Chapter 2

“Nandini…” Manik took her name calmly. It was too calm unlike other times. He leaned his back to rest on his comfortable leather chair and entangled his fingers together. “You seriously need to learn the basic etiquettes along with your work.” 

His remark worked as the last nail in the coffins. She bristled at his words.

How dare he act so smug!

“Manik, stop acting like a jealous teenager. You don’t have to drag our personal dislike for each other into work, do you? I tried my best to maintain professionalism, then why can’t you do the same?” Nandini spoke in a cold tone and threw the red ink covered paper on his face. 

Though the papers didn’t touch Manik, they fell just in front of him, scattered all over the marble table. It surely caused a big mess. But her words made no difference to Manik's expression. He remained the same. 

“Have you rechecked what bullshit you wrote? That’s… That’s clearly a personal attack. What the fuck is this?” 

This time she almost screamed. She was breathing heavily as she stopped and her whole body was shaking with rage. She looked directly into Manik’s eyes which didn’t have a single glint of regret in them, instead they held pride.

“Professionalism? Tch! Tch! Tch! I hope you know swearing in front of your boss is not considered as professional behavior either. Also no one is making a personal attack on you, Nandini, I'm just doing my job. It’s not my fault that you’ve made uncountable errors in your work. You must have heard of the concept of constructive criticism. That's what this is. Being the owner of this company, I’ve to be careful about everything.” 

Nandini rolled her eyes and scoffed, hearing his calm tone as if what he did was not intentional. “Oh, really? I don’t care of your fucking bullshit, Manik.  Why does your work involve monitoring me and none of the other interns? Don’t pretend in front of me at least when I already know what you’re up to, Manik. Stop acting like a pathetic ass. I know you can’t help it as you’re that already.” 

Manik stood up from his chair and slowly walked around his desk to where Nandini was standing. His gazes were fixed on her. “What I do here is none of your concern. I can monitor any particular intern or I can monitor all of them or something else, that’s not your concern at all. Your only concern here is to complete your job correctly. But you didn’t address the concerns properly. It’s not my fault that you failed to complete your work measurably.”

"The concerns were addressed in the legal department's meetings already. Moreover, we were not required by Mrs. Sen to add in th…." Nandini was about to argue back but Manik cut her in between. 

"So, you agree the major concerns were missing in your report?" Manik raised one eyebrow at the end.

“Urrgh… Fuck, Manik! Are you even listening to me? Those concerns were not finalized yet. We were not meant to add them in….."

“I don’t care, Nandini. If the concerns weren’t finalized, then why did you put these rubbish together and hand me the unfinished work, devoid of any logic?” Manik too started losing his cool. 

“You didn’t have to make those awful comments about my work, knowing they would be recorded permanently in my work profile. You can’t do that to me. Why’re you hell bent on sabotaging my career?” 

Manik sneered and glared at her fiercely. "You think too highly of yourself. You're mad to think I'm out to sabotage your career as if I’m sitting here free. Self obsession! Open your eyes, Nandini. Face the reality. No one is conspiring against you. You just love thinking everyone's attention is on you 24/7."

Nandini locked her hands over her chest. "Well if that's the case then logically, shouldn't you also stop worrying yourself with my intern job progress? Why am I getting your special attention? If I didn't know you any better, I'd think you were genuinely concerned about my career and we both know that’s not the case."

Manik narrowed his eyes at her call out. "I'm not giving you any special attention, it’s just on your head.  I'm here to ensure you don't run my company down to the ground. Because you’re completely unaware of the real world and looking at your report, I don’t regret my decision."

"You only love to bully your workers and you’ve no genuine critique to offer to them. You're just here to satisfy your ego by making personal remarks on my works. Because you need entertainment and you’re having fun, seeing me suffering. You roam around your estate the entire day, the same old, boring task. That’s why you landed here to irritate me.” Nandini snapped back, raising her voice.

Manik nodded his head in disbelief. "You never fail to amaze me. You won't ever accept that you're wrong, will you? Criticism simply bounces right off you. Why can’t you accept it like a normal human?" He also replied, raising his voice.

Nandini curled her palms into fists. “I hope your hand didn’t ache after all that useless scribbling you did in the name of giving feedback to my work. You just act like some arrogant teacher for a 5 year old.” She exclaimed, raising her voice even higher.

Manik gulped his anger but couldn’t help raising his voice higher than her. “You know what, Nandini, you passed an interview, though I’m still unsure, still I’m considering you’re not stupid. The real problem is you're just lazy. You’re only finding ways to cut corners and expect others to pick up the slack. That's the perfect summary of your work ethic. Your attitude just proved me right. I suppose being Kapoor uncle's spoilt little princess has made you that way. Did you think you could act like some nepo kid in the real world too? It’ll help you out?"

Nandini's mouth fell open at Manik's outrageous comment. She couldn’t believe he could think so low of her. “Fuck! You’re an insufferable bastard!” She covered the distance between them and grabbed the collar of his well tailored blazer with her one hand while the fingers of her other hand curled into a fist and it slammed against his chest as hard as she could. "You’re frustrated that you didn't get what you wanted in life, Manik. It's not my fault that you couldn't go abroad and pursue music to accomplish your dream. Don't you dare to burden your frustration on me unnecessarily." She yelled, looking directly into his eyes. 

A cold expression made its way onto Manik's face. He looked positively scary. Something inside him snapped too. He caught her wrist with his free hand and pulled her closer. He ran his hands from her shoulders. Her whole body tingled at his touch, a shiver ran down her spine but she hid it quite well.

Manik wasn't expecting it and he looked back at her furious, ready to spit fire. He harshly freed her grip and grabbed her by her upper arm, squeezing down hard. "Stop behaving like an insolent little brat, Nandini! Don’t forget you’re standing in my premises." He sneered, trying to control the rage that was unleashing inside him but the girl in front of him knew how to test his patience.

"You are a fucking jerk, Manik! I've had enough of your bullshit." She screamed at him with venom dripping from her voice.

Nandini raised one of her tightly curled fists that was ready to touch his jaw but he was faster to hold it. He then used his hold on her to push her backward till her back hit the wall behind her next to the door. 

“Just keep your little mouth shut! I’m not sitting here idle to take your fucking nonsense.” Manik’s eyes were spitting fire as they stood too close to each other but they were still unaware of their proximity. 

"I'm not lazy! You're knowingly giving me crap like you always do.” Nandini’s voice was now coming out in hoarse croaks from all the yelling. She tried to shove him off of her but his grip was too strong. Her tries couldn’t even budge him a bit. “You love making my life hell because your own life is miserable." Her face had turned red. “I fucking hate you. I hate your stupid face. I hate to even cross your path. I just want to smack your not so handsome face. Just leave my hand.” She demanded still continued jerking her fist against his tight hold.

Manik didn't even loosen his grip a little. “Shut the fuck up, Nandini!" He hissed, looking down at her furiously. Their faces were hardly an inch apart. "Keep your stupid mouth shut."

"No! I won't….."

She started, but in an unexpected move Manik closed the distance between them and slammed his lips down on hers, cutting off her angry raging.