"Excellent work, Shikha! You implemented the changes that I have suggested and added a few extra features to improve functionality. Great work!" praised Vikram, suppressing the disbelief and surprise slithering and wrapping itself around his shrewd mind.

"Thank you, Sir. Your encouragement and trust played a significant role in boosting my morale and confidence," replied Shikha, allowing her anticipating frown to morph into elated grin as worry lines faded away from her slightly flushed face.

Vikram chuckled, shaking his head at the irony. His sugarcoated fleeting false words of encouragement had helped her metamorphose and show her true potential. He wondered if the reason of her poor performance had been despondence and underestimation by other all along. He felt a surge of satisfaction and his heart swelled with pride for being the cause of the change in her, even though that was not his intention.

"I am sure that you will be able to successfully complete the project by the end of the internship period which is barely two weeks away. And like I promised, you will get the full credit for the project," assured Vikram, trying to shake away the remorse making its way towards the impenetrable fortress around his heart.

The mention of the fact that the day of their separation was drawing close made her face the sorrow and disappointment she had been avoiding since the realization struck her. Unknowingly, she had started to relish his presence and the moment spent together to an extent that the rest of the day passed in anticipation and awaiting the chance to be in his tantalizing company.

"Can I ask you something, Sir?" she asked, nervously. "Actually two questions, Sir. May I?"

"Of course. Anything," he replied, looking at her curiously and quizzically.

"How to get the chance to continue working for your company?" she questioned, choosing to ask the more professional and easier question before she popped the tougher and more personal one.

The undertone of desperation and disappointment to her words conveyed her earnest desire to not part from him. Pleasure and satisfaction licked at the base of his spine, relishing and cherishing the way her doe-like eyes pleaded for him to utter anything that would ward her fears away.

"Well, unfortunately Shikha, the minimum experience to join the company is two years and we never take freshers. However, once you check that criteria off the list, you can apply once again and I would gladly accept your application," he answered, fighting his instinct to offer her the job without any second thought.

He struggled the suppress the pangs of regret and agony ravaging his heart as anguish and despondency flashed on her soft features. The way her appealing, innocent and startling eyes pleaded him to disregard his previous words and shrug it away as a joke, tugged at the strings of the heart he had previously not known.

"And, what was your second question?" he prompted, wishing to lighten the atmosphere and not dwell upon their regrets.

The imminent separation braved her to pose the question which had been troubling her. She did not want the doubt to trouble her for the rest of her life, with no chance to unravel the mystery behind the same, and his answer to her previous question was just the trigger that she needed to shoot the question.

"I know I should not have eavesdropped but I could not help but hear a part of your conversation the other day. You mentioned that something was snatched from you and you wished to find the same once again in the form of your lady love. I was just wondering what it could be," she said, voicing the last part in a single breath as the fear of his reaction overpowered her curiosity.

Vikram smirked internally and lauded Shekhar for the ingenious idea which seemed quite frivolous and outrageous in the past. He paused for effect and morphed his features into a thoughtful and nostalgic sneer.

"I am sorry, that is incredibly personal. I should not-"

"Innocence."

"-have asked that. Wait, what? Innocence?" she asked, surprised by his answer after the calculated pregnant silence.

"Yes. Innocence. Someone who had safeguarded my innocence was snatched from me and with them gone, my innocence was gone too. That's what I have been searching all my life since then," he answered, half-smiling, and allowing his heart to take over his vocal cords for once from his mind.

The slight quiver in his voice and the way his eyes glazed gradually with every word enunciated moved her emotional heart and made tears swell up in her eyes. To see the man, who made shivers run across everyone's spines in the whole state, vulnerable was heartrending and heartwarming at the same time.

"I am sure that you will find that soon!" she exclaimed, placing her hand gently over his, hoping that he would not mind the liberty she had taken in touching him.

He had imagined her affectionate touch several times in his wild imaginations but none of them could do justice to the sheer ecstasy that her soothing touch brought along. The fact that she took the liberty to console him and assure him while entering his personal space intensified the blissful sensation.

"Who knows? Maybe the destiny has been merciful finally and I have already found that," he mused, looking straight into her hazel orbs and enjoying the way realization struck her along with the burst of surprise in her eyes.

"I'll see you later!" he announced, smiling in amusement at her startled form as she merely nodded in a confounded state, unable to trust herself to form any coherent sentence.

The bang of the door being shut brought her back to the land of mortals from the land of thoughts and possibilities. An expectant part of her wondered if he was referring to her in his reply, while the other suspicious and practical part of her could not rule out the possibility that he was referring to another woman.

The confusion had muddled her already fazed mind and she knew that she could not trust herself to clarify that confusion by posing another question to him. Caught in the whirlwind of doubts and alien emotions, would Shikha see the trap she walking into?

_______________________________________________________________