The NOTEBOOK screening

Akira reached Vikram's office and went straight to meet him first. She knocked politely on the door and waited outside the door for a word from him. But there was no response so she directly went in.

The moment she opened the door and set her foot inside, she saw Vikram sitting all dazed on the sofa, with lots of paper strewn across the room. Akira was shocked to see him like this, for he was one hell of an organized person and always self-composed.

She looked at his troubled face and asked immediately,

"Are you ok Vikram? What's all this?"

He heard her voice and turned towards her and tried to plaster a smile on his face and said,

"Oh, nothing !!! Sorry, just some pending work he said and started gathering the papers.

"I will help", Akira said and came forward.

"No need", he said and raised his hand and immediately picked up the papers. She was about to ask him about the papers, but she stopped immediately, seeing his gesture. But before she could draw any conclusion in her mind about the whole scene, suddenly Robert Whittaker, the Finance head of Abacus, barged inside and spewed immediately with a panic-stricken voice,

"They didn't agree, Mr. Shah. They will cut off the funding by tomorrow evening".

A grim expression spread on Vikram's face.

"We will talk about it later. Now is not a good time", Vikram said and shook his head in displeasure.

Robert then looked at Akira and immediately left the room.

"Gosh, I wish Peter was here. It's a mess without him you know", Vikram said and pinched the space between his brows as he spoke.

"I can clearly see that", Akira said.

"But where is he?", Akira asked.

"I fired him today".

"You what?"

"How can I work with him when he broke my trust and did everything right under my nose Akira".

"I know that but from where you will find a replacement?"

Vikram heard her and then let out a deep breath for he himself had no idea how to answer her question.

"It's ok Vikram. What he did was because he is loyal to your family and probably he thought it was in your best interest. So no need to harbor any hard feelings for him. Please don't dwell in the past and ruin the present. What happened, is something we can't change but we can just look ahead right? Reinstate him as soon as possible. I can't see you like this".

Akira said and then sat on the chair next to his desk.

"Let me see what I can do about it", he said and sat on his chair.

Akira started swirling the paper-weight on his desk but her eyes were on those papers which Vikram had collected.

"I have already initiated the resignation workflow on your behalf. Let me inform HR. She will do all the formalities. You just need to put on your signatures once we come back after lunch."

"That's it? That's all I have to do?"

"Yep, pretty much !!!".

"But when I resigned from Delphie, I had to run to each and every department to get my no dues done you know", Akira said flipping the paper-weight.

"Well, that won't be needed here. One phone call is enough", Vikram said and slightly smiled.

"So what do I do now? It's just 10:30 in the morning".

Vikram laughed at her silly question and said,

"Well, you can always sit and talk with me. Don't you always have something to talk about?".

"Really? On a busy weekday? Since when you have so much free time Mr. Vikram?"

"Well actually I have some plans for you because I don't know when next I will have this much time to spend with you", Vikram said and sighed.

"You are talking like as if your days are numbered", Akira said and laughed.

"Bad joke Akira, really bad joke", Vikram sighed and picked up his car keys and his jacket.

"Come", he said and they both went out of his office towards the elevator.

But Akira's head was still stuck with the papers which strewn across the room because he didn't let her to even pick them. They had just reached the elevator and Akira exclaimed,

"Oh no!!! I left my phone on your desk. I will grab it in a jiffy. Just hold the lift for me", she said and hurried towards his cabin.

She reached his cabin and flipped through the papers with rapt attention and found out that they were papers related to some Gas pipeline deal between Vikram's company and Walker Enterprises. Without wasting any time, she clicked a couple of pictures of a few of the papers as fast as she could because reading them all wasn't possible. She couldn't get much out but just gave a cursory glance and ran back towards the lift so as to avoid any suspicion.

"What took you so long?", Vikram asked holding the lift for her.

"Oh nothing, I dropped my phone. So I was just checking if it was ok".

"Is it ok?"

"Of course it is, else I would have been wailing by now", she said and giggled.

Vikram laughed at her cuteness and said,

"You are going to love my surprise this time".

"Again a surprise??"

"Don't worry, it's not like the last time", he said and smiled and they left together.

They reached a small theatre which he had completely booked for the next couple of hours. As they entered inside, Akira scanned the entire place which looked completely unoccupied.

"Don't tell me you booked the entire place for me?"

Vikram shrugged.

"Ugghhh..... Vikram we talked about this. No lavish spendings, nothing over the top. We are already going to a fancy restaurant today", Akira was thoroughly displeased.

"But they are going to play the NOTEBOOK", he said and looked at her and he knew that this was something that she could never resist and true to his thinking, she caved in.

"I will endure this just for the sake of NOTEBOOK", she said and started straddling through the seats to find the perfect spot to sit.