Twist in Time

See you win

Akshara sat at her home desk on Saturday morning getting her hair oiled and massaged by Rosie as she sighed in contentment. Rosie and she had spent the morning visiting the local farmer's market and then after a hearty breakfast, had settled in Akshara's room.

She hung on to every bit of these moments because she had been alone for so long and Rosie hummed in the background with the TV playing to entertain them both.

Akshara's phone beeped and the tone indicated that it was a work email.

She opened it and read it carefully.

"URGENT - ALL SENIOR STAFF OF BIRLA ENTERPRISES

Dear XXX,

It has come to our attention that this year we have been delayed in organising our annual retreat. Witnessing all of you work so sincerely and with such diligence, has been extremely rewarding for our executive managers, and therefore we have decided to organise a last-minute retreat to Goa. This trip will commence on Monday and extend for three days. Please find attached the itinerary and more details.

If you can not make it, as we understand it is late notice, please respond back to this email.

Yours sincerely,

Gautam Khanna (Senior Manager)

On behalf of CEO Abhimanyu Birla"

A trip?!

Akshara's eyeballs nearly jumped out of her socket.

She didn't expect this!

This was not in her plan at all.

The office group chat started beeping madly with messages as everyone expressed their eagerness and readiness to go. Apparently, the retreats were top quality with lots of fun packed in and there was a rumour that this year the CEO, Abhimanyu Birla, had strictly taken time off to attend the retreat. Everyone was going. There was no way anyone would not go. In fact, someone had even canceled attending a wedding to visit!

Akshara sighed, biting her lip.

Damn it.

She had to go.

She couldn't not.

This was a great way to gain people's trust, draw out company secrets, put her pawns in the right place, and more importantly, it would be suspicious if she could not go.

And him. 

Her heart skipped a beat.

No.

She didn't care.

She didn't care about him at all, she told herself.

But her mind had decided, she had to go on this trip.

***

Wearing a linen white midi dress and a denim jacket, Akshara left the hotel room that she had been assigned in Goa. After shortly arriving, she met all her colleagues for breakfast and mingled with everyone. The atmosphere was light and fresh, everyone was excited about this trip and so far she had to admit, she was impressed.

For such notice, everything was so well organised and she could tell that the annual retreat was well planned. From everyone's travel to accommodation to food to even little things like health needs, everything was planned.

Only one thing was missing him.

She hadn't seen him all morning.

Not at breakfast, not afternoon tea, and the word was that he was still set to arrive.