UPDATE-7
And as we got closer and more friendly, she started to trust me and share some of her personal feelings with me. She didn’t had any other friends in our office to discuss all this, so I was the only one with whom she could share her feelings. She used to discuss about her family, about her only sister, Tanya who was MBA student and her parents who were government employees. She told me so much about them that I thought I now knew them personally. She also used to talk about her husband, what she liked about him and how he cared about her. I thought that she was very happy with him. But at sometimes, she would be so much nagging, cursing her husband whenever she had fights with him, which made me rethink if she was not happy with him. She also started to open with me about her parent in laws, which clearly indicated that she didn’t liked them at all. The only person she had high respect in her husband’s family was her father in law. She didn’t tell much about him but said he was a nice person. But Sonia clearly showed her dislike for her mother in law and sister in law.
Slowly I became her confidant and she used to trust me that I will never spread these conversations about her family to anyone. We avoided talking about her personal matters at our workstations in the office while working. But after lunch, when we went for a little walk outside office, she would tell me all that was happening in her life, including her marital life.
I thought I did not need to know all these information about her family. I was not against listening to Sonia’s problems. I was ready to hear everything about her parents, sister or her husband, but I thought she was unnecessarily telling me all the problems she was having with her mother in law and sister in law. Just like the kind of gossip a married woman shares with her best lady friend. So one day when she was complaining about her mother in law, I told Sonia that it was her personal matter and it is not good for her to tell all these to anyone outside her family. I told her if she was having problems, then she should speak to her parents, sister or some other girl friends. I advised her she should not talk about her mother in law or sister in law to some other man who is not known to them.
Sonia must have taken my advise in the wrong way as she didn’t talk about her in laws after that. Her anger was evident as she had limited our conversations to office work only. One day, Sonia was very angry and she didn’t talk much with me. She just greeted back to me when I said hello to her and then we had lunch together. She didn’t speak much during lunch and after finishing her food, she went back to her workstation. We didn’t go for walk as we used to. She made an excuse saying that she was having work. But I was the project manager of her project and I knew that she was not much loaded that day. But still, she lied to me. I decided not to poke my nose if she was not ready to tell me.
For next few days, Sonia’s mood was not good and she was keeping quite to herself. She also avoided me during lunch time, telling me that she was not in mood to go eat in canteen and had lunch at her workstation. After 3 more days, I decided to ask her because I was not ready to see her so sad infront of me. Since, she was avoiding me, I arranged for a meeting such that some of team members had to wait after office hours. After the meeting was finished, all other members were leaving, but I asked Sonia to stay back. She thought I wanted to discuss something official work with her.
All the employees on our floor had left for their homes. Only few people stayed back for overtime, but they sat a little away from us. We went back to our workstation and there Sonia asked me what I wanted to discuss with her. I sat beside her and took her hand in mine.
I told her that I knew something was wrong with her and if she wanted to talk, she can talk with me about anything. She said there is nothing to tell and she looked away from me which meant she was lying to me. But still I grabbed her hand and made her look back into my eyes. I told her that if she was not feeling well, she can take some leave and stay back at home and rest for some days till her mood was good and then she could join back our office. She again said she was fine. But I knew she wasn’t as I could see sadness on her face. She was not ready to tell me even after asking her so much, so I decided to leave it and let her deal it with herself.
Since it was getting late, I told her that I would drop her at her home on my bike. She agreed and I took Sonia on my bike to her home. After we reached her home, while she got down from my bike, I saw her sad and wiping the tears from her face. All this time while she was sitting behind me, she was crying and I didn’t had any idea about it. Before she left, I asked her again if she wanted to tell me anything, she said no again and then she turned around and ran back into her apartment. I knew that there was something wrong with her but she was not ready to share it with me. But I couldn’t see her in pain like this. So I decided to avoid her if she was not ready to share with me.
Next day when I reached office, Sonia greeted me, and I greeted her back without looking at her, so that our other team members didn’t notice anything odd between us. By lunch time, Sonia realized that I was avoiding to face her as I didn’t talk to her anytime in between like we used to talk. She even tried to ping me on office messenger, but after seeing her messages, I went offline and logged out of office messenger. During lunch time, when all other members went for lunch, Sonia came to my seat and asked me if I was not going for lunch. I said I was busy in office work and she can go if she wanted to. She said she got food from her home, and she invited me to join her for lunch. I thanked her and said I was not hungry and asked her to eat her food. I avoided her for the rest of the day. And after office hours were finished, I left without saying bye to her.
For next few days, I avoided her. We just greeted in the morning after reaching office, then we only talked in meeting. During lunch time also, she had her home cooked food on her workstation while I went down in canteen or outside to have lunch. Sonia came to me sometimes to have chat with me or whenever I went to take tea/coffee in the pantry. But I avoided her by telling her that I was busy or I had to go for a meeting.
TO BE CONTINUED........
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