A Second Chance (Chapter Two)

Christine had to leave the country. She was devastated after the loss of Shawn in her life. For the past one year, it had been him and nobody else that she depended on. Now, she had no one. No family, no Shawn. Friends could not fill up the emptiness she felt even sine Shawn left, even though they tried. Somehow, they seemed to make it worse. Thus, she had jumped at the chance of an offer that her company gave her to head up a project in Malaysia with a group of people all over the world. The only 2 Singaporeans would be her and another guy named Alexander, whom she did not know. She had been asked to go for the past one year, but she had flatly refused because of Shawn. Now she knew that she had to go. She planned to immense herself in work to dull the constant pain that she felt in her heart. Now she was on her way. As she watched, the scene outside the window became a blur as the train picked up speed. Sighing deeply, Christine turned back from the window and returned her precious tee into her hand carry. Leaning back, she closed her eyes.

‘Excuse me?’ A male voice penetrated Christine’s foggy mind. She opened her eyes to see a handsome young man staring at her. She jumped.

‘Oh, I am sorry! I did not mean to scare you. I just wanted to wake you up as we had reached Kuala Lumpur.’

‘Oh.’ Christine rubbed at her eyes and looked out the window to see that the train had indeed stopped at the station and many people were about.

‘Let me help you with that.’ The pleasant young man offered as Christine stood up with her hand carry and laptop.

‘Thank you.’ Christine said and gave the young man her laptop. She hugged her hand carry and refused to give it to the young man even though he offered again. She did not want to risk losing her most treasured possession in the world. The young man gave her a puzzled look before leading the way out.

Both of them walked out of the train into the bright sunlight. Christine was blinded as the sun shone directly into her eyes. She fumbled for her shades in her hand carry and was surprised when the young man took her arms and guided her through the crowd to a shaded area.

‘Hi, my name is Alexander.’ The young man offered his hand.

‘I am Christine. Nice to meet you. And thank you for your help.’ Christine shook his hand and smiled.

‘Where are you headed to?’ Alexander asked.

‘Oh. I am supposed to wait for my company car to pick me up.’

‘Really? Me too! I worked for Mannical. I am here to head up a project with a group of like-minded people to develop a new product launch. What about you?’

‘I work for Mannical too! Are you here for the product head up with George Townsend?’ Christine asked, interested.

‘Oh yes I am! Gosh! So we are colleagues! You are the other Singaporean!’ Alexander exclaimed.

Christine smiled and said, ‘Yes, it seemed that we are.’

And so, this was the start of Christine’s friendship with Alexander.