Early Bird (Erkençi Kus)(Part 1)

77. The more the merrier

The next morning, Sanem gets up and goes down to the kitchen, finding her father sitting down in the garden with a tray laden with a cup of tea and plate with nothing but two olives and three slices of cucumber.

"Daddy." Nihat looks up and she smiles at him. "Good morning."

"Good morning sweetheart." She kisses his cheek. "How did you sleep? Well?"

"Not really. I don't feel very good. And I quit my job too."

"Okay," Nihat pauses for a moment. "Well, you can rest at home then until you find another one. You've been working very hard lately, I don't blame you."

She nods and pulls her nose up at his plate. "Daddy, what are you eating?"

"It, uhm, this is the newest menu of one Mevkhibe, honey." He smiles. "She is trying to make me lose weight by starving me and I have no idea why. And I'm too afraid to ask," he whispers to himself then sighs, "I'm going to be cooking for us later today though." He looks at her still standing next to him. "What are you going to do, honey bee?"

"I think I'll go and open the store," she shrugs. "Maybe read a magazine or two."

"Sounds nice. Did you want to help me cook?" he asks with a hopeful smile.

Sanem frowns and then leans in. "I don't want to sound ungrateful daddy, but you're an even worse cook than me. What are you planning to make?"

"No idea," Nihat chuckles, "but hey, I can read a recipe! I'll just follow the instructions, it can't be that hard." He reaches up and puts his hand on her cheek when she doesn't laugh with him. "Oh, my beautiful, bubbly girl, what can I do to cheer you up? Hm? What do you need from me?"

Sanem pouts at his concern and then she smiles a little so he wouldn't look as miserable as she felt. "You can hug me, that's more than enough."

"One hug coming up. Come here." Sanem puts her arms around him and they hug. "I love you so much sweetheart." He kisses her head and rubs her back.

"Love you too," Sanem closes her eyes then sighs, letting go. "Okay," she kisses his cheek. "Thank you daddy, and enjoy your...er, breakfast..." She turns and then stops, smiling a bit wider. "Eat slowly, maybe it'll last longer," she jokes.

"Ha ha!" He mocks a laugh but picks up an olive and bites it in half anyway while she watches, nibbling at it slowly.

Sanem goes back upstairs to get dressed for the day and then leaves to open the store for the first time in over a month.

The morning starts off like it was just another normal one - she helps customers for the next couple of hours, the same faces coming to pay her a visit as before. As she walks Mrs Thela out after counting down exactly 40 coffeebeans, Muzaffer suddenly jumps up onto the curb in front of her and nearly scares her to death.

"Zeberdjet!"

"Sanem?" he blinks in surprise and looks around. "I can't believe it! What are you doing here? Where's uncle Nihat?"

Sanem rolls her eyes and turns away from him to sit down in a chair, sighing. "Did you want something specific Zeberdjet? Name it so I can get it for you and you can leave."

He sits down in the open chair next to her. "I don't want anything," he shakes his head. "I was actually just doing the rounds greeting my fellow store owners."

"Right."

"By the way, have you seen it? My store?" He points at a purple store just up the road. "It's a lingerie shop," he grins. "Lots of colorful stuff! Maybe you can come with me when I go and I'll show you what we have."