Chapter 105 - 104

Charan walked into his office sharply on time but came to a standstill as soon as opened his doors. He blinked several times to make sure he wasn't seeing things. There were at least a dozen stalks of files piled up on his desk.

Charan instantly called Ajay to his cabin. Just as he sat down, Ajay came in being his usual chipper self.

"Hey, Charan. Good to see you again in the office." Ajay said with a smile.

Charan gave Ajay a once over. Somehow it did not seem like Ajay was being sarcastic because he hadn't been to the office for four straight days. The first two days, he had to look after Akira, and then it was the weekend.

"Aren't you being a little too much a ray of sunshine this morning??" Charan enquired.

"Aren't you being too gloomy this morning??" Ajay asked back and definitely ridiculing Charan.

"You will be too if you are facing this many files on a Monday morning!! I was gone for four days. NOT AN YEAR. How did you guys come up with so much work for me in such a short time!!" Charan asked slightly pissed.

"We didn't do anything. Ask your girlfriend what she did!! I have half the amount of what you have and I worked all four days. SO you can only imagine how much more there was." Ajay said sneering and walked out without actually explaining anything.

Charan was confused. The mall project was almost done. SO it was impossible to have so much work on it. So he curiously opened one of the files. After reading it through, he blinked at it shell shocked for a while. It was actually a job offer to build a Private art gallery… top of the class. He then looked around and each file was named but none of them had the name of the clients he was familiar with. But then he saw a few familiar names… they were companies closely associated with Sri corp. Now he knew why Ajay told him to ask Shreya.

And that was exactly what he did. He called Shreya up.

"Hey, you missed me already??" Shreya teased on the other end.

"Oh, you wish sweetheart. You wish!" Charan teased back.

"Oh really. Then why are you calling me as soon as you sat in your office??" Shreya asked flipped pages in the file in front of her.

"Why are people suddenly offering us jobs?? Like a whole lot of jobs. Many of your associates too…" Charan asked cutting to the chase.

"How would I know?? Oh, wait. I think I know why! The company had started promotions this week for the mall." Shreya confessed.

"And??" Charan asked away not really getting what she was saying.

"Of course your firm's name is on the promotional posters as designers, dumbo," Shreya replied rolling her eyes.

"Oh!" That was all Charan could manage at the moment anyway. He hadn't thought of it. When he first took the mall project, it was a shock in itself and the work after had been hell. SO he never really had the time or mind to think of the consequences of accepting it. And after squeezing themselves dry, they had successfully finished the project. And once that happened, all the three of them could think of was to take a break which they did. So none of them foresaw this happening.

"You start screening the projects. It is not really practical to accept everything. Start with viability and feasibility… then watch if the project is engaging for you guys and lastly compare the pay. Things will be simpler when you do it in that order. Okay bye for now. I need to be in a meeting in 5 minutes." She said and hung up the phone.

Charan too got back to work. Shreya's advice helped. If she hadn't given them, he would have been in a great deal of trouble.

By the time he was done with all the files, he had filtered down 3 projects that he really liked and Shreya helped with the background on the clients. He cracked his knuckles and neck and sat back leisurely at last. It was late… almost midnight. Akira is with Shreya so he needn't worry. But damn his back hurt.

When he came out of the office, he saw Ajay was still in. He went in and found his napping on his desk.

Charan patted on his head and woke him up.

"Go home and sleep, idiot. We will deal with the rest tomorrow." Charan said and left him. Thankfully Ajay heeded and left home right behind him.

When he entered the living room, he was met with the sight of Shreya sleeping on the couch as always. He smiled subconsciously. He leaned on the wall of the living room and just kept staring at her. There was something really comforting about this scene. The familiarity of it and the good intentions behind it… and the fact that he can expect this every single time… it was like an elixir giving him life. All of his exhaustion vanished in a second.

Charan approached her sleeping figure and sat beside. Shreya's eyes fluttered open when she felt the couch dip beside her.

"Hey there…" She greeted him groggily.

"Hey back…" Charan greeted back smiling. His hands kept caressing her head gently making her eyes droop all over again. But Shreya fought back and asked, "Have you had anything to eat??"

"Why?? Are you going to go make instant noodles in a pan??" Charan teased.

Shreya's eyes opened wide and glared at him. "Of course not. Ramani made dinner." She said and pouted away.

Charan chucked at her antics and pecked her glaring eyes.

"I will eat. You go to sleep okay??" Charan spoke once her glaring calmed down.

Shreya shook her head but her eyes dropped shut. Charan lifted her and laid her on her bedroom and tucked her in.

After eating and freshening up, he went to check up on Akira. She was soundly sleeping amongst her innumerable number of plush toys. The bed was practically overflowing with them and Shreya was still buying those for her. No amount of lecture on common sense to either of them seemed to be working. So he let it go.

He then checked up on Shreya. She was sleeping hugging a pillow tightly. He then went and slept on the couch.