His trail of thoughts came to an abrupt halt when he saw his phone continuously flashing with notifications.

"Hey, what happened?" - Akira

"Did I go overboard?" - Akira

"Are you there?" - Akira

"Yeah, yeah I am here. Sorry I have some guests at home. Talk to you later" - Raymond

"Oh, ok. Good night" - Akira

"Good Night" - Raymond

He wished her a good night, but he himself knew how dark his night was to become. He went back to his laptop but he couldn't concentrate any further. The image of his mom crying devastatingly floated in his head. If there was anything and anyone that he hated the most in the world, then that was his "DAD".

Akira slumped in her bed for a while and then got up the next second.

She ran to her dressing cabinet and started rummaging through all her clothes.

"Gosh, I have nothing to wear for tomorrow!!!"

---

The next day as promised Raymond reached Akira's place sharp at 4:30 pm. He had texted her before he started for her place.

It was not a date, it was just a casual meetup but she was all nervous and was checking herself in the mirror every now and then. She changed her hairstyle twice. First, she tried making a ponytail but she was not happy with it, so she opened it and let her locks free. But then she realized she was going to teach him to dance so she tied her hair back into a ponytail.

She wore a white crop top and a knee length light sky blue frill skirt. She moved on to wear her white sneakers, but then and after much contemplation, she wore nude pumps. She put on very light natural makeup on her face and painted her lips pink. Never in her entire life, she had taken care to dress up so much for somebody. But today was different as she wanted to look exceptionally pretty.

Akira was lucky that Mike had gone to Teddy's place else he would have definitely kicked her for being all neurotic and chaotic while getting ready for the last 2 hours.

When Raymond reached in front of her house, he called her up.

"Hi, I am outside your place. You can take your time to get ready if you aren't by now. No need to rush. I just called to let you know that I am here".

"No No I am ready I will come out right now", Akira said sounding all impatient and baffled. She knew that he would come by this time but still she felt like she needed another half an hour more. She gave herself a final check in the mirror and came outside.

The moment she saw him, her jaws dropped. He was looking drop dead gorgeous. He had probably just finished working out in the gym and was still wearing his sweats and tracks. Akira had never seen him in anything apart from formal clothes, in which he always looked appealing. But in his gym clothes he was oozing out his charm like anything and Akira couldn't help but get all drowned in it.

She waved at him and came close.

"You came dot on time", Akira said and waved her watch in front of him.

He smiled and opened the car door for her.

Akira sat inside but her heart was thumping loud and was going haywire.

"Shit !!! How am I going to teach him how to dance? I can't even concentrate on anything?", Akira thought to herself and then bit her lips. She was scared to even steal a glance at him as her thoughts were growing rampant. She kept fiddling with her skirt and clasped and unclasped her palms intermittently.

Raymonds saw her fidgeting like this and couldn't understand what was wrong with her. So at a traffic signal when he halted, he asked,

"Are you feeling hot or something? I can decrease the temperature?"

"No no, it's perfectly fine", Akira said.

Then suddenly Raymond leaned over to her side and tried to check if the AC vents were opened up properly in the car. The moment his proximity closed in, her heart started skipping beats. She held her breath in silence until he checked the vents.

"Looks ok to me", Raymond said.

"Are you unwell?", he asked again all concerned.

"No I am all fine", Akira said.

How could she tell him how she was feeling? She wanted to scream at him and ask him why he had so much control over her? Why did he have to be so perfect to make her heart melt? But sometimes it's better to keep the questions buried in the heart. And that's what exactly Akira did.

Their whole car journey was submerged in silence afterward. She was so smitten by him that she just wanted to get out of the car into some open space and to take deep breaths. So when Raymond halted after reaching in front of his apartment in Clinton Hill, Akira immediately came out of the car, without even waiting for Raymond to open the door for her. She took a couple of deep breaths before turning towards him.

"Why do you stay here alone?", Akira asked.

"Well, I am a lone wolf you can say," Raymond said and led the way inside.

His house decor was exactly like his taste. Simple, subtle and sophisticated. It screamed of seriousness and high-maintenance.

"Your house seems... ",

"Seems?", Raymond asked.

"Seems nice", Akira finished her sentence.

"But?", Raymond asked knowing that a but was coming up.

"But don't you think it lacks a bit of color?", Akira quipped.

"Well, what are you here for?", Raymond said and smiled slightly.

Akira couldn't understand what he meant. Her eyebrows were raised and her face turned into a question mark.

He came close and gently tapped his fingers in the space between her eyebrows and said,

"Don't knit your eyebrows so much. If you have a question then just ask. Ok?"

She looked at him all surprised and stumped.

He leaned in closer and said,

"I need to go and take a bath"

"Huh", Akira said unable to say anything else.

"I need my towel", Raymond said.

"What?", exclaimed Akira following the path of stupidity.

Raymond slightly laughed to see her all baffled up.

"The thing is you are leaning on my towel", Raymond said and pointed towards her back.

Akira looked in the direction he had pointed and saw that she had leaned on a table on which his towel was and she had no idea that her hands were on top of it.

"Oh sorry", she exclaimed and moved a bit to her left.

Raymond picked up his towel and then gave her his iPod and said,

"You can choose a couple of songs that you want. I will be back in a few minutes after I finish my bath. Ok?"

Akira just nodded.

Her gaze followed him as he left the room.

"Oh, Boy!!! He is trouble", Akira sighed.