Recap: Naveen and Emily together?

Clank!

Shit!

The coffee cup toppled over, spinning before crashing onto the pristine conference table. For one breathless second, I prayed it was just a few drops. But no. It wasn’t.
My heart raced as the cup spun lazily, spilling a river of coffee across the pristine papers. Important papers.

The murmurs stopped.

Eight pairs of eyes turned to me in unison, freezing me like I was mid-heist in a spotlight.

My eyes widened so far I thought they’d fall out of their sockets.

"Oh God," someone muttered, and suddenly the heat of every gaze felt like I was standing on trial.

"I—I’m sorry! I’ll reprint it!" I stammered, my voice cracking with panic.

Thud!

In my panicked state, I stood up so quickly that the chair screeched across the floor before slamming into the glass wall behind me.

I flinched, and like a tragic echo, a chorus of hisses erupted around me—sharp and judgmental. I swear, it sounded like I’d wandered into a wildlife sanctuary where every creature disapproved of me.

My hands hovered uselessly above the spreading mess, unsure whether to fix it or flee from it.

"Oh no." My voice barely registered over the deafening silence.

A small sound escaped someone’s throat, half gasp, half groan.

"You’ve got to be kidding me."
Vikram grumbled, low and ominous, like thunder before a storm.

I scrambled to grab a napkin, but my hands fumbled clumsily, the pages smudging further under my touch.

"Stop touching them," Vikram barked, snatching the documents away from me like they were the Dead Sea Scrolls. My tongue felt heavy, every apology stuck somewhere between my brain and my lips. His expression twisted as he surveyed the damage. "This was critical, Aisha. Do you even think before you act?"

"Think?" Swasthi cut in with a cruel snicker. She leaned back in her chair, the smirk on her face spreading like a slow burn. "Is there even something inside that skull to think?"

The room exploded with laughter— sharp and biting. High-fives smacked across the table.

"Classic," someone muttered, loud enough for me to hear.

My hands froze mid-stack, and my cheeks burned. I've never wanted to disappear so badly before—just to sink into the floor and never surface again.

"Relax, it’s just coffee. Grab some tissues, I'll handle it."

Naveen’s voice suddenly drifted through my mind—soft, calm, and so different from this. I could almost see him grinning, shaking his head like it was the most harmless mistake in the world.

It didn't mattered. It was just coffee, and that had been enough to make me laugh too.

But now? it’s not just coffee anymore. It's a huge, unforgiving mistake. Like I’d set the entire building on fire.

"I—"

"Save it,"he snapped, waving a dismissive hand. "Just… clean it up and stay out of the way."

The room buzzed with stifled laughter, and scoffs again.

"Maybe next time, pour it directly on the laptop to save time," someone quipped.

"Or maybe she thinks coffee works as ink," Swasthi added, her tone mocking, smug.

The room erupted with laughter once more.

I swallowed the lump in my throat, determined not to let the sting show. Blinking back the tears threatening to escape, I bit my tongue and focused on stacking the ruined papers.

My hands trembled as I worked, each shaky movement a careful move to avoid giving them another reason to mock me.

But the laughter continued. Apparantly, my slow movements were even funnier than their nasty remarks.

But the laughter continued, cruel and relentless. As if my careful, trembling movements were somehow even funnier than their biting remarks.

My vision blurred, my chest tightened under the weight of their laughter. Just when I thought I might break, a single word sliced through the chaos.

"Enough."

Ryan’s voice wasn’t loud, but it carried authority. The laughter stopped instantly. The room fell silent so abruptly it felt like the air had been vacuumed out.

All eyes shifted to him.Ryan’s gaze swept across the table, sharp and controlled.
"Focus on the presentation." his tone left no room for argument

And then his attention shifted to me.

"Aisha, leave that," he said, the words crisp and final. "Tell Serena to handle the reprints."

His voice wasn’t harsh, but it wasn’t kind either. It held no warmth—just instructions. Like I was already sorted out and forgotten.

I nodded numbly, too shaken to argue. Grabbing what was left of my dignity, I slipped out of the room.

The door clicked shut behind me, muffling the faint hum of voices that had already moved on.

The hallway felt colder, quieter, as the door clicked shut behind me. I leaned against the wall, my breath shaky.

Why did this always happen to me?

I stared at the coffee stains on my hands, the smell lingering like an accusation. The echoes of their laughter played on a loop in my head, each replay sharpening the sting.

Naveen’s voice played again in my mind. "It’s just coffee," I hated how clear it sounded, how badly I wanted someone—anyone—to say those words to me now.

But they didn’t.

The smug glances—Swasthi’s mocking voice echoing like a broken record.

"Is there even something inside that skull to think?"

I shook my head sharply.

Don’t think about it.

But the words crawled under my skin, stubborn and sharp.

Just as I was contemplating whether disappearing into the nearest air vent was an option, the door creaked open. The soft hum of the meeting room spilled into the hallway, followed by… silence.

It wasn’t just one pair of footsteps. It was multiple.

I straightened up instinctively as a small group filed out—Vikram, Swasthi, and the others, all avoiding my gaze like I was about to scold them. Their usual smug expressions were gone, replaced with… long faces. Sheepish. Almost nervous.

"Uh… Aisha," Vikram started, scratching the back of his head. His voice was quieter than I’d ever heard it—none of the edge from earlier. "About earlier… I - uh.. apologize. I didn't mean.. it to be.. harsh."

"Yeah," Swasthi chimed in, her voice a little strained, like apologizing was a foreign concept to her. "We shouldn’t have—uh—said that stuff. Or laughed."

I blinked. Several times. To be sure I’d heard her right. Or to wake up from the craziest dreams or whatever I've fallen into..

"It wasn’t cool," another voice added—Ajay, I think—looking at the floor like it owed him money.

"It was just a mistake. Could’ve happened to anyone," Vikram muttered, his gaze darting anywhere but at me.

"I-It's okay," I said slowly, my brows furrowing.
This was… unexpected.

The door clicked open again and Ryan stepped into the hallway, hands in his pockets, gaze sharp as always.
The group practically froze, and scattered around to give him space.
Ryan’s presence lingered like a quiet storm behind them. His calm, assessing gaze swept over the group before landing on me.

"Apologized yet?" he asked, his tone casual but his eyes anything but.

The team nodded quickly, like a bobblehead assembly. "Yes," they mumbled in unison, still avoiding my eyes.

"Good." Ryan didn’t spare them another glance. He turned to me, his tone softer but still composed.
"And, will it happen again?"

A chorus of "No"s and "Never"s tumbled over each other.

Ryan gave the faintest nod of approval, as though that settled it. "Back to work, all of you."

The group scattered like pigeons, slipping back into the meeting room without another word.

Once they were gone, Ryan turned to me again, his gaze steady.

"You’re fine?" he asked, softly. Like a melting ice-cream, or drizzling honey. And I was a wounded-crying child.

"Yeah," I said quickly.

"I have to finalize this. You go ahead and take a break,"
And with that, he walked back into the meeting room, leaving me standing there, feeling oddly… lighter.

.
.
.
.
.

I leaned against the counter in the empty break room, staring at the blank wall across from me. It was an intense staring contest, one I seemed to be losing. The vending machine hummed softly in the background, offering a mechanical melody that, for some reason, felt weirdly soothing. It wasn’t much, but it was something to tune into, to distract myself from the chaotic swirl of thoughts.

The sudden buzz of my phone shattered the trance, pulling me back to reality. I clicked my tongue in annoyance, fishing it out of my pocket and frowning at the name flashing on the screen. Great. Just what I needed—another interruption.

I sighed, staring at the screen, torn between picking it up or tossing it into the microwave.
Either way, it wasn’t worth the energy.
Ah,Nevermind.
Bracing myself for the harsh comments, I swiped to answer.

"Hello?"

"ARE YOU OKAY?" Ryan's voice blared through the microphone. I tightened my grip on the phone, but it slipped from my hand, nearly toppling over. I lunged to catch it just in time, letting out a sigh of relief when it landed safely in my palm. Without wasting a second, I jammed the volume button so hard I could feel my thumb going numb.

"Why are you calling me? You’re in the same building!" I snapped, straightening up as I glanced around the break room, even though I knew I was alone.

"Because this way, I won’t break your rule," he replied instantly, his tone maddeningly calm. Ah, the rules.
How could I forget? I was the one who set them in the first place.

I groaned, pressing a hand to my forehead as the dull ache in my head threatened to turn into a full-blown migraine. "What do you want?"

"You seemed upset,"
The simplicity of his statement caught me off guard.

For a moment, I forgot my irritation, but only for a moment. The memory of the meeting room came rushing back, sharp and vivid. My grip on the phone tightened.

"I’m not upset," I said, the words escaping harsher than I intended.

Ryan didn’t respond immediately. The silence stretched just long enough to make me shift uncomfortably, and then he sighed—a long exasperated breath.

"It would’ve been suspicious if I had intervened," he said finally, his tone calm, as though he were explaining something painfully obvious.

"Suspicious?" I repeated, frowning.

"Yes," he said matter-of-factly. "If I stepped in immediately, it would’ve looked like favoritism."

"Oh! "

"You know how Vikram and Shristi are,"Ryan breathed out, almost whispering most of it. "They thrive on turning situations like that into something bigger. If I’d stepped in too soon, it would've just given them more fuel to spread nonsense."

I blinked, thrown off by the explanation.
Ryan. Explaining himself? To me?

That's...unexpected.

Why was he even bothering to justify himself?

Wasn’t it me who’d spilled coffee all over those top-priority documents?

If the previous boss—Mr. Patel—had been in Ryan’s place, I’d probably already be getting a one-way ticket out the door. And knowing my luck, he'd still find a way to haunt my ghost, making me finish the project from beyond the grave.

"So I let them overreach." Ryan's hoarse voice pulled me out from my train of thoughts. "And I knew... they’d push it too far—"

"You planned that?" I screeched out loud, flabbergasted.

"It wasn’t hard to predict," he said, his tone calm but firm.

I opened my mouth to argue, about his genius plan but the memory of Swasthi’s sheepish face and Vikram’s lack of eye contact surfaced unbidden. They’d looked thoroughly chastised, stumbling over their apologies like they were being coerced at gunpoint.

"Still.." I paused briefly before continuing,
"Maybe next time, act sooner?"

"There won’t be a next time," He chuckled softly.

"Huh?"

What does that even mean?
There won't be accidents?
Humiliation? Or Me?

I blinked, scrambling to mask my confusion. My gaze darted around the break room, latching onto the coffee machine, a crooked poster, anything to steer the conversation somewhere—anywhere—else.

"I—Is that all?" The words slipped out sharply before I could stop myself, and I immediately regretted how rude it sounded.

"I mean, you could’ve just texted," I added quickly, "What if I was busy?"

"Are you?" he interjected smoothly.

I exhaled sharply, shaking my head. Oh God, why does it suddenly feel like I’d time-travelled back to college?

"Well… kinda," I mumbled, squaring my shoulders like it would somehow make me seem more composed. My fingers fidgeted with the edges of my ID card, betraying me. "Why?"

"Come to my office."

My stomach did a little flip—the bad kind. The ominous kind.

"Why?" I asked, attempting neutrality, though my voice scraped horribly.

"You’ll find out soon enough."

Wow. Helpful.

I scowled at the vague response, my grip on the phone tightened.
"You’re not going to tell me now?"

"No," he said, completely unfazed. "Unless you’d prefer I come find you instead."

My mouth fell open. "You wouldn’t."

"Try me."

The line went dead before I could muster a clever retort.

"Not again!" I groaned, tossing my phone onto the counter. Why did he always have to be so...him?
A part of me wanted to march straight into his office and demand answers, but another part—the smarter part—was screaming at me to turn around and pretend I never got this call.

I sighed, running a hand through my hair.
Yeah Right. Like avoiding him ever works.

Knowing Ryan, the longer I delayed, the more ammunition he’d have to mess with me.
Resigned, I pushed away from the counter and muttered under my breath, "He better not fire me or something."

Still, with Ryan, you'd never know what’s coming—and that’s exactly what worried me.

********

Hi guys don't forget to vote and follow?

Don't tell me you can't.
For Aisha? Or maybe Ryan?

Also I'm gonna soon publish the characters which will be drawn by non other than ME! Your dearest author.

That's right.

Completion status:

Ryan- complete, and judging me.

Naveen: Complete, and glaring at me.

Aisha: Started, about to finish.

Kudos!!

❤️❤️❤️