After they finished their lunch, they walked out together from the cafeteria to go back to the office. Raymond had already pressed the lift button and they both just stood there waiting for the lift to come in the lift lobby. Again there was an awkward silence between them because they didn’t have anything to talk about.

This time when the lift arrived, they both entered together. Just when Akira was about to press the first-floor button, she realized that her hands brushed against something. Raymond also had made the same attempt and while doing so their hands touched each other for a brief moment.

There was a sudden surge of electricity within her. She wondered if it was him or static. She retracted her hand back quickly and said,

“I’m sorry, I just thought that I will press the button. I didn’t know you were also going to do that”, After saying so she started looking down.

“It’s ok, but just in case you have any communicable disease then let me know. I shall get myself vaccinated”, he said with a sly smile on his face. Even though the touch was just for a split second it was enough to give him happy memories throughout the day.

Akira made a face but didn’t say anything. She was already struggling to pacify her racing heart, so she didn’t want to take any risk further by uttering some nonsense.

The lift arrived at the first floor. After getting down Raymond said,

“See you in the meeting. Bye for now”.

Then he left without even waiting for her response. Akira stood there looking in his direction and then turned back a few seconds later and started walking towards her cubicle after saying a silent bye. She was just happy because for the first time he had said a proper ‘bye’ to her before leaving.

After reaching her seat, she realized that she had 25 more minutes left before her meeting was to start with Raymond. So she picked up her phone and started scrolling through the messages which she had received.

“How is your first day going on sissy?” – Mike

“Do well there and make us all proud Miss Intern.” – Vikram

“How’s the job and people in your team?” – Vikram

Both Vikram and Mike had texted her but she had not been able to reply to them as she was busy with the formalities initially and then with the meeting followed by lunch. She quickly started texting them both.

“Everything is going great. Will try to come back by 7”, and sent the message to Mike.

“Miss intern ?? Aren’t you’re a bit too much? Anyways did you have your lunch?” to Vikram.

After receiving the message, Vikram immediately replied to Akira,

“I am too much? look who’s talking. ” – Vikram

“Yes, I am done with my lunch. What about you?” – Vikram

“I too had lunch along with my boss today” – Akira

“Oh great. So how is this Raymond guy treating you?” – Vikram

Vikram was a bit skeptical about Raymond’s attitude towards Akira because he was scared that Raymond might have some prejudice against her since he had asked him to provide her a backdoor entry.

“He is ok I guess. A bit serious fellow I must say” – Akira

“Oh poor you”. – Vikram

“Yeah yeah not everybody can be lucky to have a boss like you” – Akira

“Do you want to have a boss like me?” – Vikram

“Of course” – Akira

“Don’t worry eventually that’s going to happen after the product launch of Delphi is completed. I have asked them to shift their base to Abacus headquarter.” – Vikram

“So technically I will be your boss in a couple of months.” – Vikram

“You can never be my boss” – Akira

“What? Why?” – Vikram

“Because technically you will be my boss’s boss’s boss’s boss.” – Akira

“Ok bye now. I have a meeting which is supposed to start in another 5 minutes”. – Akira

Akira then kept back her phone on the desk and went to the washroom. She fixed her hair and lip gloss and she wanted to look all prim and perfect before the meeting. She was acting like a high school girl who had fallen for some senior at the school. When she returned back to her place she saw that she had received a message on communicator from Raymond.

“I have some urgent calls to make. So I am postponing the meeting to today evening” – Raymond

“That’s fine,” Akira pinged back.

Meanwhile, you can try to read and understand the attachment that I have sent you. It contains the basic design breakdown of our game which we are focusing on right now.” – Raymond.

“Ok”, said Akira and downloaded the file and jumped right into it.

She started studying the document very seriously and whatever small doubts she had, she had it cleared with the help of Simon who was more than happy to help her because he just needed one more reason to be near her.

She seriously wanted to prove it to Raymond that she was worth the decision that he had made. She wanted to become a good asset for the team and wanted to contribute as soon as possible so she wanted to have a good grip of what they were trying to develop.

Raymond had already created a new meeting request for 5:30 p.m. in his own cubicle. Akira went there with full confidence as she had already covered the document which he had sent. They discussed the project details and the project components in good detail. Raymond was really impressed as she had grasped even the nitty-gritty of the design elements which sometimes even graphics designers with a couple of years of experience found difficult to grasp.

Just when they were about to finish the meeting, the receptionist came and knocked on the door. After getting permission from Raymond, she came in and said,

“Akira there is a visitor for you at the reception and he said that it was urgent that you meet him.”

“Visitor for me?”, Akira asked her back in surprise. “Did he tell his name or anything?”, she added.

“Some guy named Anthony and I guess he is right now in very bad shape. He didn’t look stable at all and seemed all pale. So I guess it’s better if you can go quickly and meet him. He seemed very desperate and literally begged me to come and request you to meet him as quickly as possible”, the Receptionist said and looked at Akira.

Akira was weirded out like anything after hearing his name. She felt like a bone was stuck in her throat. Another person in the room was also feeling the same way. He knew who Anthony was courtesy the letter which Akira had written.

He wanted him dead for real.