While questions were just waiting in my head, I heard a car sound in the garden. This meant that Variant had come home, otherwise I would have received a message when he was still a meter away from the house.
My uncle had put devices in certain places so that we would know even about a flying bird. If the thing approaching the house was not me or Vari, the device would send news to both of our phones so that we would be alert.
I got up and looked at myself in the full-length mirror in my room. Quite ideal. As I slowly moved to leave my room, my eye slid to the nightstand right next to my bed. The glass was still where I had left it...
With heavy steps, I first went down from my room then the stairs. Luckily, when I stepped down the last step, Variant had also opened the door of the house and entered inside.
As he entered, we made eye contact.
"Welcome Vari."
"I found it welcoming, guardian angel."
When I looked him over, there was nothing resembling a file in his hand.
"You've come empty-handed," I said curiously.
Variant first looked at his hands then mockingly at me. "You're right, I forgot the children, maybe next time, let them sleep on the street today too. Did we have houses in our time?"
"Children? Staying on the street? What?" I looked at Variant as if I had seen an alien.
Variant continued his same mocking looks and laughed. Then he raised his hands to both sides and pursed his lips as if to say I don't know either.
As he passed by me to go up the stairs, I got in front of Variant. He moved to the left, I moved to the left too. He moved to the right, I moved to the right too. After at least five minutes of chase, he gave up.
"Okay, I give up. I'll answer the question but first let me change my clothes, you also appreciate that our time is short."
I nodded and approved him and stepped aside. He easily passed through the vacant space and headed towards his room.
Since everything was ready for me, I didn't want to wait for Variant inside. I sent him a message stating that I was in the garden. When I went out to the garden, I went to my black Ferrari SF90 next to Variant's black Lamborghini and leaned against it. We used this car more outside than inside too.
While I was waiting for Variant like that, the gardener came towards me with something in his hand that I couldn't see very well from a distance.
"Ms. Glory."
"Yes sir"
"Your uncle Mr. Glory called me this morning and asked me to extract some fig tree sap and give you this sap that I extracted."
I thanked and took the tube bottle that the gardener offered. As I threw it into my bag, the gardener warned me.
"Madam, I don't know why I'm giving this to you, it's not my place to question, but please be careful, fig tree sap is poisonous."
"I know, but thank you for your warning."
The gardener nodded and went back into the garden.
I guess the plan to ruin Araf's health was being put into action. However, fig tree sap was a bit too much for the first time. It was best to keep this in reserve and give something with a lower dosage. I looked around the garden and bingo, there was what I was looking for. Just as I was about to head there, the outer door of the house opened and Variant entered my field of vision. Saying maybe next time, I just waited for Vari to come to me.
"Do we owe your welcoming me to curiosity or to my being a very perfect person."
"Perfect person?" I looked around. "Where is he?"
Variant's grin while saying that sentence had disappeared upon my sentence.
"Uncle-like," said Variant and clicked and headed to his car.
I didn't stop him, after all the day was long, I would surely learn. Without waiting any longer, I moved to get in my car. It hadn't even taken 1 minute to learn where Araf and Boş were.
About 20 minutes later we had arrived at the address, or we thought we had arrived because what I saw looked more like what Turks called... ruin? Yes, it looked exactly like a ruin.
Although it was single-story, it was quite a long building. The paint of the building, which was pale white in color, had started to peel off. There seemed to be debris next to the building. I hoped it wouldn't collapse on us while we were inside.
When Variant also parked his car next to mine, he looked at the ruin-looking restaurant for two minutes and probably couldn't come to a conclusion of his own, so he directed his gaze to me to confirm what he saw.
I nodded my head approving his thoughts and moved to get out of the car. With the door opening right after me, Variant had also gotten out and taken his place beside me.
"I wonder if we came to the wrong address correctly," said Variant while looking at the absurd building covered with transparent glass outside.
"I don't think our people sent the wrong address. Maybe our partner is stingy," I said while looking at the building that hadn't yet made up its mind about what it was.
"There doesn't seem to be much maybe about it. Look at that, it's in a ruined state. I think these are fraudsters, otherwise with such a structure, let alone becoming Turkey's leading one, they couldn't even be workers," said Variant, wrinkling his face.
While Variant and I were examining the building like visitors examining works in an art gallery, the door of the building opened and Araf and Boş came out from inside.
This meant that even if Variant and I hadn't come to Turkey, these would have gone bankrupt in a few years with this magnificent idea. After seeing this place, how they had grown so much was suspicious... I think for the first time I agree with Variant.
"Welcome Mr. and Mrs. Glory," said Araf and extended his hand.
"We found it welcoming," I said and shook his extended hand, doing the greeting process with everyone in the same manner and finished it.
"Boş and I had decided to wait for you outside, what a coincidence you had already come."
"Yes, we just came." My eyes slid to the restaurant "we couldn't be sure."
Araf smiled. "Yes, you're right to be surprised, this is a new experience. Combining an entertainment venue with a family restaurant to create a new venue."
When thought about, the idea was really a good idea. Good or nice places for families, especially for families with children, were very limited. So I could congratulate Araf for this idea, but I could congratulate him only for this. If families saw this place, they would first call the police station saying drug dealers had made it a venue.
"Of course, I can't pass without mentioning that your loving the idea of this restaurant even before seeing it strokes our pride."
Unfortunately dear Araf, you're lacking in practice...
I quickly thought about what to say. "I always support every idea of my partner, especially magnificent ones like this." My God, I'm holding back hard not to sour my face.
Araf and Boş smiled, but a thousand witnesses were needed to call this smile a sign of sincerity.
While Araf and Boş walked ahead, we were following them from behind with Variant.
"Do you also feel a strangeness?"
"One?" I replied to him
He nodded his head. I opened my bag and took out my phone. I did a couple of things and waited. Let's see what the real story of this matter was.
When we entered the venue, I saw that the inside was in a much worse condition than the outside of the venue. I'm amazed at how they grew like this with this mindset. Though we had examined the work they did and the work they planned to do. They had no such project or design.
We sat at a large table. We were arranged the same as in the meeting room. Me, Variant next to me, Boş across from Variant, Araf next to Boş.
While I was waiting for Araf to start telling something about the venue, the first to open his mouth was Boş.
"Mr. Glory, it seems our bags got mixed up."
With Boş's words, my gaze slid to Variant. "Yes sir, you're right, I was also going to say this and return your bag, now since you acted before me and opened the subject, here you go please."
Variant gave the bag in his hand. How much Boş's bag resembled the bag that Variant took to the company in the morning, in fact it wouldn't be a lie if I said it was exactly the same. I suddenly had an enlightenment. Of course, very clever. Variant must have somehow learned how they would come in the morning. Accordingly, he had made a plan of his own. Although the plan was reasonable and logical, a person would have informed me too...
Boş nodded his head in a satisfied way and he also gave Variant the exact same of the bag he had given him. Right now they were acting just like they were selling drugs. When I thought about it, this place wouldn't fit any function other than that situation. The venue was almost screaming that there was a problem with me.
When I looked carefully at the bag, I had never seen this bag on Variant before. I had no idea when he went and bought it or had the men buy it.
At a moment when Boş's attention was distracted, he had switched his own bag with Boş's bag. Since the bags looked very similar to each other, Boş didn't notice and Variant had left swinging his arms with the bag that didn't belong to him.
While I was caught in a strange flood of emotions, my eyes slid to my phone again. I was checking my phone from time to time. My phone opened and there was the message I was waiting for. As I took my phone in my hand, I checked Araf. His eyes were going back and forth between Boş and Variant. Poor thing was obviously still trying to make sense of the situation. I pulled my eyes away from Araf and directed them to my phone again. It was exactly as I had thought...
I closed the phone and put it on the table. "Would Bebek be better or Nişantaşı?" I said, suddenly drawing all attention to myself.
"I don't understand," all three turned around. It was good that I drew everyone's attention to myself, so Variant would relax a bit, though he didn't seem tense anyway.
"Or both places?" I said, ignoring them.
"What both places, Ms. Glory?" Although Araf didn't want to give up his current position, it was very obviously clear that he was tense.
I looked at Araf. I had made a thousand efforts for my gaze to be expressionless. "I'm saying for opening a new vegetarian restaurant, do you think Bebek or Nişantaşı should be preferred?"
While there was astonishment that Araf couldn't suppress in his gaze, I continued. "What do you say Mr. Araf, in which district of Istanbul would it be more logical to open a new restaurant," and I pretended to think.
Araf's posture that he was trying to keep expressionless was about to break and he opened his mouth, just as he was about to speak I stopped him.
"I found it. I think it would be more logical to open across from the restaurants whose opening you did today in two districts," I said while leaning towards Araf.
I couldn't believe that I had fallen to the position of fool by Araf right now. The fire in my eyes could have set this ridiculous place ablaze.
"Did you know?"
"From the very beginning too," I lied. My eyes slid to Variant for a second. Damn, okay I wasn't listening to the man because I liked his words at that time and was weighing them, why aren't you listening to the man, is this man a scarecrow? If you won't listen, if I won't listen, why is this man talking, to whom is he talking.
My gaze slid to Variant even if for a second, as if he understood the great danger waiting for him at the exit, he pointed to the bag with his eye and showed me the reason for not listening to Araf.
He had an answer for everything too...
While all eyes were on Araf waiting for an answer, Araf looked at Boş for a short time as if to say save me. He looked but Boş had no intention of taking on the tender. Boş raised and lowered both eyebrows as if to say don't look at me, and leaned his head on his hand and looked at Araf for him to make an explanation.
Araf looked, there was no sound from his closest friend, the job fell to him, and just as he opened his mouth to give us an explanation, a single gunshot was heard in the environment. The sound that the gun made was so harsh that it had pierced through the music sound in the venue...