The atmosphere was serious and held all kinds of emotions within it.
"Will someone explain me what's going on ?" Danica asked sternly.
"B...BOSS" the employee lowered his head and said
"A..Actually, I lost my pen drive this morning that I brought for the presentation. I found this pen drive lying on the floor near Mr. Lee's table. So, I believed, I found my pen drive. Nevertheless, it seems now, that's not the case" he explained and gave a nervous smile.
"What about you Mr. Paul and Mr. Lee?" Danica inquired fiercely.
"Yesterday, Paul got tipsy heavily. He was speaking all this and I recorded his feelings on my phone. I thought Paul might delete the recording, so, I transferred the recording into my pen drive --" Mr. Lee clarified everything.
" a...and I guess the pen drive got displaced with presentation pen drive" Paul cut him short and finished the clarification.
"Darn it ...." Danica says "I am giving you first and last chance. If this type of nuisance happened again, then, all four are as good as dead, UNDERSTOOD ?"
they gave a nod
"It won't happen again," said the man
"Good for you!" Danica told sternly.
"Now, it's alright!" Alfred adds
"Please bring your presentation pen drive tomorrow. We will proceed further, the next day" Alfred said to those two fellow employees.
"Yes Boss" they said.
"All four, Leave !" Danica said coldly.
They left.
Now, Nina stands up and approaches Danica
"I will leave now. Let's talk about the event tomorrow" Nina said.
"Hmm, okay" She replied.
Nina leaves the cabin.
Danica looks at Sean now and says " What are you waiting for? "
"Leave, you fool!" She asserts.
Everybody left, Alfred and Danica were now alone.
Danica sits on the sofa and leans back.
"What a day! I never had such stupid experiences in my life" She says
Alfred sits beside her at a distance and says "It's alright. Now, let's focus on our product launch event."
"Right" Danica replies and drinks a glass of water.
"I never thought, that we could complete this project just within a month " Alfred tries to change the topic and attempts to make her feel optimistic.
"I know, right" She gave a brief smile
"It is because of our team's hard work " Alfred adds.
They were conversing, meanwhile, Danica sees Sean approaching them, through a glass pane of her cabin's door.
She gives a hint to Alfred and he now understood, it was time to pretend.
He moves closer to Danica.
She didn't know that Alfred would pretend so well.
It appeared so real to her.
As he approaches near. She feels shy and stands up immediately.
Before she could leave, he grabs her hand and pulls her towards himself. She was now sitting on his lap.
Her face went red, all blushing.
He hugs her tight.
She feels warm as he covered his muscular arms around her. He banked his chin on her shoulder and whispered in her ears.
"I can't bear a second without you, dear"
[ Come on Danica you can do this! it's just a pretence, not real. You just have to pretend! ]
"I can't either" she said.
He smiles and gives soft bites on her shoulder and neck.
Danica bite her lip, as he was kissing and biting her neck and shoulder.
Sean enters with a file in his hand and sees them making love.
[ Oh God! Why are you killing me slowly like this?] Sean winced
Sean covers his eyes with one of his hands.
"I can't watch this anymore" he mumbled.
Alfred sees Sean standing there covering his eyes. Alfred stops and Danica stands up.
She was loving the scene now, her game of pretence was giving her results that matched her expectations.
[Should I make Sean feel more lowly? Okay, Let's Do this! ] She thinks.
Now, she pushes Alfred on the sofa and bumps into him.
"I am sorry in advance" she said to him
"I need this" she said.
[ Come on, I am all yours ] Alfred thought and smiled inwardly.
She gave him a soft kiss. He grabs her head and reciprocates her act more passionately.
[ Is it over ?] Sean guessed and uncovered his eyes.
To his disappointment, it wasn't over.
He sees them kissing passionately and thinks: [ A person is standing here for three minutes and still, they are making love. Do I even exist? ]
Danica and Alfred now stops.
[ This is enough for Sean now ] Danica thinks.
They stands up from the couch.
"What is it?" Danica asked Sean
[ So, it's Sean, to whom Danica wants to make feel lowly and dejected. But why? Is there any connection between Sean and Danica ?? ] Alfred speculates
[Nina might be knowing, I need to ask her ]
Alfred thought.
"I told Sean to bring the progress report" Alfred said to Danica.
"..."
Sean hands the file to Alfred and leaves.
**************
Meanwhile
**************
Nina was leaving the company but Paul stops her, clasping her hand.
"Hey," he said "I am sorry, because of me today you faced a lot of embarrassment "
"...." (Nina stares)
"Don't mind those words. I have no feelings for you. It's just that --" Paul adds and sighs.
Upon hearing that, her heart smashes into thousands of pieces.
[ You don't have any feelings for me ?? ] she feels dejected.
She gets her hand released from his clutch abruptly.
" Fuck off! " She asserted in wrath and her eyes were now filled with tears.
She leaves.
"Nina..." Paul shrieked, as she was vacating.
"SHIT! " he murmured and clutched his fist.
Paul heads towards the office area. As he entered the office arena, everyone started clapping and rooting.
"You are such a romantic guy," said one of the lady employees.
"You nailed it," said the other.
"When you are getting married, huh?" asked the other workers.
"Please invite us" he adds
Paul now froze and gave a nervous smile.
[ What should I say? They have no clue that they have the wrong information. If I clarify that it is was all fake and held no meaning. They might get furious or the situation might get worse. So, let it be like this. That's better!] Paul thinks.
Mr. Lee was smiling
Suddenly everyone stops and gets back to work.
"Eh...What happened all of sudden?" Paul thought.
He looks to the right side and sees Alfred approaching him.
"Why he is coming here?" Paul muttered.
"I want Nina's contact no." Alfred says to Paul
"You have her no. right?" Alfred inquired
[ Why he wants her no.? Is he now trying to win her heart? No way ...I won't let that happen] Paul thinks.
"No, I don't have" he lied
"Go now" he adds
"Hey, don't fool me" Alfred replied with brooding eyes
"I know you have. Just give it to me. I won't do anything to your love" he added
[ Eh...love? my love..? ] Paul thought
"Look there is a misunderstanding. She is not my love" Paul explains.
"Whatever it is, just give her number to me " Alfred said.
"I --"
Paul was about to say something, but, before he could, Mr. Lee gives Alfred a small chit and says "Inside this, there is Nina 's contact no."
Paul gave a serious stare at Mr. Lee
"Thanks, Mr. Lee" Alfred said and left.
"Why you gave her no. to him ?" Paul inquired in a low voice
"It doesn't matter, she is not your girlfriend, so, why you are taking so much stress? You said you don't love her, So why are you so hesitant in giving her contact no. to Mr. Alfred?" Mr. Lee said.
"..." ( Paul was quiet. he had no answer this time)
~~~~~~~~~
Cell phone rings ~~
Nina checks her phone, It was an unknown number. However, she picks up.
"Hello" she said
"Hello, this is Alfred," Said the voice.
Nina's eyes widened
"Hey Alfred" she said, "How did you get my no. by the way?"
"Mr. Lee gave me" He replied
"Oh I see" She said
"What's wrong? out of the blue, you phoned me?" she asked
"I want to meet you. I have something important to discuss. Can we meet ?" Alfred explained
[ eh...] Nina was perplexed
"Yeah, sure " she said.
"Okay then let's meet at Jacob's cafe within fifteen minutes" he said
"f..fifteen minutes !!"
"Anything wrong? If it's not convenient to you then we can meet tomorrow, I have no issue " Alfred said
"N..No it's alright" she says "let's meet then"
"Okay" he said and cut the call
[ what it could be ?] Nina mumbles
*******
JACOB'S CAFE
*******
The waiter serves the coffee to Alfred and Nina.
"Thank you " Alfred said
The waiter smiles and says " Enjoy"
He left.
"What is it ?" Nina inquired
"Let's be honest and direct" Alfred said
"Who is Sean?" he asked.
As Nina hears that, she spouts the coffee that she was drinking.
"W...What!" she said
"Eh...Of course, he is your Manager" she said with a nervous smile.
"No! I mean is, What is the connection between Sean and Danica?" he inquired.
[ I can't turn down him anymore. I have no excuses. Sorry, Danica, I have to spill the beans] Nina thinks.
"Okay, the thing is -- " Nina stops and speaks again bringing her head a bit closer "Sean is Danica's ex-boyfriend! "
"What!" Alfred was shocked
"Yes!" Nina said
Alfred now reminiscences all the memories of pretence and understands why she commenced the play.