15 Meeting

They stared at each other for some time before Ben noticed that she was getting suspicious of him, so he introduced himself hurriedly to avoid misunderstandings.

"Good afternoon, I'm Benedict Torres. I came here because I want to talk to the owner of this land, I wonder if he's free?" Ben asked while presenting his ID's to Karin. 'Well, it seems I got my chance!' Ben thought happily while also giving his business card to her.

"Sit over there and wait for a while." Karin pointed him to a table with 2 chairs under the shade of the tree near the cottage. When he saw her run inside the house, he went to sit on the chair under the shade. He was really curious how Karin could be here, this was not supposed to be her house.

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Karin on the other hand was getting flustered. "He's so handsome!" Karin thought dreamily. "I hope he's not here to buy the land for some warehouse or factory thingies." She sighed. She combed her hair and makes herself presentable then made some refreshments for her visitor.

When she went out, he saw him sitting behaved on the chair she pointed to, looking like he was in deep thoughts.

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"Mr. Torres, I made juice, please help yourself." Karin offered.

"You can just call me Ben, calling me so formally makes me feel like I'm old. I'm only turning 17 you know." Ben said while smiling at her.

"Oh, I haven't introduced myself, I'm Karin Cruz, and you can just call me Karin. And you look familiar, have we met before?" Karin voiced out casually while taking out her hand for a handshake.

"Ms. Karin, I never thought your pick up lines are so natural." Ben joked while receiving her hand, he turned it and kissed the back of her palm, which made Karin blushed, and hurriedly removed her hand away from him, she countered "No, it's not a pick-up line, you really do look familiar."

"I study at Cotton University and living in an apartment near there. Maybe you saw me when going to school or going home from school?" Ben offered.

"Oh, it's you!!" Karin said like she remembered something. "You're the guy who's always sitting at the bench near the High School Building. I'm also a student at Cotton University, it's my last year in high school."

'Oops, and here I thought I was being discreet.' Ben thought, "Yeah, I always pass my time there before I go back to my apartment, you know, to contemplate things. By the way, I came here to talk to the owner, can I meet him?" Ben said, successfully changing the topic back to his original intention.

"Am I not talking to you now?" Karin asked back.

"What do you mean?" Ben said, and then like he figured "You're the owner!?"

"Yes, is there a problem with me being the owner?" Karin asked.

"N-no, no problem at all, it's just that you're too young…" Ben trailed off not know what to say.

"What did you come here for? It's not to ask me about my life right?" Karin said.

'I do want to ask! Argh, be patient Ben, you're old, you're steady and mature, calm down and focus and leave a good impression!' Ben calmed himself from curiosity. He took a sip from the juice made by Karin, "So delicious! Did you make this?" Ben praised. "I came here to ask how big the area of this land of yours is and if you're willing to sell it." Ben said.

"Thanks, since I don't have a lot to do, I pass the time making juices or cooking." Karin was silent for a moment before answering, "More or less this land is 800,000 square meters. Are you going to buy this land? What would you be doing with a land this big?" Karin probed.

"I would love to buy it if I can. I'm going to start a farm so I wanted the land to be as big as possible." Ben stated truthfully.

"$1M for every hectare, I'm willing to sell the 70 hectare to you. So that would amount to $70M, if you can afford it." Karin said.

Ben was stunned again, 'Another money grubber…' Ben muttered under his breath. Then he smiled and said "Karin, the standard price for every hectare is only $500k, can't you give me a discount? How about I buy the 70 hectares for $40M?"

After bargaining back and forth with his wife-to-be, they agreed at $58M for the whole 70 hectare plot of land.

"Sigh, I'm making a loss here you know, I wouldn't sell it to you if you would buy the land just to turn it into a housing or industrial area." Karin lamented.

"So some people already made an offer for this land?" Ben asked curiously.

"Yeah, you're in luck, they even offered me $100M just to sell the land but I didn't agree, and I just sold it to you for $58M, now do you know my loss?" Karin said still lamenting on the money loss.

"I'm just curious, why did you sell it to me and not to them? Is it because they want to make it a residential or industrial area?" Ben asked again.

Karin answered, "Yeah, me and my late parents doesn't want to waste such fertile land. We love nature, so even if all of it is just weeds now, I'm still looking for someone who would care for it, and then you came to the picture. You're really going to start a farm here right?"

"Yes, and even if the land will change owner, you can still come and visit, we're going to be neighbors soon." Ben said.

"That's great! Ok, I will come over during harvest time and eat my fill. It's going to be free right?" Karin asked.

"Uhh, I'll think about it?" Ben answered. "Hmph, stingy." Karin said with a small pout.

Then they stared at each other and laughed.

"Now let's talk about when I'll be getting my payment?" Karin asked eagerly.

"Wow, you can't wait to get your hands off the land huh?" Ben said.

"Nah, it's nothing like that, I'm just excited to see it transform again into a farm." Karin said reminiscing "When my parents were here, the land was so, how do I describe it, hmm, I feel very peaceful inside me every day that I woke up. I miss those days."

"Anyway, when will you pay me?" Karin asked again.

"I will deposit $8M to your account tomorrow as reservation fee, then I will be handing the remaining $50M by next month. Will that be alright?" Ben stated.

"That's fine." Karin said while looking at him in awe, "You're so rich! You only need a month to pay the $50M."

"After a month I'll be poor and you'll be rich so please take care of this poor person." Ben said with a pleading voice slightly smiling and staring into her eyes, looking like a small puppy abandoned by its owner.

Karin was mesmerized by the sight she answered without thinking, "Y-yeah…" then as if catching herself she said "What? No! I don't talk to poor people." Karin said jokingly.

Ben smiled brightly after hearing her answer, now that they've met, he can go to her anytime and start being close to her. "It's getting late, I should probably be going home soon. That's right, can I also have your number? So I can call you if I ever needed some info about the land?"

After getting her number, he said his goodbyes and drove home smiling. Although he wanted to spend more time with her, he just has to bear a little more and she'll be his again.