One Shift Too Far - Chapter One

The sun had barely risen one brisk Monday morning when Anirudh found himself standing at the glass entrance of OliveHeron Corporation Private Limited. The name sparkled in bright silver. Anirudh had repeated it in his head several times on the way here.

A polite guard nodded as Anirudh walked in, his uniform immaculate. The receptionist greeted him with a practiced smile — the kind that instantly made him feel both welcomed and insignificant.

“First day?” she asked.

Anirudh nodded.

Within minutes, Anirudh was handed a temporary ID card. It felt oddly symbolic - like Anirudh hadn’t earned a permanent presence here yet.

The lobby was vast, bustling with people in carefully chosen business-casual outfits. Glass panels and potted plants framed the sunlight that poured in. There was a faint hum of conversations, tapping keyboards, and the occasional ring of laughter.

“Welcome!” A voice interrupted his thoughts. “I’m Mr. Verma, your manager.”

A short, balding man with a no-nonsense look on his lined face glowered at him. His crisp shirt, old school watch, and firm handshake suggested that this was not a man to cross.

“Don’t hesitate to ask for help.” He growled as Ms. Roy took over. She was the HR manager and his interviewer when he had first applied for this job. She wasn’t noticeably taller than Mr. Verma, but something about her suggested otherwise. Her polite and calm demeanour hadn’t changed, and she moved through the onboarding formalities with clockwork precision.

“And finally, your team lead.” Ms. Roy declared.

“Ajay! Here’s the candidate we hired! Anirudh!” Mr. Verma declared and hurried away.

“Uh?” Anirudh said, taken aback.

“Right, so I’ll leave you with Mr. Ajay.” Ms. Roy left.

“Hello, Mr. Ajay.” Anirudh said.

“Call me Ajay. And don’t mind our manager, Anirudh. He is always worked up.” Ajay winked playfully. “Let me give you a tour of the floor.”

Anirudh tried keeping track of the names Ajay introduced to him, but spectacularly forgetting most of them. Anirudh met more colleagues throughout the morning — the marketing team, the finance folks, and the ever-so-busy operations staff.

“Client calls! Again!” Somebody groaned, just as Anirudh, led by Ajay, approached them. It was lunchtime when Anirudh was finally shown his desk.

Tuesday and Wednesday went by in a haze of system logins, training manuals, and the unspoken anxiety of finding his desk. Anirudh was glad to have made a friend, Ajay.

Ajay was patient, occasionally lightening the mood with his wit.

There was every reason for Anirudh to expect Thursday to be the same. And Thursday was no different from the last three days. Except when the clock struck 4:30.

Just like everyday, employees deserted their cubicles at 4:20 itself like clockwork, queuing by the vending machines, the balcony, and the backdoor exit for their precious 30-minute break.

Anirudh stepped out of the office and stretched. The late afternoon sun and breeze grazed his face. Just as he was about to turn and get himself a cup of coffee, Anirudh saw her. Across the narrow street, overlooking the narrow exit of their office.

She came from the opposite direction, as graceful as a deer. Her movement resembled a young, carefree deer unbothered by the chaos around her. Her laughter sounded like music to his ears. She wore a pale yellow kurta, the color of sunshine, with silver earrings that caught the light. Dark brown hair cascaded in waves down her back. Her companion seemed to be nodding at something but she went on talking animatedly.

Anirudh forgot the breeze; forgot the tea break; lost sight of the office; and even the looming deadlines had become as insignificant as a speckle of dust. She turned and met his gaze, her companion already walking on without her. His heartbeat betrayed him — faster, louder. A thousand thoughts raced through his mind, but none formed coherent words. She didn’t shy away. Instead, she smiled warmly. The ground beneath Anirudh seemed to open as she passed by, chuckling.

Anirudh didn’t even realize when he wrapped up for the day, returned to his flat for the night, awoke and got ready, and stood in front of the gleaming silver board that read “OliveHeron Corporation Private Limited”! All he knew was that today was Friday and the office strangely looked the same.

Trudging up to his desk, Anirudh did not see Ajay slapping a stack of reports on his desk.

“Morning, Ani. You look like you saw a ghost.”

“Not a ghost,” Anirudh muttered, shaking his head. “An angel, maybe.”

“Oh no.” He grinned, leaning against his cubicle like a predator who sensed weakness. “Office crush? Already?”

“It’s not like that,” Anirudh insisted, though his voice betrayed him. How could four or five seconds of her smile have left such an impression on him, Anirudh rued.

Ajay snickered. “Yeah, sure. Who’s the unlucky soul?”

“I don’t know her name. And I am, anyway, a busy person!” Anirudh declared and buried himself in the reports.

Anirudh found excuses the whole day to go to the back exit of the office and loiter around the vending machine, spent half his lunch hour staring around, and attended a meeting with a disapproving Mr. Verma as he searched for her.

At long last, it was tea time again. As it was a Friday, most people had vacated their cubicles and were catching a last cup of caffeine before heading home. That was when she walked in, not from the back exit or a corridor, but from one of the smaller cabins.

She was dressed in a simple, dark-blue top. No breeze or sunlight filled the room, although strands of hair had escaped her bun and lay scattered across her face.

But her laughter was the same - unrestrained, free, and genuine.

“Still here?” Ajay’s voice startled Anirudh.

“Yeah,” Anirudh said quickly, clearing his throat. “Just finishing up.”

Ajay followed Anirudh’s gaze and grinned. “Ah. That’s why.”

“I’m going.” Anirudh grabbed his bag, hoping the rush of movement would mask his embarrassment.

“You’re not gonna say hi?”

“What am I supposed to say? ‘Hi, I saw you yesterday and saw you now’?”

“Well,” Ajay smirked as Anirudh hurried out, “you could start with ‘Hello’.”

The weekend had come and gone, but she hadn’t left his thoughts. Every song on the radio seemed to mock him. Every rom-com scene felt unnecessarily relatable.

At last, Anirudh sat down with a plan, refusing to be hopeless. He would meet her by the water cooler on Monday and casually check whether she was in HR or marketing.

However, when Monday finally came, there was no sign of her despite all his careful planning. Maybe she worked on a different floor. Maybe she had been visiting the office temporarily. Maybe she isn’t from the APAC shift. Maybe he had missed his one and only chance.

Ajay, naturally, had a specific suggestion. “Accidentally bump into her. Classic.”

“I’m not doing that.” Anirudh retorted with a shake of his head.

“Or spill coffee. Then you two can have that whole ‘oh no, let me help you’ moment.” Ajay scratched his beard.

“Absolutely not.” Anirudh said, his gaze once again by the back exit of the office.

“Fine, fine. Just don’t stare like a lovesick puppy. You’re embarrassing us both.” Ajay groaned. The rest of Monday went by without incident.

The post-lunch slump had settled in by Wednesday afternoon. Usually, it wasn’t an issue for Anirudh, but he felt truly hopeless since Monday evening.

The sun mocked Anirudh with a brutal glare through the office window. Squinting through his eyes, Anirudh averted his gaze to the ground. And saw her! Dressed in a dark green top, she entered through the main gate and went straight into the adjacent cabin!

“Oh, so she works for… the Europe shift!” Ajay’s voice startled Anirudh. He had been following Anirudh’s gaze. “Her ID card reads, ‘Sanvi’. I’m just giving you a heads-up.”

Anirudh’s world was shattered. Europe shift?

The 2 P.M. to 11 P.M. shift!

Anirudh blinked. Everything fell into place. The tea-time encounter. The late conference room appearance. The fleeting glimpses just as he was wrapping up his day. She wasn’t elusive. He was simply… on the wrong shift.

This was why Anirudh always saw Sanvi in the evenings!

Anirudh turned and looked at Ajay desperately.

"Hey, Ajay," He tried to sound casual, but nervousness was apparent. "That girl — Sanvi. She’s in Marketing, right?”

Ajay raised an eyebrow, his smirk already forming.

“Just… curious,” Anirudh said, poorly masking his desperation.

Ajay shrugged. “But hey, at least you’ve got the APAC perks. No late-night calls, no European clients demanding miracles. I’d say you lucked out.”

“But I didn’t feel lucky.” Anirudh said. “I am changing shifts. I’ve decided.”

Anirudh left no time for Ajay to react. Panting, Ajay caught up with Anirudh.

“You sure about that?” Ajay asked, but before Anirudh could answer, they’d reached the HR’s cabin.

Ms. Roy raised an eyebrow as she listened to Anirudh, with a panting Ajay offering tense background music.

“Europe shift?” Ms. Roy repeated.

Anirudh nodded, steeling his resolve. “I’ve thought about it. I want to expand my experience. Understand the European market better.”

Ms. Roy, the HR manager, tapped her pen against the table thoughtfully. “It’s rare for someone to request a shift change so early on. You’re barely two weeks in.”

“I’m eager,” Anirudh insisted. “And flexible.”

Ajay shook his head.

Ms. Roy cleared her throat. “We do have limited openings on the Europe shift. We need people who work for Marketing in our APAC team, and you fit the role well. You’ve adapted quickly, and the managers are pleased.”

Anirudh clenched his jaw. “I’m happy to contribute in any shift.”

“We appreciate that,” Ms. Roy said with the same rehearsed HR smile I had grown familiar with. “But your skillset aligns best with APAC. The cross-cultural experience will serve you well. Besides, the team needs you here.”

As Anirudh left with a polite nod, Ajay hissed in his ear, “Translation: No!”

“I know!” Anirudh growled.

___

To Be Continued in Chapter Two.

Written By Tharun Kumar S