Homecoming

"Heyyy!! Welcome back dude!!", screamed Ananya the moment she saw Avik swiping his card to enter the office. He was clearly taken aback by the intensity of the warmth with which she greeted him. She rushed towards him in excitement for a celebratory embrace, just before Avik popped out his hand for a greeting.

"Ohh!! Thanks a lot yaar, and same to you as well", he answered back in a feeble tone with cheeks stretched out in an attempt to produce a smile. Afterall, the two of them had managed to come back to the Head Office in Mumbai after a gruelling two month sales stint in remote corners of the country. Today was their first day with the marketing team, which was more a relief than a dream come true.

Ananya was the chirpier and more excited of the two as they had their introduction with their new team. "The guy is very reserved and is hardly speaking and looks totally lost. I don't know if I would ever have a conversation with him", one of the guys whispered into the other's ears during that session. Their aspersions went a notch higher when Mandip, their boss asked Avik about his sales stint in Ranchi. Taken aback by the sudden question directed at him, all that Avik could come up with was, "It is a good city Sir! Though very small for a state capital, but I managed to stay in a good hotel for the month spent there!"

Everyone went quiet with Avik after that.

Being their first day, Avik and Ananya were given some introductory presentations and word documents to go through by their respective brand teams. Very slowly and reluctantly, Avik put the laptop on his desk and plugged in the LAN cable. Sipping his cup of coffee, he browsed through the files forwarded to him by his mentor and was deliberating over which one to click on first. And then, the taskbar at the bottom of his screen started winking at him, shouting Ananya's name. Wary of the course their chat would take, he clicked on the ping she had just sent.

Kaushik Ananya: Hws it goin dude??

                             M gettng bored at my desk, all oldies arnd me :(

Khanna Avik: Kinda fine at my end.

                       Got these two guys sharing the cabin with me.

                       Aint really lonly ovr here

Kaushik Ananya: Cm ovr to my desk, we ll go out fr a coffee abhi

Khanna Avik: I jus got myslf a cup.

                       Wll join u fr lnch defntly. Hardly 10 mts fr it

Kaushik Ananya: :(

                            y not, aftrall we ve got lnch wd nrithi 2day aftrall :P

Khanna Avik: yeahh, mayb :)

Kaushik Ananya: btw, hw ws it last nyt?? ur homecomng  :D

Khanna Avik: Rchd prtty late, jus had dinnr n slept ff!!

Kaushik Ananya: Temme u r kiddng.

                              Nrithi wud hv been waitg fr u all decked up, hot dinnr cooked up n all :P

Khanna Avik: yupp, dinnr was dere and so ws she

Kaushik Ananya: one luckky bastard u r!!

                              sharing the cmpny accomodatn wd ur gal

                              ppl jus dream abt thngs n u ve got it all in ur kitty

                              do u appreciat any f it dude?? :P

Khanna Avik: nw i do

                        hws ur boss btw??

                        mine seems prtty relaxd untl nw

Kaushik Ananya: mine looks like a workaholic :(

                              chal get up nw, its lunch time nw :)

                              we ll goto nrithi's place, jus pingd her n she askd us 2 cm ovr dere

Khanna Avik: gimme 5 mts

                        u mk a move, wll join u in a while

Kaushik Ananya: okies, better hurry up

                              n lemme knw if u dnt wnt me to b dere fr ur lunch date ;)

Khanna Avik: naah naah, nthg like dat

                        u re alwaz welcm

                        loggng out fr nw, cya at her tabl nw

                        bye

Kaushik Ananya: cool den :)

                              jaldi aa

                              we, oops sorry, she ll b waitng ;)

                              ciao

Avik put the laptop screen down in an instant and made his way out of the cabin. Head down, he quickly made his way to the restroom. Once in, he took out his cellphone and started pressing the keypad with tremendous anxiety.

 "Ananya made me very uncomfortable right now. What should i do?? I don't feel like having lunch :( ", he keyed in and selected the Send option.

And then he turned on the tap to splash some water on his downcast face and watery eyes.

The phone buzzed again in his pocket. The reply had come in an instant, as always, he told himself.

"Don't worry. Just act your normal self and do come up for lunch. I'll share the details with her in due course of time", Nrithika responded.

Avik collected his lunchbox and made his way to the floor above.