5:00 pm.

Akira was done with the corrections in her report and started to review it again to avoid any other mistakes. Her heart was beating fast out of nervousness and anticipation as she had a meeting with Raymond at 5: 30 pm. There were so many questions going on in her head.

"What if he does not like my report?"

"What if he is busy in another meeting and I don't get to meet him today?"

"How do I thank him for the lunch?"

"How do I tell him that I really liked the fact that he remembered that I like apple juice?"

"Was it really him who had sent the lunch for me today?"

She chugged a full bottle of water to calm herself down. For one moment she thought of sending her report to Simon for review, but then she refrained herself from doing so as she knew that if Raymond got to know about it he might not like it. She knew that he was way too particular about the way he wanted the work to be done. It was evident from the War Room episode. If he would have wanted her to take help from her teammates, he would have clearly told her about it. So Akira cleared her mind from all the random thoughts that she was having and focussed on reviewing her report.

5.25 pm

Akira adjusted her scarf and took a printout of her report and then pinged Raymond.

"Hello" - Akira

"Hi" - Raymond

"Can I come by your office right now for my report review?" - Akira

"Yes" - Raymond

"Ok. Thanks. Will be there in five" - Akira

She logged out of her system, took the printed report and started for Raymond's office.

"All the best for the grilling Akira!!! ", joked Simon when he saw Akira getting ready with the report in her hand.

"Kind words indeed !!!", said Akira and give a jovial laugh to Simon.

Akira reached Raymond's office, took a deep breath and then knocked on the door.

"Get in", said Raymond.

He was sitting there all poised but his heart was thumping loud and clear. His glance was fixed on her without even inching a bit here and there. It was like he was attempting to captivate her with his gaze.

She walked in slowly and cautiously, fully aware that he was looking at her, but she was scared to even steal a single glance because she knew her heart will know, no bounds if she did that. So she walked in quietly with her head bent down and placed her report on top of his desk and said without even looking at him,

"I have made all the corrections which you had suggested. I have kept both the reports for your reference. Please let me know if it's ok".

She spoke to him and then, in the end, raised her eyes to look at him for a moment, but then she quickly turned her gaze back. He saw her glancing at him for a single moment and saw how she retracted back and realized how bold his gaze was. He quickly shifted his attention from her to the report and ask her to sit down this time. He didn't want to keep her standing the whole time like earlier.

He reviewed the document thoroughly and was really impressed that she had taken care of each and every small suggestion that he had made. Next, he moved to the analytics section of the report and stayed on the same page for quite some time. Then he again looked at her and asked,

"Why have you given only 0.35 weight to the feedback mechanism?"

"Umm ... I think version and performance updates together should be the most important factor in determining our launch rate. So I have assigned 0.65 to that and 0.35 to feedback", Akira said and looked up at him.

"But if you don't listen to feedback from people, then how would you know what they like and what they don't?", Raymond said and a mischevious smile spread across his face.

Akira immediately understood from the way Raymond was smiling at her, that his statement was a double meaning sword. So she tactfully replied,

"I agree but then this would lead to extra work from our side."

"But shouldn't you be doing that? Isn't it our aim to keep our customers happy? The more you keep people happy the more you can get close to them", said Raymond and again fixed his gaze on Akira.

She heard him and then looked up at him. His gaze was unnerving her slowly, stripping her away from her sanity. She didn't want to lose the ground beneath her so she recomposed herself and said,

"Sure I will make the corrections. I will increase the weight for feedback from 0.35 to 0.55. Does that work for you?"

"Sure thing !!!", said Raymond and leaned back still looking at her intently.

"I will make the corrections and email it to you", said Akira and she knew that it was a cue for her to leave the room now and go back to her seat. But her heart didn't want to leave the room. She had so many things that she wanted to say to him, but she didn't know how to. She wanted to thank him for the lunch but she was unable to understand how to bring up the topic.

From her body language, Raymond understood that she was about to leave, so he picked up his notepad and tore the page where he had written about the medicines which Katherine had told him about. He took that page and give it to Akira and said,

"Katherine told about these medicines for your scar prevention. The kojic acid ointment needs to be applied after your wounds heal up and a week later apply the vitamin C cream."

"Oh, that's really thoughtful of you. I didn't know you could get it that quickly", said Akira and gladly took the piece of paper.

"It's no big deal. She had just called in the afternoon so I just asked her over the phone", Raymond said and started flipping a pen with his left hand.

Suddenly there was a knock on his cabin door. That was his assistant David. He came inside with Raymond's permission and looked super ecstatic and pumped up.

"You look unusually happy David. What happened?", asked Raymond with surprise.

"I don't know what magic you did, but after your meeting, Abacus finance team is now ready to publicize our game in Australia as well. I don't know about the budget allocation yet but Australia is confirmed. You really know how to keep people happy", David beamed and said.

Akira heard the news and was happy to see Raymond because from his expression he looked extremely pleased. She took her report and started walking out.

But she stopped after taking a few steps and turned back. She saw Raymond looking at her. She held her gaze constant and smiled a bit. Raymond was perplexed. He couldn't understand what she was insinuating. A few seconds later she said,

"Did you give them apple juice to make them happy?"

Raymond's mouth was opened in shock as he saw her leaving the room. Slowly a smile spread on his face. This girl certainly had a different way of thanking people.