ABRAR'S POV
It was a new day and I sat peacefully at my desk as the morning sunlight streaming through the large windows cast a warm glow over the office.
"So how was meeting the in-laws?" Kaif asked as he pooped himself on my table.
"Careful man, do you want to break it" I shunned him.
He dragged a chair opposite my desk and sat down looking at me with curiosity gleaming heavily in his eyes.
"So?"
"Well it was nice" I replied not wanting to get into details.
"Just nice come on man don't do me like that you know I need much more information than that"
"Well that is all you are getting, now would you leave my desk and go and train to your work I have a lot to do right now," I said shooing him away.
"So you are not going to tell me how beautiful the house was, what you saw was the chair made with gold?"
"What chair is made of gold," Nikhat asked stopping at my desk.
Kaif saw it as an amazing opportunity to brag, as he did not bother to talk in a calm tone, so he decided to notify the whole office.
"He went to his father-in-law's house, Mr Ali's house" he announced, and just like that my desk area was swarmed as everyone was asking how it was what happened and so on.
It was so annoying that I could glare at Kaif, thinking of ways to knock some sense into his blockhead.
But suddenly as if God knew I needed to escape the crowd of information-hungry people, my phone range was Zoya.
"Oh, it's Zoya" Kaif announced and it took every ounce of strength I had not to smack his head with a folder i had on my desk.
"Ohhhhhhh" they teased in unison, almost making me blush even.
"Can you guys excuse me I need to pick up the call" I said but well it fell on deaf ears as they waited patiently for me to pick up.
I sighed in defeat and picked up the call. " Hello" I answered
"Can you come to my office urgently?" She asked in a quite serious tone.
Something must be quite wrong. " I will be there". Have never heard Zoya talk to me with such a tone and it proved that it was business-related I wonder what could have happened to put her in such a mood.
"Okay, guys I have to go" I announced arranging my folders in a stack and logging out of my computer.
They all dispersed with disappointed looks on their face I noticed Nikhat was already sitting at her desk. I had no idea when she left.
"And Nikhat I am going to personally deal with you when I am back" I warned him.
I walked through the open corridors straight to her office after announcing my presence and knocking I walked into her office.
As soon as I walked in I saw Mr Kaiser in the office pacing back and forth with a worried expression on his face, I could not shake the feeling that something was wrong.
"You asked for me?" I said as soon as I walked in trying not to overthink.
"Yes, have a seat Abrar" Zoya said as she gestured for me to sit opposite her while she sat down behind her desk.
She looked so professional with her eyes devoid of any emotion I could not get a read on her.
"Is anything the problem?" I asked, confused by how tense the room was. I looked over at Mr Kaiser who was still pacing back and forth but now his eyes were on me and he looked angry and frustrated. I looked over at Zoya but her eyes gave away nothing.
"Abrar, where is the proposal document I gave to you for Mr Barnard, we have a meeting with him in less than an hour and I can't find the document anywhere?" Kaiser asked, looking at me with an accusing expression and his eyes narrowed.
"What do you mean it is missing Sir, I gave you the final proposal yesterday in your office," I said.
"And I have it back to you, you were the last person to work on it yesterday afternoon, but you left early" he disagreed.
"That is not possible sir, I gave you the documents and you told me to get the quarterly report from the HR department t and summarize it for the meeting you have with Mr Ali later today, that's what I worked on before I left yesterday and I dropped the finished file with your secretary before I left" I explained trying to prove my innocence.
"He's lying, Zoya, what did I tell you? I knew he was going to deny it. I handed it to him personally. He is sure he must have misplaced it" he scoffed at me.
Zoya turned around to look at me "Okay then Abrar, are you sure that Mr. Kaiser did not give you the document?" She asked.
"I am very sure, absolutely positive I did not collect the documents from him" I affirmed. "I never received anything from him, he didn't give me any document at all"
"This is just ridiculous, we have a meeting with our huge client in less than an hour time and here we are looking for his proposal. How can a mega-million-dollar proposal be missing? This is a huge deal, Zoya. Cannot afford to lose this" Kai combed his fingers through his head in frustration.
"Calm down Mr. Kaiser, I am sure the document is somewhere we just have to figure out where and we should not jump to conclusions. Abrar, could you think of where the document might be?" She asked.
"I have absolutely no idea" I replied.
"And you Kaiser are you sure you did not give the document to anyone else because this is not the first time you have made such mistakes only this time you seem very sure that it is not with you," she asked.
"Oh come on Zoya the document is not with me, if it was I would not be stirring this much drama. This is not something to take lightly losing that proposal could cost us Million and the real worked tirelessly for those ideas"
"This Is a serious accusation, Mr Kaiser. If we don't find this document it could cause a lot of problems and I thought documents like this Were supposed to have copies?"
"We were trying to keep it from leaking out like the last contract so we kept just one copy" Mr Kaiser responded.
"I am seriously not sure what to do anymore, but we need to find a solution you guys can keep arguing between yourself for the next Ten hours it isn't going to change the fact that the meeting is in less than an hour" she snapped "Both of you go back to your office and check thoroughly and think very well on who you could possibly have given the document to I will call the team and ask as well" she instructed.
Without wasting time any further I walked out of the office straight to my desk and searched around as well as asked my other colleagues if they had taken any documents from my desk which they all denied.
I was very sure the document was not with some after about ten minutes I went back to Zoya's office
"Zoya it is not with me, I told you. You have to believe me. I didn't lose the proposal I gave back to Kaiser."
"I want to believe you, but I am in a difficult situation right now. If Kai is found to be telling the truth, then we have a serious problem."
"I searched every corner of my desk, asked all my colleagues and no one even took any folder or document from my desk. Think about it Zoya why would I lie about something this serious"
"I know you are not a liar, but I am just trying to consider all possibilities we need to find that document before the time of the meeting. This news cannot get to the ears of my father or it could cause a lot of damage. This client is very important. We have been trying to sign for months so this is very important. "She died massaging her temple looking frustrated.
Kaiser burst through the door with a drone on his face. "It is not in my office" he announced as he began pacing back and forth again. "I searched every single paper in my office and could not find it"
"This is unbelievable" Zoya groaned in frustration.
"What if someone else took it? Maybe it was misplaced or picked up by mistake?" I asked, trying to broaden our perspective for the Search.
"That cannot be possible because I have it for you" Kaiser snapped at me.
I was slowly getting angry as I despised being accused of something I was not guilty of.
"That is absolutely not true Mr Kaiser and you know this, the reason for accusing me of such a thing is what I cannot fathom. I don't know what you are trying to get at. Maybe tag me as incompetent l? Or that I intentionally want to sabotage this contract?"
" All I am saying is that this is on you, Adam. You need to own up to it, "Kaiser replied.
"Ma'am excuse me, but I think we found the document," Karina said as he walked into my office with a folder in her hand.
I motioned for her to bring it over and quickly confirmed it was really the proposal document.
"Where was it found?" It was found in the printing room.
The printing room? I was not even in the printing room all day yesterday.
"So which one of you went to the printing room?" Zoya asked with a displeased expression on her face.
"Not me for sure," I replied.
"Maybe I did step in there, but did not take that folder with me" Mr Kaiser responded.
It was pretty astonishing that he was still denying the fact that he was the one who misplaced the folder till the last minute.
"Whatever, to be honest I don't care but the next time you stress me like this someone will pay for it. Karina print this and get ready for the meeting" she said "And not of you leave my office" she said pointing at the two of us
It was quite infuriating that all this went down but at least the folder had been found.
"You think just because you are her husband gives you the right to misbehave. You dare accuse your boss of lying. I am going to deal with you. Abrar your life in this office is about to be not pleasant" he threatened brushing his shoulder hard against mine.
I went back to my desk and Kaif quickly rushed down to my side. "what happened? I heard quite some loud voices" Kaif asked.
"I am not in the mood to reply to anything right now, I am just exhausted and I think Mr Kaiser just publicity threatened me"
"What did he say?" He asked
"Well he said my life in this office is out to be a living hell"
"Don't pay any attention to him he is just a jealous man nothing more"
I sure do hope so, it was so exhausting dealing with such drama every day I needed a break.
I walked over to the balcony to see Nikhat standing there also. I turned around to leave before she noticed me but was not successful that.
"Are you avoiding me, Abrar?" She asked.
"What? No of course just remembered I have something I need to attend to" I replied.
"That's a lie, a lot of things might have changed about you but I have always been able to detect when you were lying just like now your eyes were twitching," she said.
"Why are you avoiding me, Abrar?" She asked, walking closer to me. "Do you still have feelings for me?" she asked.
"What, no I don't" I stammered as I was caught off guard by her question.
"That is also a lie," she said, suddenly pulling me into a hug and breathing in my scent.
"What all this Nikhat, stop it," I said, trying to pry her body off mine.
"I miss you so much Abrar, do you know how much it breaks my heart to see you with her? I know you don't love her. You said you would love me forever you promised" she cried in my arms.
I looked around to make sure no one was around to see us in such a compromising position.
"Stop it Nikhat," I said, pushing her off my body.
"No I won't, I love you Abrar I have always loved you and I cannot stop thinking about you" she confessed.
I was completely shocked by her confession. I was not expecting such a thing and I had no idea how I was supposed to respond to that.