From the very start, I’ve had a thing for confident and strong men. I don’t know whether it’s their fierce attitude or their ability to never give up that make them irresistible in my eyes. And, the person who embodies all these qualities in the best way is none other than my former boss.
In fact, I met him when I least expected it. It was the last day of our college exams and everyone I knew wanted to celebrate. My friends were going drinking, and urged me to join them as well. Just when I was about to get into the car, I got a buzz from a popular pharma company asking me if I could make it for an interview as there was an opening. I was thrilled and asked them whether they could push it to another date as I had just gotten done with my exams. To my disappointment, they said that the offer would only last for the day. I had to make a choice. A choice that involved my friends and a choice that was about to change my life. I chose the latter.
I got into a train and made my way to their office in Andheri, Mumbai. To be honest, I was nervous and quite unprepared. I sat in the reception area, waiting for them to call my name. To my surprise, I spotted a familiar face. She was a senior from my college and happened to work in that same firm. I felt relieved to have met her, but strangely, she wasn’t the one who was looking for me, someone else was.
She walked me to this huge conference room and told me to go in. Sitting there was a man who looked too engrossed in his computer to really pay attention to me. The first thing he asked me was, 'We are a team of all "men"… Would you be able to work with us?' (Totally random, I know!) I said, 'Yes.' He laughed so much at that as if he was tripping on something. As suddenly as the laughter came, similarly it faded away and he asked me a series of technical questions and tested my troubleshooting skills. This didn’t seem like a job interview – it was just like a casual conversation. He then asked me if I could drive, I said yes. He thanked me for my time and said I could leave. And right when I was up on my heels and pulling the door to get out he asked, ' Priyanka! What if we don’t hire you?' Boy! was I surprised. I mean, he just crushed my ego and asked me to bounce. Even as I headed towards the door, I realized my ego wouldn’t let me leave without a fight. I replied smiling, 'it will be your loss…not mine.'
Happy now that I had actually stood up to him, he asked me to stay. He said he admired my rebellious attitude and gave me a chance to take care of the important Japan segment of the market. My tone and attitude, he said, made him think that I could become a trainer. As for me, I wanted to do something with pharma, but I was glad to have this opportunity to showcase my talents.
I performed well in the job that was offered to me. Recently, after a company audit that invoked a sense of confidence in me to take up more challenges, I asked him, 'I want to be an auditor'. He was surprised no doubt, but he accepted my choice. And joining his team meant that I was no more an acquaintance or on the periphery of projects he was looking after. He had now become my boss—direct reporting boss.
From that day onwards, our relationship took a drastic shift. Quite unlike the previous meetings, where we’d joked about stuff, he now treated me like the rest of his colleagues and set targets I had to meet.
It was after my first team meeting under his supervision that I started developing feelings for him. That meeting made me look at him in a different light. He was decisive, bold and had a fabulous way of putting his points across. The beauty of him was that he knew everything about anything! His knowledge was vast and no one – I kid you not – could win an argument against him. It was like he had an answer to everything!
After that meeting, every single day, I tried to get his attention little by little. I pitched new ideas to him, talked to him casually during smoke breaks, did my work super efficiently…I wanted him to notice me and to take my work seriously. After a few trials and errors, he did. He started seeing potential in me and pushed me into handling different projects. Even though I had hell lot of work on my plate, I loved the attention he showered on me.
Whenever he gave me feedback, I would gladly take it and work on myself. His approval at that time mattered to me the most. My definition of a crush on him was nothing lustful at all. Instead, it was about the attraction and addiction to intelligence, power and charm. And, trust me, he had those three qualities in spades. I could listen and talk to him for hours and never get bored. Our debates, arguments and brainstorming sessions would go on for hours. And also…I loved the ways he flirted with me indirectly whenever he could between all the chaos of work.
To be honest, he’s one of the people behind my success. He’s never been easy on me, and I’m glad about that. He always pointed out my flaws and motivated me to work on them. He was truly my mentor. A person who I will always remember and be grateful to. And he was the one who was there to provide me with support and advice when my next break came along.
Even though we don’t work together anymore, we do keep in touch. When I need that motivational push, he’s still there to have my back. That’s why I’m thankful to the universe for making us cross paths – even though I will never tell him about my feelings. Uncertain relationships always have the most interesting stories behind them. Ours is one of them.
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