Chapter 3

Raymond stared in her direction for quite some time but then again started arranging his papers .

Little bit of coffee had spilled on his hands and had scalded him a bit . His jacket had taken all the hit . Annoyed he took it off and put it in his suitcase . "Damn, these papers are gone," he muttered to himself . Anyways as his contract went for a toss, he didn't care much . That's how Raymond worked . No second approaches, no second chances and no second thoughts . He was a man who was always singular in his thoughts and his focus was like a directed laser beam .

He dumped the whole stack of paper into the nearest dustbin and started walking towards the nearest information panel to check his gate number . His eyes were fixed on his Airline and he read -

China Southern Airlines

Flight to JFK - Delayed . New Boarding Time - 03:30

"You got to be kidding me!!!" . Now all that Raymond could do was to curse his fate .

Nothing was working for Raymond today . So he decided to get back to the resting area and do some productive thinking . He took his laptop out and started charting out a new design model . He decided to give his existing game some twist by creating new avatars and levels . He started drafting his ideas to capture a whole new demographic . He was super swift and creative with his work and within 80 minutes a new agenda was ready . He immediately emailed it to his folks in New York and started scheduling meetings for next week, to discuss further with the design and graphics board . He knew the new plan was tight, but there was no other way around .

Raymond knew the meaning of pushing off the contract signing date . It was not going to happen . Not when he knew who was behind all this scheming . He knew why someone didn't want him to win . But he was not going to let them get what they want . He knew he had to perform better and take aggressive measures to get financial backup . He was not going to let some third party extinguish the fire of creativity in him . He knew he needed a plan B and his new project was his plan B .

Now that Raymond had some time left before boarding, he decided to get back to Starbucks to have another cup of coffee . Standing in the queue he saw the same distressed girl coming out of the washroom . She looked a bit composed than before but her eyes were stark red . Looking at her clothes and hair it looked like something bad had really happened . She went near the information panel and started looking at the screen . She was staring at it non-stop . Totally unfazed and unaware of what was happening around her .

"Your order please . "

"SIR, your order please," the Starbucks person asked him twice to get his attention which was clearly focussed somewhere else .

Raymond was startled at first and shook his head .

"What's wrong with me?" Raymond muttered under his breath .

"Triple, Venti, Soy, No Foam Latte", Raymond said and took out his card to swipe .

Raymond took his coffee and turned to see if she was still there near the information panel but there was no trace of her . Without any second thoughts he started walking towards his gate . It was almost his time to board .