One Roof

Chapter 13

The wedding ceremony would start at five pm, so Emily's family went back to prepare. Emily didn't have anything to do, though, nor did I. I was just lying on the bed, enjoying my stay in this five-star hotel, making the best of the experience when I received a Fine message from Emily. I glanced at Emily who stood beside me, looking down at me. I opened the message.

"Wanna go somewhere? Just the two of us?"

"Date?"

I asked her directly. She looked flustered for a moment but regained control of herself fairly quickly. She took her phone and started typing something. Since I couldn't see her phone, I could only see the movements of her fingers, but I couldn't tell where they landed and what they typed.

A new text box appeared at the bottom.

"Yes."

I found it a bit surprising how straightforward she was.

"Where?"

"I don't know, you choose. Oh, but not too far. And if possible, not too crowded."

Not too crowded?

I didn't remember Emily having an issue with crowds. I wonder if she wanted to talk about something serious. I opened my map and started searching for a place that suited our needs. I chose a shopping mall ten minutes away by car and showed it to her. She approached my screen but tilted her head.

"Oh yeah, my bad."

I took a screenshot and sent it to her. She received the photo and nodded.

"Wait for me, I'll get changed."

My parents hadn't packed much for me, granted I would be meeting them by tonight. I chose a navy-blue T-shirt along with black shorts. I wasn't the most stylish person, nor did I care too much. Emily, meanwhile, had changed into a casual dress colored in white with black lines near the waist. I met her in the lobby, and she handed me the car keys that I returned to her parents the night before.

"Let's go."

"Okay."

She followed behind me as we went to the parking lot. We hopped into Emily's white sedan and drove off toward the shopping mall. There was slight traffic that day, but nothing too much. After fifteen minutes, we arrived safe and sound.

We parked our car at the parking lot and made our way through an entrance right beside a toilet. We moved inward toward the shopping mall before pausing.

"So, where do you want to go?"

I asked. While it was true that Emily was the one who invited me, all she did was ask if I wanted to go somewhere, with an extra note of it being not too crowded. It was around eleven, and the shopping mall wasn't particularly crowded. Some shoppers made their way past us, but not to the point where every way we looked there were people. Emily looked around and started taking steps toward the mall's central court.

I followed after her. She realized that I was behind her and slowed down, matching her pace with mine.

"Anything you want to look for?"

Emily asked me, despite me being the one who asked first. I thought about it, but nothing came to mind.

"Nothing."

"You're fine with following me for today?"

"Sure."

Emily made her way toward the main court with me walking beside her. We checked out a cooking event that was held that day. Emily looked around the cookware with interest, while I watched the chef on the stage demonstrate how to bake a cake. Several people sat on chairs placed in front of the stage. Not finding anything, Emily came back to me and we went to the department store.