Mental

"No way." Viola squealed. She looked at Anya who had buried her head in a pillow. " No way." She repeated again in disbelief.

" Yes." Anya looked up. She had just narrated to Viola, the details of that morning's catastrophe.

" Oh, no. I'm so sorry, Ann. Are you going to take up the test?" She asked looking concerned. Anya didn't answer.

"You're going to quit the job, aren't you?" She asked stroking her hair.

" I don't know." Anya let out a muffled whimper.

" Maybe I should tell dad." Viola picked up her phone and started pressing buttons. Anya immediately shot back up and snatched Viola's phone.

"No, no. Please dont." She pleaded.

" Why not? I'm sure dad can do something about it." Viola snatched her phone back.

" No, Vye. You know how much I've struggled to keep this from him. You can't ruin it all in one second." Anya begged.

" I can't believe this, Ann. Your sanity is at stake and you're worried about a stupid surprise. You're going to tell him one day so why not that day be today?" Viola pressed her phone against her ears.

Anya snatched it again from her. " I don't want him to know like this. I wanted to get the job based on my credit and not because of my friend's dad who happens to own the company. But you already know that, Vye." She sighed before continuing, " Now I have the job and I'm so close. Imagine how surprised he'll be if he sees me as one of his employees. I want that, Vye. Ever since-" Her voice cracked.

" I know." Viola hugged her. "But

what about the test?" She whispered.

" I'm going to take it." Anya replied softly.

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The next day, Anya sat in the waiting room of the Company's therapist office. She was nervous but she knew she'd pass. Sometimes she had thought that she was mentally unstable, that she would take extreme steps in times of distress and that she needed serious help. But these three years of her life had proved her otherwise.

She reminded herself that she needed to stay in this job, no matter what. She thought about last night's conversation with Viola, of how she stopped mid-sentence when she couldn't control her emotions. She finished it up in her mind.

I want that, Vye. Ever since I left India, dad has supported me in every way possible, he taught me many things, taught me how to get along, how to trust people, how to survive. He considered me as his own daughter, asked me to call him 'dad' . He reminds me of my own dad in every way. He loves me selflessly and I'm forever grateful to him for that. I know that whatever I do, I will fail to express my gratitude towards him but I can at least try and make him proud. And that's why this means so much to me. I won't ruin it.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the assistant who called her in. She rubbed her palms and opened the door to the therapist's office.

"Ms. Anya. Please take a seat." A woman in her early thirties, sat cross legged in a couch and motioned her towards the seat opposite to her with a pleasant smile. Anya obeyed with a nod.

" I'm Dr.Chase. So you're new here, isn't that right, Ms.Anya ?" She asked peering at the file on her lap.

" Yes and please, call me,Ann. " Anya smiled.

" Okay, Ann. Ronan's never sent me a newbie before. So I'll have to call him and ask him a few things. I'll be back in a minute. " She excused herself and left the room.

“Ronan. So that's his name. What a stupid name, makes me want to vomit.”  Anya said mumbling to herself as she  took the pen stand from the table and and inserted her forefinger into her mouth in a gesture to induce vomit when the assistant entered. She stared at Anya who immediately replaced the pen stand and smiled at her. The assistant left the room,perplexed.

“ Great, I just confirmed her suspicions about me.” Anya slapped her forehead when the words "Ronan's never sent a newbie before" repeated in her ears. “So he's reported others too. Wait! He's never reported a newbie which means he's using his personal vendetta against me. Maybe I should report him.” She tapped on her chin when Dr.Chase entered.

" Sorry about that. Mostly I get employers who have had a mental breakdown, traumatic patients or depressed ones. This is the first time I'm being sent a new staff, so I had to clarify certain things. " She smiled.

" That's okay." Anya replied calmly.

" So I understand that you're divorced." Dr.Chase asked casually.

Anya's heart sank. Nobody was supposed to know about her past, especially not the therapist. She had been very careful these three years but now all of it had gone in vain. It was her fault and she knew it. She told Ronan almost everything about her when she mistook him for her ex. She knew she couldn't run away from the truth now. She decided to accept it and digest the consequences.

Every time she lied about her past, she convinced herself that she was not running away from it but merely trying to hide her weakness. She despised people sympathising for her as it made her look vulnerable. She lied about her past because she knew that people will try to criticise her decision or worse, criticise her family for ruining her life. She knew that these people would never understand her family's tradition and culture and so she simply refrained from telling the truth.

She realised that she couldn't hide the truth forever. She remembered an old saying that her mother often reminded her about, 'A pumpkin hidden in a sack of rice will definitely come out one day.' Her pumpkin had come out.

Looking at Anya squirm at the question, Dr.Chase cleared her throat. Anya looked up, shaken away from her thoughts and simply nodded.

" Don't worry. I won't bog you down on all that. My job is to simply find out if you're mentally fit for this kind of a job and these questions are just to verify the details. Standard procedure as we call it." She explained.

Anya felt greatly relieved as the doctor ignored her past life. "Sure" She exhaled.

" You're an orphan." The doctor said which sounded more like a statement than a question.

" Yes." Anya bit her lip. Every time she heard herself being called an orphan, she couldn't take it. She had no better story to come up with when people asked about her family. She felt relaxed that at least this pumpkin was not revealed.

The doctor asked a few more questions and then handed her a booklet. "It's a questionnaire. Answer them.Take all the time you want and then you can leave." She waved her hands.

" That's it?" Anya asked bewildered.

" Yeah. I'll assess your answers and based on that you'll be given a certain score." She elaborated.

" So you'll send me the results then?" Anya asked looking at the questions.

"Normally, I would send the results to my clients directly who will then produce it to the manager but, for you, I'm afraid it's the other way around." She hesitated.

" What do you mean?" Anya looked furious.

" I mean, Ronan specifically asked for your report. So I'll have to send it to him first." The doctor replied blankly.

" So he sees my report before me." Anya clarified.

" That's correct." She nodded.

" Isn't that client rights violation or something?" Anya blurted out. She wanted to smack his head.

" Actually, I'm not withholding information from you permanently but just temporarily. So there's no violation." The doctor found Anya's reaction amusing.

" But why?" Anya snapped.

" Why do you think?" She retorted.

" Because he doesn't trust me." Anya murmured under her breath.

She concentrated on the questions in the booklet. After a half an hour or so, she submitted the booklet and stormed out of the the room.

“I'm going to kill him.” Her pocket vibrated.

She took her phone and answered it. It was Viola.

" Hey! How did it go?"

Terrible. "Just a bunch of stupid questions."

"Are you okay? You sound tired."

Yes. I'm tired of this stupid life. "I'm fine, Vye. I'll tell you when I get home."

"Okay. We've dinner with the girls tonight. Remember?"

Oh no. "Yes, I do."

" I thought I'll remind you in case you forgot. Okay, Ann. See you soon. Bye!"

"Bye." Dinner with the girls. She had totally forgotten about it. They always had dinner once in a month at Jack's diner. It was their usual hangout place. She pondered over their reaction when she breaks the news to them and laughed out loudly. They always made her laugh.

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Anya and Viola entered the diner. The girls were already there. They squealed and shrieked, hugging Viola and Anya.

" So Good to see you both." Tash remarked. Tash was a part time waitress at a restaurant as she went to university where she did biochemistry. She was the nerdy and geeky part of the group. She always dressed up neat and simple, didn't go out much with boys and never took hasty decisions.

" Oh my lovelies. Look at you." Jess said clapping her hands together in excitement. Jess played tennis. She was known for her flirtatious character and was famous among boys as she adorned the most fabulous body.

" I'm so happy for you, Ann. You finally got what you wanted!" Emily cried out. Emily was a lawyer. She was professional and argumentative. She always dressed up formally.

At this remark, Anya frowned.

" What's wrong? Is everything alright?" Lizzy asked worried.

" Girls, girls. Calm down. Let's eat and then we'll talk. I'm starving." Viola intervened.

They ordered their favourites and talked about their lives. It was a routine that they would each take turns and narrate their lives. They were simply catching up on each other's lives as some would call it. Finally when it was Anya's turn,

" It's her manager." Viola blurted out breaking Anya's silence.

" Is he too old?" Tash remarked.

" Is he too hot?" Jess winked.

" Does he smell? " Emily frowned.

" What? Smell? How is that even relevant?" Anya couldn't help but laugh at her friend's remark. She looked at Lizzy.

" Don't you have a weird question?" She chuckled.

" I was going to ask if he was gay but I swallowed the thought." Lizzy hesitated.

They all burst out laughing. Lizzy was shy, innocent and the only girl that had a boyfriend. She was in a serious relationship for two years and was expecting a proposal anytime soon.

After the laughter ceased, they all looked at Anya keenly. She shared her part of the story and waited for her friends' response. They all stared at her for a while completely shocked.

"That's barbarous." Emily exclaimed.

" True that." Tash agreed.

" Ditto." Jess nodded.

They all looked at Lizzy for her response. She gulped the drink in her hand and said,

" He is absolutely mental." She said in British accent and they all laughed. Lizzy's activities seemed humorous to all of them.

Anya sighed. "Don't worry, Ann. We'll get back at him." Emily assured her.

"And how exactly are you planning to do that?" Anya mocked.

"There must be a way. A weakness. We'll find that out and use it against him. " Emily sounded as if she was planning a conspiracy.

" So what do we know about him?" Tash inquired.

" Nothing." Anya snorted.

" Actually I might know a few things or even better, his weakness. " Viola confessed.

" You do?" Anya looked surprised.

" Yes. There's someone from the inside who was willing to trade information and I plunged at the offer." Viola grinned.

" In exchange for what?" Jess huffed.

"A pair of sunglasses." Viola rolled her eyes.

" That person is seriously mental. She got the chance to be bribed by 'the Viola Robertson' and she went for a pair of sunglasses? I would have gone for something like the Ferrari." Lizzy scoffed.

" What's with you and Ferrari? Seriously?" Anya chuckled.

" Well, it's Dan's dream car." Lizzy blushed. Dan was Lizzy's boyfriend.

They all made sounds like 'Aww', 'ooh'. She blushed even more.

"So what's his weakness?" Emily questioned getting all serious again.

" He's not really the manager. He's being employed temporarily as the previous manager suddenly resigned. The post for the manager will be decided after three months and guess who's one of the contenders?" Viola wiggled her brows .

" Rooonan." Jess drawled.

" Oh my God. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Tash gasped and closed her mouth with her hands.

Viola looked at them and grinned.

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