Saturday came again, but this time Phoenix had already woken up, cleaned and dressed and ready to go out.
Mia called her two days ago to thanked Phoenix for taking care of her when she was feeling down. She wanted to invite Phoenix again for a meal, but Phoenix adamantly told Mia that it wasn't necessary. Mia was persistent and told Phoenix that her brother had given her the list for the available houses and she would have to take Phoenix to view those houses.
Therefore, Mia suggested that before they went house hunting, they should have breakfast together.
It looked like Phoenix couldn't reject that invitation after all.
And that was how her Saturday had been planned out.
It was almost time for Mia to pick her up, so she fixed her clothes, took her purse, and headed to the hotel lobby to wait for Mia.
Right on time, Mia arrived. Phoenix got into Mia's car and they drove away.
"Is there anything you would like to have for breakfast?" asked Mia.
"No. I'm fine with anything."
"Okay then. Let's have some wontons soup and dumplings."
"Sure."
Mia brought Phoenix to a small restaurant near a busy road. Luckily for them, the restaurant wasn't filled with people, so they easily found an empty spot to sit.
"Mia, dear. I haven't seen you for a while." A middle-aged lady approached their table, looking warmly at Mia.
"Auntie Yu, I missed your dumpling. So I came here." Mia smiled and hugged the lady.
"Oh. Aren't you so sweet, dear? What do we have here? You brought another friend? I haven't seen her before." The lady looked at Phoenix carefully and smiled delightfully.
"This is my…. this is Phoenix Li" Mia introduced Phoenix. She didn't know how to introduce Phoenix properly. They didn't establish their friendship, but with all the things that Phoenix had done for her, she didn't think Phoenix was just a mere acquaintance.
"Hello, dear, you can call me Auntie Yu." The lady introduced herself to Phoenix.
Phoenix gave the lady her practice smile and nodded her head.
"Do you want wontons soup and chicken dumpling as usual, Mia?" Auntie Yu asked Mia dotingly.
Mia nodded her head.
"How about you Ms Li?" Auntie Yu asked Phoenix.
"I'll have wontons soup and shrimp dumplings. Thank you."
"Okay. I'll prepare the foods, wait for a while. It won't take long."
They both nodded in understanding and Auntie Yu sauntered towards the kitchen.
With Auntie Yu gone, suddenly there was awkwardness at the table.
"Ms Li, thank you for the other day." Mia was the first one to break the silence.
"You're welcome."
"You're always there when I'm in a bad place. I'm really thankful to you. You see Ms Li, that day I found out that my two friends were the one that drugged me that night. Is it funny? My friends wanted to harm me, but a stranger came to help me without a question." Mia snorted in a self-deprecating manner.
Phoenix didn't know what to say in response to that, so she just gave Mia an understanding look.
Mia stared at Phoenix deeply without blinking and contemplated on her next words.
"Ms Li…. can you be my friend instead?"
Phoenix was surprised to hear that from Mia.
She looked at Mia amusingly and said, "Ms Qin, aren't you supposed to be more careful with choosing your friends? Who knew I might be a serial killer or a secret assassin?"
"Pfffttt…. If you are one of those, I'll already be dead, aren't I? Why bother saving me from those guys if you are one of those? Not only that, you have your chances twice to strike, when I'm in a vulnerable state," Mia laughed heartily hearing what Phoenix had said.
'Ahhhh….. This girl can switch her mood really fast.'
"Let's be friends, Phoenix. I can call you Phoenix, right? You can call me Mia." Mia smiled brightly at Phoenix.
Phoenix smiled back and nodded her head.
"Sure. Let's be friends."
She already decided to make friends when moving to City M. She could start with Mia, could she?
At that moment, the food arrived, and they both ate to fill their stomachs to start the day.
They would be together throughout the day and they could talk about this friendship later, or…. not. It was better if friendship was shown through action.
'Because action speaks louder than words.'
*****
Qindom Empires was a well-known real estate developer and had so many projects under their belt.
Aston had narrowed down some properties that might interest Phoenix. Ranging from apartment, condo, terrace, detached house, even a small villa.
Before Mia and Phoenix started visiting those places, Mia showed the list of the houses to Phoenix first.
"This is the place that is available, you can take a look first and we can visit the place that you'll be interested in one by one," said Mia.
Phoenix looked at the information that Mia gave her and read it carefully. Phoenix discarded all the apartments and condos from the list and looked at the houses that have their own piece of land.
"I would like to take a look at these places." Phoenix handed the brochures of her choices to Mia.
Mia looked at them and nodded her head, and took out one of the brochures and handed it to Phoenix. "Well, sure. We can take a look at this villa first, it's not far from here."
Mia discussed the plans for the day some more before they headed out from the restaurant and visited the first place.
*****
"What do you think?" Mia asked.
"The modern architecture is beautiful and unique," said Phoenix.
"But it was not what you're looking for?" Mia took a guess by just looking at Phoenix's facial expression.
"Well… yes. It looks like a bachelor pad."
"I see. I understand, it does look like a bachelor pad. We should head to the next place then. Let's go."
Without further ado, Mia drove them to the next destination.
They took a look inside and outside the terrace house and its surrounding area before they decided to take a break and have lunch at a vegetarian restaurant nearby.
"So, what do you think of the terrace house?"
"The house is nice, and located in a good neighbourhood, but it's a bit small," said Phoenix.
Mia hummed in understanding, "It's okay. We have other places to see. Let's have lunch first before we go to the next house at The Grandeur."
"Okay." Phoenix nodded in agreement. She didn't have any qualms about Mia's suggestions.
They were already seated in a restaurant, waiting for the server to come and took their order.
"To tell you honestly, I like the houses in The Grandeur and I think you'll like it too. The area is a little away from the bustling of the city, so it's peaceful. The area was developed with nature in mind. There's a park and a small lake. The shop lots in that area had everything from cafes, restaurants, clinics, veterinarians, and supermarkets. Besides, my brother Ashton is living in that neighbourhood too and I often come to his house just to take on the nature of the place."
"It sounds like a good place." Phoenix's interests were piqued at hearing about the place and the amenities surrounding it.
"It is. Is there any particular thing that you were looking for? Honestly, I thought you would prefer an apartment or condo." Mia is wondering why Phoenix discarded the apartment and condos from the list.
Since Phoenix was alone, she thought that Phoenix was inclined to choose an apartment or a condo.
Phoenix looked at Mia contemplating whether to say it or not, and decided just to say it, not like her reason was a big fat secret, anyway.
"I thought of adopting a pet. I don't want to have trouble with the housing management or neighbours."
Mia nodded in agreement with what Phoenix said, 'It's true, some apartments and condos don't let people keep pets.'
After they had their lunch, they quickly drove to The Grandeur.
True to Mia's word, Phoenix did like the house in The Grandeur. It had everything that Phoenix was looking for.
Phoenix chose to settle for a double storey detached house with a big garden at The Grandeur and with that, her house hunting in City M had ended and so did their day.