Chapter 5

1 years ago

Adi

@ZA_Ray

Chapter 5

Nikki opened her eyes slowly feeling a bit disoriented. It took her a while to recollect where she is now. She was so tired from yesterday's journey, meeting Abhimanyu and her new colleagues that the moment she crashed on her bed last night she immediately went to sleep, without even changing her clothes or taking off her makeup. She groggily got up from her warm and comfy bed and went to the washroom to freshen up. After the shower and changing into a new set of clothes, she was feeling fresh and energetic, she needed that as there were lots of work at hand.

She went out to her room to go downstairs, mentally taking notes of the work that needs to be done. Nikita had come to Mumbai on very short notice and even though she knew this two-storied family house would be too big for her and would not even be properly sorted by the time she came, she still choose it for its secluded location. Privacy mattered to her more than anything, and also this place held a lot of good memories for her. Even though she stayed separated from her family, she cherished some of those precious memories. When they got this place she was still very young but she insisted to be by her mother's side as she decorated the place, and her mom agreed and they selected every item together, that was one of the best summer vacations she had.

The house was fully furnished with exquisite furniture and paintings. The top floor had 2 bedroom suites with attached walk-in closets, balconies, and bathrooms in each room, it had a cozy living room as well, with walls which were adorned by pictures of Nikita from her childhood till her early twenties, with her family and friends. She quickly swept her eyes on them feeling a tug at her heart. There was also a workroom cum library which was mostly used by her father when they stayed here.

The lower floor had 3 guest bedrooms but the main attraction was the joined living and dining area in the middle, lavishly decorated with modern furniture, artwork, showpieces, and a home theater set-up. There was also a small open kitchen space with all the necessary appliances to prepare any quick food. The main kitchen was outside the villa attached to the staff quarters where the cook prepared the meals. Currently, the staff quarter had her usual chef and two house helps who came here a day before Nikki and could only clean up the living and dining area and the master bedroom before she arrived. 

As Nikki reached downstairs she was greeted by one of the staff "Good morning Beta."

"Good morning aunty," Nikki replied to the elderly woman. 

Shila aunty served freshly prepared coffee on the table as she knew this is what Nikki have first thing in the morning "Breakfast will be here in 10 minutes."

"I am not in the mood for breakfast." 

"No, no you will need to have breakfast." the older woman chided lovingly. Nikki knew there was no point arguing much, Shila will nag continuously still she ate so she decided to save herself from the lecture. Where other staff just followed her orders, only the elderly woman countered her, and that's because she was with Nikki and her family since she was a kid and cared for her in a motherly way and not to mention the most trusted one. That is why Nikita's mother made sure Shila is always there to take care of her. 

The other house help came from the backdoor with the breakfast "Good morning Ma'am."

"Good morning Julie." Nikki greeted back "Oh! can you please unpack my luggage and put the clothes in the closet? Yesterday I didn't get any time."

"Of course, I will do it right now." and she headed upstairs

"Beta you only brought two bags?" 

"Aunty I didn't want to drag too many things with me so only got the necessary ones. I will just buy other things when I need them, and maybe get some decor for the house as well, to add a bit more color." She said looking around the room.

"Yes, it's been a while since anyone occupied this place. Usually your parents..."

"Yes, I know" Nikki cut her off. She didn't like talking about her parents with anyone, besides she knew they stayed at their apartment in the heart of Mumbai whenever they were in the city. They used to come here mainly for family gatherings and events, which didn't happen in a while.

Shila aunty understood her agitation so she changed the topic "Maybe you can go out today? While you do your shopping, we can clear things up here. It will be difficult to get things done if you work and we have so many things left to do. Also, the cars are here."

"Cars? I only asked for one."

"Your mom insisted." came the reply.

"Of course she did," Nikki rolled her eyes. She quickly finished her breakfast and went upstairs to get ready.

As Nikita was leaving she called upon the older house help "Aunty I am going out. Please clean the top floor today, the guest bedrooms can wait.... uhhh and please take down the pictures from the wall."

"But Beta..." Nikita left from the backdoor towards the garage, not giving her a chance to finish. She didn't want any argument or convincing about this. 

As Nikki entered the garage she could see 3 cars there, one was the one she asked for, a brand new white Toyota Premio, a comfortable and somewhat low-key car compared to the other 2. The second one was a metallic grey Mercedes Benz E-class and Nikki immediately recognized it as one of her mother's cars, in fact, it was her most favorite one, now she understood why her mother insisted on this one. The last one got her interest the most, it was a matte black Audi convertible sports car, and she saw a card underneath the wipers so took it out to read:

'In case you ever want to go for a long drive. - Ish'

Nikki crumpled the card as flashes of such mentioned long drives echoed from her past. She was brought back to reality when she heard one of the drivers who came after her and asked which car she wanted to take. She choose her mother's car and as Nikki sat in the back seat of the car she could smell traces of her mother's perfume and smiled. 

                                                                                   ***********************

Abhi woke up around his usual time despite today being a Saturday. For him off days are the same as any other day, he will wake up early, work out and have breakfast, get some work done, maybe go out for some household work and sometimes even drop by the hospital on Saturday/Sunday. 

While eating his breakfast, Abhi was surfing through a file when he got a call and looked at his screen to see it was from Nikita.

"Hello?"

"Hi! Sorry for disturbing you on weekend." Nikki started with an apology.

"Not at all. Please tell me to what do I owe this pleasure, Dr. Malhotra?"

Nikki was surprised by his formal tone, then remembered last night's incident "Please don't take Armaan so seriously."

Abhi laughed "But I should definitely thank you. I never thought I will see the day when The Armaan Malik will apologize, that too to me. What secret superpowers do you have?"

"There is a reason why it's called secret superpowers... if I tell you then I will have to kill you, Dr. Modi," Nikki replied tongue in cheek "and we didn't even start working together so I don't want to kill you as of yet."

"So considerate of you." Abhi replied with a smile "But tell me what made you think of me on a weekend?"

"Oh yes, about that... will it be possible to get copies of the New Sanjeevani Project's file? I can send someone to collect them from you or the hospital. I completely forgot about it yesterday after meeting the gang."

"Nikitaaaaa..." he drawled on her name :..it's the weekend and you don't officially start work till Monday, moreover I am not sure if you even got settled yet." Abhimanyu was genuinely surprised.

"Abhimanyuuuuu..." she used the same tone as he did with her name which made him smile, "I thought you would know by now that I like being prepared beforehand so I would like to have a clear idea about the project before Monday, that way we won't have to waste time. And as for me being settling here, that's taken care of." 

"Thik hain meri maa..." Abhi couldn't argue with her anymore, rather he was amazed by her dedication. "Will you come to pick it up?" 

"No I am already out for some work and it may take a while so I will just send someone else to pick up the files and I can go over them at night. You can message me the address."

"Okay sure. I might go out after a few hours but you can send someone before that." Abhi couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed.

                                                                                        *****************

"Thanks, Abhi.." and she disconnected the call. Nikki took out her other phone which she used only for personal calls and just a handful of people had that number and quickly called at home to instruct Shila to send the other driver to Abhimanyu's place to collect the files. 

Meanwhile, she reached the shopping mall, still not sure if she should go on a full-on shopping spree or shop thoughtfully. It didn't take her much time to decide that this is the only sector she lacked self-control and figured she will just accept her true self and move ahead. Moreover, contrary to popular practice she liked to shop alone and take her sweet time. She never cared about other people's opinions and got what she thought suited her best, if she was confused among options she will just get all of them, simply refusing to stay awake at night thinking 'maybe I should have gotten that dress or shoe.'

Soon her hands were full of bags as she went around a lot of shops and bought quite a few clothing pieces of both formal and casual wear, and one gorgeous saree that she couldn't take her eyes off of, and planned to wear it at one of Armaam and Ridzi's functions. She had to call her driver to come up and take the bags as they were getting too much to carry. He had to make another trip to collect more bags when Nikki was done shopping for shoes and some jewelry. After handing those bags over she went to the home decor section, and her eyes lit up seeing the wide range of collections. She took her time to select a few statement pieces to grace her home and her new office room. After clearing the bill she called her driver to come in front of the mall as she was done for the day. Waiting at the entrance for her driver to bring the car she heard someone call her name and turned to see it was Abhi.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"You are not the only one who shops Nikki," he replied pointing at his lone shopping bag "Though it looks like you shopped on everyone's behalf," he added eyeing the big bunch of bags in her hands. "Tell me something, did you think the salary mentioned in your contract was of per day? Or you mistakenly thought there was an extra zero?" he asked with amusement.

"Please Abhi, don't embarrass me." but her stars weren't in her favor, as at that moment her car pulled over and the driver came out and walked towards them.

"Whoooaaa, that's your car?" Abhi's eyebrows shot up in surprise admiring the beautiful Benz and they threatened to get lost under his hair when he heard the driver say "Ma'am the trunk is already full, will have to keep these bags at the front, and some at the back seat." as he took the bags from Nikki, while she blushed profusely. 

"Wait... He is not the one who picked up files from my place a few hours ago." Abhi frowned.

"No, that was the other driver," Nikki replied uneasily. No matter how much of a lavish life she had, she never liked to show off to others, especially not to her colleagues and here she was in this awkward situation with her new boss.

Abhi let out a breath of surprise "What do you actually do Nikita? Because being a doctor can't be the only job you have." 

"Actually being a doctor is my main job, my side hustle is having wealthy parents." Nikki joked trying to make the situation light.

"And what do they do?" Abhi couldn't help but ask.

Nikki's eyes turned icy in a flash but she held onto her smile "Don't ask me such questions and I will tell you no lies." that was enough to let Abhi know not to ask any more questions regarding this. 

"Uhh okay...sorry" 

Nikki instantly felt guilty for her sudden coldness, 'We were just having a friendly banter' she told herself. This time she gave a genuine smile "How about we go for lunch? I forgot to eat while shopping and I am starving."

Seeing her change back to her usual self Abhi relaxed a bit "As long as it's your treat, Ms. Richie Rich."

Nikki couldn't help but laugh "Of course."

"Uhh your driver is waiting, maybe let him go? And it doesn't look like your car has any space left for you anyway. I will drop you off." Abhi offered.

"That will be perfect," Nikki asked her driver to head home, and then Abhi and Nikki went to a nearby restaurant for lunch.

Taking her previous hint Abhi avoided asking any more personal questions and choose to pull her leg some more.

"I am surprised you are still being so normal. I thought your friends' would have convinced you by now that I am the bad guy in the drama of Sanjeevani."

Nikki had to suppress her laugh as she thought of last night's conversation. "I don't change my opinion based on other people. And how do you know I haven't convinced them other wise?" 

"No way. Maybe you can take Armaan one-on-one but the whole gang? There is not enough superpower in this world."

"You never know Abhimanyu. Wait till you see for yourself." Nikki smirked.

Suddenly her phone rang and unsure which one was ringing she hastily took both of them out from her bag and seeing it was Shila she quickly answered. 

"No, I won't come for lunch. Also, I sent the car home with the bags so please take care of them. Thanks." Nikki cut the call and noticed Abhi was eyeing her phones "Uuhhh I use one for work purposes and one strictly for personal use."

Abhi just shook his head "You are like a box full of mysteries Nikki." he commented 

"Yeah.." Nikki laughed "And it's Pandora's Box so don't open it."

Abhi laughed at her warning but switched the conversation and chose to know more about her time back at Apollo hospital.

After their lunch, Abhi drove Nikki to her house where he got surprised again at the sight of the massive and luxurious house.

'Oh, God! How did I forget about this?' Nikki thought to herself and turned to look at Abhi expecting some more questions. He just put his hands up in surrender and said "No questions."

Nikki gave a broad smile at his gesture, feeling grateful that he respected her space. She put a hand on his arm "Thanks, Abhi." and got out of the car while he waited till she reached inside the house and then he too drove away.

Author's Note ~

1) What do you guys think about the different take on Nikki's character and life?

2) How are you liking the story so far? Please leave your precious feedback, it will mean so much to me.

Lots of love