I am really sorry for the late update and a short one. I finished this in three hours. My conditions weren't good for the past one week now. :( :( And, this is lame, too.

Happy Reading! :D :D

Chapter-17

It was an unchanging afternoon for Ishani at the resort, charming the guests through the prairies and the enormous atmosphere, showing the track of each place carefully, with her characteristic smile. Pleasing the guests and making them happy was a cakewalk for Ishani now. But making him smile wasn't. It was a week now that Ranveer was admitted into the hospital, recouping from his accident and she is still making him give a happy chortle. She now sat at the cafeteria for the staff as she looked out for Gasper, thinking about the contracts and shares. Twitching her fishtail and her other hand rumbling over her forehead, she quietly sniffed in and out, looking at the whole place in wait.

"So, what do you wanna know now?" Ishani heard a similar voice as she now turned to see Gasper. Happy that he at least responded to her call, she spoke, "Did you talk the authorities?"

"Authorities? Who?" he asked nonchalantly when Ishani retorted, "Who? I had asked you to cancel all the projects, remember? And you told me that you would do that!"

"C'mon Ishani. Try to be practical. Who are you to tell these? I agree, you had lied that Sir asked me to, but there's a limit to lie, right?

"Lied?" she exasperated, "Lie? Who? I-I never lied…" she managed when he remarked, "I know, Ishani. I have come from the same position as yours and I know, it is difficult to command. I am sorry."

"What? What do you mean by I am sorry? Do you think I am joking? What should I do to prove it?" Ishani managed with a decent counter when he replied, "I cannot help unless he himself confirms it."

"So what if he does that?" she deigned herself with another lie. She knew that he'll never accept the deal. Ever.

"I will cancel them. Anyway, we still have a time of three weeks to do that. The same will go for the shares, too," he reassured her when she smiled, "Thank you so much, Gasp. He'll mail you sometime soon."

"Soon? When? Tonight?"

"Before the day sees its dusk," she smirked proudly as he smiled sheepishly and left the cafeteria in silence, his line of thoughts repelling back of how stupid was Ishani. She never knew that he was not going to accept the deal; he thought and looked after the rest of the guests, sincerely.

"So my job is to open his mail account now," she smirked for herself and left the place quickly, her feet directly moving to his personal cabin, finding for his laptop. She quickly got into the doomed room, as he lovingly calls it to be and checked his drawers when she noticed the Apple flaunting on its own. Having a triumphant smile for herself she quickly unlocked the laptop, opening his mail. Checking trivial mails, her eyes finally got attracted towards the highlighted ones and those were, of course, regarding the contracts. Sneaking through them, she hastily opened them to see two big banners- Westminster and Le Meridian. Quickly going through the clauses and diktats, she scripted the mail which was to be sent inside her mind as she typed them into words to Gasper—

Gasper,

This mail is regarding the deals of the two tie-ups which were about to happen before a few days back. I think we better concentrate only on the Paris project now and then talk about the next two deals. Talk to the concerned authorities and cancel the meetings and try to be genuine, too. And regarding the shares, keep it on hold for some time. It's better to so one thing at a time.

I cannot type more. My hand's paining and I will be back soon. So, prepare the next set of models for the stage two of the project. We have to finish it soon so that we can get through other franchises. Send me the soft copy of the model of the stage two as soon as possible.

Regards,

RV

CEO, Oakley's Beach Resort, Loire Valley

She sighed out, hoping that this mail would at least be a per cent of Ranveer's official slang. She knew that she sucked at typing diplomatic mails. Not thinking much about it, she quickly sent the mail to him without making much of a time as she kept the laptop inside once again when a diary slipped from the tray as her attention was quickly distracted.

She took the diary from her hand which said Do not touch and looked at the bookmark which had nothing but only scribbles and weird drawings all over. Looking with a suspicion, she slowly tried to open when she saw it locked.

"Why is the diary locked? Is this his or someone else's?" Ishani's thoughts drove back when she heard someone coming closer to the room. Forewarned, she kept the diary inside and locked the case, running out of the place in fright though her thoughts were forced to doubt him now.

She was back home after a hectic day at the resort today, checking the files, sending the mail and finding a weird diary of his, and she wanted to read or at least know about that. What was so much in it for it to be locked? She quickly changed herself to loose pants and a sleeveless tee, resting slowly on the bed. Picking up one of the strewn pillows, she hugged it as her thoughts about his mood swings and the diary pestered her, asking her to think about it when she noticed someone open the door. She gazed at the door nonchalantly as she saw Abel with food tray smiling at her, graciously.

"May I come in, Madame?"

"Oh, c'mon, Abel! Stop calling me that! I am already confused!"

"What happened, Madame? Is anything wrong?"

"Every bloody thing is going wrong, Abel!" Abel looked at her confused, for him he had not seen her lose her cool anytime. She sat back erect, looking at him dejected.

"I'll-I'll come back some…time later. Sorry," he kept the tray and continued, "Please have the food, don't sleep hungry," and advanced to leave the room when Ishani interrupted, "Abel, I need your help."

"Help? Mine?" he looked at her dubious, as she gave her a brief nod, biting her lips, as usual. He quickly walked towards her with the food tray again and placed it on the bedside table, asking her about the matter.

"Sit down, Abel," she crunched the bed, indicating him to sit as he refused, "No, no, Madame. Tell me what it is," his eyes never met hers when she feigned anger, "Sit down." He, without any choice, sat down, gritting his teeth in embarrassment when Ishani asked, "How long have you been working here?"

"Two years, precisely," he gave an awkward smile when Ishani remarked, "And Ranveer?"

"I have known Monsieur as a tycoon quite a few years back. But as a person, it's been the same. Two years," he replied back, looking at the food as he asked, "Madame, why don't you eat now?"

"I will, I will, Abel. Now, shall I ask a few things regarding him, only if you're okay with answering honestly."

"I promise," he assured her when Ishani inhaled, braving up for the next question.

"I came to know that his dad passed away when he was nine and he was always with his mom after his dad's death. Do you know something regarding it?"

"Well, Madame, he had shared many things with me when he was not in his senses. What do you want to know?"

"Everything," she blinked, "everything you know, just-just blurt out."

"Madame, he gets angry very often. And there was once this day when he had spoken something really bad about his mom when he was drunk. Frustrated with his behaviour, she left him a year back."

"Uh, can you just elaborate. What had happened, actually?"

" Well, his mom was his everything until last year. It was around last year's February when he got himself drunk for the first time. When his mother questioned him, he gave either lame excuses or scolded her. The same was happening for the next few months until May. I got to know about his mood swings only at that juncture. Like, he gets angry for no reason and laughs like a maniac whenever he feels so. This attitude of his was not liked by his mom. She decided to confront him when he shoved his mom aside, blabbering in an understandable language when she got offended and left the place forever when he asked so."

"What? Do you mean to say that Ranveer is not a good guy?" she was staggered by this revelation. According to him, his mom was in India. But this was shocking for her. Ranveer was lying!

"Madame? What else do you want to know?"

" Uh, well, he wasn't like this when I came here, was he?"

"No, Madame. Loneliness changed him. He stopped talking with everyone after his mom left him. You came here around June and I saw his old smile back on his face."

"Oh," Ishani smiled awkwardly when he got up, "Please, have your food, Madame. And a night's sleep, too. He's coming back tomorrow," he grinned when she gave him the same, though a 'not-so-happy' one.

"Yeah, I know," she said simply, her thoughts now completely blocked. As he left the room, she thought, 'why did he lie? What was the diary all about? Even If it was his personal one, why was it so untidy and scribbled? Why was he behaving weird?' she had so many questions lined up, but had no answer. She had to wait for tomorrow, anyway, she thought and quickly opened her tray which had a light dinner of salads and raviolis as she played with them idly, thinking about his lie to her and his dangerous mood swings.

It was an early morning for her and she quickly stopped her alarm and went for her toiletries, dressing up as quick as possible. She had to learn something about his mood swings; she thought and left the house at 7.00 a.m., driving to the hospital for his final check-up.

Forty minutes later, she ran through the corridors of the hospital when she noticed that the doctor's cabin was empty. She realised that she was twenty minutes early to the hospital. Slowly gazing at the cubicle A12, she saw a sleeping Ranveer who had his splint now over his right hand, covering his fracture. She now noticed that his swollen cheeks are now normal and his head was also now healed, to an extent. A weary smile crept upon her lips when she heard her name. Quickly turning, she saw a tense doctor who asked her to come to his office as she followed him, worried.

"Please take your seat, Ishani. The reports have come."

"What's it, doc? Is everything fine?"

"Yes. We had done the follow up examination yesterday and things are improving now. Plus, he has to have his splint on for the next one week because it's just a minor fracture. In case if his hand pains, give him ibuprofen and naproxen so that it quickly gets healed. Plus, he should not use his splint while using his hand and bathing. It'd be advised for him to use his fingers slowly so that there is no future complication. I guess he doesn't need any physical sort of physical therapy as of now. His condition is far better than we expected."

Ishani felt relieved after hearing this when the doctor dragged, "But…"

"What happened, doctor?"

"I am afraid about his mood swings. In case if the same is going to persist, he is going to need medical attention."

"What? I mean…why?"

"Aren't you noticing them? He is not the same every day. His ideas change, thoughts, way of talking, eating…everything change within minutes or hours or days. In this one week, I had already seen his mood changing quite a lot of times."

"I know," she replied dejectedly when he continued, "Why don't you say something more?"

"He's fine with me, doctor. Don't know what is wrong with him."

"Look, Miss, a hangover after an accident is something which is very common. It's been one week one and a few may have the same hangover some time more. But Ranveer's case is different. He was beaten up by a few people and it wasn't a road accident. He being depressed is acceptable. But he laughing and driving others insane is not. Hope you get what I mean."

"I'll see to it, doctor. Sorry for the ruckus created."

"No, no. It wasn't any sort of a ruckus, Miss. It's just out of concern that I am sharing it with you." Ishani looked at him embarrassed, for her, the doubts on him only increasing by inches. This wasn't the same Ranveer she had met a month back, she thought and collected the reports, paving way to the reception, for the payment.

Things are not going the same way and everything seems surreal for her, right now. Ranveer lied, his behaviour is weird, his diary which looks to be his personal one seems to be fishy and above all, she feels scared now.

"Am I with the right guy?"

Done! Constructive Criticism will be more than welcome and sorry for typos! :D :D