Adultery Indian Social Worker and the Bully by shiprat

[Ramesh_Rocky]

"Nita ma'am, hi!" I smiled, but felt a little nervous. She was too much of an expert to not read me. She bent down to hug me and I felt her sniff a little too.

"Boring paperwork, huh?" she said pointing at the forms with her eyes.

"It's not that bad." I shrugged. "I'll be done with this soon and then have my exit interview with Mrs. Khanna."

"That's what I came to tell you." she said, smiling. "Mrs. Khanna got called away for a meeting, so I will be doing your exit interview."

My heart sank.

"Oh....it's okay. You must be busy. I can come by later when...."

"Nonsense!" she cut me off. "I am never too busy for our staff, especially not a star counselor like you, headed to my alma mater Stanford. So when you're done here, just come on down to my office. I have an open schedule."

"Alright." I nodded.

Half an hour later, I knocked on the thick wooden door of her corner office nervously. In between, I had run to the restaurant next door and chugged a cold coffee to further suppress my inebriation.

"Shikha, please come in!" she opened the door and ushered me in, after a quick hug.

I had been to the office many times before, but it always intimidated me a little. Her degrees from AIIMS, Cambridge, and Stanford on the wall, next to lots of awards. A plush leather couch where she saw some patients, because she also worked as a psychiatrist. Antique furniture, paintings, a couple of busts of her intellectual idols, everything. She was one of my idols and role models.

I started walking towards the chair at her table, but she pointed me to the couch.

"Please sit here. It will be more comfortable." she said. I didn't know whether to read something into the fact that she was pointing me to the couch she usually sat patients in.

She took a seat in the armchair next to it and said,

"So...Shikha....I was going to offer you coffee, but from breath, I see you just had some."

"Yeah, was feeling a little drowsy." I smiled.

"Can I offer you something stronger, like tequila or whisky? I keep some in the office to entertain the VIP clients and donors." she said.

I just nervously laughed.

"Hahaha, no, it's fine. A bit early for it." I said.

Suddenly her face got very serious.

"Is it?"

I swallowed hard and just stared at her.

"Shikha, please don't insult my intelligence and my expertise. Nor your own."

"Nita....I don't..." although she was 50 years old, she always insisted everyone, from the peon to her subordinates, just call her Nita. No ma'am, no Dr. or Mrs whatever. Just Nita.

"You're drunk. At least you were drunk when you got here. A lot of the others noticed. And it's obvious to me." she sounded stern but also concerned.

"I...I am....well...." I switched to feeling offended. "If you must know, Nita, I did meet some friends for a mimosa brunch before I came here."

"Did you?"

"What are you implying?"

She sighed and sat back.

"Don't be that way, Shikha. You are too smart and too good of a counselor to know what you're doing is classic denial and evasion and turning the tables on me."

I stared at her defiantly. She met my gaze. I looked away.

"I thought this was supposed to be an exit interview about my job." I tried to change the subject.

She sighed again and opened a file.

"Okay, you want to talk about your job? Let's see. This Parvati case of yours. Which has just ended in....."

I cringed....I feared the worst....murder, abuse, something like that. I had betrayed Parvati by hacking into my boss' computer to get her relocation address and given it to her abusive husband.

"...it has ended in the first ever relocation reversal and rejection in our history."

"Excuse me?"

"This woman Parvati, came back to Delhi, and with her husband by her side, came here to talk to you and take back her complaints. We had to call in the security officer and do what she wanted. She is back home. With him, saying she wants to try to make things work. With a man both you and the cop on file, Inspector Dubey, describe as a psychopath."