Annika was humming a song while picking out the day's clothes from her wardrobe when her phone buzzed, indicating an incoming text. Opening it, she saw it was a message from Shivaay, or BILLUJI as the screen read, and her face involuntarily broke into a smile.

Shivaay- Hey, what are you doing?

Annika's smile widened. She had never understood the whole deal with girls smiling and blushing over texts from their boyfriend, but was now being a hypocrite by getting butterflies in her stomach due to a simple text from Shivaay. And he wasn't even her boyfriend; not really.

Annika- Nothing much, will get ready in a while. You?

S- Getting ready to come to Oberoi Mansion? I'm coming to pick you up then.

Annika rolled her eyes before replying.

A- No, Billuji. Getting ready to go to Mr. Malhotra's office. My new job, remember?

S- Oh. Yeah.

Annika could practically imagine him sulking right now, and giggled at the image.

A little while later, her phone beeped again.

S- So when are you coming to the Oberoi Mansion?

Annika had just come out of the washroom after washing her face, and quickly dried her hands to send a reply.

A- As soon as I'm done with work. Donno how long it'll take; I'll come over directly from there. Gotta go now, bye!

Hitting send and putting her phone on Do Not Disturb, Annika quickly got dressed. As much as she would love to chat with Shivaay all day, she really had to get to work. It wouldn't do well to be late on the very first day. Choosing to dress in a simple peach anarkali suit, Annika put on some make up and grabbed the keys of her beloved Champa. It took her a couple of tries to get the scooty started, and when it did, she made her way towards Malhotra Industries.

She hadn't met Rohit Malhotra before, but his event management department had personally contacted her a few days back. Although Shivaay's marriage had ended up not happening, the few ceremonies Annika had arranged for the occasion had gotten her quite some recognition amongst high profile people. Apparently, Mr. Malhotra's mother had liked her work and thus now wanted her to arrange the 5th anniversary of Malhotra Industries. Their company was fairly new, and had risen so quickly due to the hard-work and passion of the young Rohit Malhotra, Annika had heard. 

Their was a lot of traffic today, and Annika cursed her fate for the umpteenth time as she waited at yet another signal. It seemed that this job was lost even before it had arrived, and the thought made Annika disheartened. She desperately needed this, as it was in some means the start of her even management business. If all went well and she pulled this off smoothly, she was planning to start her own small company, and take any future works under it.

Finally reaching, Annika got off Champa and opened her bright red helmet, wiping beads of sweat off her forehead. the Malhotra Office was a large building, of about 15 floors. It looked classy, yet much less lavish than the Oberoi Industries; after all, the Oberois were on a different level of richness altogether.

Entering through huge revolving glass doors, Annika made her way to the reception desk. A girl of about her age looked up and smiled at her warmly.

"Hi, I'm Annika. I'm here for the event planning job..."

"Oh yes, Miss Annika. Rohit sir has been asking about you. Your appointment was at 11..."

Annika glanced at the huge clock on the wall above the desk. It read 11:32. Annika gulped. It seemed like she would indeed have to bid farewell to this job.

"I'm so sorry I'm late," she started blabbering. "There was so much traffic today. I know I should have left the house early but... if you would just let me talk to Mr. Malhotra for once-"

"Hey hey, calm down," the girl said, laughing. "You are late but it's completely alright. Rohit sir appreciates punctuality, but more than that he likes giving people chances. His room is on the 6th floor, you can go right up ahead."

Annika breathed a sigh of relief. She quickly made her way towards the elevator, and reaching the 6th floor, took a deep breath before knocking. So far, this Rohit dude seemed like a nice enough guy, but she still sent a prayer upwards for him to be a good person to work with. Hearing a faint 'come in' from inside, she entered. 

The cabin was a spacious room, devoid of much furniture. There was a large wooden desk, behind which a man in his mid-twenties stood, leaning forward with a hand resting on the desk as he read something on his laptop.

"Um, Mr. Malhotra?" Annika said timidly to gain his attention. 

"Oh, sorry, I was just-" Rohit started as he looked up from his laptop, only to be rendered speechless by the beauty in front of him.

I'm really happy to have gotten 100 votes in my last chapter, so a big thankyou to everyone. I'll try and update regularly from now on, hence the updates will be quite short. Hope everyone is liking the story <3