It was a bad day for Raymond. A really bad day.

He had come to Singapore to sign an almost finalized deal. The contract papers and the terms, everything was already charted out. It was just a formality for both parties to sign the contract. It was a big deal for him and his startup as the backing was coming from Infinion Inc, one of the largest gaming companies in the world, so not only him, his whole team was banking on it.

He had reached Singapore that afternoon and was supposed to fly out the same night after signing the contract with the CEO of Infinion Mr. Pollard.

But the moment he landed and checked his emails he sensed that something was wrong. He had received an e-mail from the secretary of Mr. Pollard that he had to leave the country due to some family emergency and that the contract signing would be delayed. He kept staring at his phone screen for quite some time, unable to believe that things would take such a U-turn just before the destination.

He badly needed the funding and this deal with Infinion was something that would have paved the path for his startup. Devasted with the recent turn of events, he took a deep breath and then called up Michael – ‘The eyes and ears of the Gaming World‘ and a childhood friend of his and got to know that Infinion CEO was pressurized by some third party to cut off the deal that was supposed to happen with him.

He was jet-lagged after a 21 hours long flight journey which yielded nothing but a big zilch. He looked at his proposal papers again which he had put down meticulously with the help of his team. He was irritated beyond limits as his new game product which was an outcome of blood and sweat, would no more be getting a proper launchpad. His team had pulled many sleepless nights to get the work done.

His frustration and disappointment were evident on his face. Beads of sweat started forming on his broad forehead even though the entire airport was centrally air-conditioned. But he knew very well that nothing could repair the situation and that he was done for the day.

He then decided to call his PA to let him know about the whole farce,

“Hello David”

“Hello, Mr. Raymond. Did your meeting go…”

Before David could ask him anything further he cut in,

“It didn’t go through”

and disconnected the call without even waiting for his response. David had no courage to speak or call back his boss as he knew how edgy and cold he was. And since the contract didn’t go through, David knew that hell was supposed to break loose once he came back.

Raymond looked at his watch and sighed. He didn’t want to go and check-in into his hotel to be haunted by the empty walls which would scream of nothing but failure. So he started walking towards the Premium Lounge area as his return flight was scheduled after 12 hours. He immediately sprawled his long legs and dozed off on the Lazy Boy as he hadn’t slept well for the last couple of days. He had maxed out his days and nights for his Gaming project.

His anger and resentment were at peak but he decided to keep them at bay because he knew who the ‘third party’ was which led to the cancellation of the deal. He knew what was to be done, so he set his alarm at 23:45 and decided to rest well and gather his nerves for the next battle.

—

23.45

Raymond woke up with the buzzing noise of his alarm. He had precisely 15 minutes in his hand before boarding was to start so he decided to freshen up. While he was resting he had thought of another brilliant idea for enhancing his existing game to give it a new look. So he decided to grab a cup of coffee as caffeine was his best creative friend.

He went to the nearby Starbucks store and ordered a coffee and decided to move towards his gate area. He had hardly taken two steps when someone just collided with him, head-on with full force.

He was startled and his coffee spilled all over and all his proposal documents got scattered. Before he could curse his luck further, he saw a frail but dainty figure bending down and gathering her papers. Her shiny jet black hair was tied up in a messy bun but the stray strands of hair falling on her face, made her look even more pretty. She looked extremely distressed and worried. She bent down immediately and her slender long fingers started picking up the papers and he saw her lips quiver before she spoke.

“I am so sorry sir. I really didn’t mean to.”

“I just was in a rush. I am sorry again”.

She was apologizing profusely and was collecting his papers. Her voice was shaking and there was something so sincere about her that all his anger and irritation, that had built up in his head, just vanished in a second in such a way that he couldn’t say a word.

He bent down to help her as well for he couldn’t somehow see her going through the trouble alone.

And just when she was about to hand him his papers, she lifted her gaze up at him and no sooner a drop of tear rolled down her cheeks and fell on the papers which she was holding. Nothing but pain was reflected in those hazel brown eyes.

Probably she realized that and left immediately towards the washroom without even saying a word further.

Raymond was taken aback. Somehow his heart wanted to console her. His hands wanted to wipe away those tears running down her smooth fair skin. He was known as the man of few words but somehow he wanted to say, “It’s OK” to her.

But words just fell short.