Chapter 5: Conflict at the table
2:42 in the afternoon, getting down from the station, Charlotte was almost ragging inside.
It was hell travelling with them. They kept asking her things she didn't care about, again. At one point one of them touched her in hips, saying it was dangerous with all the people in the train. There were indeed a lot of people, but she'd traveled with far more people in the train without anything happening. If something, she felt she was being harassed. She promised herself the next time she'll come alone.
<Indelicate fools, they need some woman in their life to teach them how to treat a leady!>
Once down, she kept her distance from them as they all started walking to the restaurant Laurent spoke of.
There were a lot of trees, almost like in the countryside, there're a lot of people and vehicles which told her they were still in a big city.
As they walked for 10 minutes, they arrived at a restaurant with a signboard of foreign language. Even if she had studied it somehow, she couldn't read it. It's been too long to remember all the characters.
As she kept staring at it trying to remember the characters, she heard Laurent speaking.
"This is the restaurant of my family's friend. Its sign reads Princess' Food, I hardly vouch for it."
He said while smiling fondly, as if remembering a dear one he had not seen in a long time.
"What are we waiting for! Let's dig in!"
Dave cheered as he went in first, not waiting for the others.
"Uhm, Miss Charlotte, can you forgive me for what I did before, I promise it wasn't on purpose…"
Asked another man quietly to her as she ignored him completely. His name was Parker Bacher. Though not that bad looking, he had an air of reservation and an attitude that didn't suit his appearance.
Following Dave, Charlotte went in second, not answering the man, she was followed by Laurent and the others.
Once inside she saw the place decorated in an ancient decronian style. With masks and eastern dragons painted on the walls, it gave a different feel from the normal restaurants she was used to by accompanying her friends.
Sitting in the table Dave had chosen, she waited for everyone to sit down while she contemplated the decoration again, in more detail this time. After a moment, a girl wearing a traditional decronian dress came to their table and spoke to them.
"Good afternoon. Oh, good afternoon Laurent, why is this rare occasion?"
"Hello there, Eli. We're teammates in a project I'll start working this afternoon, right after eating something."
"Is that so? Well, I wish you luck with it. Now, what's it you want?"
"Hmm I don't know, I'll leave it to the chef's choice, please impress me."
"And what about your companions? Oh, a girl? That's quite peculiar." She smiled at him when she saw Charlotte looking all around the place and herself.
Even if she wasn't in touch with fashion, it didn't mean she didn't like beautiful and awe-inspiring thigs. And right now, this place was pretty awe-inspiring and the girl taking their orders was pretty cute with that dress.
"Oh, sorry." Charlotte said when she heard herself being mentioned. Feeling a little bashful. "So, what are we eating again?"
"Hahaha, I see you're not used to this kind of setup, what I'm currently wearing is called yukata, it's pretty easy to move in after you get used to it, even if it doesn't appear so. As for your food, Laurent said it's left for us to decide, so it'll be a surprise."
Eli smiled when she finished talking, bowed a little and went to the kitchen.
"Uh, that kind of formality is rare nowadays, it's a sight to behold, no?" The one who had spoken the least, Kodye, said, getting a pretty good impression of the restaurant.
<It should be pretty expensive eating in here…> Charlotte thought.
"Yes, indeed, that's why I love coming here." Laurent replied with a smile.
--
After finishing their meals, they were walking towards Laurent's suggested place. It was a pretty good meal, considering it was her first time eating decronian food, its taste wasn't too strong and it was easy to digest. What she ate was called Udon, and it had certain strong flavors, but Laurent said that it was diminished in comparison to the staple food.
"It's here." Laurent said as he signaled to a four story building. It was pretty wide, as its fence took from corner to corner of the street, and it could be inferred that it took all the block.
<Does he want to flaunt his wealth? Yes, you're rich, please, shut up or gimme your mony.> Charlotte pouted internally, as she expressed her astonishment seeing the building.
"Woa, it's really big, uh? We have it all to work in?"
"Of course not, hahah, that's a little too much. I reserved a room good enough at the back, come on in."
The four of them followed Laurent as they looked around. Once inside, a security guard approached Laurent and said loud enough so the five of them could hear without disturbing the other workers.
"Sir, you can use meeting room 9 in the second floor. I believe you know where it is?"
"Yes, thanks, Paul. Ok everyone, let's go."
When they arrived at the room, they noticed it was a bigger than normal meeting room. In the middle was a table which could sit around 20 people without them having any problem. And at the side was a coffee machine and a water dispenser. There were 6 computers connected, five of them desktop, and the other one a personal computer.
"Uhm, why are there so many devices? I believe it was only me who didn't bring her own?"
"Yes, but with this we can double our efforts without having to wait for connections and stuff, don't worry about the speed, I guarantee it's the best the market has to offer. Now, le's start…"
---
"Ok, let's stop it now, it's getting pretty late, so, what do you guys think, keep coming here?" Laurent said as he stretched his neck and back. It was almost 6 so it was time to wrap things down.
"Hey, can I take this home?" Charlotte asked pointing to the pc she was lended. If she could do everything from here, she wouldn't need to buy a new disk to save things. Also, having more computing power was always good, as little as it could improve her calculations.
"Yes, but, it's going to be pretty hefty, no? Taking it everyday and having to bring it back the next."
"Uh? But it's weekend, now?"
"What are you talking about, we need to finish this as fast as possible, or else there'll be others who win against us." Laurent said as a matter of fact.
Charlotte opened her eyes wide hearing him said that, so convinced she was going to work here on weekends.
"I'm sorry, but the contract didn't say anything about working on weekends, I won't be coming tomorrow." She said with as much force in her voice as she could without shouting.
This left Laurent momentarily speechless as he was used of giving instructions and no one saying anything against him.
"We need to finish this fast or else Necox may get attacked again, it's of utmost importance and sacrifices need to be done." He tried to convince her, if only one person was to go again him, the others will stop seeing him as the leader, and things will turn chaotic in the future.
"I don't think it'll be attacked anytime soon, and I don't want to work on weekend, it's my time at home! My relaxation haven!" Charlotte was almost ragging inside, she just didn't want to share so much time with them. It was stressful having to smile all the time while pretending she was doing almost nothing, when in fact she had been looking for where in the company's batch of points her files had gone to.
She was exhausted and had to pretend she was not!
"Why do you think there won't be another attack?" Laurent said while narrowing his eyes.
<Oh shit, I said it without thinking.> Charlotte panicked a little as she thought of one of the plans she has made.
"Uhm, isn't that normal? Ehm, if they attacked so soon they'll be busted, no? Uhm, so I don't believe there'll be an attack." Charlotte nodded at her 'perfect' reasoning.
<And I don't need any super-computing help right now, I can handle it on my own.>
"Hmm, it's true that it'll be foolish of them to do so… But they're not the only ones who aim to create chaos and steal information. So we'll be working on it, trying to prevent it from happening again!" Laurent said with a self satisfied smile.
<Uwaaa, what a hero complex he has…>
"Anyway, I'm not coming tomorrow, if you want me to work on something, I'll do it from my house, though I won't be able to if I can't take this home." She signaled the laptop again that was still in the table.
"… You already have plans for tomorrow despite the important things we ought to do?"
"Eh? What are you talking about, this was a last notice recruitment of Treller's. I had something planned from long ago, and! They never said anything about working on weekends! I'm going now, see you guys on Monday!"
Charlotte said as she waved at the trio who were speechless. They never imagined the woman they're working with to be so fierce, despite being petite.
"Hey! Wait! Didn't you need my input to continue working in there? If you don't want a bad one, then-"
"I only wanted it so I wouldn't need to search for other jobs! If you're going to be like a bitch and try to manipulate things, then FUCK YOU!"
She shouted as hard as she could at the end while showcasing him her middle finger. When she heard him saying that he'll put a bad name to her, she couldn't help but snap. What she hated most in her life was manipulative little bitches who only cried when things didn't go their way.
Having been out of the meeting room, the people still working on the floor stopping doing their things, and watched the scene develop, at the end, they couldn't believe the son of the president was shouted at by a woman in the office.
After seeing her taking the stairs down, his brain was rebooted and he started to act. He went to the laptop, took it and ran after her.
Catching up with her, she was just getting out of the building, not even at the fence.
"Charlotte! Wait!" Laurent shouted as he panted, carrying a laptop and its wires on hand was pretty hard as it could get stuck in any and all corners. He almost fell once because of that.
"Eschete." Charlotte said to him while she looked back with a frown.
"Yes?"
"That's my last name." She said as she crossed her arms, even if she was short, she looked intimidating right now, way too intimidating.
"I never allowed you to call me by my name."
"Eh, ah… No, I understand. Miss Eschete… You can take it and work from your home."
Laurent said with some difficulty, this was the first time in his life he was asked such a thing, normally it'd be the other way around.
"So? What do you want?"
"Yes, you can take this with you, I'll be sending you something to do tomorrow, so, if you can do it as fast as possible, I'll be grateful."
"No. I won't work on weekends. Good luck, see you on Monday."
"Eh, but you just said you could work if it was in your house…"
"I changed my mind. Really."
"No, but."
"You can create any input you so desire. I don't want to deal with you now. Pleaase?"
Laurent felt he couldn't win an argument against her, and so he looked as she went off on her own.
*Sigh...
"How complicated… That's why I don't like to work with women, they make everything a mess…"
When the other three arrived, they saw Laurent scratching his head while in his other hand he was carrying the laptop.
"How was it?" Asked Dave as he saw Laurent's expression.
"She's not coming tomorrow. We'll have to do it ourselves."
"I'm not coming tomorrow either." Parker said, making Laurent's expression freeze.
<This is why I didn't want to allow her this!>
"… Ok, we'll just work with whoever comes tomorrow. Goodbye, then."
Laurent went inside the building with a tired expression.
<Right, we never talked about the timetable, but it's an emergency, we ought to give our all.>
Alas, the next day, no one went except for Laurent.
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