124 Intermission

I followed behind Loriana as we made our way towards the exit of the station. The sound of her heels making contact with the floor was pretty prominent, but it was masked by the numerous other footsteps and conversations in the station. However, it was a pretty calming and pleasant sound, especially the sound of her footsteps. Seeing her walking before me was pretty relaxing. In fact, these few minutes I've been walking with her has been the most relaxed I've been this whole week.

Since Loriana was here, I assumed that she must've drove here. Therefore, our transport home must be by her car. Because of that, we must make our way to the parking lot where she parked. That then translated into walking out into the nighttime city streets of Palisia and making our way over to the underground parking lot that she parked on foot.

It was pretty chilly at night, especially because Nocsinis is directly by the ocean and the ocean winds that blew inland were pretty low in temperature. Because of this, I shivered slightly as I walked. However, I tried to contain myself as best as I could to conceal how cold I was.

We emerged from one of the station's many exits into the station square. Here, we could see the numerous concrete buildings as well as the many advertisement bill boards that were all brightly illuminated surrounding the station square. In addition, located on the wall of a building on the other side of the street was a large jumbotron that was broadcasting a music channel. It's quite often for busy areas in Palisia to have such a large screen television in public to play advertisements or the news. It's seen as a way for busy citizens to keep up with current events while they commute to work.

The station square was pretty packed as people mobilized to wherever they needed to go. There were families that were probably trying to get home, couples going on dates, as well as just adults or teens out with friends. Among the mix were also confused and terrified tourists as they struggled to make their way through the crowded station square. It's often quite entertaining to see foreigners struggle in fear at how busy Palisia was.

A gentle breeze blew by, causing me to shiver in the cold once again. As I trailed behind Loriana, following close so that I wouldn't lose her in the crowd, I rubbed my hands together and huffed a breath of hot air into them so as to warm them up. My formerly rigid fingers were mended by this brief warmth, but even then, they soon became cold once again.

"Here."

I saw a pretty hand reach into my field of sight. I looked up and saw that it was Loriana, who had turned around to face me with a smile on her face. I then looked at her hand once again and back at her.

"This way you won't get lost," she said in a gentle voice.

"I'm not a kid," I responded back with a shake of my head. However, I still obediently complied and held onto her hand as she then led me through the crowd.

Her hand was extremely soft and warm compared to mine and had a soothing effect on my soul. I felt as if her hand warmed my entire body in the crowd as it guided my way. As I walked, I kept my head high with a smile on my face. The sea of people around me no longer bothered me as their currents meandered about in random directions. I wasn't afraid of becoming lost in this stream of people because I have Loriana's warm and caring hands guiding my way.

When we finally made it to the crossing before the large Nocsinis Station Square, we were still in a crowd as we waited for the lights to turn green. On all sides of the crossroad, there were people waiting patiently. Those with companions chatted while those that were alone simply went on their phones. All in all, it was a pretty busy experience as we all waited for the lights on the road to turn red in order to stop all the cars and allow the pedestrians a chance at making our way across the road. For busy crossroads such as this one, the government's policy for the signal lights were to have the cars completely stop and allow the people to cross before resuming the pattern for automobiles to drive safely. This way, the crossroad can be utilized with the greatest efficiency.

After we crossed the road, it wasn't long before we entered through the automatic doors of a modernly-furnished department store. The store employee dressed in uniform greeted us at the entrance, but we continued walking without stopping. To either sides of the road in this department were areas with clothes on clothing racks. It would appear that on this floor, there were only clothes being sold because that was all we saw as we made our way to the back and entered the car retrieval area.

The car retrieval area was simply a large hallway with paved roads that allowed for cars to drive out and towards the city streets of Palisia through the opening from the side of the building. How it works was that there were five sectioned off areas against the right wall were the floors were controlled mechanically by robot arms. In front of each of the five booths were a scanning machine where one would simply scan the ticket on their phones so that the program would identify where the user's car was located in the parking lot and bring it up to the booths. Then, one would simply enter their car and drive off.

Loriana approached the open machine closest to us and scanned her phone. Then, on the digital display over the booth showed the ticket number as well as what step the machinery was on. It probably took about two minutes for the system to identify where her car was located and bring it up, which was pretty efficient and saved us the time that it would take to look for our car and then drive it out of a traditional underground parking lot.

Once we boarded Loriana's car, we were then on our way home. She drove out of the building and pulled onto the main road of Nocsinis where many other cars were already driving on. Because of the large population of car owners and us being in one of the busiest districts in Palisia, traffic jams were to be expected. Progress was slow as she drove through the city streets, but I didn't mind.

In the air within her car, there's the pleasant and soothing smell of her. In addition, the radio station was playing a soft soothing hip-hop type jazz music, and when that music was combined with the comfortable black leather seats that was extremely comfortable to sit on, waiting in her car was no longer a tormenting experience. Rather, it was quite a soothing one as I sat there and gazed out the window, watching the people as they walked about in the brightly illuminated nighttime streets of the city.

Loriana didn't speak much during the drive, but on her face was a content smile. She wasn't bothered by the fact that the car moved by only a little after waiting for about a minute, and instead, she appeared to be in a decent mood. That I believe was caused by her being happy to see me and the fact that tomorrow is a holiday and she will have tomorrow off as well.

When our vehicle escaped from the heart of Nocsinis and got on the highway, the traffic congestion eased up as the cars increased in their speed. Since the highways in Palisia were all elevated, often times even higher than the railways for the elevated rails, when looking out the window I could see the beautiful skyline of Palisia as well as the city streets from an elevated angle. It was quite pretty and mesmerizing to see the beautiful skyscrapers dotted with bright lights as well as the many landmark buildings in Palisia in the background. In fact, I could even see the Palace, the tallest building in all of Palisia. The view was even better when we drove onto the Holfen Bridge, which was illuminated at night with bright varying colors that seemed to change every second. As we drove over the Helliger River, I could see the Nocsinis skyline behind me and the Lumina skyline in front. In addition, the bright lights on both sides were both reflected in the river's surface.

Even though it was faster if I were to return home by using the train, riding in a car was more comfortable and relaxing for me since I'm guaranteed a seat and don't have to carry around my luggage. In addition, having some alone time with Loriana's always a pleasant ordeal.

When the two of us finally entered our home, I stretched my back and took a deep breath, breathing in the familiar scent of my house. With a satisfied sigh, I quickly walked over to my room to set my stuff down and place all the dirtied clothes in my hamper to prepare for laundry.

"I'll make dinner tonight," Loriana said as she put on an apron around her. "You can go bathe for now."

I did as she suggested and retrieved my comfortable indoor wear from my room and quickly made my way to the bathing room that was pass the washroom. Immediately, I went up to the smart screen by the bath and tapped on it gently with my finger to wake it. Then, I navigated through the options to the saved section, and pressed on the one that had my name on it. Then, the water started flowing and into the bathtub. Since I had chose the preset water amount and temperature that I had saved, everything will be just as I like it.

I then moved over to the shower and tapped on the smart screen. I want to quickly rinse my body and apply soap and shampoo before entering the bathtub. To be honest, a bath is for soaking purposes to relax one's body. I generally prefer my bath water to not have soap or bubbles floating on its surface, which explains why I like to shower first before entering.

After rinsing away the bubbles that formed from my shampoo as well as my body wash, I walked over to the bathtub and entered feet-first. I let out a huge sigh of relaxation as I leaned back against the slope surface of the bathtub and rested my head on the headrest. With my eyes closed and my body feeling extremely relaxed, I lazily moved my right hand up to the wall and tapped on the smart screen once again. This time, I pressed the option for the blinds on the bathing room window to be opened. I opened my eyes and gazed out at the beautiful nighttime sky, admiring the moon and starry sky above as well as the skyscrapers nearby.