13 Meeting II

"Honey, have you seen Emily," the mother says as she walks to her husband who is dabbing on the soil, making sure it is neat and dense for the plant. "Yeah, she went out this morning," he says as he stands up taking of the gloves that he wore. "Oh," the mother says, standing still right where she at. "Where did she go?"

"I am not sure but there were like 3 kids that came to pick her up, probably her new friends," the father says as he shakes the gloves, letting the excessive soil fall onto the ground, where it belongs. The mother nodded, "that is good. At least, she is socializing with people now."

"Agreed," the father says with a smile, looking at his wife. Upon noticing his face, a smile also form on her lips. "Is she coming home for lunch?"

"I am not sure about that, but 90 percent no. I gave her some pocket money." The mother nodded at her husband's answer. "Okay then. Get inside and clean yourself, then we will have lunch," the wife says while walking away, making her way into the house, exiting the backyard. "Okay," the husband says in a light scream with a smile, making sure that he is heard.

~*~

Halle is discussing with Cameron about the venue, while Matthew who is listening to them is taking notes of the content of the meeting to make a report later. He sighs, feeling annoyed a little. "Wait, why am I doing this again?" Cameron and Halle turn both of their face, facing Matthew. "To make sure that we aren't slacking, and the reports are needed for proof. Plus, you do know that we will get a lot of bonus grade by participating in this project as the management team," Cameron says, reminding Matthew.

Matthew sighs, "Okay, fine." Cameron smiles, looking at the guy who is sitting besides him. "It's okay, it's okay," he says as he pats Matthew's back. Noticing that Matthew is already looking a little bit tired, he checks his watch. 11.56 a.m. It is near lunch time. He looks at Liam and Emily, who is still talking to each other about the activities. Not going to lie, them both looks closer than they did, judging by how both of them fluently talks like two normal people, not two quiet people.

"Hey," Cameron calls, targeting at Liam and Emily, who immediately looks at him back. "Let's stop here for now. It is already lunch time," he says, looking at them both. "Plus, look at these tired faces," he says pointing his hands at Matthew and Halle, which a hint of boredom and tiredness can be seen on Matthew's face, while Halle's face almost remain the same, but you know that she is kind of tired by the slight difference in her energy.

Liam and Emily looks at each other, taking a pause. "Let's stop for here then," Emily says, breaking the silence between them two. Liam nodded.

Emily starts to takes the paper that was scribbled on by her, keeping it in her pink file, while the others who sees her follows her action. The papers that they used are obviously important since that is where they wrote the information on. The different colored files makes it easier for them to identify which is whose than opening each file and looking at the content, that takes a little bit time.

They pass the files to Matthew, so that it can be keep safe in his backpack while they are moving around. Matthew put the files in his bag, along with his laptop and zip the bag.

"Let's go," Cameron says as he stands up, which is followed by the other's. They get away from the table as they started walking again.

Their feet moved from the green grass onto the hard-surfaced pavement, walking besides the open park. As usual, Cameron leads the way while having Liam walking on his side. This time, Emily walks alongside Halle while Matthew is walking alone behind them.

As they reached the town area where the business activity is held, a question popped into Emily's head.

Where are they going?

"So, Emily," the voice besides her calls. She looks to her side to the owner of the voice. "Yes?"

"What do you think of the town?" Halle asks while looking at her. "It's pretty," Emily simply answer.

The town is pretty. Along the pedestrian that they are walking right now, elegant black sidewalk lamps are standing on the pavement, complimenting the red bricks that they are walking on. From what she can see from the outside, the shops have a classic vintage touch to each of them, completing the whole old-fashion aesthetic.

The chilly wind blows again, giving Emily a little goosebumps. She puts both of her hands in her coat, trapping warmth for her hands. She looks at her sides, taking a glance of the beautiful area surrounding her.

"Where are we going?" Emily suddenly popped a question.

"Oh yeah, I forgot that you don't know where we are going," Cameron says as he looks at his back at her. "We are going to a restaurant to have lunch, and then we will do some survey for the gifts and souvenir."

Emily mentally nodded, keeping the information in her head. "Sorry that we didn't tell you earlier," Cameron says as he looks at Emily. "It's fine."

After minutes of walking, they finally reach the restaurant Cameron was talking about. All of them went in and sit on a table of six, where the one excess chair were used as a seat for Matthew's laptop bag.

All of them go through the menus, looking for appetizing meals for their appetites. Some chose to try something new while some chose to stick to their comfort food. On the other hand, Emily just pick something that is familiar to her.

After placing the orders to the waiter, they wait for their food while having a little chit chat with each other.

"What is up with you and Zach?" Cameron asks, grabbing everyone's attention at the table the as he supposedly talking to Halle, as he looks at her. Halle silently cuss with her eyes as she looks right back at him. "What do you mean?" she says, trying to play it off, taking a sip of the water on the table.

A smirk slowly makes it way to Cameron's lips, as the others are watching them. "I know what a two people that continuously tease each other hides behind them," he says as his smirk grows. A hint of embarrassment crawls up to Halle, slowly seeing it on her face.

"Things are going well, huh?" Cameron tease, while Halle's cheeks slowly burns. "Oh, shut up," she says while changing her eyes direction, taking another sip of the water. "Tell me when you are both are official," he teases once again with a satisfied smirk as he leans back on his chair.

Yes, she doesn't know who Zach is. But seems like Halle is having her eyes on him by the way she reacted to Cameron teasing her. Good for her.

She looks outside of the window of the shop, where other businesses stands. The view outside is definitely delightful as it gives off a strong classic vintage vibe. She is enjoying view. Her eyes are kept on the window, focusing on the scene until a moving person get out of a shop.

He is sweeping the leaves in front of the shop, he uses a normal broom instead of a rake while having a dustpan in another hand. She cannot help but notice that he somewhat looks familiar.

"Here is your order," the sound of the waiter's voice steals her attention. She looks at the waiter to see him putting the food from the tray on to the table, serving them the dishes that they had ordered. Her dish makes its way to her as a low "Thank you," can be heard coming out of your mouth.

Once again, she looks outside of the window only to find that the figure was gone. She just shrug it off and get back to being present to the table, as the waiter says "Enjoy the food," before he leaves the table.

All of them starts digging in the food, taking their first bite of their dishes. The food is okay. It doesn't taste bad and everything is well season.

They continue to cram down their food until their plates are clean, or some might have some leftovers. After they are done with eating, Halle brings up some conversation on the table, before all of them chipped into paying the bills. All of them stands up from their table, ready to leave the restaurant.

"Let's go and find some shops," Cameron says before leading the group to and leaving the place. "Which shop should we go first?" Halle asks as she walks along Emily. "We will walk straight this path and go into the first souvenir shop that we could find," Cameron explains. He didn't think about this first, this idea just came up to his head this morning when he was walking with Halle and Liam.

"Is it going to be long?" Matthew asks from behind. "No, I don't think so. We are just doing some survey so maybe not," Cameron answers. Emily lowkey agrees in her heart. She doesn't really want to spend a long time being outside, but at the same time, assumptions could be wrong you know.

~*~

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.

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Her assumption was wrong.

From what she thought is going to be a quick survey turns into a long depth thinking decision. Plus, she is the budget holder so she has to take part into looking and thinking about what is the best decision to do.

On the other hand, Halle already went home since she already make some plans at home after going into 1 shop. Of course, Cameron tease her before she leaves, claiming that she is going home so that she can talk to Zach. But, it doesn't really matter since she doesn't have anything to do in the survey activities, so everyone was fine with her going home

A little part of Emily wishes she is in Halle shoes, but she doesn't really bother listening to that side. It is a little bit tiring but she is a part of the group. It is her responsibility. Everybody is doing their job too so why wouldn't she.

Finally, they are walking to the final shop after observing the price, the quality, and how suitable the item is for the mini festival. She stands in front of the shop, looking at the letters that are pasted on the windows of the shop.

"Crafties."

This is the same shop where she had seen the familiar figure. This shop is just across the street from the place where they had their lunch, but somehow this is the last place that they are going in.

A sound of bell chimed as Cameron opens the door, walking inside as Matthew and Liam follow his lead. But instead of walking in, he waits at the door and looks at Emily, who seems to be zoning out. "You are not coming in?" He says, waking up Emily from her empty thoughts.

She looks at him with empty eyes before really getting back into the reality again. "Yeah," Emily says as she regains her thoughts. Cameron wait at the door, looking at her while Emily takes that as a sign to walk into the shop. With a few steps, the sole of her shoes are now in contact with the wood parquet floor.

In the front of the shop you can see a lot handcrafts from souvenirs to little handcrafted accessories. You cannot help but to walk to the accessories section, looking at how pretty and unique each pieces are. None of them are the same. There are bracelets, earrings, necklace and anklets which all looked handmade.

While Emily is busy, walking and being invested with the items of the shop, and a woman in her 60's walks to the group of 3 boys with a big smile. "How can I help you?" the woman says in a gentle voice. The woman has a white hair, wrinkles are evidence on her face while she has a grandmother vibe that everybody just melts into.

The boys cannot help but also forms a sincere smile on their lips, remembering their own grandmothers.

"It is nice meeting you Mrs. Ann. We are coming to do some survey, if you don't mind," Cameron says as the leader of the team he is. "Oh yeah, sure. I don't mind at all," she says, walking further into the shop, signing the boys to follow her.

They walk to the counter as she stands at the cashier place. "Is this for your school annual festival?" "Yeah, it is," Cameron simply answers to her question. "I see," Mrs. Ann says opens her note book. She flips back a few pages, while Cameron assuming that she is looking at receipt of the souvenirs or crafts that the last year team had bought.

Probably she just want to check it out with no reason.

"Well, you can look around. You can tell me when you are done, I will be sitting here." "Sure," Cameron reply. As now the 3 of them naturally split up, looking at the things that catch their eyes.

As the grandma is done looking at the thing she was looking for, she looks around the store, to catch a young lady looking at the section of accessories near the counter. She seems to be invested in the accessories since she isn't looking at anything else. The grandma stands up, walking to the lady. Emily seems to be so invested that she doesn't even notice the grandma who is now standing besides her.

"I think that one suits you," the grandma says, shocking Emily up. Emily looks to her side to find an old lady standing besides her. "This one?" Emily says, giving her hands out where the bracelet is in between her fingers.

"Yeah," the grandma says, reassuringly. "Here," the grandma says taking the bracelet in her hand, putting it on Emily's wrist. Emily just stays quietly, watching as the grandma tighten the bracelet to a decent size on her wrist.

"See," she says again, looking at Emily's wrist. "The bracelet suits you, seems like it has found its owner." The grandma give Emily a smile while Emily have her normal timid face expression except, she doesn't look lifeless.

"Emily," Cameron's voice suddenly call, making both Emily and grandma looks at him. "Oh, Emily. What a beautiful name," she says which is loud enough for the whole store to hear it although she might meant it just to reach Emily's ears.

Cameron walks closer to both of them, as the grandma pop a question. "You guys went to the same school?" "Yeah. And she is part of the team," Cameron explain to her. "Oh really?" She says as she moves her gaze right back on to Emily. "Pardon me for not noticing you earlier. I saw you just now."

"It is fine," Emily lowly says with a small smile.

Three of them had a little moment of silence before the grandma breaks it down. "You are done with looking?" She asks as she looks at Cameron and Emily. "Yeah," Cameron replies. "Oh good, do you want to negotiate about the price and orders?"

"Yeah, we can move on to that," Cameron says with a smile. "Okay, let's go to the counter." The grandma leads the way to the table as Cameron and Emily follows her. Upon noticing that Cameron and Emily is already at the counter, Liam and Matthew follows their action, standing besides Cameron while Emily is standing at the end of the table.

They talk about the approximation of the orders that will be taken and how much the whole order is going to cost. Since they buy a lot in one sale, the grandma always sells them in wholesale price, which is worth it.

As Emily's part in the conversation is done, she takes some notes about the cost and the approximate of the order so she wouldn't lose track. After writing her notes, she put the piece of paper in her coat, keeping it safe until she gets home.

Upon feeling a little bit bored, she look around the store again and turn around to get a whole look, but instead, she is met with a familiar figure again.

He is grabbing something which looks like a hanger and went into a room with a signage board hanging on the door.

"Staff Only"

She has an idea of who that person is, but you are never too sure until you confirm it. Lucky for her, the figure walks out of the room again, with a piece of knitted sweater in his hand is hanging on a hanger.

This time, her eyes succeed capturing his face, confirming her assumption.