3- Lost In The Crowd

“Yoohoo!” She squealed with delight, “I have gotten the job, Keanu. I love you.” She kept laughing and kept jumping in delight.

“That’s great. Now listen to me very carefully.” Keanu didn’t want her to get in trouble. They were childhood friends, “From now on just forget that you are a girl!”

“What?”

“Yes! Don’t think of yourself as River Brown. From now onwards you are River Brower. Start walking, talking, and thinking like a boy. Keep your body tied under that shirt with that gauze to hide your curves, Love.” She nodded and sat on a bench on the busy sidewalk.

“I know Keanu,” she rubbed her hand over her body which was taut due to the gauze underneath the shirt. Thankfully it was cold in Sycamore City otherwise the hot summers would have given her rashes under the bandage cloth.

“Will you still spend the night at the train station?” he asked her softly and she smiled sadly looking around at the passersby.

Did she have a choice?

“So you will keep living on Metro stations and bus stands?”

“This is just till the month ends, Kean!” she tried to console her friend who was concerned for her safety.

“I can transfer you some amount and you can…”

“No way!” she declined immediately. She knew Keanu was sick and needed lots of finances to get treated.

He not only gave her this idea to get into Garner Industries but also, he was working on her exit plan from the country.

She needed to go to Turkey and claim her mom’s property. In this way, she could get enough money for Keanu’s treatment.

Working in Garner Industries could never give her enough amount to survive and get him treated. Plus, the people who were after her might find out that she was in Sycamore City.

By working in Garner’s head office, she was buying time until Keanu could work on her documentation.

***

“Marwick! How can you hire such an incompetent boy? He doesn’t have enough qualifications!” Chad asked him angrily.

How dare that boy sent away the candidates? Those girls could sue them.

“He is confident and intelligent. He will be an asset for our office … that I am sure of.” Marwick said and got engrossed in his work.

The board members did not like that Marwick Garner was not considering their opinion. But Marwick didn’t want anyone’s approval.

As a basic rule, all board members were supposed to be present during hiring. The last verdict would always be from Marwick Garner.

But this time he didn’t take anyone’s suggestions. The cute, dimpled boy seemed intelligent enough to get through the workload.

Marwick was willing not only to teach him about work but also, could offer the boy a scholarship to the university where his sister was a trustee.

In the evening, he held his laptop bag and left the office.

“Sir. It seems it might rain.” Garrison said while climbing the limited edition of Bugatti Royale- Veyron.

“Hmm.” He was in no mood to talk, nor he opened his laptop in the car as usual. It was a bench on the footpath where he thought he saw that intelligent boy. The same one he hired this morning.

River Brower!

What was he doing here?

“Stop! Reverse the car, Garrison.” Several creases appeared on Marwick’s forehead. He was sure he saw River eating something on the bench. What bothered him more, there was a big backpack he had beside him.

Was he homeless?

River discarded the sandwich wrapper in a bin and got up to her feet. Strapping the huge backpack behind her, she started walking to the Metro station where she could charge her phone and stay at night.

She also needed to shampoo her hair in the bathroom basin. She was so much lost in her thoughts that she didn’t realize when her shoulder bumped into someone.

“Watch out you little piece of…” The man who was busy on the phone got irritated and resumed walking, “Yeah. This boy was blind. Sorry for the interruption. Now tomorrow is the bid. I have solid news that Marwick Garner had prepared the bid in eight seventy-five million. We need to go below it.”

River who was following the man for teaching him a lesson, all her insides turned their focus on the conversation when she heard the name of her boss and her supposedly ex-husband. She kept walking behind him to keep track of the discussion.

“I know. I know. Seven hundred is lesser but we need to go lower. In case someone tells him about our low costs. We need to play safe.”

Hmm. Seven hundred million! The man is planning to grab the bid from my so-called husband. I mean ex-husband. Let me teach you a lesson.

I will talk to Mr. Marwick Garner about it.

She mingled in the crowd without realizing that a few feet away Marwick Garner was there, looking for her in the crowd somewhere close by.