After walking down the stairs back to the restaurant, Arthur walked over to the table where Amanda was sitting. His cheeks were a little flushed from what had happened earlier.
"Did you get an unexpected gift?" Amanda asked, seeing Arthur's expression. She knew something could have happened, since it doesn't take that long to put on a shirt.
"Shut up!" Arthur sat at the table and started to assemble his plate. He soon continued: "We'll wait here. I'll wait for Augusto so I can see if there's any good spots for the operations center. He lives here, so he must know..."
"Right!" Amanda told Arthur, still smiling.
***
It was already 3pm, and the restaurant had finally closed. Amanda and Arthur chatted during this time and even ate some desserts.
Emily was finishing cleaning the tables and organizing everything. Sometimes she would give Arthur a few glances and realize that he was looking at her too, turning her face away as she blushed. Amanda was still laughing at that, but didn't say anything.
Augusto finally made it through the front door and was impressed that Arthur was here. Arthur got up to speak to him and shake hands.
"What are you doing here, Arthur? Don't tell me you missed the food!" Augusto joked with Arthur. He was that kind of person, and Arthur wasn't the unapproachable type by the time you were used to him. If it was anyone else he doesn't know, he wouldn't even have shaken hands or stood up.
"I really have to say I like the food. And it was also a surprise to find out that Emily works here!" Arthur smiled at Augusto and looked at Emily.
"Hey, do you guys know each other? From where?" Augusto asked confused.
"We studied at the same school. But I'm a first year..." Arthur looked at Augusto and went to sit down. "Sit down!" He called to Augusto and Emily as he grabbed some chairs from the tables next to them.
"Get one more for me, please!" A soft female voice sounded behind Arthur. He recognized that voice and his cheeks flushed slightly, as did Emily's.
"Of course, Ms. Maria!" He pulled out another chair for Emily and Augusto's mother.
The atmosphere got a little strange until Augusto realized something was wrong. It felt like something had happened that only he didn't know about.
"So have you ever met my mother? I wanted to introduce you at one point, but you were always busy!" Augusto spoke without thinking, and looked at his mother and Arthur.
"Introduce?" Maria and Emily asked, finding the situation strange.
"Yes Yes! After all, it was thanks to h-" Augusto was finally going to reveal that it was Arthur who had been helping them all this time.
"K-hum! I work for a company and I recommended you to them. So we constantly order lunch boxes here." Arthur entered the middle of the conversation. He didn't want thanks from anyone, and he also didn't want Emily to think he was someone she should be grateful for. It would make their relationship awkward.
"Oh, so I must thank you! But aren't you a little young to work?" Emily's mother asked upon noticing the awkwardness. Emily was also curious about this and looked at Arthur.
"It's her company! I'm just an intern..." Arthur pointed at Amanda and everyone looked at her at the same time. Augusto was almost crazy, because none of this made sense. He wasn't sure if Arthur was joking or really trying to hide it.
"E-Eh! Yes, it is-I actually have a relatively new company. It's a sex sh-"
"Construction company!" Arthur instantly interrupted.
The three who looked at them had strange expressions on their faces. Maria knew it was a lie, Emily knew something was wrong and Augusto was as confused as ever.
"Well, moving on! The important thing is that an investor showed up and he needs a place around here to open his business. We were really lost and I thought of you and wanted to know if you could be of any help!" Arthur looked at Augusto, avoiding the strange gaze of the three women.
"Oh I understood! Well... I really can't remember anything close by... Mom, do you know of any places that are for sale?" Augusto couldn't remember and asked for help.
"Yes, there is! An old woodworking shop just around the corner. It has been closed for a few years and no one has ever bought it. Time passed and the place got older and older until it became something useless. I think it's one of the very few places around here which is free to purchase. The base, materials and structures are all with low quality, so even if the city is new, it is almost falling". Maria spoke without reservation and with experience. This showed that they had lived there for a long time, or they have been there since the city was built.
Humanity was not prepared for the population growth that occurred, but construction and civil engineering technologies did the trick. It was such a huge labor and expense that it cannot be disclosed with mere calculations. Every country in the world, especially those that had no reservations about population growth issues, had to put a stop to any other large-scale investment for at least 10 years.
After all, it wasn't feasible to simply expand every city in the country, mainly because there had to be a huge sense of population. This could be done, but the expenses would be higher. Take Brazil as an example. Building 26 new big cities was simpler than expanding the hundreds scattered around.. Also, not all cities are large, as the population has not grown uniformly everywhere.
This was obviously a national effort. The cities that already existed had to be expanded anyway, but with less pressure. In this way, municipalities and capitals could address this issue with the funds they already had, without having to order more from the federation.
"Good, very good. I don't think there are any problems with the state of the place. As long as you have enough space, we can rebuild from the ground up, which may even be better for the client's purpose. What do you think?" Amanda came forward to speak. She couldn't let Arthur do everything himself, as the role they invented would be too fragile and easily perceived. Although she noticed that no one was believing...
"Can you please show us where it is? It would be a great kindness!" Arthur asked politely. He could be cold and unsympathetic, but never rude!
"Of course, we show! I know where it is and I can take you there." Emily spoke as soon as Arthur had finished. She soon sensed the urgency in which she spoke and even looked at her mother, who was looking at them strangely.
"My mother and sister can go with you. I just got home from work and I'm going to shower! Sorry I couldn't keep up." Augusto apologized. He had just gotten a new job, and today was his interview. He worked as a delivery boy for the restaurant, but he knew he could help more if he got a new job. "By the way, why are you wearing my shirt?" He realized it a while ago and already wanted to ask.
"He got wet..." Amanda spoke without thinking. But even if she did, she wouldn't correct herself.
After rolling his eyes back, Arthur said to Augusto: "I'll return it later. I had to get it in case of emergency..." He looked at Emily afterward, who averted her eyes as if it had nothing to do with her.
"All right..."
***
Amanda, Maria, Emily and Arthur were in front of a place that looked pretty destroyed. This was the old woodwork shop that Maria had talked about.
The conditions were really quite precarious, with silt already covering the yellow walls due to water seepage, and the wall was cracked in places. It felt like a miracle to be standing.
But what caught Arthur's attention was the location of it. It was right on a corner. The place seemed to be small, but that's because they hadn't entered it. On the outside it was 6x6 in length and width. The height reached up to 7 meters. But the height didn't matter, as Arthur could tear the place down and make a building if he wanted to.
"Who owns it?" Arthur asked as he ran his finger along the wall. The paint stuck to it.
"The owner was a grumpy old man named Mathias, but he's dead, God rest his soul. None of his children fought over ownership, so it ended up in the hands of the city hall. But since it was yet another useless building, they just left it as is. If you want to buy it, you'll have to go there." Maria spoke as she looked at the place. It felt like she was going through memories as well as she did so.
"Okay, this could be it..." Arthur had already made up his mind. Whatever he did in the future would be in this place. He had nothing on his mind now, but eventually he would find out. "Thank you for kindly showing us the place. I will be going back to the restaurant many more times!" Arthur thanked Maria and Emily with a smile.
"Yeah, he's polite..." Maria spoke softly as she nodded.
"What did you say, Mom?" Emily, who was beside her, asked.
"Nothing..."
Arthur and Amanda then accompanied Emily and Maria back to the restaurant and said goodbye. Arthur smiled at Emily at the end and she returned a shy smile.
After they left, Maria turned to Emily.
"What's your relationship?" Her expression was serious, but she really wasn't rigid. She just didn't want her daughter to get hurt with failed love relationships.
"W-We're just friends! We really don't have anything!" Emily quickly replied, blushing a little.
"And what was he doing in your bedroom? I know about the juice accident, but are you going to tell me you couldn't have taken him to your brother's bedroom? And you were still together! Are you going to tell me you don't have anything else?" Maria narrowed her eyes at Emily.
"I-I, we don't have anything! I don't know if he likes me, and I'm not sure I like him either, but I think it's good to talk and be close to him..." Emily couldn't take it and dropped everything. She didn't like to keep secrets from her mother.
"I understand. So be careful!" Maria patted Emily's head lightly and walked to the kitchen.
"Why do you say that, Mom?" Emily followed after her, asking curiously.
"Because he's handsome, mature and smart. I saw you looking at him in a different way. The way he acts attracts you. Basically, he's a fatal attraction to smart women." Maria spoke before entering the kitchen.
Emily stayed behind, reasoning her mother's words. But another question also popped into her mind: Should she tell her mother that she was going out with him right now? Or would it be too fast?