She Was Not As UGLY As You Thought

Bhavna left the room. Rishi was grinning as he found a new way to come closer to Aliya. Unable to control the butterflies of excitement in his stomach, he called Aliya in his cabin.

When Aliya entered the cabin, she saw that Rishi was reading some documents.

"Good morning sir."

"Good morning. Have a seat."

Aliya quietly sat down on the chair .

"I have some work for you. Actually it is nothing related to your job, but I found you to be more suitable to do that task."

"What's the work?"

"So today as you know Bhavna and I had a meeting to finalize the project. But there came a problem. Her assistant is not here. She flew to abroad due to some emergency. So Bhavna requested me to arrange a temporary assistant for her. I thought you can help her as her temporary assistant."

"Sir, I have no clue what is the work of an assistant."

"No need to worry about that. Bhavna informed me that her assistant has already completed 90%of the work. Remaining work is to assist her in selecting clothes, helping her escort from airport to hotel, etc"

"If you do not mind may I know the reason why am I selected for this work?"

"Because I want you to be with me." whispered Rishi to himself.

"Pardon. I could not hear you."

"Because you and Bhavna both know each other very well. And an assistant should know how his/her boss is. And this needs experience. So I thought you may do her work as she wants it to be done. Moreover, we have to leave today for Kashmir, so it is difficult to arrange a new assistant immediately."

"TODAY!!" Aliya flinched at hearing Rishi's answer

"Is there any problem?"

"Of course there is a problem. This is an emergency task. I agree to work as a temporary assistant for her but when will I get time to pack my suitcases? Who will book the tickets? I do not even have enough sweaters, hoodies, boots or mufflers to bear the severe cold climate in Kashmir!"

Rishi rose his right eyebrow and sneered.

"You are having this typical 'ladies problem'. Anyways, there is nothing to worry about. Tickets can be booked now itself. We will provide you with enough sweaters and all the stuff you may need. And I will send someone to your house to pack your suitcases."

"Till providing me stuffs is okay but sending someone.... is not okay."

"Why?"

"I do not like others touching my things. Also only I know what I need in my suitcase."

"So you are still the same?"

"No doubt and I will be the same in future too."

This looked like Aliya indirectly warned Rishi to not even think of getting candid with her.

"Okay so you must go now and pack your bags. The flight is scheduled to take-off at 5 PM. I will pick you up at 2:30 PM sharp."

Hearing this, Aliya looked at her watch. She realised that she had only 3 hours to get ready as it was already 10:10 PM.

"I will take your leave now."

___________________________________________________________

Aliya hurriedly reached home. As soon as she sat on her sofa, she was gasping for air. She had to climb up the stairs as the lift was not working.

'What a day it is! I need to be quick now. When I called my mom while returning home,she listed me a few things that are essential when you are traveling away from your home. I should pack them first before I forget them.'

Aliya hastened to pack her bags and got ready. It was 2:15 PM already. And to reach airport it takes a quarter of an hour if we include the time which gets wasted in traffic jams. She heard honking of a car. She realized it was Rishi's car. Because she knew the sound of that horn of Rishi's Mercedes Benz G Class which she used to hear everyday in morning since she joined his company.

She checked everything before she left home. As soon as she came to know that it was now safe to leave her home, she pulled her 2 suitcases out in the corridor and locked the main door of her house. She saw Rishi's driver coming up to help her in carrying suitcases downstairs as the lift was not working.

Rishi was waiting for Aliya in his car. As soon as Rishi saw his driver pulling two suitcases near the car, he pulled his car door's glass window down to look where is Aliya.

As Aliya was walking towards his expensive car, afternoon breezes where blowing against Aliya making her open and black glossy hair sway in air. Under the sunlight her baby pink blouse and blue pencil skirt were glowing. She was walking in a poised manner while making her heels produce 'click-clack' sound . Rishi got down from his car and opened door of his car for Aliya.

When Aliya saw Rishi, he was dressed in awhite t-shirt underneath a black jacket and blue denims. He was in a perfect airport look. Aliya could make out that Rishi had now clean shaved his face, the look which she liked and suited Rishi the most. She then remembered what she had said to Rishi earlier that she hasn't changed

'He looks more neat in this look, unlike the previous one in which he had grown full beard like a saint. He knows how to make opportunities for himself. That is why when I said I have not changed, he decided to remove his beard and put on this look which I had once said to him that it suited him the best. But you may try your best Rishi, still you will fail to impress me.'