Akira left for her cubicle all amused. Her tiny heart was knowing no bounds of happiness right now. She was literally hopping and walking towards her seat. Good that she came early and there was no one else around, else people would have definitely thought that she had gone berserk.

After completing her report, a smile of satisfaction glided on her face. She reviewed it once again and once she was satisfied with the quality she pinged Raymond,

"Hello" - Akira

"Hi" - Raymond

"I have completed the analysis report that you had asked for" - Akira

"Bring it to my office for review" - Raymond

Akira immediately printed her report and left for Raymond's office.

Today she wore a deep neck summer dress so that the collar of her dress didn't touch the wound area. The dress was too deep for her liking, so to avoid the attention of people she had put a light scarf around her neck. That way no one could know or see the scar on her neck. She hid it perfectly because she always hated getting any sort of sympathy from people.

Once she reached Raymond's office she knocked on the door.

"Come in", said Raymond.

Akira came inside with a bit of nervous look on her face. She was confident with the quality of her report and the heuristic approach that she had followed, but as it was her first time trying to collect information about the demographic reach and doing predictive analysis, she was a tad bit nervous as she was still doubtful about her approximation method.

She placed her report on top of Raymond's desk and stood there in anticipation. Although she had interacted with Raymond informally a couple of times before but she knew that on the work front he was like a black hole who was very difficult to be pleased. So she stood there in attention waiting for him to give the feedback.

Raymond picked up her report and started reading it very carefully. His intention was not to find every small mistake and criticize it. Instead, he wanted her to learn properly. So he took a highlighter and started marking the points where he thought the report needed improvement. She had actually done a great job with her analysis but just needed to refine and polish it here and there so that it was industry ready.

Once he was done reading the report he looked up and saw that she was standing all the while. He instantly felt guilty for not asking her to take a seat. But from her expression, it looked like she didn't mind it even a bit. She was an enthusiastic learner and was eagerly standing there waiting for the feedback from Raymond.

"My bad, just take a seat. I was too much busy reading it so didn't even notice that you were standing from that time", Raymond said with a hint of apology in his tone.

"It's ok. Anyways I have been sitting at my desk all day long", replied Akira.

She was a bit distressed to see Raymond struggling while highlighting the points in her report using his left hand as his right one was still in pain. It immediately reflected on her face.

Raymond who had found Akira unusually chirpy and enthusiastic a while ago was surprised to see her energy level sinking low in a split second.

He handed the report back to her and said,

"I have marked a couple of points which needs to be refined a bit more. You need to include around 20 more statistics in your calculations so that the average is a bit more normalized. Apart from that the rest of the report looks OK to me. Good job!!!".

He then stood up and prepared to leave as he had another meeting to attend.

Akira face again lighted up like a bulb, when she heard a 'good job' comment coming out of Raymond's mouth. She was acting like a kid who gets candy after answering a question correctly. She said,

"Thank you for your insights. I will incorporate all the review points highlighted by you and will get the report ready by today evening".

She gave a small smile and picked up the report.

As Raymond had a meeting with the finance team of Abacus in a few minutes, he went near the coat hanger and picked up his jacket. He carefully inserted his right arm inside, but when he was trying to put his left arm, he struggled a bit.

Akira who was about to leave, saw Raymond struggling and immediately rushed towards him and said,

"May I?"

Raymond heard her and just nodded. He didn't want to appear like a man who needed help in front of Akira, but at the same time, he was worried about ripping open his stitches. So he just stood there and allowed her to help him.

Akira took the other end of the jacket and placed the armhole in such a way that it was convenient for Raymond to insert his left arm. Then she turned around and stood in front of Raymond. She held his lapels and gently pulled them to align his suit properly.

He smelled divine. A mixture of something musky and something icy. As she stood close to him holding the lapel of his suit, his smell grew stronger overpowering her sane senses. She stood there transfixed for a couple of seconds before realizing her stupidity.

Raymond saw her standing so close to him. Only he knew how much strength he was needing, not to let his guard down. He looked at her and saw that she just stood there without saying a word. So he cleared his throat and asked,

"What are you up to?"

Akira was embarrassed to hear the question and realized that she had been just gawking at him for quite some time. Her face flushed and she blurted out,

"I was just about to leave" and released her hands.

Raymond laughed in his head after hearing her answer and said,

"I meant in your life, in general!!! " and suppressed his laugh.

"Oh, What am I up to in my life?", Akira asked after reaching heights of stupidity.

"Uh huh", said Raymond.

"I am doing good. Nothing much. Just trying to focus on my work these days", Akira said.

She was turning all shades of red because of the embarrassment.

"How is your injury?" Raymond asked adjusting his cufflinks.

"It's all good. Healing very fast", Akira said and pulled her scarf a little bit down just to show him that her wound was all dried up. But unfortunately while doing so the knot of her scarf which was already lose came off.

Her scarf slipped slowly from her neck and dropped on the floor in silence, revealing her bare neck. As she was wearing a deep neck dress, she was thoroughly embarrassed and immediately turned her back towards Raymond.

For a moment Raymond couldn't breathe. The world had come to a halt for him with nothing but vacuum all around. He bent down and picked up her scarf and then he gently covered her neck with it and then secured it with a knot in the back. He pulled her hair out carefully, without touching her wound. Then he gently tapped on her shoulders and said,

"Your wounds are going to leave a mark on your neck. I can check with Katherine and get something for you. She is a great dermatologist".

Akira turned back and Raymond could see that her eyes were a bit moist. Never in his life, Raymond had seen such a girl who was so rooted, so cultured and so modest in her demeanor.

"Thanks", said Akira and darted out of the room.

Raymond just stood there looking in her direction.