After Raymond's meeting was over with some property delegates, he called for a meeting for the graphics team to present the new characters of the games which had been designed.

Seeing the meeting request from Raymond, for the entire team, Akira was scared. She wasn't scared on the work front as she was done with the character design and had already shared it with Simon, she was scared because she knew that he would definitely invite trouble for her. He was very adept at shielding his emotions and feelings but she wasn't.

When the meeting started, she deliberately took a seat which was far away from him and throughout the meeting she stared at her laptop screen or the presenter. She avoided any sort of eye contact with him because she knew he was her nemesis.

Simon started with his presentation and showed various characters designed by his team including Akira's and specifically mentioned her name as it was her first character design. Everyone in the room applauded for her in unison to see the finesse of her work. She had taken care of intricate details including the shadow tones and muscle flexes. Raymond himself was impressed to see her dedication towards work and thanked Vikram in his head for providing the beautiful window of opportunity to him.

"Simon, I think we can let the intern describe the character herself. What say?", Raymond asked looking at Simon.

"Why-why why-why why-why would you do that?", Akira cursed him in her head.

"Yeah, that would be swell", Simon said and handed the laser pointer to Akira.

Akira got up from her seat all nervous. It was her first time presenting something in front of people with such extensive industry experience. She came towards the center of the room and looked straight and what happened was what she was dreading, she met his gaze. The trap that she had been trying to avoid since the start of the meeting was now right there, in front of her. Unavoidable, unmissable and undeniable. He grazed his thumb lightly on his own lips and reminded her very cunningly of the morning aftermath. She was stupified. She couldn't blink and the pointer fell down from her hands. She quickly bent down and picked it up.

Furious with her own behavior she took a deep breath and with a strong resolve she started explaining about her character, looking at everyone except him. She was quite serious about her work and had poured her heart out in her design. She beautifully explained all the aspects of her design to all her seniors who could be her future mates if she got that Pre-Placement offer after completing the internship and she badly wanted to bag that.

After she was done with the explaining, everyone was impressed with her presentation style as well. She was confident, smart and sounded very articulate for someone of her age. But someone else in the room was not just impressed, he was proud. He smiled and pinged her,

"Well done. Great job in your first pitch (proud)" - Raymond

She saw his ping and immediately replied,

"Thanks for the opportunity" - Akira

"Come out for lunch with me" - Raymond

"Ok" - Akira

"Open your hair when you come" - Raymond

"Why" - Akira

"I guess I like running my fingers through them" - Raymond

She lifted her head and saw him smiling softly looking at his laptop screen. Then after much trepidation, she typed.

"I like that too" - Akira

She hid her face by resting her palm on her forehead. She was blushing like anything and didn't want him or anyone else to see her this way.

"Don't hide that face of yours" - Raymond

She removed her right palm and texted

"Can't. Not happening" - Akira

"You want me to come over there and make you?" - Raymond

"Can you please let me focus on the meeting?" - Akira

"If you want to focus then why are you distracting me by flirting with me in broad daylight" - Raymond

"You are despicable!!!"

He smiled seeing her text and decided not to torture her any further.

"Wait for me at the main gate. I will be there in 10 minutes" - Raymond

"Ok" - Akira

After the meeting was over, Akira rushed to the washroom to check her hair and if her face looked ok. It was officially their first date. Might be just a simple lunch but it was something to be treasured. She opened up her pony-tail and ran her fingers through her hair to settle them up. She re-applied her lip gloss and smiled candidly when she did so.

She turned around once to see if she looked ok. She adjusted her shirt and pulled the waist of her jeans up. She was ready to go. She went back to her desk to keep all her stuff there.

As she was about to leave, Kirk asked,

"Aren't you joining us for lunch today?"

"No, I will be having my lunch outside", she said and walked towards the lift area happily.

She reached the main gate and checked her watch, then checked her phone to see if there was any text from him. He had asked her to wait for 10 minutes so she decided to do so without interrupting him with her call or messages. But slowly as time passed, 10 minutes became 15 and then 20. Even after 20 minutes he still hadn't come down.

So she texted him,

"I am waiting down. Where are you?" - Akira

5 minutes went by, but he didn't reply to her text. Now she was annoyed after waiting for around half an hour. She called him up.

But alas, her call wasn't answered.