; now anytime I and Arham will be hurling down in top speed crashing down and dying. No, I didn't want to die. I panicked. But on the second thought I will dying with Arham. I mentally slap myself again.

'Oh my gosh' I say and quickly jumped towards Arham wrapping my arms around him and hugging him tight, my eyes squeezed shut and my fingers gripped back of his shirt tightly.

Suddenly I feel the light come back on and also the cool breeze from the AC hit me and I shiver. It's only when I smelt his cologne mixed with his sweat that I realize that I was clingy on him.

I slowly moved my head up and looked at him, our gaze met and I felt my heart flutter looking into his eyes.

The door opens and I spring away from him, I look away feeling embarrassed. Arham went passed me, his arm brushing against mine and I shiver.

Mr. Kapoor enters my cabin as I speak on phone with Ma. I am glad Mr. Kapoor has come now I won't have to listen to my mother talking about marriage plans. I hate the mention of Aamir and anything that has to do with him. Luckily Aamir has some important work in US so he has gone there for a year and hence marriage will happen next year when he comes. So I needn't worry about marriage for now.

'Here, Ma'am' Mr. Kapoor says handing me file to the next project, Arham has got us this project via his marketing technique. I must admit Arham is more efficient than I thought.

'This is a very reputed client, many agencies wanted his attention but we managed it. It is a huge project, if we get this we will be on top in no time' Mr. Kapoor says and I smile.

We needed a strong marketing team to have our dying agency being noticed and that we achieved that because of Arham.

Back home I couldn't stop thinking about him, his face in that dimly lit elevator. His closeness, his smell. I turn to other side on bed trying hard to sleep. But I couldn't, his face keeps flashing in front of my eyes. I sit up straight on bed. During our school days he had a certain charm about him that pulled me towards him and today there is a heavy cloud of mystery around him that is pulling me closer to him.

I sigh, no matter what happens unless I find out about him I won't be able to rest.

How can I do that without making it look obvious?

*

It's around 11pm and I need to rush out of office else my mom will start calling and troubling me until I reach home. I close all my file and log out from my computer. I quickly wear my coat and taking my laptop bag I leave the cabin.

As I walk through the corridor I sniff strong aroma of black coffee, I feel my tummy grumble. I checked my watch and wondered who could it be this late.

I come to the end of the corridor and find Arham standing next to the coffee machine. I find the time stop as I watch him. He picks up his coffee mug and turns around, he is rooted on spot on seeing me. I wipe off the dreamily smile from my face.

There is an awkward silence between us, something that never existed before. He bows his head and starts to walk towards me. I quickly fixed my hair and look at him expectantly but he goes pass me without sparing a glance at me. I feel disappointed but before I could go behind him or say anything my phone rings.

I peek into his cabin, luckily his cabin has a huge glass window through which I can easily have full view of him. It's so late in the night and he is still working, this way he will spoil his health. I couldn't help but feel concerned for him. I saw him loosen his tie and sigh. I bit my lower lip and hesitantly I knocked the door.

After few minutes I hear his voice call from behind the door 'Come in'

I felt my heart racing a marathon as I slowly twist the door knob and enter in. He is surprised to see me.

'Hey' I say softly as I took small steps towards his desk. I entwine my fingers together and bit my lower lip feeling extremely nervous.

He doesn't respond and goes back to his work, 'You are working so late, shouldn't you be going home?' I ask again, practically I should have left when he ignored me but then again my traitor heart betray me.

'I always work late (he looks up at me and I felt my breath getting caught in my throat) but you shouldn't be staying this late...it isn't safe' he says

I felt lighter, he is concerned for my safety. I am touched.

'I have my car, so it's okay' I say.

'I have booked a cab I will be fine; you needn't worry' he says

Cab? Doesn't he have his own transport. But then an idea strikes me 'I can drop you home' I say looking at him hopefully.

'It's okay you needn't worry' he says

I nod, there is nothing more I can say. I am his boss and I shouldn't look vulnerable in front of him and so I left. As I walk towards the door I kept silently praying that he stops me but he doesn't.

I purposefully punctured my car tire and sat on the bonnet waiting for Arham to come. I checked my watch, 12:00. God what am I doing? I think to myself. I climbed down the bonnet and quickly make my way back to my office. I took the stairs, ever since that incident in the elevator I don't want to risk getting trapped in it alone.

'Arham' I say entering his cabin. I frown looking around, he is nowhere in his cabin. Has he left? Damn! I was waiting in the parking lot; he must have taken the cab from the entrance of the office. That means I am alone in the office and its 12am...what am I going to do? Security guard has also left. I start to panic now.

I hear the attach bathroom to his cabin click and I turn around. I am relieved as I see Arham coming out of the bathroom wiping his hands with his hanky.

He is visibly surprised to see me here.

'Ma'am you here?' he asks putting his hanky back in his pocket. I nod

'Woh...my car's tire punctured. I tried to fix it but...'I stop. He looks at me and then glances at his watch. I silently prayed he agree to take me with him.

'It's not safe for you take public transport. I will drop you' he says, he takes out his mobile and checks something.

'My taxi is coming in 5minutes; I will drop you to your home' he says. I nod, I did a little victory dance in my head.

I like the way he is showing his concern.

I recollect one day back in school I had sprained my ankle thanks to Nooren, she had tripped me again. I hadn't fallen on ground but twisted my ankle.

Then no one came forward but Arham, he didn't hesitate in kneeling down and holding my ankle checking if it doesn't hurt much. He had scolded Nooren also, which made me smile through my tears.

'Arham, are you mad?' Nooren says shocked as he bends down scooping me in his arms with great difficulty. I could see he is in pain, I requested him to put me down but he didn't. Single handily he carried me to the clinic, he had collapsed on the bed as he placed me down. He looked at me panting and I look at him, then we burst out laughing.

He then had called the nurse and made sure I was tended to properly.

I refuse to believe that his concern was fake... I refuse to believe that our friendship was fake.

We wait for few minutes before the cab, Arham had booked, arrived. Arham opens the door for me and goes around the cab and takes his seat in the passenger seat next to the driver. A part of me was awed seeing his chauvinism but another part of me is disappointed that he is being too formal, why didn't he take the seat next to me.

I gave address of my stop to the driver and soon we were off.

'Arham...where do you stay?' I say out of curiosity.

'KV apartments' he says not looking at me but at the road front. I nod my head. KV apartment is among cheap residential areas here in Mumbai, why will he stay there? Perhaps he is bankrupt? I am getting more curious now.

'You live alone?' I probed further

Arham doesn't respond for few minutes 'I live in a studio apartment, alone' he says. I nod my head again.

Studio apartment is no less Khabutar khana, why does he live there.

The rest of the ride goes in silence. Finally, my apartments come and I bid goodbye to Arham. He simply nods. I watch the cab go. I wanted to spend some more time with him and know him better.

All the memories of time we spent together came flashing in front of my eyes and my heart sinks lower.

As I walk towards the elevator I hear some sounds, I check my watch. It's 12.30am, I have never been so late before. I didn't wait for the elevator and decided to take the stairs. It's really quiet now in mid night. I could hear cricket singing and dogs barking occasionally. I make my way towards the stair case. I saw five men sitting at a small table playing cards and drinking.

I gulp. They look at me lustfully and scared me out of my skin.

What the hell was I thinking staying up so late at work?

I lower my head and quickly make my way towards the stairs when one of the hooligan blocked my way. I looked at him terrified.