Snehali and Neerav Part 3: Friendly acknowledgement

Next day Neerav reached office a bit late than usual. He crossed Snehali's seat to verify if she was there. Not finding her, he felt disappointed and went to his own seat.

On his seat, he took out his phone and started typing a message for Snehali. He was about to send it when he decided against it and kept the phone back.

Neerav opened his computer and started going through the pending emails. He was thinking of a way to contact Snehali and started looking at the pending tasks where he might need help from her. Just about then, Snehali's email notification appeared on his computer screen.

"Not well, Taking a sick leave today too"

Seeing the email, Neerav again resumed his search for a pending task to use as an excuse to contact Snehali. He found the task and sent an email to her requesting for some information.

He went to have a cup of coffee in the pantry area before starting his work on the tasks for the day. He met Karan there, Karan was his friend from MBA who was working in another team. He and Karan chatted for about 20 minutes and then came back to their respective seats. Neerav unlocked his computer screen and saw a new email from Snehali and opened it.
"Hi Neerav, For sure, I will gather up the information for you and will send that to you in about an hour.

P.S. I got your message yesterday, I am so sorry I did not reply. I just got a viral fever and should be alright in a couple of days. Will see you soon."

Neerav was relieved after seeing her message. Snehali was alright and had replied like her typical self. He could now concentrate on his work again.

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Snehali finally came to office after a couple of days, she had become a bit pale. She sat on her seat and started catching up with the pending work. When she was finished reading all the unread emails, she got up from her seat to get coffee and saw Neerav approaching her with a smile. She waved to him and asked him for coffee and they went for the morning coffee together.

Neerav wanted to make sure she knew he considered her a friend and said "Office was quite boring without you. You should think twice before taking a leave."

Snehali was looking at him with surprise "Oh, of course, Thank you for letting me know that. Had I known you were getting bored in office without me I would not have taken a leave for sure."

Neerav laughed a bit and replied "Ok then I will grant you leaves only when you are sick, not on any other occasion"

Snehali gave him an accusing look and said "Right, I would take a leave only when I am sick but you are free to take a leave whenever you desire. Also, you are not needed to let me know about those leaves."

Neerav realized she was talking about the leaves he had taken earlier for his sister's marriage "Oh yeah, talking about that - why you did not message me asking me why I was on leave? Now you won't even ask a friend where he was for a week!"

Snehali appreciated the fact that Neerav acknowledged their friendship and said: "I would have messaged a friend had he told me about his planned leave instead of another team member."

"Ok, I accept my mistake. I will try not to repeat it, Ma'am."

Snehali had laughed heartily at Neerav's reply and they had started walking back to their seats together.

Soon after Snehali reached her seat, she was called in the Director's office along with other team members. It was the first time since she joined this company that the Director had called all of them together and it was not without reason that they were worried.

To Be Continued ….