1 BUSTED!

The birds are chirping on the branches of dried trees covered with snow. Elmont city had experienced the first snowfall of the season last night and the temperature has gotten really low with dry wind gushing through empty lanes.

The whole city was covered under the serene and beautiful blanket of snow until a distant noise of someone's alarm beeping could be heard.

A woman's hand emerged out of her cozy blanket, struggling to stop it somehow but to no avail. She gets frustrated and finally flipped the blanket inside out from rage. For sometime, she kept looking at the Pixar minions alarm clock which too was looking back at her with a drawn smile.

She rubbed her eyes and began dragging herself to stand up and shut down the irritating alarm clock she had. And that's how her typical day commenced.

This lazy woman was actually a well-respected employee, who worked in Summerwood Pvt limited. She was 29 years old and had decent income, self rented house, funny friends, a loving boyfriend who was once used to be her childhood friend, and many colleagues who looked upto her. Her name was Ayana. Ayana Shekar.

Her day started with a homemade so-called latte before setting off to work early at eight o'clock in the morning. She shared a nice chit-chat with a staff employee, who was just about to leave as her shift ended just then. Ayana collected the files of today's clients from her and goes back into her office chamber.

As the sun raised till mid noon, Ayana was finally done checking all of the presentation and so she decides to go into the cafeteria for a small break. She sat right next to a window with salad sandwich and orange juice in her hands and opened her boyfriend's social media page to check out his latest posts when he visited an authentic place with his friends on last weekend.

As she was taking sips of her orange juice, she noticed a familiar girl standing right next to him in almost every photo. At first, several questions began bubbling up in her mind, but she ignored them claiming they were just friends. To lighten up her mood, she tapped on another social media page and started scrolling through multiple cute dog videos, when suddenly her best friend Betty, who worked in sales department, crashed right into the seat in front of her and started complaining about her boss Patrick out of nowhere.

Ayana was used to her sudden entrance so she continued her meal hearing her endless nagging.

She dropped her phone aside to enjoy the conversation and soon their break ended. Betty has been Ayana's friend since they entered this company and their frequency met quite well with each other. Everytime they met, Betty would always complain about her boss while Ayana would often ask about her relationship queries regarding her boyfriend, Jake, who was the Chief Financial Officer.

Ayana took a deep sigh after she entered her office compartment to collect files but locked the door behind for a moment. She and Jake had been in a relationship for almost five years but since the last weekend trip, he has been ignoring Ayana's call and texts with some lame excuses.

Despite being so suspicious, Ayana desperately tried convincing her heart that maybe his excuses were actually genuine and she was being judgemental, but no matter what, the uneasiness still lingered in her heart.

She always had a huge crush on him ever since highschool, and when he finally proposed her in front of everyone in welcoming party of final graduation year, she was overjoyed with happiness that she couldn't even express with words.

They had mild arguments sometimes, but after a few discussion they would make up soon. Jake was undeniably smart and handsome, making him the most popular guy in the university. However, Ayana despite being popular, wasn't as smart as him. She was more like a gang leader instead.

But after getting into a relationship, she studied day and night to get into same company as him, and succeeded too. They both celebrated it at a fancy restaurant.

But the distance she was experiencing now, felt different unlike others. His absence started to create void in her heart and as days passed by, her attention started dropping drastically. In the end, she couldn't help but take a half leave today since it was gonna be weekend tomorrow anyway, the day, Jake promised to meet her.

She finally completed the remaining paperwork and marched out of her office chamber. She went near the counter to submit some files but nobody was there, so instead she left them under the desk with a smiley note on it.

She dashed out of the building and entered her car inside the parking lot, fixed her getup using rear view mirror, and turned ON her favourite playlist of old style hip-hop songs to depart.

Unfortunately, because of the snow the previous night, the road was quite slippery. And being a bad driver, she couldn't afford any risks. As if the situation couldn't get any worse, it began to snowfall again.

She rolled her eyes in disappointment, and started looking for a cafeteria nearby with a parking spot available. Luckily, her eyes finally laid on an aesthetic cafe, which looked quite expensive at first glance. But considering the situation she was in, she had no choice but to go there, since there was even an underground mall parking nearby.

After parking, she quickly unbuckled her seatbelt, and went to the cafe to relax herself. As usual, she ordered a hazelnut flavoured Latte and sat in an isolated corner to avoid any attention. The coffee smelled great and the Paris jazz music gave her happy vibes enough to forget all her worries until a familiar voice reached her ears.

She looked around but saw no one except some framework hanged on a wall, and a short bush wall on her other side. She stood up slightly, and noticed that the voice was of no one else but that of Jake!

Ayana felt very excited to give him a surprise bump from back, but her hopes instantly shattered when she noticed the same girl in the photo with him. This time her heart ached more than ever for strange reasons, but she tried all her might to calm down and sit for a moment before she does anything regretful.

She remained seated on her seat, talking to herself when suddenly a boisterous laugh interjected her thoughts. It was Jake's signature laugh he would do whenever he truly enjoyed the moment with her. Seeing both of them laugh and chuckle like this, Ayana started to feel a chunk of jealousy in her heart. She peaked through the top of bush wall, and started eavesdropping them.

"Oh dear! You are so funny! By the way, you mentioned you won't be able to come tomorrow to my place. Did something serious happened? Don't tell me it was that same annoying friend of yours." The woman said with her sharp voice.

"Ha?! No, no! You misunderstood something. You see, I've used all my leave for this trip just to meet you, and now my colleagues are bickering behind my back. I can't let my reputation tarnish, you see." Jake said proudly as he tried to hold her hands, but failed.

"But well, maybe, you aren't completely wrong. It's partially because of that friend too." He shamelessly switched.

But as these words came out of his mouth, the ground abruptly slipped under Ayana's feet. She couldn't believe what she was listening to just now. She wanted to confront them but maybe it was too early to judge.

"Haha! See?! I am always correct. It's always you who never believe in me. Say, are you still dating that bi...old friend of yours?" She slides her hand over Jake's and gave a mysterious smile.

Both Jake and Ayana knew what she was gonna say earlier, but Jake still remained ignorant of all this and tried to change the topic instead.

"Haha, oh right! by the way, did you noticed this coffee has a different taste from usual ones? No wonder it's price's so high." He laughed it off and focused on the coffee instead, to avert from this conversation. But maybe it was pointless in front of this woman. She still had that mysterious smile and daggering stare fixed at Jake.

"You didn't answered my question." She bluntly asked.

"What question?" Jake tried to feign innocence but little did he knew, he was only making the matter worse.

The woman however still looked at him continuously with a brow raised indicating it was futile to ignore now. It was now hard to escape until a clear response be declared.

With no other options left, he finally let out his inner thoughts leak out and blurted the truth to break free from this suffocating interrogation.

"Yes. She is..." There was a serious tone in his voice but it changed immediately upon noticing the woman getting upset and changed the conversation again "but don't you worry! I have called her to meet tomorrow for this purpose only."

"! What do you mean?"

"I am gonna break up with her tomorrow. Only so that I can be with you." He grabbed her hands with another one and looked softly into her eyes. Hearing him say that made the woman very happy and she clasped her hands with him too.

"Really?! Oh my god, I love you so much Jake!"

"..."

The couple started complimenting each other with their love talk to the point it started to get annoying to everyone around them. However, those awful words of him shook Ayana's world and she simply stood there in silence as if she had gone deaf. She stared at them sharing coffee cups and holding each other hands until she couldn't hold her emotions anymore.