After a few minutes when the receptionist didn’t get any response from Akira she asked her again,

“So are you going to meet him or should I ask him to go back?”

Akira did not want to go through all the bitter memories again. She didn’t want to look at Anthony’s face because that would remind her of the pain which she had tried hard to forget. She was worried like anything and then she looked at Raymond like she wanted an escape route from him.

Even though Raymond knew about Anthony, he didn’t want to let Akira know about it, so he asked,

“Is everything ok with you? Why are you panicking so much after hearing this guys name? If you don’t want to meet him just send him away.”

“Actually, he is my ex-boyfriend and I broke up with him a couple of weeks back. I am not scared or worried. It’s just that I don’t want to go back and remember what happened in the past because….” and her voice just trailed off.

Raymond heard her and immediately asked the receptionist to send Anthony back.

“Tell that person that Akira is currently busy in a meeting and she won’t be able to meet him today.”

“Sure Mr. Raymond”, the receptionist said and left the room.

Raymond looked at Akira. She looked like someone had drained all the blood out of her body.

“Are you ok?” Raymond asked her again.

“Yeah,” she said but she was all spaced out.

“Don’t think too much about it. Just go home and rest”, he said.

Akira nodded and didn’t say anything further.

“Don’t start for home right now. Wait till he leaves our office campus and in case you need any help then let me know”, Raymond said and looked at her with eyes filled with concern.

But at that moment Akira was not able to process anything that Raymond was saying. She was having hundreds of other random thoughts in her head.

“Was he really guilty about the incident?”

“Did he come back all the way from Singapore to the USA for me?”

“Does he really want to get back with me?”

Multiple questions were haunting her and past memories were circulating inside her head. That image of him kissing another girl replayed again and again in her head. The pain was evident on her face.

When Raymond could no longer bear to see her like that, he got up from his chair and stood next to her and said in a soft voice,

“Is there anything I can help you with?”

She looked up and saw his sincere eyes. She felt like hugging him and to hold him just for a minute. But then she got up and said in an almost quivering voice.

“I will take leave now. Can we continue what we were discussing tomorrow? I am really sorry for leaving the meeting abruptly.”

Then she started gathering us her stuff from his cabin.

Raymond cleared his throat and asked,

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“No”, she said.

“Do you want to meet him and sort out your feelings?”, he asked.

“I don’t possess any feelings for him. Right now I just want to go back to my home and be all by myself”, she said and was about to leave the room.

Raymond didn’t know what got into him. He pulled her hand back and brought her close to him and said,

“Don’t think that I don’t understand. If you want you can take a day or two off if you need”.

Akira was surprised to see this side of him. She didn’t know he could be this soft and gentle. His musky scent and his proximity had started to muddle her head up again. So she replied,

“Well as of now, I will just go home. I am totally fine. I promise I will come tomorrow”.

Raymond heard her and let go off his hand which was still holding her.

—

It was already around 8 pm and most people had already left for their homes. Akira hurriedly picked her stuff from her cubicle and left for the basement where her car was parked. She just wanted to go back home, away from everything. She thought of calling Vikram, but then the next moment she thought that he would worry about it unnecessarily.

The moment she entered Delphi’s parking area, she was shocked to see a familiar figure standing there.

“Why are you here? Didn’t I make it clear that I don’t want to have any sort of contact with you?”, Akira reprimanded him with an agitated tone.

“Don’t I deserve to explain myself at least once?” asked Anthony.

He had a disheveled look, unkempt hair, untrimmed beard. He looked like he was not stable at all. For a moment Akira was scared to see this form of Anthony.

“Can we discuss some other time. Right now I have to go home”, she said.

“I came here to return your bag which you have left at my place. I came here to wipe the old slate and start again from scratch. You know how everything is good when we are together”, Anthony said and tried to come close to her.

“I can’t Anthony. I can’t forget what I saw. I can’t let it go”, Akira said.

“You are misunderstanding and overthinking what you saw. She just gave me a kiss for my birthday. That’s all it was. And now you have blocked me from everywhere. So how do I tell you what exactly happened and how I feel about you?”, Anthony said and tried to touch Akira’s hand.

Akira took a step back and hissed,

“Just a kiss? You guys were literally making out in front of the door and you expect me to believe in your shit story? Now that I guess you are bored with her, you want to get back with me?”.

“Please drop all this childish behavior, Anthony. I don’t want the bag or anything from you. Just let me live in peace.”

“Then what about me? You are going to forget me just like that? You know what, I am going to prove it to you how much I like you”, Anthony said and took out a knife from the back pocket of his jeans. He placed it in front of his wrist and said,

“Accept me or I will kill myself right here right now”.

“Stop all this drama of yours and move away”, Akira said and tried moving forward to reach to her car.

But before she could reach for her car door to open it, she was pushed onto the car.

“Then I guess you should die rather than me”, Anthony said and placed the knife near Akira’s throat. He was reeking of alcohol and gave out a devilish grin when a small drop of blood trickled down Akira’s throat.