The Bestseller She Wrote Read Online Free Page A

winners. For National Bank, this was the biggest awards night of the year, which saw almost 100 per cent attendance. To be a winner here meant getting noticed by the entire top brass of the bank, propelling one’s career to the stratosphere.
    Aditya was the cynosure of everyone’s eyes. His deft moves, his jigs, his expressions left everyone spellbound. When he got off the dance floor, his partner, a wealth manager from his Bandra team looked at him with eyes dripping with admiration, and said, ‘Never knew that you could dance like that, sir.’
    ‘Well, I am stuck behind the desk the whole day, you see,’ Aditya smiled. ‘Maybe you didn’t realise, I have legs underneath,’ he started laughing. The wealth manager beat a hasty retreat.
    ‘Poor girl,’ Sanjay Narang, the head of Human Resources, commented when Aditya walked up to him. ‘You were mean to her.’
    ‘Nonsense!’ Aditya tapped Sanjay on his back. ‘Flirting with your super boss is just not on.’
    ‘Says who?’
    ‘Being in HR, you can’t ask that question,’ Aditya responded.
    Sanjay smiled. ‘At least this one day, don’t judge us. Allow us to let our hair down. We in HR are human too, aren’t we?’ he said. ‘After all, when all the girls fall for you, we don’t complain.’
    ‘Human? You guys are dogs,’ said Aditya. ‘At least you are, for sure.’ He laughed even as he hugged Sanjay and led him towards the bar.
    Sanjay and Aditya were classmates at IIM Bengaluru. Best of friends on campus, they had stayed that way ever since. Despite going through some trying times, the friendship had survived. Sanjay’s first marriage to another batchmate of theirs had ended in divorce. He was secretly dating the product manager of National Bank’s Premier Banking Proposition, Diana Moses. Aditya was one of the few who was in on the secret. And he was not happy about it.
    Diana and Aditya, both reported to Tim, the head of Retail Banking. Aditya always felt that Diana went to Tim, behind his back and often undercut him, because she aspired to Aditya’s job. Sanjay had often tried to convince him that this was not the case. All his attempts at making Aditya understand that even if his presumption were to be true, professional aspirations could not form the basis for disliking someone, had been in vain. The good thing was, both of them had been mature enough to ensure that Diana’s relationship with Sanjay did not in any way impact their friendship.
    ‘And now, it’s the time of the evening that everyone has been waiting for,’ the emcee took over. Both Aditya and Sanjay turned towards the stage.
    ‘The National Bank Annual Awards!’ she exclaimed loudly into the mic. The proceedings began. A few individual awards were announced before moving on to the team awards.
    ‘Coming to Retail Bank Team Awards, the second runner-up for the Best Team in Retail Bank goes to . . .’
    Everyone waited. A few yelled out their team names.
    ‘Goes to . . .’ the emcee continued, ‘. . . Personal Loan sales team! Put your hands together for the Personal Loan sales team!’ The entire team led by their head went up on stage and collected their trophy.
    ‘And now for the runner-up . . . Who do you think will walk away with the runner-up trophy for retail banking this year?’ she said as a cacophony erupted from the crowd.
    Aditya was standing there with Sanjay and a few others. He was quiet. ‘The runner-up trophy goes to . . . the Branch Banking team!’ The people standing around Aditya went wild. They threw their hands up and jumped around in joy.
    Sanjay was silent. He was looking at Aditya who quietly turned around and started walking towards the bar. The Branch Banking team and the four regional heads went up and took the award from the CEO. They waited on stage for some time for Aditya to join them.
    Aditya reached the bar. ‘A whisky, please,’ he ordered.
    ‘What happened?’ Sanjay had caught up with him.
    ‘Losers,’ Aditya