Something off

Natasha quickly snapped out of her thoughts, whatever Romanoff was planning, it wasn't good, but it wasn't going to be her problem, like she said, this would be the last time that she would be seeing him.

Pete was right, she needed to cut all ties, there was something about Romanoff's strange proverbs that made her feel on edge, as if him switching to Russia so no one could hear them was not obvious enough that he was planning something that was lethal.

And to make it even worse, he was speaking in proverbs, he didn't even give her a minute detail of what he actually meant, she didn't know whether to be happy about that or whether to be scared.

Natasha turned around and walked away, she didn't need to accidentally bump into Agent Dians and add to more of her problems.

Natasha walked out of the prison as she brought out her phone from her pocket and saw that Pete had replied to her texts.

"Nat, you really do know that I am stretched out thin here" read Pete's reply as Natasha texted him.

"Yes Pete I know, but I also know that one final stretch won't hurt, come on Pete, Jean just wants to see her dad, I'm sure that you can pull some strings and let her see him today" replied Natasha as Pete's reply came almost immediately.

"The things that I do for you and the trouble I get in" replied Pete, obviously sounding annoyed.

"And that's why I love and appreciate you so much, so when can Jean come see Romanoff?" replied Natasha as she knew that she was walking on thin ice here, but come on Pete was Police commander, he had a lot of connections, and he wouldn't necessarily be doing this if he knew that this could potentially get him in a lot of trouble, it was just a matter of how far he was willing to go.

"Look, I already had to call in a huge favour by letting you go see him, and I don't want to seem suspicious by calling in more favours so soon, so she can go at 2pm" replied Pete.

"Thank you Pete, you are the best always!" replied Natasha as she could audibly hear Pete scoffing from wherever he was, she did know that she could be severely annoying to deal with sometimes.

"Of course I'm the best when I help your stubbornness" replied Pete as Natasha chuckled while getting into her car.

"Yeah, yeah, but seriously thank you, I have to drive right now, I'll talk to you later" replied Natasha.

"Alright, talk later" replied Pete as Natasha smiled and called Jean as Jean picked up her call almost immediately.

"Hi Natasha" said Jean as she smiled.

"Hi Jean, I have good news, my friend called in some favours and you can go see him at 2pm" said Natasha with a smile as nothing could describe the look of glee and relief on Jean's face.

"Oh Natasha, thank you so much, you are the best" said Jean.

"No need to thank me Jean, it's the least that I can do" replied Natasha.

"Oh I can't wait to be off my shift and go see him" said Jean.

"I can imagine" said Natasha.

"So what did he say when you went to see him?" asked Jean as the smile on Natasha's face slowly dropped.

"He said... *sigh* a lot, and I don't even understand half the things he said" said Natasha with a sigh.

"What do you mean?" asked Jean in confusion.

"Well for one, he was speaking in parables, and he seems to be taking everything playfully, but I know that it's hard to ever get used to being behind bars when you were so used to walking around freely" said Natasha.

"I know, and that's what worries me the most, if anything my dad loves to go out, we used to go out all the time together, but now we can't" said Jean with a sigh.

"But I can't wait to see him though, I wonder if he will tell me the truth" said Jean.

"I wonder so as well" replied Natasha.

"Oooh Natasha I need to go now before my manager comes by, I'll talk to you later, thank you once again" said Jean quickly.

"You're welcome" replied Natasha as she smiled and Jean ended the call.

Natasha sighed as she put her phone down, started her car and drove away.

...

"Chloe where would you like this?" came the voice of a woman as she was holding a miniature pot plant.

"Oh that should be somewhere in the staff room" replied Chloe as she turned around and looked at the plant.

"Alright" replied the woman as Chloe smiled and nodded as she returned to supervising the others that were busy decorating.

"Please put that over there, and oh be careful with that shelf it's very expensive, and heavy" she said to two men that were carry a heavy black shelf and they seemed to be struggling.

"Well you seem to have everything under control here, I didn't even have to come over" said Natasha with a smile as Chloe turned to look at her and she laughed.

"I'm glad that it seems so, but I seriously just hope that everyone is doing what they need to be doing..." replied Chloe with a sheepish smile as she took a deep breath.

"Oh I am sure that they are, and you are doing a great job supervising, this place looks great" said Natasha as she smiled and she looked around, to think that this place was this big, she had never expected this project to go as far as it had gone to the point of completion.

"I know right, it looks lovely, it has this cozy feel to is, or at least to me it does" said Chloe as she laughed.

"You are right it does, you know what's funny, I didn't expect this place to be this big, it looks so huge, and totally empty without all the shelves" said Natasha as she continued looking around, watching all the decorators and movers moving in all the shelves and cleaning the floors, the walls, the tills, everywhere.

"It looks empty now, just wait until we get all the products in and shelved" said Chloe.

"Oooh which reminds me I had an idea of improving the different kinds of produce we sell here, I was thinking that maybe we should add some fresh milk, and I know that would take a heavy refrigeration system, but we already have that put in place" said Chloe as you could just see that she was beaming with several ideas.

"That does sound like a good idea... the problem is that we don't have any cows though, and right now, buying fresh milk from an external farm to resell would be too expensive to maintain" said Natasha.

"Oh not to worry, my mom has a bunch of dairy cows on my parent's ranch out of town, she sends me fresh milk every month, so much that I don't know what to do with" said Chloe as she laughed and Natasha laughed.

"I could talk to her, and we could work out something that less cost effective" said Chloe.

"Hmm... well true, if you can make it happen, but I know for one that keeping dairy cows is expensive, they require a lot of care, especially so that their milk can be the right consistency" said Natasha.

"You don't have to worry about anything Natasha, I'm sure that I can work something out with my mom, she's my mom after all" said Chloe as she smiled.

"Besides, she doesn't want to sell to huge companies that would end up in her overworking her cows" said Chloe.

"Actually, she didn't even want several cows, she just bought two for she and my dad and then they suddenly reproduced and now there's a bunch of them" said Chloe as she laughed and Natasha laughed.

"Well then Chloe if you can get us a deal, then you are great as always" said Natasha as Chloe laughed.

"Oh my, instead of us solving one problem I am causing us more problems, we still haven't discussed our ideas for the store's name" said Chloe as she shook her head and Natasha laughed.

"It's not just you, we both can't focus on that" replied Natasha as she sighed.

"Well right now, I don't have a clue of what we should name the store... maybe we should leave the sign outside blank just like that, it can be mysterious" said Natasha as Chloe laughed.

"I don't think that would be a wise choice though... we eventually need a name..." said Chloe.

"Any ideas??" asked Natasha.

"I can't think of any good names that define the brand right now" replied Chloe.

"Okay, I think we should define out brand right now first" said Natasha as Chloe nodded.

"Well wasn't the whole point of this to sell fresh foods that are not frozen or preserved in anyway, they are sourced locally and easy to afford" said Chloe as Natasha nodded and then it hit her.

"That's it" said Natasha with a smile.

"What's it?" asked Chloe.

"The name, what about we call the store Fresh Foods?" asked Natasha as she smiled.

"Oh... I mean... it does work doesn't it?" asked Chloe as she seemed to be thinking.

"I'm just worried, aren't there any other stores with that name, then that would be a problem" said Chloe.

"Then in that case, let's make it exclusive how about Lexington's Fresh Foods?" asked Natasha.

"That could work... actually it works very perfectly, we are in Lexington, and also, I just can't think of anything else" said Chloe as she laughed and Natasha laughed.

"Same here" she replied.

"Well then Lexington's Fresh Foods it is" said Chloe with a smile.

"Yes finally, that's out of the way" said Natasha as she laughed and Chloe laughed.

"So what colour do you want the sign outside to be?" asked Chloe.

"Well the building itself is green, so make the sign black that way it pops out" said Natasha as Chloe nodded.

"Alright that makes sense, I will tell the designers" said Chloe.

"That would be great, I am going to the farm right now to check on things around there, do you want to come with me?" asked Natasha.

"I can't I want to stay here and make sure everything is put in place" replied Chloe.

"Alright well in that case, talk later" said Natasha with a smile as Chloe gave her a quick hug.

"Talk later" replied Chloe as Natasha smiled and turned around to leave.

...

"Madam can I help you with anything, should I get you some tea or something?" asked Chloe's secretary with a polite smile as Natasha walked into her office.

"No I'm fine thank you, I will go and check on the plants in the greenhouse later, but for now, get me the list of potential employees that Chloe interviewed last week" said Natasha as the woman smiled and nodded.

"I will get them for you right away Madam" she replied as she rushed out of Natasha's office as Natasha sat down at her desk and opened her laptop.

The woman returned moments later with a pale file in her hand.

"Here is the list of potential employees" she said as she handed the file to Natasha.

"Can you give me a brief overview of what information I am expected to know from the file?" asked Natasha as she nodded.

"Of course, there are 153 candidates, there are 76 female and 77 male who were interviewed, Chloe shortlisted 50 male and 45 female, all their information is in the file, ages, to previous place of work, to height, special skills and all" she explained as Natasha nodded.

"Alright thank you" replied Natasha with a smile.

"You are welcome Madam, if you need anything please don't hesitate to call me" she said.

"Thank you I will not" replied Natasha with a soft smile as the woman smiled and left her office.

Natasha opened the file and frowned softly, they only had about 60 vacancies and 95 people shortlisted, this would be a tough decision to make on who she believed was right for each role.

Natasha was busy looking through the files when the secretary suddenly walked into her office.

"Sorry to bother you madam but there is a man here to see you" she said very quickly

"Who?" asked Natasha with a frown as she looked up at her.

"He says his name is Agent Dians" she replied as Natasha's eyes went wide.