She was still looking at her phone when a flight attendant came to her and asked,

“Miss, are you flying by China Southern Airlines to JFK?”

“Oh yes.”

“Ma’am please come and board the flight. It’s almost the end of our final call.”

“Oh, I am really sorry. I just … I was a bit”.

“May I have your boarding pass please?”

Akira handed her the boarding pass and got up from her seat.

“Ma’am please follow this way.”

The flight attendant could sense that there was something wrong with her. She looked like a wreck. Like something bad had happened to her. So she decided to escort her till her seat inside the flight.

She took her to the business class section and helped her sit at her seat number five.

It was Akira’s first time traveling in business class. Had it been any other day, then she would have been super excited. Probably she would have clicked pictures and would have shared with her friends and her brother. But today it was different for her. Because today nothing mattered. Neither the plush seats nor the leg space excited her.

All that she wanted to do was to reach home as soon as possible and to bury herself in the arms of her brother.

She slumped into her seat and started looking out of the window. She could only see the pathway lights to her side all gleaming and beaming up. And then she remembered how she had prepared the LED light strings to decorate Anthony’s apartment. All the confetti, the cake, the card started clouding her head. The whole image started hounding her again and before she could realize, tears were streaming down her face again for the gut-wrenching pain of deceit and betrayal was too much to be borne by this girl.

She had prepared so much for this day. She was supposed to meet him after one whole year. Her semester was over and it was the best way to take a break. Anthony was her senior from college and after getting a job at Infinion Inc, one of the most prestigious Gaming brand, he had left for Singapore as it was their Head Quarter. She studied hard day and night, burning her midnight oil to land an internship in the same company as him so that she could have more of his company, more of his time.

What all the plans she had !!! What all dreams she had seen !!! She had already built a dream of them with a happily ever after end credits.

She wanted to give him her Internship selection letter. She wanted to see his reaction so she hid that news from him and wanted it to be the surprise of the night. She was so happy dreaming about it day and night that she completed her packing and all arrangements one week before she was supposed to leave for Singapore.

But that poor thing had no idea that her luck will turn so sour.

She took a deep breath and then took out the Internship letter from her purse and started reading it again. With every single word that she read, she started tearing up. But she didn’t bother to wipe them away. She knew that she had to take this as a lesson.

The flight was about to take off and the Seatbelt sign was put on. But Akira was transferred into the world of thoughts of her own, not realizing a thing that was happening around her. Just then the flight attendant came to her to request her to put her seatbelt on.

“Ma’am, are you ok? Do you feel ok?”

She didn’t say anything and just nodded her head.

“Please put the seat belt on ma’am and can I get you something? Do you need my help with something else?”

“No Thanks”

Akira shook her head and fastened her seat belt. Then she used her sleeves to wipe away her tears. Then she slowly slapped both her cheeks to wake herself up from all the painful memories which were haunting her, without letting her having a second of respite.

She wasn’t blaming anyone. She had her complete faith in God. She tried hard to console herself that it was part of God’s bigger plan.

Little did she know that it actually was.