Shiv smiled at me before turning to Varun. ‘Megha is doing a great job, Varun, I can see that. Let’s step on the accelerator now and take this launch forward. Megha, will you send me an email with the future course of action and timelines?’ He turned around to look at the agency. ‘Great job, guys! Keep up the good work and after the next meeting I think we should all head out to dinner to celebrate. I’m rushing off to catch a flight now but I’m watching this space keenly. I think exciting times lie ahead for Bright Biscuits!’

I let out a whoop as soon as Shiv left the room and ran across the room to hug Neil and Shubhra, before pumping Suketu’s hand excitedly. We had done it! The best part was that one of the winning concepts had been one that I had pretty much designed myself. All of the inputs had been mine and I’d taken Neil’s and Shubhra’s help to fine-tune it further. I noticed Yudi smiling at my excitement and smiled back warmly. Yudi had been a great help on this project even though his presence was restricted to a few meetings. Whenever he was around, he forced all of us to push our limits, think out of the box and think differently. And even though he had maintained his distance with me all throughout and been strictly professional—sometimes even to the point of being cold—I felt myself warming up to him now.

‘Thanks, Yudi!’ I said to him, holding out my hand. ‘I’m so glad you’re involved in this project too; your inputs are brilliant and—’

‘Let us not get too carried away, Megha,’ Vile Varun’s voice broke in rudely. ‘This girlish excitement is all very good but please remember that we have a long way to go. Let us not get so distracted that we are unable to focus on the work at hand.’

‘Thanks for the timely reminder, Varun. You’ll be happy to know that we haven’t lost our focus yet,’ I said chirpily. I was on a high and even Vile Varun couldn’t get me down today! Besides, we were scheduled to leave the next day for a team outbound session in Goa—and the thought of Goa could cheer me up on even the darkest day.

‘We’re doing a meeting today itself after lunch,’ I told Varun as he continued glowering at me. ‘And we plan to work even in Goa so that there are no delays on this project.’

I had planned an informal session with the creative team for the afternoon, to summarize the findings of the market research. Most market research presentations tended to be too detailed and long-winded for creative people and I’d noticed Neil yawning broadly several times during that morning’s presentation and then looking around with a guilty look on his face, like a small child caught stealing cookies. Yudi, however, had not only been wide awake, he’d also asked several intelligent questions during the course of the presentation, showing an astute understanding of several research-related aspects. He was also planning to join in for the meeting post-lunch and I found myself looking forward to his being around. It was just the fact that he was so good at his work, I told myself firmly. Nothing more. Sure, the guy was great-looking but he’d never even shown the faintest trace of interest in my existence outside of work. I could have been a fly on the wall as far as he was concerned, if it weren’t for the fact that I was a fly who happened to be handling a project he was working on.