Early Bird (Erkenci Kus)(Part 4)

8. Polen and Yigit are related

Fifteen minutes later, Deren and Sanem are heading up the stage steps, each assisted and handed a microphone by Mehmet.

"Good evening everyone," Deren starts and the chatter quiets down.
"I'd like to welcome the Redmod family, our guests of honor tonight, first and foremost." The room applauds, all those who were near the back, standing closer to the stage.

Sanem continues, smiling, "And welcome too, to our own Fikri Harika family." Again applause. "We as Fikri Harika are happy and proud to be a part of this evening. Shall we start?" She looks at Deren.

"They're starting off well," Emre whispers to Can who nods, watching with his hands in his pockets as the two women start to talk.

They take turns introducing and explaining each part. From the makeup to the perfumes.

"I love the line, it's stunning," Polen whispers, touching Can's shoulder so he would lean down. "And those two are just gorgeous selling it, right?" she chuckles and Can smiles too, nodding.

Sanem sees them laughing together from the stage and then Polen sending her a thumbs up. She turns to Deren taking her turn instead, holding her microphone tighter and her mind running - she needed a way to speak to Can without anyone else understanding.

"Sanem?"

Sanem is frozen, her eyes on Can listening to Polen whisper something in his ear again.

"Sanem?" Deren repeats, smiling awkwardly at the crowd.

Sanem blinks and snaps out of her stupor, looking at Deren who mouths, 'Perfume!'

"Creating any perfume is a difficult feat," Sanem says and turns to the crowd fully. "And making sure that perfume accepted once created, can also be difficult. In fact, this can be said about anything in life... because life is a difficult journey. Sometimes mysterious, and sometimes overwhelming, and we don't always know where we will go or where we will end up, but that's part of the allure."

Her eyes stay on Can as she speaks and he shifts on his feet, nodding and smiling down at his drink at her crushing it once again proudly.

Deren quietly makes her way to the monitor to play the slides.

"That's why we urge all women to attract mystery with their enticing allure, we urge them to grab it and conquer it, because we want to leave a mark, am I right?"

The crowd cheer and clap, hooting.

"Both in life, and on men."

Can lifts his eyes.

"Before they, as most things do in the end, become unreachable to us. And we will do this not by running away but by standing upright, and standing strong, like the highest mountain peak."

This wasn't part of the speech. Can keeps looking at Sanem, her eyes never leaving his. She was leaving hints, of course, he wasn't an idiot. Mostly.

"To the point where only those who are worthy to be a part of our mystery will be able to reach that peak." Sanem looks at Can a moment longer then turns and smiles at the crowd applauding. "Thank you all."

Turning again, she looks at Deren to come back. A Deren who was unsure why Sanem changed the speech.

"Thank you all so much for coming. Let's have some fun!" she cheers, instead of addressing it.

"As always she had to improvise," Can explains to Polen for no reason as Sanem and Deren leave the stage to cheering and applause. "Even if she prepares for months she can improvise the hell out of something."