Aryan was anxious as he led his boss at the designated table. There were no as such reservations, but, hey, who was even asking?

"Here sir.", Aryan directed Ranbir towards his seat.

Ranbir was stunned for a moment, so was the other occupant of the table. He straightened himself and glanced at Aryan.

"All right! I'll call you if I need anything.", Ranbir muttered.

Now it was Aryan's turn to be stunned. Was his boss conveniently asking him to leave them alone?

"Okay sir!" Aryan replied happily.

As he left, Ranbir took a deep breath and walked towards the table.

Prachi had expected to see Ranbir Kohli at the function, but, what she didn't expect was to find him seated with her.

Shahana who was beside her, sensed the tension. "Ma'am should I get you something?", she offered her boss an opportunity to send her away.

Prachi, of course, took it up. "No! But you can go and have something if you want. I'll call you if I need anything."

"Okay ma'am!", hiding her smile, Shahana went away from there.

Ranbir was relieved to see Prachi's assistant leave her and increased his pace and reached in front of her.

"Hello", he greeted Prachi in a polite tone.

"Mr. Ranbir! Hi!", she replied in an equally polite manner.

"May I sit?"

"Sure!"

Ranbir took the seat opposite to her.

There was an awkward silence for some time. They glanced here and there, at the arrangement, floor, ceiling, other people and then exchanged a formal smile in between. Realizing that not saying anything would make things even more uncomfortable, Ranbir decided to say something.

"I hope your calendar shoot went well"

Ranbir said the first thing that came to his mind.

Prachi chuckled lightly. "Yes, I was yesterday." she replied.

"Oh! Good!" he didn't know what to say next.

"Mr. Ranbir...I...", she turned to him. "I should probably apologize for what happened. I enquired about it....."

"It's all right Miss Prachi" Ranbir cut her in midsentence. "I told you it happens! Even I enquired about it. Seemed like that they misplaced my old photoshoot pictures."

"Yeah! That's the information I got." Prachi said. "But really Mr. Ranbir, such a mishap has never happened. It was kind of you to let it go."

"Well...." Ranbir sighed. "You didn't say anything wrong. I mean...you said I had good features, which is....... not a bad thing!"

Ranbir realized that he was taking the conversation in the right direction when saw her blush.

"I am relieved in that case.", Prachi said. "I thought you might be offended that I hadn't recognized you."

"I didn't recognize you either. So, it was fair.", Ranbir said.

Prachi smiled.

There was again silence, either of them not knowing how to continue the conversation without making it weird.

From a distance, precisely the food counter, Aryan and Shahana were observing them.

"Why did they stop talking?", Shahana hissed.

"I really hope he doesn't start talking of business." Aryan muttered.

There was sudden diming of lights and a spotlight focused on the stage. The ball had begun.

"Do you think your boss will invite Prachi ma'am for a dace?" Shahana asked innocently.

"For that, he should know how to dance!" Aryan snickered. "I have never seen him dance."

Shahana glared at him. "Do you really want to set them up or not?"

"Hey, non dancers can have a good love life too!", Aryan exclaimed.

"But in this situation, if he doesn't ask her for dance, it would be a let down.", Shahana said. "We need to do something again!"

Aryan thought hard for a while. And suddenly his face lightened. He leaned closer to Shahana.

"Perhaps they need some motivation." he whispered in her ears.

*****

The waiters had served the drinks at their table and Ranbir and Prachi had took one each for them. They still hadn't found a topic to restart their conversation.

As they sat there, feeling awkward, they heard talking.

"Excuse me, miss."

"Yes?"

"Would you mind, joining me at the dance floor?"

There were reasons for both Ranbir and Prachi to be surprised. One, the guy asking was Aryan. Two, the guy answering was Shahana.

Aryan extended his hand towards Shahana. With a (fake) blush, she took his hand. He smiled and took her to the dance floor.

"Do you think we'll get fired for this?", Shahana asked keeping her one hand on his shoulder.

"They'd have to be extremely jealous to do that.", Aryan replied while holding her by her waist.

"But we're on duty." she pointed out him, holding his other hand.

"They excused us." he reminded and suddenly pulled her closer.

She let out a light gasp. "Do you know what you are doing?", Shahana asked.

He smirked. "Babes, you haven't seen me dance yet!"

As Shahana crunched her face at the nickname, Aryan twirled her around. The music changed and they started swaying to the soft music.

Basically, Ranbir shouldn't have any reason to be annoyed at his assistant. He was the one who gave him the permission to enjoy the party. So, it was fine if he danced with some girl.

But the fact, that he himself remained stuck in his place, unable to ask the lady opposite to him to dance, and that Aryan chose exactly the assistant of that lady as his partner, pissed him off. He considered firing him at that moment.

Prachi was, but calm. She was surprised though. She had never seen Shahana interact with much people during a party. Even though she'd dismiss her, she'd stay close to her. The only thing Prachi was nervous about was if Ranbir would ask her for a dance.

Ranbir was not bad at dancing. He might not be good, but he was not bad either. Perhaps he could take a chance. What harm will it do?

What if she rejects? His mind panicked.

He noticed her glancing at his side and her face twisting in annoyance. He didn't understand what was happening and looked behind him.

"Um... excuse me, but who is he?", Ranbir asked.

"Oh....No one.", Prachi waved her hand.

Her expression again changed when she noticed that the man was coming towards them.

Ranbir saw it. He took a deep breath. It was now or never.

"I was wondering if I....... I could have a dance with you.", he didn't knew if he was smooth or not.

Prachi was taken aback. She contemplated what to say. If she said yes, she could escape from Ravi and could make up misunderstanding Ranbir. Is she said no.... well, she didn't have a reason to say no. Or rather she didn't want to say no!

"Yes" she replied.

A smile, a genuine smile came on Ranbir's face. He extended his hands towards her. With a small smile, she kept her hand on his.

*****