Sadness

"Of course. I am a leading lawyer of our city so that makes me very clever." Linda smiled proudly and looked at Jackson very carefully. She was trying her best to push away the man as she knew that Jackson was indeed a flirt. He already had a girlfriend and he was ignoring her to be with Linda.

"Impressive! You sure have come a long way. I like self made women who are independent and strong." Jackson smiled yet again extremely impressed by the girl.

 Linda was a little surprised as Jackson was simply not getting offended or intimidated by anything. She had expected that she would hurt her ego and he would just walk away. "Thank you." She smiled politely as she realized that the man was genuinely impressed by her. She felt a little miserable about herself for being so rude to him without any reason.

"So tell me more about yourself. Let's not talk about personal things but general things. How has your life journey been since now? I remember that your father passed away when you are very young and you were an amazing student in school. That is all I remember about you." Jackson smiled and Linda also smiled a little thinking about her school days when her father was alive. Her father would drop her to school everyday and then would patiently wait for her till she would settle down in the class. After the school he was always very punctual and everyday, was already waiting for Linda to step out of the classroom.

"My journey has been pretty alright. The happiest moments of my life have been with my father. I have spent good 11 years with him and I will always cherish them forever." Linda had a beautiful smile on her face and her eyes were a little moist as she remembered her dear father. "My mother ….for rest of the years had to struggle a lot until I completed my legal education. After that I had decided to make my mother proud and give her a comfortable life. So from past 7 years I have worked hard day and night and earned myself a fortune and goodwill of my staff members. We together work hard and have built an empire that I am really proud of. So that is my journey in short." Linda shrugged her shoulders and smiled a little looking at Jackson.

"And you did not tell me anything about your husband. How did you meet him? How did he make you fall in love with him?" Jackson smiled politely not wanting to offend the girl but he was really curious that how must have that man managed to convince Linda who was extremely headstrong and adamant.

 "My husband's name is Austin…. we are professional rivals and at first we had an affair but he cheated on me. I was heartbroken and I have decided that I would never forgive him. But he really changed his methods for me and had become a loyal lawyer. He really tried his best to convince me and finally I agreed. But how did you know that he convinced me?" Linda was a little curious as to how did Jackson figure out that Austin must have had a tough time to convince her.

"Well you are not just any person who would agree to things by their face value…. you are a tough nut to crack, so I guess that your husband also must have tried a lot to convince you." Jackson smiled feeling extremely jealous of her husband already.

 Suddenly, large amount of sadness engulfed Linda's head and her smile vanished away as she thought about Austin making love with his receptionist. "Yes… he did manage to convince me and here I am married women from past 3 months." Linda spoke in a sad tone as if in some sort of a trans. Jackson instantly knew that Linda was not happy with her husband.

"You don't sound so happy." Jackson pointed towards her eyes and a teardrop down from Linda's eye and she quickly wiped it away trying to hide it from Jackson.

"Ohh no! I am absolutely fine. It's just that life has changed so much and it can be a little overwhelming." Linda smiled a little trying her best to convince Jackson that she was indeed he happily married woman. "So what about you? What has been your life journey? Besides flirting, what do you like to do?" She smiled wickedly, diverting the topic towards him.

"Ha ha! Flirting? Do you think I am a flirt?" Jackson looked at her in much surprise and Linda giggled loudly looking at him. "Well, my life has been pretty comfortable thanks to my parents. The major setback in my life was when both my parents died in the air crash leaving me and my sister all alone. Since then I have tried to be my sister's father and mother making sure that she does not feel an emotional loneliness in her heart. I do not know how much I have succeeded, but I give my best. My life is all about movies and acting. I bring out all my creativity in acting ….. and it also keeps me occupied so that I think less about my parents. For one year I have been in depression but then I realized that I have to live my life for my sister. She is the only one, I have. Besides that God has been great to me and apart from our parents' wealth, we both have also succeeded in our respective careers and manage to live a happy life." Jackson paused a little feeling a little remorse. "But…. But now I feel hollow and lonely. I am in my late 20s and I want to come back home to a family or to a person who loves me a lot. I do not know, if I will ever find such a person in today's world where people are only running after good looks and money." Jackson was constantly looking at the glass in front of him and was speaking in a robotic manner as if pouring his heart out in front of someone.