Superhero (Short Story by Smruti Choudhury)

Richa kept on tapping her foot unrhythmically with more intensity than ever before. What she lacked in rhythm, she made it up with the sheer force of boredom. She was at her wits end. It was the first day of her internship as a publicist for the snazziest agency in town, with all the hunks of Bollywood, and she was asked to write a piece building up the sexy actor Ranveer with absolutely no acting chops.

How can one write a fluff piece without some nugget of information? She picked up some courage and asked the star PR agent for some pointers. The huge guffaw that followed was enough to make Richa scurry to the washroom hide there forever.

Just as hunger pangs were taking over and she mustered the chops to venture out to see if the coast was clear, she heard someone enter the washroom. Richa quickly retreated into her safe haven of a smelly cubicle.

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It was Sonal the star PR agent. She was on the phone. She was obviously taking to some actor…but it wasn’t a professional chat. There was a lot of giggling and innuendoes. As soon as Sonal left, Richa got a brainwave. She walked back with determination to her desk and typed out a 250-word article on “Superhero in Bed”. It was a fantasy piece on Ranveer’s prowess in bed, told from the pov of his publicist. Richa was super proud of her article. She was sure that she had arrived and would rise to the top.

Lunch went pleasantly well after that. She even joined the big boys table and joked around with them.

As the day was coming to an end, Richa started getting worried. She hadn’t heard from her boss about that article. Was it ok, were there any changes, would it be published? She couldn’t take the suspense anymore but there was nothing that she could do.

By 9 pm when everyone had left, and she was debating whether to leave or wait to hear about the article, Richa was called into the boardroom. Sonal was also present along with Richa’s boss Prerna. Both had stern expressions.

Prerna simply said that they did not need an intern anymore and that Richa should look at some other agency or magazine for the same. Richa tried to ask if she was being fired, but faced with such stony silence, she very meekly left.

As she was exiting the building, Sonal drove out of the parking lot and stopped, right in front of her. Sonal simply said “Yes, he is a superhero in bed” and zoomed off.