Chapter 2

It was a bad day for Raymond . A really bad day .

He had come to Singapore to sign an almost finalized deal . The contract and everything was already charted out . It was just a formality for both the parties to sign the contract . It was a big deal for him and his startup as the backing was coming from Infinion Inc, the largest gaming company in the world . He had reached Singapore that afternoon and was supposed to fly out the same night after signing the contract with the CEO of Infinion Mr . Pollard .

But the moment he landed and checked his emails he sensed something was wrong . He had received an e-mail from the secretary of Mr . Pollard that he had to leave the country due to some family emergency and that the contract signing would be delayed . He badly needed the funding and was devastated with this news . He called up Michael – 'The eyes and ears of the Gaming World' and a childhood friend of his and got to know that Infinion CEO was pressurized by some third party to cut off the deal .

He was jet-lagged after 21 hours long flight journey which yielded nothing but a big zilch . He looked at his proposal papers again which he had put meticulously with the help of his team . He was irritated beyond limit as his new game product which was an outcome of blood and sweat, couldn't get a proper launch pad . His team had pulled many sleepless nights to get the work done . Beads of sweat started forming on his forehead even though the entire airport was centrally air-conditioned .

He then decided to call his PA to let him know about the whole farce, "David, It didn't go through"

and disconnected the call without even waiting for his response . David had no courage to speak or call his boss as he knew how edgy and cold he was . And since the contract didn't go through, David knew hell would break loose once he comes back .

Raymond looked at his watch and sighed . He didn't want to go and check-in into his hotel . So he started walking towards the Premium Lounge area as this return flight was scheduled after 12 hours . He immediately dozed off on the Lazy boy as he hadn't slept well for the last couple of days . He had maxed out his days and nights for his Gaming project . His anger and resentment were at peak but he decided to keep them at bay because he knew who the 'third party' was which led to the cancellation of the deal . He knew what was to be done, so he set his alarm at 23:45 and decided to rest well and gather his nerves for the next battle .

23 . 45

Raymond woke up with the buzzing noise of his alarm . He had 15 minutes in hand before boarding was to start so decided to freshen up . While he was resting he thought of another brilliant idea for a new game . So he decided to grab a cup of coffee and caffeine was his best creative friend . He ordered a coffee from Starbucks and decided to move towards his gate area . He had hardly taken two steps and someone just collided with him, head-on with full force .

He was startled and his coffee spilled all over and all his proposal documents got scattered . Before he could curse his luck further, he saw a frail figure bending down and gathering her papers .

"I am so sorry sir . I really didn't mean to . "

"I just was in a rush . I am sorry again" .

She was apologizing profusely and was collecting his papers . Her voice was quivering and there was something so sincere about her that he couldn't say a word . The anger that had built up in his head was gone in seconds .

And then she handed him his papers . He saw tears rolling down her cheeks and falling on his papers which she was holding . Probably she realized that and left immediately towards the washroom without even saying a word further .

Raymond was taken aback . He was known as the man of few words but somehow wanted to say, "It's OK" to her .

But words just fell short .