Adam felt sufficiently exhausted that day so he let the woman who had been babbling in her sleep to grab his wrist. Then sleepiness began to strike and he closed his eyes on the edge of the next bed of a body lying down.
Adam did not know how long had slept. He felt pain in his neck and the arm that used as a pillow went numb. He lifted his seat and wiggled slightly.
"Are you waking up, Boss?" someone asked.
Adam turned to find his assistant, Hassan Pribadi, standing there watching from where he was standing. Adam then turned his eyes to the patient who should be lying on bed. Adam's eyes were round, there was no one there. Stammering he pointed to the white cloth mattress.
"Sh-she? Where is she going?" Adam asked.
"Who do you mean?" asked Hassan as he approached.
"A woman who sleeps here?"
Hassan seems confused, "There are no women in this room, Boss. Since I came, only you have been here. Sleeping in the sitting position on that bench," Hassan explained.
Adam blinked his eyes and looked momentarily stunned at the empty bed. It appears that his consciousness has not been completely restored. He looked to the bathroom. The door was open and there was no light. That means no one's wearing it.
Then the man got up to leave the room. As he stepped forward, his eyes caught a piece of paper under a glass. He realized that the bedside table was supposed to be empty overnight, so he decided to pick up the paper. That thin object which folded into two parts was opened by him and indeed a message was left there.
~Thanks for your help. I've settled the hospital bills. Sorry for the inconvenience.
~Good bye.
Adam looked intently and then shuffled through the paper looking for a name the author might have left behind. However, no more letters were found there.
Hassan just stood there wondering at the whim of his superior. Then the boss walked up to him.
"Let's go!" Adam took a walk at once to hand the paper to Hassan without stopping his leg.
The assistant accepted and read it as he followed Adam leaving the hospital in a hurry. Based on the brief information of the paper, Hassan made some assumptions and to ensure that, he would ask the man who was now walking in front of him at the exact moment.
***
Bianca Savitri, the woman who left Adam alone in the hospital observation room just moments ago, now sat in the passenger seat of a white car. She was not alone. She was sitting with a rising model, Indira Putri Sanjaya, a friend who was considered to be her own sister.
"Okay, now you tell me. Is there another one?" Indira asked with an intently look at Bianca's exhausted face.
The woman who received the question nodded. Then she described what happened after Indira left her alone in the movies. Indira referred to the seizures as post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. If that attack came then Bianca suddenly would have trouble breathing.
"It's quite long enough to have no relapse, but lately it's too often," Indira amazed.
Bianca let out a long deep breath, then leaned on her head.
"It was the right decision to take time off now. You were tired. Almost a month of overtime. In the last week, you have had less bedtime, and definitely your eating must be frenzy."
"Exhausted," Bianca cutted.
"Exactly," Indira said. Then they chuckled together.
Indira was reminded of what happened when Bianca wrote a message to a man sleeping in the hospital. With a mischievous look, Indira pushed her face and smiled sweetly at Bianca and said, "So, My dear sister, who is he?" the girl asked with her hair tied in a ponytail .
Both Bianca's black irises just roll to the left corner to take a quick look at Indira, "He was just …." Bianca's voice stopped. She did not want to tell her friend about him and shook her head on purpose to tease indira.
"Oh God, since when have you tried to keep secrets from me?" Indira yanked away and turned sulk by folding her hands across her chest, while her lips ruffled.
"He was a cameo. Never mind," Bianca answered without a burden.
"No way!" Indira argued.
Bianca used to smile when she heard Indira's comment.
"I don't believe it. Come on, Sis. Who is he?" Indira urged.
"Honestly, I don't know who he is, Indira," Bianca replied as the smile on her face faded.
"What? How come?" Once again Indira was slackened.
"His face wasn't clear. But I think he seems to be the same person who was stuck with me in the elevator," Bianca said unconvinced.
"I wonder if he's being treated as well as you, Bianca?" Indira guessed.
Bianca answered only with a shrug of two shoulders suggesting she did not know either. Indira stopped asking questions after receiving a reluctant reply from her best friend.
Bianca's face was looking at the windshield on her left side. It was almost dawn and the roads were still quiet. In the silence it was as if Bianca's consciousness had been drawn to a few hours earlier, when the incident occurred. How she was still able to feel clearly the difficulty of breathing because of feeling frightened and depressed at the same time.
Unconsciously, Bianca's hands clenched because she held back a painful memory that was sometimes painful. The clatter that Indira caught in the ear. Indira turned to her and saw Bianca getting a little nervous. Immediately she picked up the clenched hand and caressed it gently to soothe the hand's owner.
"It's okay, Bi. You're safe now," Indira said.
She looked over at indira. The woman's eyes began to fill with tears. Then the two of them embraced each other, Bianca began sobbing in her cries.
***
Adam flew himself to Samarinda. Hassan and Trias just drove him to the airport. While his other assistant, Lucky Hermansyah, has been there to make sure the tenders goes well this time and the AS Corp got the best vendor for the national project they managed from an investor last month.
"Boss, in less than half an hour we can start the tenderizer. I'll go down and talk on behalf of the Boss. And Mr. Hendra from the MT group invited you for lunch. I haven't answered that invitation. So, are you going?"
"Is MT group joining the bid?" Adam asked.
"They can't, Boss. Because they've handling a project in Bali. Great Master's message should be no double projects for Bali," Lucky said.
"Any motive?"
"That's what I was thinking, Boss."
"Okay, stick to the plan," Adam replied. "Arrange the lunch here," he added.
Then Lucky went to lead the executive tender. While Adam stayed in his room watching the developments through a monitor that was directly connected to the meeting room.
More than three hours have passed. The tender event has been successfully held. Lucky went back to the room to see Adam and rereported the results of the day's meeting. Lucky submitted a contract document for Adam to sign right away. "I have a reservation at a restaurant hotel on the third floor. It's almost lunch time."
"Okay, we're going now. What time do we're back to Jakarta?" Adam asked as he walked out of the room.
"This afternoon, Boss. At three o 'clock we gotta check out of the hotel."
"Okay."
After exiting the elevator, it turned out to be a restaurant hotel next to a theater. It immediately brought back Adam to the memory of being stuck with an unknown woman.
A lot of people swarmed in the theaters. Capturing the puzzled look on his superior's face, Lucky then remarked, "There is the local movie premiere, Boss. There's a meet and greet of the actors." Lucky's explanation cleared Adam's curiosity.
When the two men in black suits marched up to the meeting place for lunch, the artists who had come to the theater were seen coming through the escalator. Some waiting fans reverberate and hail their idols.
But Adam just stopped. His eyes blinked as if watching someone in the crowd.
"Boss?" Lucky called.
"She was just like the woman in the hospital," Adam said pointedly toward the place where the people were packed.
Adam's eyes glared at the crowd of fans in front of the movie as he pointed out, "She was just like the woman in the hospital."Lucky heard the boss's words and immediately looked in the direction that Adam's pointing. "Who, Boss?" Lucky asked.Adam was forced to look the other way to explain his point to Lucky. "That's the one with the … T-shirt." Adam went back to the crowd, but the person he referred to disappeared or actually did not exist in the first place."A T-shirt? Many were wearing shirts, Boss," Lucky said.Adam drew a deep breath and resumed, "Never mind, let's go."There was a man in the restaurant who waved hello with a smile. "Mr. Hendra has arrived," Lucky said, who returned to the man with a nod. Adam did the same.The table distance at the restaurant was over a meter. Adam walked earlier and was followed by Lucky. When they arrived, they shook hands with each other."Mr. Adam, thank you for responding to my i
"Stick to the plan?" Lucky asked with a look of significance at the boss.Adam knew what Lucky's question meant when it did not actually require an answer from him. He leaned back and laughed in response to the mischievous ideas of his assistant."Okay. Call Hassan to postpone all the arrangements by the day after tomorrow. If it can't wait, I'll handle it from here." Adam gave instructions to Lucky who was still sitting in front of him."Okay," Lucky replied."So be it! I'll go back to my room." Adam got up and walked out of the restaurant. The man stopped short and turned around and gave Lucky another clue. "By the way, manage with a low budget," he ordered with a thin smile."Seriously, Boss?" Lucky asked unconvinced, while Adam had walked away. Lucky was stunned by his boss's decision. "Well, who the hell are you Bianca?" Lucky mumbled.Beras Basah Island was one of the beach destination tours with white sand beds in East Kalimantan. The
The beauty of Beras Basah Island was not Adam's main goal. He sat in a summerhouse not far from where Bianca was. While he was busy speculating, his phone rang. Mrs. Wursita called and he asked why he did not immediately return to Jakarta as planned. "I still have things to do, Mom," Adam answered his mother's question. [Can it be left? Or represent? I have a thing more important for you to do] Mrs. Wursita's voice sounded serious and did not want to be debated. Adam swallowed his spit, then asked. "What is it, Mom?" [Your aunt and uncle invited us to dinner tomorrow] Mrs. Wursita answered. "Dinner? What's the occasion?" [I don't know. Maybe it has to do with Desmon's already got a girlfriend] "Ah. Perhaps the relationship is serious, so it should invite the extended family to dinner," Adam replied. [It could be. But it's clear your aunt was willing to make fun of me. Because my single son also has not yet got a bride]
Upon arriving at the uncle's residence, Adam said something to Lucky "Well, listen. Plan B has an extra plan."Lucky immediately went to look for the data in his head with plan B. He immediately remembered the conversation on Beras Basah Island. He looked closely at the boss's face in the rearview mirror."Send Bianca flowers tomorrow," Adam said, leaving Lucky who's in the driver's seat stunned. Then the boss got out of the car.After hearing Adam's words, Lucky fell silent and thought of the reason the boss was headed toward a woman who did not even know each other.A knock on the windshield threw out Lucky's daydream. "Sir, please move the car forward. The car behind is about to leave," says the security officer who arranged for vehicle traffic in and out of the driveway of the mansion.Through the main door, Adam was greeted by a large crystal vase with a white floral arrangement. The chandelier shimmered right above it. The sight reminded him
"You are an ungrateful child!" Bianca's foster mother yelled."What's going on this time? What did she do this time?" Bianca's foster father asked from inside the room. Then walked up to his wife who was glaring at Bianca in terror."Look at this! This stupid girl has ruined my shirt. This is what I want to wear tonight for the party. What should I wear then?" Bianca's foster mother was shaking something in her arm, a silk gown that had damaged its original color by smudges in several places."I just did what you told me to do. I put all the dirty laundry in the washing machine," Bianca said in self-defense.Bianca's foster father took the dress and laid it out. He looked sulkily at the dress."You are an idiot!" the woman scolded by pushing Bianca's forehead with her index finger. "This dress is ivory white, you shouldn't mix it with anything else!" she said irritably. The woman also hovered on Bianca's upper arm.Then Bianca's foster
The dinner banquet at Aditya Saguna's mansion was quite lively. No less than fifty gathered, both near and distant relatives. There are two people as hosts for the night to be more interactive. Others sing karaoke in the presence of small bands intended to enhance the atmosphere. Adam had taken his seat at the table of the main family of Saguna. There are Mr. Adyaksa, Mrs. Wursita, Mr. Aditya, Mrs. Padmana, and Gita. However, there were still two empty seats and it should have been Adam's cousin, Desmon Anggara Saguna. "Desmon is taking too long," Mrs. Padmana complained. "Where is brother Desmon going, Ma?" Gita asked. "Pick up his girlfriend," Mrs. Padmana said proudly. Just as the woman was about to call, her son, a tall athletic man appeared from a distance with a typical Adam's face in his hand by ho
Some people have stood at the door of the rectangular cubicle that was used to transport humans to other floors. Bianca followed them. That time she did not go up the stairs like she always did. Now she was forced to use the elevator because the orchid was sent by someone who could not yet be identified."Good morning, Bianca," The voice of a man greeted Bianca's left side.Bianca looked at the man and smiled at him. "Good morning, Mr. Fahar."Fahar even returned a friendly smile. Overheard the name being called, the employees who were initially faced the elevator door looked at him and greeted that man.Fahar was the CEO of the advertising company where Bianca made her job. Even though the man was only thirty years old, Fahar was able to build an Advanced Advertising firm as today, with growing in its esteem to the advertising environment. Hard work from zero made Fahar become a respected and dedicated businessman.Fahar wa
Meanwhile at the headquarters of AS Corp, a room where Adam's five assistants worked, Trias stood up from her chair and shouted something, "Where's Lucky now? How come he hasn't come yet?" That woman initially only served as a secretary, but since Adam started his own company called OSG, he made Trias also become Adam's assistant. There besides Trias, there was Hassan and two junior assistants, Andhika, and Adi. Meanwhile, Lucky had not come yet. Andika looked up. "Just now I passed by on the road. Lucky had an assignment from boss, he said. So he didn't go straight to the office," he explained. "Did he tell you where he went?" Trias asked."No. Well, that's Lucky!" Andhika cried while looking at the door. "Hi, Everyone. Miss me, don't you?" Lucky said. Lucky has been assigned to Samarinda for one week. "You must be gone for long. Forever gonna be fair enough," Hassan teased. "Just say you're jealous, Bro," Lucky replied. "Not at all. It's better to be with my wife. Isn't it,