Chapter Seventy nine

Atharva and Mrs Briggs were having a heck of the time bantering. Atharva was feeling on the top of the world. He had great results from Saint Augustine. He could get good jobs based on his results. On top of it, he could clearly see his future in game . Lots of income. Even if he did nothing.

Mrs Briggs was old money. She was businesswoman born and bred in business environment. Sh had spent over few decades managing conglomerate before handing over the reins to next generation.

Both parties had reasons to be cocky, brash and having no filters while talking. Both felt the other party could take all that sh*t shoved around and more, and retiliate in kind too. Shots were fired. Multiple times. There had been no clear winner.

Then Mrs Briggs had to talk about his attitude when he had gone to Scholarship department to pay off a part of his loan.

Why? Just why? The first time you earn the money on your own is a special moment. No one likes if other comment on it, other than praising.

So of course Atharva had to, just had to say it was confidence, no an 'attitude' as Mrs Briggs had said.

If he had been in front of her, she would have turned his ear for his sassy answer. When was the last time she had received such snotty, bratty attitude? Even the young brats in her family, who had rights to be bratty, never behaved such way with her. She was at such stage of life where brown nosing her disgusted her but answering back annoyed her, after a while. She was cross as something in his reply triggered her. She was not wronging a billion credit deal here. She was allowed to be cross and capricious. This the answer to such bratty, youthful reply was hammering via power of age.

"Yeah, yeah. I have heard this nonsense throughout my life. It is confidence till it turns into over confidence."

Can't deny the power of experience, now can you?

Atharva lost this round. So he had to step back which he did, beautifully, graciously, if he said it himself.

"Thank you for reminding me to be humble. Your experience is like a guiding light through the sea."

He might have even gone on and on with similies and metaphors but Mrs Briggs lost interest fast. She truly detected brown nosing, boot licking. She had enough of it already.

She stopped his tirade of compliments with a single word. "Bah!"

Atharva was on the roll though. "Articulate as ever. I believe you are the only person in that department who says about any situation as it is." This is what he truly believed. This belief hadn't shaken he had to volunteer few times to work in the department and she had mixed more than enough applications requesting for the scholarship.

She never sugar coated the answers. She bluntly refused the applications asking for scholarship. Unlike others, who never gave answers correctly, giving vague hints and allowing students to think that they might have some chance to get scholarship when it was impossible.

He himself had to get recommendation letters from more teachers and show the results of iis assignments before he applied for scholarship every year. He understood the pain of applicants. He truly believed that if they were told no the first time and with reason for refusal, they would have been hurt less.

Mrs Briggs was member of scholarship department because she believed in giving back but believed even more in poaching good talents early. But she never crossed the line. She never set traps to keep good talents to herself. Unlike few others in that department. While it was shady, it was not truly unethical or illegal, this no one tried to stop it.

"Stop buttering me. Tell me when are you coming to meet me?" Talking to him face to face would give her more clues regarding what he deems more important, this giving her some edge in tempting him to join her company.

Atharva was really not trying to run away from meeting her. It had taken so much time today to get ready. Soon it would be time to enter the game. The talk would take long time.

"Tomorrow morning?" he proposed, which was the earliest he was free.

Mrs Briggs was affronted. Who plays like that? Here she was, waving a blank check and blank job prospectus and he was postponing the meeting. Were all young people in the current generation so ....

"Why?" She was truly curious now.

Atharva had to tell the truth. Though some sort of half truth would have been okay, he didn't think that he should lie to his potential employer on such thing. A lie now would lead to more next time they met.

"It's not that I don't want to meet you. I truly don't have enough time for it."

"We can chat and have dinner. I assume you will have dinner. So from where did this not having enough time come?" She asked bewildered. She was not excepting such answer from him.

"Ma'am! It will take time to reach you. Then dinner and chat. Then I have to come back. By then it would be very late in the night."

"Annnd?" Mrs Briggs truly didn't see any problem in that.

"I won't be able to play the game on time." He truly didn't want to disclose such childish thing. Even when such a thing had allowed him to become a millionaire.

"Ah!" Now she was enlightened. Even a bookworm like Atharva was getting addicted to that game. It was a good game though. She had played for few hours sometime back to see what was causing such a hype.

Atharva didn't add anything to fill the pause. He truly could not say anything to 'not' show him as game addict.

Mrs Briggs didn't not put him in dilemma. She just said, "Fine. Come meet me early in the morning. I like to have a sip of iced tea in the mornings at Sachi's. Meet me there."

He saluted though she would not know and said with a snap, "Yes, ma'am! "

Mrs Briggs had to laugh as she cut off the call.

He was turning even more interesting than she had envisioned. But atleast she knew he had vested interest in the game. Something that she can use while plotting the trap, aka job prospectus.

Atharva cut the call. What a wretched timing. He never wanted others to know he was playing the game. He wanted to keep real life and his game life different, even if he was earning a lot more via the game.

It's truly not a good time to log in lately. Atleast today. Especially with the bomb the game company had thrown. The matters had taken even more bizzare turn as time progressed.