Let’s go shopping….

It has been two months since Alya entered the RD. She would taste the flavors and listen to the decision and guidance given by the people around her. She would ask more questions here than any other place. She never thought of taking a lead and suggest something but he curiosity she shown was welcomed by all. She would enter in the morning early and put on the mask she would be welcomed by people entering the room with her. Everyone would know where their station is situated. They would greet each other. Alya would join the people in the table and note down what everyone suggest and listen to the reviews of the customers. She would help with the noting and write down points of the suggestions. After a few moments she would go around the kitchen part and looked at the different mixtures made. The kitchen part would not be busy all the time. Most of the time there would be jobs like reviewing and listening. But his days it would be busy a lot they were trying to improve the flavors they already have and make it different from the already classical one. For Alya these times were fun and interesting she loved how much knowledge she would gather and how the office works more. Chef Wen would give her treats here and there and ask how she like it? Chef Wen is the person who gave her the little taste of a blackberry and lemon whipped cream the first day. She gets spoiled so much that she was dreading the fact that one day she has to leave and get back to her desk. She misses Megan and the others during the fun office time, but this was even more fun to move around. Helea would drop down suddenly to check if she was actually working or is she just fooling around. She was nibbling on a hand size chocolate chip cookie and looking at her note pad when she heard Helea stand behind her. “ Are you just eating or copying?” Alya, “ No no I am just writing how it tastes I am trying to find a key word.” Helea, “Taste words like are you trying to write ingredients or taste?” Alya, “ It is a bit of both I am arranging the taste words and ingredients and trying to match which indicated what. I am a bit confused in salty caramel and sweetness. There is hardly a bit of saltiness in it” she offered half of her cookie with Helea. She took a bite of the cookie and smiled. Alya looked at her did ‘she match the tastes. Yes, she must have it is Miss Helea the great after all. ’ Just as she thought she pointed out the gooey flavor and pointed her to join it with the taste column. She even circled some of the good pointers. Alya, “ This is great, thank you I can finish the summary in a few minutes. I might be finished faster today thanks to you.” indeed she has been staying in this room as late as the last person to leave before dropping the summary in Brian’s office. She would someday talk with him in the office about what she saw and the other days she would just drop the paper and leave. Brian became more comfortable to talk to these days instead of being harsh all the time he would listen to her and ask her for what she felt at the point. Alya knew Brian was teaching her something but she did not know why and for what she was being trained for? All the while it was interesting to learn so she did not complain. Helea, “ Great so you can join us today.” Alya, “ Join where ?” she kept on typing in laptop she carried from her desk to the table in the RD. Helea, “ Shopping meet us around five in the entry.” Alya nodded and got back to her typing hoping to be finished on time as she predicted.. After a while she finished typing and thanked everyone for the help on that day. She walked over and knocked on Brains office and entered. Brian took off his coat he looked exhausted and stressed about something. She felt concerned about him but decided it is not better to pry more than allowed she put the paper on the table and waited for any questions to be asked. Brian took his time he was looking at something with a lot of attention. Alya decided to look somewhere else her eyes caught a shiny thing underneath a black colored bag on the side desk beside the chair on the right side of the room. The shiny thing was attracting all her attention as such that she did a light jump when called “ I am sorry yes this is todays summary on the batch of cookies” she stumbled on her words but managed to reply to him properly. “ Are you enjoying the task given to you?” he asked “ Yes, thank you for suggesting this.” she smiled Brian had that piercing look again and it seemed like he is trying to find something from her. She felt so uncomfortable every time trying to put her eyes somewhere else. Before they could continue instead of a knock the door just opened and a girl come running inside she almost knocked the air out of Alya with her bump and ran towards Brian. This scene was getting normal for her, Cynthia bumps onto her and make it seem like she did not mean anything. This childish behavior was silently making her pissed she sighed a bit and got excused by Brian. ‘When will this girl grow up? What a character’ she thought She walked towards the gate with a packed bag and her coat on her hand she waved her hand in greeting to the ladies waiting for her their faces made her forget about the little encounter happened a few moments ago. “ What are we going to buy today? “ Alya asked munching on the chocolate covered donut in the café. -“ Don’t you think you had enough sweets for one day?” Helea looked and pointed at her second piece of donut she munched on. Alya bite into the donut with her chubby cheeks and made a face to her “ You can never have too many sweets .” Megan shook her head “ Anyway we are going to buy dresses for the annual yearly dinner. Everyone will be there.” The annual dinner is something everyone looks forward to. Megan made a list of heels dress and jewelry. Alya, “ That is a lot of stuff and I am not with jewelry. Is it compulsory to attend? I bet it might get boring.” Helea had a sarcastic look on her face “ There will be food made by Chef Wen’s team.” Alya looked like something poked her on the back “ On the other hand it might get really interesting to know people.” Helea, “ Really to know people? Or to know the dishes?” Alya, “ Well we should not disappoint Chef Wen now .” They laughed at her and payed the bill the shop was right beside the café. The building was grey in color and the interior was light cream in color. It had mannequins with light and dark colored gowns some designer they were greeted by one of the salesgirls she had dark brown color, she wore a glass and a purple dress. They were taken to an open room with circular chair and racks of dresses around them. They looked at different types of dresses. Around twenty minutes past Helea and Megan had gone through almost 10 dresses each for trial and Alya was still stuck in what to buy. She was looking at the gowns and cannot figure out what to try. She walked over to another rack a dress caught her eye it was light grey in color. It had a sharp v neck collar and embroidered design with darker grey thread and 1/3 length sleeves. The bottom part had a lighter grey light flowy floor length skirt. Helea, “ Sarah did you get something?” Alya, “ What do you think?” She got a thumbs up from both of the girls. Megan got a black sleeveless long dress and Helea got a dark brown velvet half sleeve knee length dress. Satisfied with the dresses they went for the jewelry section. There were variation. Alya chose a light silver necklace with a white crystal butterfly. She thought of adding crystal ear studs with the necklace. ‘I cannot wait to wear all these’ she thought.