Epiphany

Chapter 4

"Are you still angry?" Mrs. Carter asked, looking at her grandson who stood in front of his dresser, wearing his watch which showed 9:45 pm. He had around four hours left before he had to catch his flight to Tokyo in the early dawn.

"Can you believe it?" Ryan gasped, feigning surprise and placing his hand on his chest.

"You know how she is, Ray," Mrs. Carter said, massaging the bridge of her nose. Mrs. Carter was talking about Veronica, Ryan's aunt, who always greeted Ryan with tight smiles and snide remarks, taunting him wherever and whenever she could. It seemed to be in her nature, making her Ryan's favourite person in the family.

"A very fun person maybe?"

"Ray." Mrs. Carter replied softly.

"A mother figure?"

"Ray." Sighing, Mrs. Carter approached her grandson and hugged him from the side, rubbing his back with her palm.

Ryan said, "You remember she was the only person who was happy when I decided to follow my dream of becoming a doctor. And it wasn't because it was my dream, but because she wanted me to go away from my family and lose all rights over this company. Did you see how merrily surprised she was today when she saw me?"

"So, is it because she wasn't ecstatic over you returning home?" Mrs. Carter wondered, surprised that her grandson cared about what Veronica, a person with whom he had no actual relation, had to say or think about him.

"She questioned me about my dressing style! As if I'm going to represent our company wearing a pair of stupid sweats!" Looking at him suspiciously after trying to read his unreadable eyes she raised her eyebrows asking a silent question.

"What..I'm all okay, Grammy. Don't worry, I'm all good. Your daughter-in-law will have to work harder to get on my nerves," Ryan assured her chuckling. Lifting his hand she kissed his palm.

"But, it's not like you didn't think of doing that?" Mrs. Carter asked, arching her eyebrow.

"Wearing sweats," she clarified.

Ryan thought for a moment before responding, "Well, that's not the point. And I'm not cutting my hair! This took very long..." He pointed at his messy bun.

"Of course you're not. You look good this way. Like Captain Nathan Algren," Mrs. Carter said, smiling softly, causing Ryan to chuckle. She released herself from the hug and stood beside him, facing the mirror. Looking at her grandson fixing his hair, running his fingers through it, she asked, "When did you grow up, Ray?" Knitting his eyebrows, Ryan looked at his grandmother. "You were always very stubborn. I remember when you were fifteen, Veronica said you were bad at mathematics, and the next day, you brought back all your math papers from school, just to prove your point. When did you mature so much that now you can easily overlook what others think of you and joke about it?"

Listening attentively, Ryan looked down at his palm, where his grandmother had kissed it, to avoid any eye contact, he cheekily said, "So now that I'm grown enough, would you marry me, princess?"

Chuckling, Mrs. Carter shook her head. "I'm too old for a young man like you, sweetheart. But I hope I get lucky enough to see you asking someone else this someday in the future."

Scoffing Ryan uttered an inaudible 'impossible' but little did he know, destiny had other plans for him.

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"I'm glad you didn't fuck up. But I'm the one in charge so  you have to listen to me, you can't ignore me in front of others." Chase said as they sat with other office staff, discussing the collaboration with Yokohama Enterprises, which they had successfully pulled off. Currently sitting in the dining area of a five-star hotel where they had booked their stay for the next couple of days, they decided to relax after the hectic day, as they had to head over to Yokohama Enterprises soon after landing.