Forever And Always ~ OS/TS Series ?

5. Monster Loves Orchids

“If you are done Tweeting, can I show you the errors in this file?”
He spoke for 15 minutes on how I wasn’t working hard enough and that there are people desperately waiting to get my job. I listened quietly as people passed by. I held back my tears and thought, Someday I am going to kick you and get you a plaster on your legs.

“Sorry,” I said.

I did make some mistakes in the project but the rude words were uncalled for. I was working twice as hard as any full time employee, but for no money, and here he was yelling on my face on how I wasn’t working hard enough. I wanted to throw the papers on his face and walk out, but I couldn’t. I wondered why he was like this; why he nurtured so much hatred. Was this because of that first day’s incident or was it how he was in real life. He was rude to everyone around him, but his attitude towards me was just unfathomable. He took special interest in hurting me.

“I will correct them today,” I said.

“When? Its 6 PM already,” he asked with a frown.

“It’s too early for me to leave. I work till 8 PM every day, in case you haven’t noticed” I said indifferently and resumed working. He stood there for a few seconds and left without saying a word. That was a first.

In the next few months, I and Manik had become co-dependent. I was dependent on him to stay in the company and he was dependent on me for work. I would never complain working nights and weekends and I always completed my projects before time; he knew that. We shared a hate-hate relationship. He hated me because he couldn’t break me and I hated him for trying to break me. We somehow co-existed through our differences.

In one of our conferences, he looked extremely feeble. He had been working nights on winning an investment firm’s attention. In the meeting with the firm, he barely managed to speak.

Everyone noticed his weak disposition but nobody dared to ask if he was OK. Manik being Manik, made a good impact on the clients despite his weakness, and they left happily that night. A part of me wanted to leave and the other part wanted to stay back. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. “An ill person can never be bad,” I remembered these words from an old classic Indian movie. I asked if he was OK, scared to death that he may just throw me out of the 61st floor for asking him that. He asked me to leave him alone.

“You don’t look OK. Is there anything I can get you?” I asked.

“Did you not understand what I just said? Leave me alone”,  he replied.

“I am not leaving without getting you some medical attention” I sounded persistent.

He looked at me alarmingly but didn’t comment. He was quiet for a moment and then asked me to give him his medicine bag that was placed on a stool. He took his medicine and said, “I have taken my painkiller; had a minor headache. Can you leave now? It’s too late so I have informed my driver, he will give you a ride home. Now please leave.”

That was the first act of kindness he had shown towards me. I was touched. On my way back home I wondered how he was trying to hide a kind heart behind a tough exterior. That moment i realised that I have fallen for his Monster, very badly.

Next day I was having lunch with my colleague Smaran in the company cafeteria. I and Smaran had become good friends and we used to share our stories. He said Manik’s wife had left him for another man after eight years of marriage. He added, “I wonder why!” and laughed.