1. The Elevator

Nandini rushed through the lobby of the intimidating building, adjusting her sleeves. She was late on her first day of work and she was so sure either she would get scolded or worse fired. Both the thoughts made her tensed.

She had set her alarm clock for six in the morning and slept early the night before just so that she could manage to wake up early but even after trying so hard, her eyes betrayed her this morning too.

She mumbled few curses under her breath as she waited for the elevator door to open. "Oh come on. Come on." she impatiently tapped her foot. For a second, she thought of teleporting but the very next second she dumped the idea.

She was a vampire, an existence unknown to the human world. She had a petite figure but you can't judge a book by it's cover, she had a strength of a gigantic elephant or even more than it. She could teleport from one place to other in less than a second which, even among her peers, only very few could do. Because of her uniqueness she wasn't able to live peacefully in her clan, so she was currently living in the human world, trying her best to blend with humans.

She convinced herself almost every single day that she was okay living alone away from her clan. She was okay for she could enjoy and live her life the way she wanted and not under someone's command.

'It's okay.' she breathed in. But who was she trying to lie to? Although vampires were almost ruthless but she felt like she belonged there more than here in the ordinary world. Moreover her only family, her big brother was there.

She shuffled through her bag and sighed in relief on spotting her palm sized transparent green tablet box. 

She survived on tablets, which acted as a substitute of blood. She made the tablets herself from medicinal herbs and few other items, so it'd never been a problem for her. She had never for once drank human blood and so the capsule also helped her to live in the daylight. But as a side effect of the capsule she needed more amount of sleep.

When the elevator dinged open, she entered the elevator and pressed for the twentieth floor. But before the elevator could start its ascent, the elevator door opened again and a man in black entered.

The first thing she noticed was his height which was unusually tall at least for her. He had a handsome face with a slightly built body and from her point of view the color black really complemented his ivory skin tone.

Tearing her gaze away from him, she checked her watch and to her disappointment she was already ten minutes late. Cursing herself, she impatiently waited for the elevator to ascent and when it did, she suddenly felt weak. Strangely the smell of the man's blood got unusually stronger in the closed space. 

'Blood Blood.' Nandini unconsciously thought. She tightly held on to her bag, trying to hold herself back from pouncing onto the neck of the tall man but her senses betrayed her. Before she even knew she was just a step away from him.

The man could feel her presence behind him. He slightly turned to look at the person but he was taken aback when she suddenly pushed him to the wall.

His eyes locked with her slightly red orbs and to his surprise those orbs captivated him. He couldn't stop looking at her. May be that was why even when she bend towards him, precisely his neck, he let her. He could feel her breath fanning against his neck and he strangely liked it.

He shut his eyes close to sink into those strange feelings and when he closed his eyes, his intention became clearer, he wanted to hold her. He really wanted to but right then the elevator dinged open on the ninth floor, bringing them back to their senses.

Covering her lips with her right hand, she immediately yanked apart from him. She couldn't comprehend her own actions. What was she even trying to do? Suck his blood?

The whole atmosphere of the elevator felt awkward and she could feel the gaze of the tall man on her.

Right then a girl entered the elevator with a large stack of files in her hand and thankfully the stack of files had managed to block the view of the girl. The girl placed the files down and for a moment Nandini wondered how such skinny hands had managed to hold those large stack of files.

"Oh, hey Manik." the girl enthusiastically wished on noticing the man. "How did your meeting go?"

"It was okay, Sia." the man, who now had a name, Manik said.

'Manik. So his name is Manik.' Nandini thought to herself as she shuffled through her bag and took out a tablet from her tablet box. She tossed it into her mouth and she felt her nerves slowly calming down.

'Nandini focus. You are here for work.' She mentally reminded herself and pouted, heaving a sharp breath and this caught the attention of Manik. His lips unknowingly curved into a small smile seeing her make such a cute expression.

He was now confused with her reaction as well as his own. He wasn't someone to fall for temptations and especially never the one to give in but surprisingly he did with her and this confused him even more.

'Is this what people call attraction at first sight?' This thought struck his mind as he noticed even the smallest change in her expression.

"Did you meet my dad there?" Sia asked, looking at him but he was too busy brazenly staring at Nandini that he didn't even hear her. She threw a glance at Nandini and then at him. "Manik!" she waved a hand in front of him and that seemed to have caught his attention.

"Huh? Yeah, what did you just say?"

"My dad. Did you meet my dad there?" she said with a plastered smile.

"Uh no, I didn't get the chance to meet him." he replied back, composing himself.

A few minutes later, the elevator dinged and opened on the twentieth floor. Nandini was the first to get off. She didn't even cut a glance at Manik and just rushed out, mentally hoping for her to never cross paths with him again.

"Hi I am Nandini, the newly recruited PA." Nandini said to the receptionist.

"You are late." The receptionist informed something that she already knew.

"This won't happen again."

"It better not." The receptionist said, handing her some files and her ID card. "However, you are lucky. Sir had an urgent meeting so he hasn't arrived yet. So you may check his schedule till then."

Nandini sighed in relief. A big smile made it's way to her lips but the smile was short lived, for Manik decided to make his entry. The receptionist stood up to greet him. "Good morning sir."

Nandini looked at the receptionist and then at him, realization dawning upon her.

He is my boss.

"Good morning sir." she immediately greeted him. All she wanted to do at that moment was to dig a grave and bury herself.

She had pictured her boss to be some 50 year old guy but to her surprise he was no where near to 50. She was sure he would maximum be 30 years. What was she even expecting when she applied for the post of PA in a gaming company?

"Miss Nandini. Sir wants to see you." the receptionist informed, snapping her out of her thoughts and that was when Nandini realized Manik had already left.

Adjusting the files in her hand, she made her way towards her boss's cabin. Her heart had been pounding heavily when she knocked on the door. She had never felt this nervous in her entire life. Was it, by any chance, because of the elevator incident? May be it was.

"Come in." she heard him say and she slightly opened the door, letting herself in.

His cabin was pitch black with white marbled furniture. It was simple yet it looked so attractive.

"Good morning sir." she wished with her ever so cheerful smile. Manik could feel his heart do a double take on seeing her smile. However, the nervousness in her face didn't go unnoticed by him.

'What's wrong with you Manik?' He mentally scolded himself.

"Good morning Miss-" he paused."Your name?" he asked. He knew her name and yet he felt like asking it.

"Nandini. Nandini Taylor but if it's too long for you, you could call me Nanz. I mostly prefer-" Nandini choked on her words, biting her lower lips when she realized she spoke more than needed in nervousness. She chatted a lot and often this landed her in troubles, especially when she was nervous.

"Miss Taylor, only specific answers from next time." Manik said, putting on a straight face. Though he didn't admit it, but he kind of liked the idea of calling her 'Nanz'.

'Miss Taylor. Yuck! that sounds worst.' Nandini thought to herself but she didn't show it on her face.

"Go get me my coffee Miss Taylor." Manik ordered and she gladly complied. She was just glad that he didn't bring up the elevator incident.

'Let's just forget about it.' 

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Sometimes love is unexpected. You meet them by fate and it's an instant connection.

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