To see him looking at her like that, her muscles tensed and she pulled her hand away from his. He immediately retracted his hand and clenched his fist and shoved his hand inside the pocket of his pant, but he couldn't replace her warmth, her pulse, her delicateness. His heart longed for it.

Her eyes were still hovering on his face.

He cleared up his throat and asked,

"Where are you going?".

"I was planning to go back home. Now that you are here, Kate won't be left alone. Tell Katherine that I really enjoyed this party a lot", Akira said and turned back after throwing a quick glance at him.

"But didn't you just say that she will be back in a few minutes? Tell her yourself that you are thankful. She would feel better. Plus I am not a pigeon to transfer your messages", Raymond said.

Hearing him she turned back again.

Seeing that he had her attention back, he said,

"And please don't leave else she will think that probably I scared you away".

Then he gave out a sly smile.

Akira scratched her head a bit thinking about what to do and what not to. Finally, she decided to stay for a bit and said,

"Well, I guess it won't hurt me to stay a few minutes more. Plus I can help to clean the mess down".

Saying this she started climbing down the stairs.

"Umm wait!!! I will come and help you as well. It doesn't look good for our guest who has come to our place for the first time to do the chores", Raymond said and followed her down.

Akira went to the kitchen and started tidying up the pantry slab. Raymond stood outside the kitchen for a while watching her cleaning up the mess swiftly.

They never had a normal conversation outside the office. This was the first time they were meeting each other out of the bounds of work, so it was a bit awkward for both of them. They both busied themselves in cleaning up the kitchen stealing, occasional glances at each other.

Apart from occasional crumpling noise of the chips packets strewn here and there that Akira was gathering, a deafening stark silence engulfed the space between them. They both wanted to breach it but were unsure as to how?

"Do you dance?", asked Raymond, trying to break the shackles of the hounding silence.

Akira looked up at him, started with his sudden question. She pushed her locks behind her ears and said,

"Yeah, I do".

"Hm.. it shows", Raymond shrugged his shoulders and said.

"What do you mean? " asked Akira curiously. She left the packet down that she had picked and turned towards Raymond with her full attention.

"I mean it's evident that you like dancing", Raymond said and looked at her. Her eyes were still filled with a look full of a question mark. It didn't look like she was satisfied with his answer.

Raymond sighed and said,

"Your moves are pretty graceful. It's a delight to watch you dance. So it's evident that you like dancing and probably practice too."

Her expressions relaxed after hearing him say that.

Her eyes were now fixated upon the wall. It looked like she was struggling with something. She wanted to tell something but was hesitant. But after a while she said,

"My mom was a trained classical dancer. She taught me how to dance since I was a kid. I really miss that time. It was like our special "us" time, you know. Only me, my mom and all that music. We used to dance for hours together and sometimes dad used to get irritated because we will skip lunch and then binge on something later. I wish I had a quarter of her grace and skill."

Her voice started trailing. She was lost in the old but beautiful memories. She sighed and looked at him and then realized that she had been carried away because of her emotions.

"I am sorry, I just got a bit carried away. I don't know why I am sharing all this with you", she said and turned back to pick up the wrapper back.

The stone cold heart of Raymond which was devoid of any emotions melted like wax after hearing what she said. He wanted to go close to her, embrace her in his arms and comfort her. He remembered the way she had cried at her parent's grave on the day of the interview. He knew that she was over attached with her parents and the void of their loss was still like a gaping wound in her heart. He took a few steps ahead and stretched his left arm, wanting to just tap on her shoulder to tell her that it was ok, but then refrained himself from doing so.

"What are you two doing?", Katherine said as she walked inside holding her keys. She was surprised to see them together and that too doing household chores together. They looked like a perfect couple sorting out household stuff.

They both looked towards her.

Akira smiled at her and said,

"I thought of leaving after meeting you, so while I was waiting I thought to clean the mess up so that you can sleep a bit early. Today has been taxing for you."

"Did you hear that? This is called as 'real' concern", Katherine said, mocking at Raymond.

"Hey, that's rude. I have been helping too. Can't you see?", Raymond said and waved the cleaning cloth at her, which he was holding.

"Stop your drama, Raymond. You don't even pick up your plate after finishing eating. Just holding a cloth doesn't make any difference", Katherine said with a definite and deliberate poking voice.

"Hey, can you tell her how helpful I was?", Raymond said looking at Akira.

Akira giggled hearing the friendly banter and said,

"Ya Katherine, he did help".

"Oh, you just shut up and stop pleasing your boss. You think buttering him up will get you a raise or what?", Katherine laughingly said and mocked Akira too.

"And you Mr, don't think you can escape from me. Is this the time to come to someone's birthday party?", Katherine hissed and then placed her keys in the key bowl and came forward to hug her brother.

Akira took all the wrappers that she had collected and threw them in the dustbin. Then she cleaned her hands and said,

"Thanks for the amazing party Katherine. I had real fun after so many days. I really had a good time".

"I am glad that you came, dear. What would have I done without you?", Katherine said with gratitude filled in her voice.

"Ok then, now that you are back, I will go home now. It's quite late", Akira said and opened Uber app on her phone to book a cab.

The moment Raymond heard that she was about to leave, a sudden pang of desperation hit him. He didn't want her to leave, but this time he had no solid reason to make her stop. His face was clothed with despair. But it didn't go unnoticed by her sister.

Before Akira could finish her booking, Katherine said,

"C'mon Akira, Its Friday night. All the kids had fun but what about me?"