It was a bad day for Raymond. A really
bad day.
He had come to Singapore to sign an
almost finalized deal. The contract paperss
and the terms, everything was already
charted out. It was just a formality for
both parties to sign the contract. It was a
big deal for him and his startup as the
backing was coming from Infinion Inc, one
of the largest gaming companies in the
world, so not only him, his whole team
was banking on it.
He had reached Singapore that afternoon
and was supposed to fly out the same
night after signing the contract with the
CEO of Infinion Mr. Pollard.
But the moment he landed and checked
his emails he sensed that something was
wrong. He had received an e-mail from
the secretary of Mr. Pollard that he had to
leave the country due to some family
emergency and that the contract signing
would be delayed. He kept staring at his
phone screen for quite some time, unable
to believe that things would take such a
U-turn just before the destination.
He badly needed the funding and this deal
with Infinion was something that would
have paved the path for his startup.
Devasted with the recent turn of events,
he took a deep breath and then called up
Michael-The eyes and ears of the
Gaming World' and a childhood friend of
his and got to know that Infinion CEO was
pressurized by some third party to cut off
the deal that was supposed to happen
with him.
He was jet-lagged after a 21 hours long
flight journey which yielded nothing but a
big zilch. He looked at his proposal
papers again which he had put down
meticulously with the help of his team. He
was irritated beyond limits as his new
game product which was an outcome of
blood and sweat, would no more be
getting a proper launchpad. His team had
pulled many sleepless nights to get the
work done.
His frustration and disappointment were
evident on his face. Beads of sweat
started forming on his broad forehead
even though the entire airport was
centrally air-conditioned. But he knew
very well that nothing could repair the
situation and that he was done for the day.
He then decided to call his PA to let him
know about the whole farce,
"Hello David"
"Hello, Mr. Raymond. Did your meeting
g0.
Before David could ask him anything
further he cut in,
"It didn't go through"
and disconnected the call without even
waiting for his response. David had no
courage to speak or call back his boss as
he knew how edgy and cold he was. And
since the contract didn't go through,
David knew that hell was supposed to
break loose once he came back.
Raymond looked at his watch and sighed.
He didn't want to go and check-in into his
hotel to be haunted by the empty walls
which would scream of nothing but failure.
So he started walking towards the
Premium Lounge area as his return flight
was scheduled after 12 hours. He
immediately sprawled his long legs and
dozed off on the Lazy Boy as he hadn't
slept well for the last couple of days. He
had maxed out his days and nights for his
Gaming project.
His anger and resentment were at peak
but he decided to keep them at bay
because he knew who the 'third party' was
which led to the cancellation of the deal.
He knew what was to be done, so he set
his alarm at 23:45 and decided to rest
well and gather his nerves for the next
battle.
23.45
Raymond woke up with the buzzing noise
of his alarm. He had precisely 15 minutes
in his hand before boarding was to start
so he decided to freshen up. While he was
resting he had thought of another brilliant
idea for enhancing his existing game to
give it a new look. So he decided to graba
cup of coffee as caffeine was his best
creative friend.
He went to the nearby Starbucks store
and ordered a coffee and decided to movve
towards his gate area. He had hardly
taken two steps when someone just
collided with him, head-on with full force.
He was startled and his coffee spilled all
over and all his proposal documents got
scattered. Before he could curse his luck
further, he saw a frail but dainty figure
bending down and gathering her papers.
Her shiny jet black hair was tied up in a
messy bun but the stray strands of hair
falling on her face, made her look even
more pretty. She looked extremely
distressed and worried. She bent down
immediately and her slender long fingers
started picking up the papers and he saw
her lips quiver before she spoke.
"I am so sorry sir. I really didn't mean to."
"I just was in a rush. I am sorry again".
She was apologizing profusely and was
collecting his papers. Her voice was
shaking and there was something so
sincere about her that all his anger and
irritation, that had built up in his head, just
vanished in a second in such a way that he
couldn't say a word.
He bent down to help her as well for he
couldn't somehow see her going through
the trouble alone.
And just when she was about to hand him
his papers, she lifted her gaze up at him
and no sooner a drop of tear rolled down
her cheeks and fell on the papers which
she was holding. Nothing but pain was
reflected in those hazel brown eyes.
Probably she realized that and left
immediately towards the washroom
without even saying a word further.
Raymond was taken aback. Somehow his
heart wanted to console her. His hands
wanted to wipe away those tears runningg
down her smooth fair skin. He was known
as the man of few words but somehow he
wanted to say, "It's OK" to he.
But words just fell short.