Page 170 - The World's Best Boyfriend
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               Raghuvir put on a white shirt, tucked it into his freshly pressed beige chinos and

               prepared himself for a meeting he knew would end in an ugly way. Still, he
               didn’t want to feel that he didn’t put his best foot forward. Raghuvir knew what
               soiled reputations could do to someone’s career. He had been way too careless in
               the past to not know that. An irresponsible philanderer, that’s what people

               thought about him now, and for good reason. He had been doing things he
               shouldn’t have for the last few years. Sleeping around with PhD students wasn’t

               warranted, it was even illegal, but he had made sure none of the students opened
               their mouths. He was charming enough to keep them from saying anything.
                  But he had rotted long enough. It was time for him to change. He had found
               himself changing the day he saw Aranya. It subtly reminded him of a younger

               him, lonely, yes, but also ambitious. He was drawn to her. He felt something for
               the girl. You could call her his muse even. Even while he slept with Smriti (and

               others), he caught himself thinking about the girl and her unwavering drive. It
               rekindled something inside him, and that’s why he wanted her to be his mentee.
               To kick-start a few projects he had been planning.
                  He wanted to get into the middle of things again.

                  While he waited outside for the meeting to start, knowing fully that he would
               have to leave the college, he knew he didn’t want the girl to suffer. He wanted to

               make sure the girl went through nothing because of the video that surfaced that
               day.
                  Mitra made him wait for half an hour outside his office before he was called

               in. Childish, but nothing he hadn’t expected from Mitra. Mitra sat behind his
               dark mahogany desk, the one he had bought recently and through suspicious
               means. He had also bought a new car. It was safe to say that the centrifugal

               machine he had just bought for the college wasn’t as expensive as he made it out
               to be.
                  Raghuvir took his seat and waited for Mitra to broach the topic which he did

               almost immediately, mincing no words.
                  ‘The choice in front of the administration is quite simple, Raghuvir. Either
               you have to go or she will have to. If the transgression of the decorum of the

               college is from both sides, it will look bad on the college and we can’t afford
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