C - Suite

14 | Tourist

"WOULD YOU LIKE some wine?" The flight attendant asked her.

Nyla quickly declined. She was already hungover from last night. It had taken a while for the alcohol to enter her bloodstream, but the effects also seemed to be lasting longer. This morning she'd stumbled out of bed to a notification from her calendar saying that she had a flight in the next hour.

The next six minutes had consisted of her frantically trying to reach the airport while also not throwing up in the back of the car. Luckily, she had packed her suitcase a few weeks earlier so that wasn't a problem. However, Nyla would be speaking in a few hours once she landed in San Francisco, so she needed to freshen up.

Nyla tried revising her speech, but her mind kept taking her back to last night. She was ashamed that she had admitted to Darius that her heart was broken. But now that Nyla was no longer drunk, she had time to process everything she had been feeling. She was pretty sure that she didn't care that Rohit and Karishma were getting married but the fact that she was still alone. Her old friends had found one another, and she had been left behind.

She leaned back in a chair and sighed. She still vividly remembered the moment that Rohit had broken up with her. The two of them had met through their parents and in a couple of months—with a lot of pressure from their parents, they had become engaged. At the time, Nyla had still been studying medicine. However, when she switched over to business, they had grown apart—just like she had with Karishma. Then, one evening out of nowhere, Rohit had phone her and asked for his ring back.

Nyla had been hurt—and scared. She didn't want her parents and the rest of her Indian community judging her. Her parents were already quite upset with her for switching her degree to business and there was a lot of tension between the two of them. Rohit had been the final nail in the coffin. He'd calmly explained that he was looking for a woman who was more in the science field—so she could relate to him and understand his intellect. After all, business was the easy way out, he'd said with a laugh.

At the moment, Nyla had taken off the ring from her finger and smashed it into pieces. Then she'd mail the parts back to Rohit and moved on with her life. Raymond had been her ray of sunshine through those times. Nobody approved of what she was doing, and she'd been shunned by everyone, but Raymond continued to encourage her and push her to the next level. Her summer internships at Renne is what kept her going through all the years. Raymond became her family as he helped her regain her confidence and footing.

There was a light tap on her shoulder and Nyla looked up to see the same flight attendant from before. "We will be landing soon, so please return your seat to an upright position."

Nyla looked out the window and she could see the tall sky scraper. She did what she was told and returned her focus on the speech. After all, it was useless to look in the past.

♠♠♠♠♠♠

Nyla stepped off the stage and smoothed out her black blouse and white trousers. Her speech had gone well enough and the crowd seemed interested which was good. There had been a few thought-provoking questions which Nyla always enjoyed as it showed that the audience was paying attention.

"This way Ma'am." An event organizer ushered her away from stage towards a partly hidden door.

"Is there anything else I need to attend?" Nyla asked the organizer.

She was quite tired from her flight and long night of drinking. All she wanted to do was go to sleep.

The young man checked his clipboard. "You're good for the rest of the day however, there will be a dinner for all the speakers in the evening."