Ava's eyes widen in surprise, and she quickly stands up from her chair, nearly knocking over her cocktail. She stammers "I'm... I am so so sorry ma'am, I had no idea. It's a pleasure to meet you, ma'am.""Naaa... It's okay." She waves off Ava's apologies. "No need for the apologies. I mean, I would still act just the same way if I were you. Atleast now I know I can have a seat, right?""Sure ma'am." Ava stands up, stretching her hands towards the closest seat to Aunt Tina.Ava quickly tries to compose herself, straightening her posture and adjusting her clothing. She takes a deep breath and tries to maintain a calm and collected demeanor."Let me have what the young lady is having." Aunt Tina calls out to the server as she sits down. Setting up her bag, she cuts in. "I was hoping to catch you alone so we could talk. I've been away for a while, and I haven't had a chance to catch up with Xander. How has he been doing?""He's doing well, ma'am"–Ava relaxes slightly, realizing that Aunt

Ava walks through the door of her apartment building, feeling utterly drained as she had a long day and it's wearing on her.. She trudges up the stairs to her apartment, fumbling with her keys until she finally unlocks her door."Finally!" she mutters exhaustingly as she steps inside. The familiar warmth of her living room greets her. She kicks off her shoes and flopped onto the couch, staring blankly at the TV. The noise of the news report, just background noise to her.Ava's mind still reeling from the events of the day. The endless stream of emails. It had all been too much. She rubs her temples, trying to massage the tension out of them.After a few minutes of sitting there in silence, she forces herself to get up and do something useful. She knows that if she stays still for too long, she will definitely feel even more overwhelmed.She wanders into the kitchen, rummaging through the cupboards. She finds a half-empty bag of chips and grabs it, snacking absentmindedly as she paces

Present dayStill lost in thoughts, subbing in thoughts of how she had met Xander, years back who is now her boss at the office. To her, it was a beautiful one night together but not for Xander, just then, the blaring sound of her alarm clock brings her back to reality. "Ugh!... What an alarm!" She snarls, disturbed. Ava slowly gets out of bed and walks towards her bathroom to freshen up. As she looks at herself in the mirror, she notices the redness in her eyes and the tear stains on her face. She takes a deep breath and wipes away her tears, reminding herself that she cannot let her personal life affect her work.Ava quickly heads to the bathroom to freshen up and get ready for work. She takes a quick shower, puts on her makeup and dresses up. She quickly grabs her bag, her phone and rushes out of the house. Immediately, she books a cab straight to work.---"Good morning ma'am! Good morning ma'am!" Staffs greet Ava at the reception. "Good morning all! " She responds, pacing to her

As Mr. Dum drives Xander home from work as usual, the sky suddenly turns gray, and a few drops of rain fell. Mr. Dum clicks his tongue in annoyance. "Looks like we're in for a bit of weather," he says, peering up at the sky.The rain falls relentlessly, pelting down in sheets that blurred the streets beyond the windshield. Xander leans forward in the back seat, squinting to see through the downpour. The same route he took every day from his office to his apartment, but the rain made it feel like a different world entirely.The windshield wipers beat back and forth in a steady rhythm, but it seemed like they could barely keep up with the deluge. The street outside was a blur of gray, and the rain seemed to have erased all sound except for the drumming on the roof of the car.He yawns and rubs his eyes, wishing he could just close them for a minute as he was tired after a long day at work, but he knows he has to stay alert. The roads were slick with rain, and other drivers were moving c

Waking up this morning, Susan feels so good and she can't tell why. She relives the moment of yesterday when she chatted and spoke with her boss, Mr Xander. She looks. It's almost seven o'clock in the morning and she notices her clock seems to have a problem. Because the alarm surely did not sound. She is awake because she is now used to the time frame of waking up in the morning. In a bit of a hurry to meet work early before her boss, she takes thirty minutes to take her bath, arrange the house and not been able to eat breakfast, she just grabs a small size fruit juice from the fridge and out she is off to the office.While seated in the car, she opens her phone to be time conscious and then she sees the missed calls from Ava, last night. She didn't call back last night, as it was pretty much late to call someone by that time. She immediately dials her number and after two calls, she didn't pick. Susan resolves at seeing her when she gets to work now."Finally, I'm here." Susan exhal