The Addiction of Love

II

The next day was Saturday, but Avira still went to the office for a few hours. She was a fashion designer and had obtained her degree from NIFT, Delhi. After finishing her course, she started to apply for jobs at different fashion companies. During that time, her college professor introduced her to Antara Kapoor. She was an alumni of NIFT herself, and had started her own fashion line. Avira and Antara's ideologies matched, and Antara offered a job of a designer to Avira.

When Avira joined Antara's company, 'Fashionista', there were only 15 employees working there. They all worked very hard, and it paid off. Today, three years later, Fashionista was one of the leading fashion brands in the country and had started to venture out abroad as well. And from the 15, they went up to almost 250 employees.

Avira had a huge hand in making Fashionista what it was today, and from a mere designer, she had been promoted as the Creative Director of the company. She was also one of the shareholders in the company.

"So much white is making it look dull. We need to give it some character. How about a belt in fuchsia pink color?" Avira picked up a fuchsia pink colored cloth from the table and wrapped it around the mannequin's waist.

"Much better, no?" She asked the designers.

"Yes, ma'am." They agreed.

They experimented with a few other colors as well before finalising the design. After that, Avira let them off to enjoy the weekend and went to Antara's cabin.

"You know that Saturday isn't a working day in our office, right?" Antara asked sarcastically.

Avira rolled her eyes. "And still you're in office as well."

"I'm the founder. I can do whatever I please. And moreover, I don't have a partner to spend my weekends with."

"Exactly, neither do I." Avira stated.

"You're young, Avira. Stop spending all your time at the office. Get a boyfriend, get a life." Antara tried to convince her.

"Says the woman who still hasn't married herself." Avira retorted back. Antara was a 36 year old single woman.

"Yes, because I don't want you to end up like me. I was so surrounded by my passion for work that I never had time to fall in love. And now, even after having such a successful company, I return back to an empty apartment every night and hug myself to sleep." Her voice echoed of loneliness, and suddenly Avira felt bad for her.

"Antara.." Avira held her hand.

"I'm fine. I've gotten used to this life." She sadly smiled.

After talking to Antara for a while, Avira bid her goodbye and left for home. While walking towards her car, she received a text from Ashar again.

Do you like Chinese? There is an amazing restaurant, The China Kitchen, that serves the best chilli chicken. Do you want to try it out tonight?

Avira loved chinese. But this would not lure her into replying to him. So, for the second time, she left his text on seen.

After reaching home, she did her laundry and cleaned the entire apartment. And then for dinner, she ordered smoky noodles, fried rice and chilli chicken from The Chinese Kitchen.

When she took the first bite of the chicken, she couldn't help but moan. It was indeed the best chilli chicken she'd ever tasted.

He had a good taste in food! She thought but then shook it off thinking that it shouldn't matter to her.

After dinner, she called her family and talked to them for a while. Her mother asked if she would meet Ashar, but she just avoided answering it.

When she woke up on Sunday, her phone had another message from Ashar.