BXBX NOVEL Chapter 58: Noted !!!
58 Noted !!!
Raymond went to attend the meeting with the finance team of Abacus but he was still lost in the alleys of his thoughts. His mind was unable to free itself from the thoughts of Akira. The way her hands moved on his chest, the way her eyes lingered around, the way her scarf fell down baring her skin. His whole thought process was instilled with her. No matter how hard he tried to focus on the meeting, his mind simply wandered away. He had no escape. In his heart, he knew he was falling but his mind didn't want him to.
On the other hand, Akira' heart was racing like the world had come to an end. She somehow managed to reach her seat and started gulping water. She took deep breaths and tried to calm her jittery nerves but nothing was helping her out. She was brooding over the whole episode when she heard someone tap on her desk,
"Hey, how was the feedback of your report?", Simon asked tapping lightly on her desk with a pencil.
"It was ok", replied Akira.
Simon could see that Akira was a bit disturbed after coming back from Raymond's room. She had been working hard since morning to complete the report. As he had worked with Raymond since the last couple of years, he knew that he could be a hard taskmaster and seeing the way Akira was behaving right now he knew that something was definitely wrong. He had already seen the way Raymond had behaved in the War Room and was unsure if she was ok given that a person like Raymond was her mentor.
"Listen it's not easy to please him. He is always very thorough with the quality of work. So even if he says something bad just take it positively as it will help you out in your future", said Simon because to him Akira looked like she had taken a bullet from Raymond.
"I know. I will revise my report and get it ready by today evening. Thanks !!!", Akira said and turned back towards her system.
"It's lunchtime Akira. Come and join us", said Simon.
"You guys carry on. I am not that much hungry", Akira said and started working on her report.
"Looks like she got a bad bashing. Poor thing!!! ", exclaimed Kirk in a hush-hush tone to Simon.
"That's how Raymond is. But because of that only we are here", said Simon.
Then he looked at Akira and said,
"If you need any help with the report you can let me know. We are here to help each other. You can count on us anytime, hope you know that?". Simon's tone was filled with concern.
"Thank you so much, Simon. But I think it's better I work on it myself", said Akira.
"Ok then. Do well", said Simon and left with others for lunch.
By this time Raymond's meeting was also over and he was just jotting down a few points in his laptop in the meeting room- 104, which was just in front of the elevator lobby.
Suddenly Simons loud voice got his attention.
"I feel bad for her man. She is still in her college and we can't expect a demographic report to be 100% accurate from her". - Simon
"I know. It took me months to get it right the first time. Hope she isn't too depressed with everything going wrong with her in her life." - Kirk
"She is struggling both in personal and professional front. Didn't even come for lunch. It's like she is punishing herself for some crime which she didn't even do". - Simon
"Yeah, hope she stays strong. Tough luck that she has Raymond as a mentor". - Kirk
After that the voices died out as the elevator arrived and they all left for the cafeteria.
Raymond was a bit disturbed after hearing what the graphic team members had to say about Akira. When he gave the directions to Akira he thought it was constructive criticism, but after hearing what Simon had to say it looked like Akira took it otherwise and he was upset about it. But neither he nor Akira's team-mates knew the real reason why she was upset. These people had just made an assumption in their head. She was upset because of her own personal reasons and it has nothing to do with the review that she had got for her report from Raymond.
"Maybe she is too young to be able to handle constructive criticism", Raymond thought and frowned upon himself for asking her to re-do the report when she had so much going on in her life. He felt guilty for not being able to guide her properly.
He regretted not even asking her how she was after handing over her ex-boyfriend to the police. He regretted not being able to understand that her heart must be in pain. But it was too late to ask now. He had already done the damage. All that he could do was just to contribute to the recovery process. so he immediately called his assistant Peter,
"Hello, Peter, can you help me get a chicken wrap and a fresh apple juice".
"On it, boss", said Peter and disconnected the call.
Raymond went back to his office and patiently waited till Peter arrived. Once Peter arrived, Raymond took the packet and inspected for a few minutes and then instructed Peter to get the packet delivered to Akira.
Peter being Peter, took the packet and without a single question asked, went to the graphics team area where Akira sat.
He sat at a place from where he had good visibility of Akira. He kept working on his laptop while monitoring her moves, without giving her any hint about his presence.
The moment Akira left her desk to go to the washroom, Peter got up, picked the food Pack and kept it on Akira's desk and left.
Akira came back to her desk and saw a food packet kept on her desk. She looked here and there to find out who had kept it on her desk, but there was no one near her vicinity as it was lunchtime.
When she couldn't find anybody, she opened the packet and found chicken wrap and apple juice inside. Only a few people knew that Apple juice was your favorite.
So she assumed that it was from Vikram and happily took a bite of the chicken wrap. She took out her phone and was about to send a thank you message to Vikram when she noticed a sticky note behind the Apple juice.
The note read-
"Eat it all without wasting even a bit. There are many who can't afford to have this"
The moment she finished reading the note she understood that it wasn't from Vikram. It was Raymond who had sent it. A smile spread on her face. She recollected her flight journey with him and her heart leaped when she remembered him saying "Noted!!!"