When story comes alive

Part 34

Author's Note: This part contains only the story. It was a part of previous chapter but since the chapter was too long I cut it down into two parts. 

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Emma's break up with Liam had given her a lot to think about. She applied for a job not because her relationship with Liam was in a wobbly state but rather because she wanted to get away from Aiden. And at that, not because he told her that he was in love with her but rather because she thought he lied to her. She was attracted to him but what happened later, hurt her. What would be different with him than it was with Liam she wondered.

She was walking down to her desk deep in thoughts when her thoughts were broken by the chatter of a few of her colleagues who were gathered around and were animatedly talking about something.

'What's going on?' she asked walking to them.

'Did you see this?' One of them handed her phone to Emma. 'This was covered by one of the local news channel,' she said pointing at the video clip.

Curious, Emma played the video. The news clip began with the takeover that Emma's team had completed and then the anchor said, 'An anonymous local hero has come to the rescue of those who lost their jobs not just with the takeover that we just heard about but also for anyone who has lost a job.'

Apparently someone had managed to arrange a job fair with walk-in interviews. This was collaborated by 17 local companies. Most of the people who lost their jobs due to takeover had found one through this. The news anchor was all praise for the mysterious person behind this who reportedly wanted to be anonymous.

A smile appeared on Emma's face after watching it. She handed back the phone to her colleague and said, 'That's amazing! It brightens up the day doesn't it?'

'It sure does,' replied her colleague.

Emma quickly walked away to her seat and picked up her phone. She knew who the anonymous hero was. She held on to her phone wondering of she should call him. Aiden had professed his love but what he had done now showed that he cared enough about others to do something about it. This was what was different with Aiden- he understood her.

"Can we meet?" Emma typed with trembling hands and a flutter in her heart as she was not sure if he would even reply. But a few minutes later came his reply, "Sure. Everything okay?"

"Everything's fine. Just wanted to talk to you. Say at 6, @Topple?" She smiled as she typed. Topple was a coffee house close to Aiden's office. She had been there with him before.

In the evening, she waited for Aiden, while following up on the news about him.

'Hi!' Aiden said sitting on the tall stool at the counter, next to her.  'Is everything alright?'

'Hey,' Emma replied looking up from her phone. 'Everything's fine. Just wanted to see you.' She studied him. His arms were turned towards her while his body was turned away from her. His shoulders were stiff and he maintained a cautious eye contact.

When Aiden did not take an initiative to move their conversation, she said, 'I wanted to thank you for the job fair. You really are a hero.'

He looked at her for a moment debating whether to accept that it was him. Then simply smiled and looked away.

'I know  that it's you so thank you for doing this.'

Aiden looked back at her and said, 'You don't have to thank me. You put up a fight for this, you told me about this ...'