More Than a Face
It all started when Akshat was scrolling through Instagram randomly, just trying to escape a kind of tiredness that even sleep couldn’t fix. As he kept scrolling, his finger stopped at one post, where a girl reposted, which was popping up on the post that said, “Love? Just a lie wrapped in a prejudice.”
Akshat didn’t realise it, but his eyebrows drew together, and his heart skipped a slow beat. Before he could think twice, he had already typed, “You okay?” and hit send.
Akshat always believed in love at first sight. Maybe it was the movies, or the way his parents still looked at each other sometimes.
When two people’s eyes meet, and without meaning to, they both smile at the same time - this felt like love to him.
Some time passed, and there was still no reply. She was online... though. He waited a little longer than he should have, then checked her profile.
No photo... a few posts about some book excerpt. Username: lonely_lilt
He read it twice and blinked. That username felt more like a confession rather than just a name.
He was lost in his thoughts when a reply came, “I’m okay... but isn’t it a bit weird to ask a stranger?”
The corner of his lip curved. His fingers immediately typed, “I’m really sorry if this seems rude, but I got worried after reading your comments on the love quotes post.”
She replied, “Okay! I got it. There is nothing to worry about; it was just a perception.”
He sat up on the bed and replied, “Why so? Every coin has two sides, so why see the negative?”
There was a pause for a few seconds. He was about to type when the three dots started to move, so he stopped.
Her reply was short, “Experience gives you such thoughts. Anyway, goodnight, Mr Stranger” With that, she went offline.
He wanted to ask her about her experience, even her name, but he felt a strange sadness and drifted off to sleep.
The next day, an urgent meeting came up. He was with his colleagues, waiting for the boss.
One of his colleagues asked, “Hey Akshat, have you ever seen the boss, Ms Nitya Arora?”
Akshat said casually, “Not really, I was interviewed by HR for a sales representative position.”
She nodded and leaned in, almost whispering, “Her face is all burned from one side. People say it’s hard to look at.”
“How do you know?” He immediately asked.
“One of our colleagues saw her and started to vomit, and another one fainted. But she never tried to hide her face.”
“In that case, I might have gotten scared or ...”
Their conversation was interrupted when everyone stood up to greet the boss.
Akshat hesitated to look at his boss. Suddenly, a voice came towards him, “Mr Mehta, why have our eco-friendly stationery sales been decreasing for the last two weeks?”
He stood up, gaze lowered, but when he finally looked at his boss for the first time, his eyes froze on the black-purple bruises on her.
Instead of explaining his strategy, he opened his mouth to speak, but the words just didn’t come.
As the staff started giggling, he quickly walked out of the room, muttering a quick apology, “Sorry, Ma’am.”
He didn’t know what he felt more... fear or guilt, which was quietly sitting in his chest.
Standing in front of the washroom mirror, water dripping from his face, the memory replayed itself. There was a sting in his chest; he was unable to put his feelings into words.
He suddenly remembered how he cried and was taken care of by his mother when his hand got burned from hot oil in his childhood. He still felt immense pain for that face; he got terrified to look.
Holding himself together, he wiped down his face and said to himself, “Get a grip, Akshat.”
His whole body broke into goosebumps when he pushed the meeting room door open.
The room was silent for a few seconds.
His boss didn’t look surprised or even angry.
She asked, “We are about to close this meeting. Is there anything left to say?”
When nobody replied, she turned around and asked, “Mr Mehta, do you have anything to add?”Akshat’s eyes were still fixed on the desk. He apologised and paused, but his boss didn’t respond. Instead, she said, calmly and professionally, “Continue....”
As nothing had happened, it somehow hurt Akshat more.
That night, Akshat wanted to chat with that mysterious girl. He unlocked his mobile, opened Instagram and typed, “hey..”
Deleted.
Again, “Are you awake?”
Deleted again.
Finally, “hi” hit send.
A minute passed.
Then -
“Isn’t it very simple ‘hi’ for someone who likes long texts?”
He chuckled.
“Long day?”
“Bad one.”
He exhaled slowly.
“hmmm... Something happened today, I can’t explain it properly.”
“Not a big deal, bad days often happen sometimes.”
“What do you do when you have bad days?”
“I make strong coffee without milk and less sugar, and sit on the balcony watching other people hustle.”
“Wow.... sounds yummy... but honestly, I’ve never tried coffee without milk, I think I should try.”
“Don’t have coffee this late at night. Try it in the morning. Goodnight” With this, she went offline.
Akshat again forgot to ask her name, but to his surprise, she hadn’t asked either.
The next day, he has to submit his sales report. His eyes kept drifting towards the glass cabin of his boss, who seemed calm and unreadable as usual.
He was hesitant about handing the file to her, but she had already come out of her cabin in front of Akshat’s desk.
Akshat immediately averted his gaze.
“Mr Mehta, keep the hard copy and mail this to me.” She said firmly.
“Y..Yes, Ma’am!” He was about to say something, but she nodded and left.
Akshat took a deep breath.
In the night, he messaged, “Are you awake?”
The reply came in the next moment, “hmmm... How’s your day?”
“It was hectic. I put a lot of effort into the report, but I had to convert everything into a soft copy. Ahhh... The boss orders that you can’t neglect.”
Two laughing emoticons appeared on his screen.
In the quiet room, his laugh echoed.
“Anyway... I tried your style of coffee.”
He paused for a while and started typing, “Don’t tell anyone.... but it was a disaster.”
This time, a flood of laughing emoticons filled his inbox. He was also laughing.
And suddenly he typed, “I feel comfortable with you.” After sending, he felt he should not have written something like this.
He was about to unsend it when a short reply arrived, “Same here.”
She got offline. Now there was no requirement to know each other’s names. Their small nighty chat was enough for them to stay.
The next day, Akshat got a little late for the office. He used the elevator instead of the stairs.
The elevator door was about to close when a hand stopped it. Akshat started to feel nervous about who was getting in.
His boss stepped in with a laptop bag. Calm and composed. She was reading something on her phone. He had the feeling she didn’t recognise him.
He stared at the floor, then the ceiling, then his watch and sometimes his own mobile. Just two floors were left when his boss’s mobile was about to slip from her hand. Akshat immediately caught it; in this process, his hand touched hers.
Akshat felt a sharp current run through his veins. He turned his face to check out his boss to reassure her that it happened unintentionally, but his eyes landed on her burn marks, and don’t know what happened; he was not thinking for that moment, and his entire open area got fully sweaty.
He came out of his frozen state when a calm voice came, “Am I making you uncomfortable?”
He just got glued to the wall and instantly started to move his face in no and said, “No ma’am! not at all, that was just............”
“Then just relax” The elevator opened, and she walked out.
After he had avoided meeting his boss the whole time.
In the night, he messaged, “Still awake?”
But no reply came. He waited. And waited.
2 minutes passed....
5 minutes passed.....
When he was about to go offline, a message came, “Sorry, busy with personal matters.”
“Oh! I thought you probably fell asleep. BTW, anything serious?”
“Naah!”
For the first time, both sides were silent. No one wanted to take the first step. Akshat couldn’t hold back. He typed, “Are you upset?”
“How do you know?”You’ve never been silent like this.”
She went silent again.
“Do you work? I mean, in any company or something...? Did something happen there?”
He waited.
“Yes! I work at a company. Nothing serious... just someone...”
Akshat didn’t push her. Instead, he typed, “Same here. Something weird happened today.”
“Weird.. how?”
“I was in the elevator, and my boss also got in, and...”
“And?”
“And I panicked. I didn’t know where to look.”
“Why? Is he scary?”
“No.. No.. My boss is a woman.”
He stopped typing for a second.
“Actually, her face is burned. I just.... I don’t know how to act normal around her.”
There was no reply for almost a minute.
Then - “What’s your opinion of her? As a boss.”
He blinked. It was not something he expected.
“Sharp. Honestly. She doesn’t miss anything. On that day of our company meeting, I was scared to walk back after the way I’d behaved. But...”
“But?”
“But...As you already know, how bosses are - that word alone is a phobia in itself. In my case, she just said ‘continue’ as if nothing had happened. Actually, if she had screamed, it would have been even more painful.”
“Interesting.”
“You got it interesting, but I found it embarrassing.”
“Because you paid attention to that. Most people don’t.”
Akshat read that line again and again.
“She just makes me nervous,” he typed. “I think it’s not her face that makes me nervous, but how she just sees through people, which I’m not used to.”
“Is it a bad thing?”
“No... but sometimes it gets uncomfortable.”
“I think, sometimes it’s better with someone who doesn’t try to pretend.”
He wanted to continue the chat, but his fingers wouldn’t move.
She went offline.
A few days passed. Everything was as usual.
One day, Akshat was walking to his desk when a cafe boy passed by carrying a tray with a single cup of coffee toward Nitya’s cabin. Akshat’s attention caught on the coffee. And the colour was black... like no milk, less sugar. He asked his colleague, “Who is this coffee for?”
His colleague said, “For Boss. She is in a bad mood.”
“What really happened?”
His colleague got excited to continue, “Our latest order got cancelled. Three schools back-to-back dismissed their orders, and the stock was already packed. We spent weeks preparing that for nothing.”
Shrugging his shoulder, that colleague went back to his work.
Akshat’s eyes fell on the glass wall, in which cabin Nitya was seated. At times, she would lightly rub her temple with her finger; at others, she would answer a phone call; and then again, she would start searching for something on her laptop.
Akshat stood there longer than necessary. He was mesmerising the whole scene.
Bad mood.... Strong coffee....
He doesn’t want to think about it. Several times, he thought of walking to her cabin but stopped himself. What would he even say?
Do you need any help?
The thought itself felt strange.
The next morning, when Akshat found his boss’s cabin empty. He asked the sweeper, who said, “Ma’am is on her leave. She fell ill.”
He nodded casually, but something inside him sank.
That night, he texted her, but the reply never came.
He left a one-sentence message, “I wanna meet you once if you don’t mind.”
continued.....
