Once Upon An Us

Chapter - 7 : Meeting

Ash's POV

I could feel eight pair of eyes staring at me, penetrating the deepest agony buried in my soul.

I took few steps behind to face the lift's door. The lift stopped again with a jerk I felt my self getting disbalanced again but this time I tripped on my own luggage and apparently I was sitting on it.

 Everyone started laughing, I quickly turned towards Liam and saw him laughing too , I opened my mouth to shout but dropped the idea and rolled my eyes away.

The least I could do at that time was to pick my luggage and leave at the quickest.
I checked my watch before hurrying , it was 3:44pm and I had just 16 mins in hand before my meeting begins, I realized that I'd have completely lost the time track .
I left everyone the very next moment.

Opening the notepad I had in my sling bag and I read today's agenda - online meeting at 4PM , 10PM online representation and arrangements.
 I gave Bailey a hug and asked her to take a nap because she looked too tired to even breathe. Bidding her a goodbye with a broad smile, I rushed to my room.

"I should take a shower before heading of for the meeting, my freshness will boost my confidence and my impact will be more", shuffling through my clothes to get a perfect suit, I mumbled. Nothing works more than giving myself a ted-talk.

I took out a blue suit with a jacket and pants. A pair of silver hoops and my slippers, c'mon who's gonna see what am I wearing in a virtual meeting.

I saw a telecom along the bed side and ran towards it.
"Hello, good morning, how may I help you ",  said a man from the other side just after a few rings.
" Can you please get me a double shot cappuccino with no creams . ASAP. " , I ordered.

" Yes ma'am! We'll get it to you within 10 mins. May I know your room number ", he said.

" 701 ! ", I said hanging up the phone, I rushed towards the washroom to take a quick shower.

***

" It's a pleasure to have you in our city ", said John , my partner and volunteer for the project I'm working on .

" That's my honour ", I said smiling "Before we head forward can you please lend me the details of the venue and the time we're allotted".

" Please check your mail for the details, we've sent you every thing you'll need but just in case we missed something you may let us know ", John said with glitter in his eyes. 

" Thank you so much, give me a few minute to go through it ", I said and checked my mails and the attachments.

Quick and impressive , I thought.

After about 3-4 minutes, I joined the meeting again with a broader smile " Thank you so much , all the details I needed were already in it " I smiled looking at John " I've replied you with the documents and presentation that I'll be representing later tonight, if you want me to add anything, just ping me ".

" Well, this went smoother than I expected " Sipping my cup of coffee I said to everyone, "Thank you so much for your corporation, without y'all I couldn't have made it this far".

" Sorry to intrupt " , Mr Gleeson fixing his glasses continued " The elders and the youngers are willing to meet you miss Morgan."

" That's okay sir, we'll fix a meeting with them this week itself. " I said without hesitating because for a fact it was crystal clear that my soul purpose to join Bailey and Anna in this trip was to get all the stuffs lined up and organize it at the level best for everyone to remember it forever.

Everyone was happy and positive as until now things had been working smoothly and were up to the mark, much better than we expected.

After the meeting got over, I got a message from John congratulating me for taking the first step, he has been in touch for a while and knows it well how day and night had I worked and how much excited I was for organizing it.

" Wouldn't have been possible without u , you're a gem " I texted him and went away with my phone on the couch to see if Bailey and Anna are still awake.

I got duplicate keys from the reception as I didn't want to disturb my sleeping beauties.

To my surprise I found my whole hostel-mates sleeping in the same room.
I made my way to Bailey and covered her with a blanket , the room seemed cold enough for her to catch fever.
I saw Anna sleeping on the couch with one leg on the cushion and other on the floor, I wanted to click a picture of her but to my despair I had left my phone in my room.
I moved towards her and lifted her leg on the couch . She half opened her eyes and smiled.

The other girls were sleeping on each other's belly and if I tried to help one the other would be awake and this will for sure disturb everyone which I didn't want.

Without wasting any more minutes I left the room and locked it, I wasn't sleepy at all because when each of them for playing on train, I was sleeping with Liam staring at me.

"Liam!!! ", I rumbled.

" Yes ?" .

I heard a familiar voice, never in my life did I turn my head so fast , I saw Liam standing near the staircase looking towards me with his eyebrows drawn together as usual  .

Without saying anything I changed my path and walked away in another direction , as if never in my life I took his name , as if he was talking to some ghost , as if he was never here to hear .