"What do you mean?" Sera asked, folding her arms as she stared at both of them.
"We're just gonna say hi to Carl," he responded, folding his hands together as he rested his chin on them.
"Is that alright though?" Mia asked, shuffling her hands together.
"Don't be such a scared girl, Mia," Sera said, staring at her intently.
"It's not what I meant," she said. "I mean, if we involve ourselves so much in this and we mistakenly get caught, we won't easily get away with it." She looked up at Liam.
Liam raised his head. "Don't overthink, Mia. We're already deep into this whether we like it or not," he muttered. "We just have to keep playing our part to avoid losing."
Mia turned to Sera, who already felt hyped up about the conversation.
"I just wanna kick some butt," she said, stretching her arms and legs.
"Chill out, Sera. There will be no fighting unless there's no other option," Liam said.
"Yeah, sure but we know who Carl is. Words won't work on him," she responded.
Mia sat there, looking left out from the conversation, though she didn't buy the idea of going to meet Carl.
"I still don't think it's fine though," she said, bending her head.
Sera sighed where she stood. "If you don't think you're up for it, then don't bother."
Mia turned to her but didn't say anything.
"Don't be like that, Sera. You know how she is," Liam said, cautioning Sera.
"Sure," she responded, resting her weight on the edge of the table.
Liam stared at his watch, which read 6:43 PM, then looked up at them. "I think it's time for us to head home. We'll talk online."
Sera nodded, staring at her phone. "Sure, I have things to get to anyway."
Mia stood up. "Alright, let's go out then so I can lock up."
Mia took out the water and the medic box while Sera and Liam helped her take out the dishes and clean up the place.
"Thanks for the help, guys," she said, stepping out of the kitchen.
Sera looked around the bakery for a while.
"What about the baker and caterers you hired?"
"Oh, I told them they can leave after 5 PM," she said, smiling a bit.
"Why?" Sera asked, covering the menu cards on each table.
"Well, we usually close by 4:30. I didn't know we'd be talking for this long," she responded, covering the showcase.
"Less talking, more working, so we can leave here soon," Liam said, his voice mildly echoing through the empty room.
They both got back to arranging and cleaning up. In a couple of minutes, they were all done.
"Alright guys, see y'all tomorrow," Sera said, walking out of the bakery.
"She couldn't stay till the last minute, huh," Liam murmured, turning the open sign to closed.
He turned back to Mia, who grabbed her bag, applied a bit of makeup, and began coming out.
"You seriously had to apply makeup?" he questioned, swinging his head.
"A lady must look her best at all times," she responded, locking up the front door.
Liam sighed, then walked up to the sidewalk. "I'm out then, take care," he said, waving as a cab stopped right in front of him.
"You too," she responded, as she waved him off.
He stared as she faded out in the distance as the cab drove away, then he turned forward and sunk into the chair.
"Huff!" he sighed.
The way home felt longer than usual, or maybe it was because of the unusual traffic on the road that evening.
He leaned on the door and watched as the neon lights blurred past through the window as raindrops rolled down the glass.
At that moment, his phone vibrated in his pocket. He pulled it out and stared at the screen.
[1 new message from Mia]
He smiled, then unlocked his phone and opened the message box.
[Mia: Hey Liam, have you gotten home yet? The rain doesn't seem like it would stop anytime soon]
He looked at the message for a while then replied,
[Liam: I'm alright, don't worry about me]
Then he turned off the phone and continued staring out the window.
Within minutes after the text, he got home with the plan still in his head.
"Sera is right though, I doubt Carl would sit down and negotiate with us," he said as he walked down toward Silverstone Avenue.
"If things go south, then I'll have to create a backup plan for that," he murmured to himself as he unlocked the door.
He locked the door behind him and pounced on the couch, then pulled out his phone from his pocket and stared at the time.
[8:09 PM]
"That's pretty late," he muttered, then unlocked his phone.
He looked at the notification icon and noticed 15 unread messages.
He quickly tapped on it and noticed he had been added to a group.
His brow furrowed, then he opened the group and noticed it was Sera who added him.
[Liam: Why the group though??]
[Sera: So we can communicate better about the plan]
[Mia: I still don't think we should do this, guys]
He sighed and rubbed his fingers on his temples.
[Liam: We already talked about this, guys. We'll go to his place tomorrow, that's the agreement]
[Sera: Yeah, but still—you didn't tell us the plan though??]
[Liam: I'll brief you the plan tomorrow. Now can you let me sleep??]
He logged out and turned off his phone again, staring at the white ceiling of his lounge.
He got up and walked up to the fridge, grabbed some fast food he ordered in the morning and put it in the microwave.
He stared at the microwave, thinking of what he would do.
"If I buy this guy from my brother, he could act as a spy for me, but you can never trust someone who's ready to be a double agent," he thought, leaning on the kitchen table.
He walked around the kitchen for a while, then went back to the microwave and turned it off.
Took out his food and brought it to the dining.
"I'll discuss this tomorrow. For now, my body aches from this afternoon," he muttered as he opened the dish.
After a while of eating, he jumped on the bed and slept off.
The morning light filtered through his curtains, but today he beat the sun to it.
He rolled over and glanced at the clock, which read 7:27 AM.
"I woke up a bit too early," he sighed. "What am I going to do till 9?" he asked as he laid back down on the bed.
Then in that moment, he recalled his investment idea he hadn't thought about in a while because of the mishaps that had been occurring.
He rolled off the bed, put on his slippers and headed for the parlour.
He sat on the chair in the dining and turned on his laptop.
He glanced around the room for a while, then turned back to the laptop screen.
"I need a cup of coffee," he said sluggishly.
He stood up as the laptop was still booting and quickly went to the kitchen, opening a top drawer revealing various tin cans of coffee.
He took out one from the drawer and prepared it, then went back to the chair.
He sat down and logged into his laptop.
He scrolled through all the help requests he had received from the past week, but none of them fit what he wanted, so he had no choice but to reject them—though he helped them out with a couple of bucks.
"Huff!" he sighed, then turned off his laptop.
He still hadn't figured out who the third ally was, and time was slowly running out for him on his end.
"Well, today's visit will show what will happen next," he murmured as he sipped his coffee.