Feelings

4

It had been 2 months since Neha started working at the café , and the past two months were the most stressful two months of her entire life , she was always worried about her family , her education and her research project which she was working on , she was always stressed and was sleep deprived , her anxiety levels were increasing day by day . Though she was assigned to work only for 4 hours at the café , but Neha was a dedicated girl ,she did everything with her heart , but her friends specially Neelima was very worried about her , she frequently asks her to take breaks and offers a helping hand but even though Neha was both physically and mentally tiered , she never took any help from her friends be it financially or physically . As mentioned earlier , Neha was indeed a very famous girl but that was not only because she was a beautiful and charming girl but because she a smart , loving and caring girl and she was loved by everyone be it students of the university or the professors . Neha’s friends were quite worried about her because it’s really difficult to see a friend struggling so much and that too when his or her career is at stake .

Apart from Neelima , Neha had one more close friend , Vineet , he was one of the most popular guys in the college , he was a thin though handsome , rich and a very down to Earth boy . Vineet was a very close friend of Neha , Vineet liked Neha , but deep down he knew her aspirations and her dedication towards study and her own research , so he kept his feeling to himself though Neha knew about his feelings because honestly boys are bad at hiding their feelings when it comes to liking a girl , on the other hand in this particular case girls always know everything . One fine evening , all of Neha’s friends along with Neelima and Vineet went to the café , where Neha was working , they rushed in and asked her to come to Vineet’s birthday party tomorrow , to this Neha replied , ” I am sorry guys but I won’t be able to ” , but her friends were prepared for this argument , they started to make points like , you haven’t been out since a long time ,you need a break and lots more , Vineet really wanted Neha to come to his party because he cared a lot about Neha and he could easily see how stressed she was from the past few months , so he really wanted to give her a break and some time to relax , so out of peer pressure Neha agreed to come to the party tomorrow but she said that she would come only on one condition that her friends won’t force her to stay long , because she doesn’t want to leave her family for long , her mother was still recovering from the fracture , though her younger sister was there to help her but she preferred working by herself . Though Neha agreed to come to the part out of peer pressure , she herself knew that it had been a long time since she had actually chilled , the past few months have been quite difficult for her and her family and she really needed to take a break .

The night finally came , when Hercules accepted Viraj’s idea of throwing a party at his farmhouse on the outskirts of Delhi , inviting several CEOs of bit IT firms in India , along with several CEOs , Viraj advised Hercules to invite local leaders and some of the ministers from the state , that would help him in expanding his empire in India . The party had just started and  most of the people have already arrived , everyone was waiting to meet Hercules , the moment finally came when a black Rolls – Royce stopped at the main gate and everyone started looking towards the man walking out of the car , the man himself Hercules .

Hercules made his way to the stage , on his way shaking several hands , and exchanging a number of smiles , Hercules stood at the stage and began his speech ,

“ Good Evening , to all the lovely ladies and Gentleman present over here , I am glad you all could make it to the party , now let me introduce myself , I am Hercules Knight , the founder and the CEO of the Horizon . You must be knowing the company Horizon but what you don’t know is the story and hard work behind the success of Horizon , me and my team started from the scratch  , my team had the potential but what they were lacking of was a leader , a leader c*m partner , I found my team and guided them and  started from scratch and today we’re here in front of you . Now as you all know we’re here to expand our empire and bring it to India , I know that I won’t be able to join hands with each and everyone her but I hope we maintain a friendship over rivalry in business , and to the one we’ll be joining hands with , we are glad to welcome the one to our family .  Cheers , please enjoy the party .”

Everyone there knew that Hercules was going to choose only a few of them , so the competition was pretty tough , everyone was nervous except Mr. Khurana . Mr. Khurana was the CEO of “ Wiz – tech ” , came to the party with his wife , he was in his early 30s , and his wife was in her mid 20s  , she was indeed a beautiful woman . Everyone was focussed on Hercules ,they were nervous and were actually sweating , everyone had eyes on him , one by one everyone was trying to have a friendly conversation with Hercules , because a merger with the Horizon could mean a once in a lifetime opportunity to them and their respective companies . When everyone was racking lame jokes , talking to Hercules about stuff that didn’t even matter in order to impress him , Mr. Khurana was already to pitch in his offer to Hercules , he goes to Hercules , Hercules sees him from a distance and says , “ Welcome Mr. Khurana , it’s a pleasure to have you here ”, to this Mr. Khurana replies , “ It’s an honour to meet you Mr. Hercules , and we all are glad that you gave us the opportunity to merge with Horizon , we all have heard a lot about you and Horizon in Zurich , Wiz – tech is quite interested to merge with Horizon , so I hope that you will consider us  ” , Hercules smiled and said , “ Sure , Mr.  Khurana .” Though Hercules was least interested in joining his hands with Wiz – tech .

Shaila Khurana , wife of Mr. Khurana , was woman with beauty and brains , she knew about Hercules and his empire more than Mr. Khurana , Shaila belonged to a business class family from her very birth , she was always interested in business related articles and magazines , she knew that Hercules was going to pick only few of the best companies present over there  and she knew Wiz – tech was nothing as compared to Horizon but she really wanted Hercules to join hand with Wiz – tech .

Hercules , as told earlier was a man filled with lust and s****l desires , he saw woman as a way of satisfying , he thought that every woman on this planet he wanted to sleep with will sleep with him for sure . Hercules saw Mrs. Khurana from a distance , a few moments later , Mr. Khurana came back to Hercules along with his wife , he introduced his wife to Hercules , what Hercules didn’t know was that Mrs. Khurana knew everything about Hercules even his character , and she saw Hercules staring at her , so she knew that Hercules wanted to sleep with her , and on the other hand Mrs. Khurana really wanted Horizon to shake hands with Wiz – tech .

Hercules and Mrs. Khurana shared a number of long eye contacts , Shaila and Hercules were continuously looking at each other , Hercules was intimated by her figure and her looks . When Mr. Malhotra introduced his wife to Hercules , Hercules out of respect gestures his hand for a handshake and says “ pleasure to meet you Mrs. Khurana ” , Shaila shook hands with him , and says , “ the pleasure is all mine Mr. Hercules ”, as soon as she finishes her sentence , she squeezes Knight’s  hand a little , and kept holding it for a while . Shaila’s gesture of seducing him was  quite clear to Hercules  , for moments at the party they stood still , looking into each other’s eyes , it felt like their eyes were talking to each other . Meanwhile Mr. Malhotra was telling Hercules about his wife along with his business , how they both got married , and she supported him in every aspect of life be it in business too , he was telling him that his wife holds the position of COO in his company Wiz – tech , Hercules wasn’t even listening to Mr. Khurana , but as he continued , Hercules replied , “ I’m sure she is ,” to this Shaila replied , “ I sure am supportive , and I can support you too ! I mean our company will be glad to join hands with you ,”to this Hercules replied “ Sure !  I think our partnership will work wonders ,” hearing this , Mr. Malhotra couldn’t control his smile and excitement because it really meant a lot to him for Hercules to say this , Mr. Malhotra lifted his glass of whiskey up , giving a toast with “ To the future of great Hercules Knight ! ”

About a mile away from the farmhouse , there was a party at a restaurant , the hall was decorated , and the entrance had the sign “ Happy Birthday Vineet ” , the party was quite loud , the sounds of the DJ could be heard from a distance , almost the whole college was present there , everyone was busy in partying ,dancing and drinking , everyone was wishing Vineet but Vineet didn’t look very happy . Shivam , his best – friend  came to him and asked ,

“ Why aren’t you enjoying the party ? You don’t look very happy , what’s the matter ?”

To this Vineet replied ,

“ I asked Neha to come to the party and I really want her to come but I don’t think she would come . ”

“ She’ll definitely come brother , and it’s your day today , just go to her and tell her about your feelings ” , Shivam said .

“ I’m not sure if it’s the right time ” , Vineet replied .

Vineet was totally into Neha , from the very beginning of the college but could never gather up the courage to tell Neha about his feelings and the way he felt about her , though the whole college knew that Vineet liked Neha a lot .

Outside the hotel Neha and Neelima step out of their car , as they started walking towards the entrance , Neha turns around and stops there for a moment  and says ,

“ I really don’t think I should be here tonight .”

To this Neelima replied ,

“ Neha this is the place where you should be right now , and more than  anything , it’s Vineet’s birthday , through all your tough times Vineet had your back without even being in the light , he has been into you since the very first day of the college , he was always there for you and I really think he deserves some respect , he himself invited you to his party . ”

“ I know Neelima , I know everything , and I do like him too , but it’s just that my mind is not in the right place , I don’t want to think about Vineet right now , and I don’t want to ruin anything between us by doing something stupid ” , Neha replied .

From the inside Vineet sees Neha and Neelima coming towards the entrance , Vineet rushes towards the entrance through the crowd and reaches towards them and says ,

“ Hey ! thank you for coming to the party guys .”

To this both Neha and Neelima smiled and Neha gives a gift to Vineet which read on the chit “ From Neha and Neelima ”

Vineet took them both inside the part , all their friends were quite happy to see Neha at the party , they all went to the bar table , drank shots of Vodka , and as soon as they finished everyone started rushing to the dance floor except Neha , Neelima comes to her and asks her to come and dance with everyone ,

“ I think I shouldn’t have taken the shots , I am not feeling well , I’m  right here , you guys carry on  ”  , Neha said .

“ Okay , as you say ”, Neelima replied .

 Everyone was dancing at the stage , Shivam came to the stage with another round of shots for Vineet , the music was so loud that Shivam literally had to shout in Vineet’s ears ,

“ Here you go birthday boy , now come on go and tell her about your feelings .”

But Vineet didn’t reply to Shivam this time , SHivam without wasting any other second turns towards Neelima and says ,

“ Dude ? don’t you want to see these two kids together , just do something ,tell Vineet to go and propose her now .”

“ I want them to be together , but I don’t know if it’s the right time ”

Neha was sitting next to the bar table , though her entire days were passing by with her overthinking about her problems and about what had happened to her family , but just for a moment Neha was indeed happy to see her friends dancing insanely at the dancing floor , she smiled after a very long time . Vineet was continuously looking at Neha from the dance floor , as soon as he saw Neha smiling he said ,

“ Shivam , I think Neelima is right now is not a good time to confess my feelings to her .”