The Arranged Married

Chapter 5

05.08 PM, at Martin Sun Park, Batam.

Vanessa still hasn't received any message or call from Dave yet after five days she left him in Surabaya. They are broken up, but she still puts a little bit hope on their relationship. She has almost become someone's wife in her age, 28 years old. Just as what she had plan when she was younger, and she feels right now Dave is the only guy that can complete her life. She has kept stalking him through social media, but there is no post update from this guy. Before she decided to go Surabaya, she had also resigned from the place that she worked because she wanted to focus on her wedding preparation. Since the actual reality is totally different from her plan now, she still enjoys her daily life as a jobless. However, she realizes that the more she has such free time, the more she thinks about Dave. She wanted to help Rose in doing some packing, but Rose insisted her to not touch those items. Because Rose knows that Vanessa can't do a proper packaging. In the end, Vanessa decides to find some air out of their apartment for clearing her mind about Dave.

Right now, Vanessa is sitting at one of the park's benches. The weather is just nice for her to take fresh air. There are some kids playing at the nearby playground and some people who do jogging. She takes out her mobile phone and scrolling its screen. Not far from where she sits, there is a group of people who are preparing to have BBQ dinner. The group has about five people; three men and two women. Sometimes Vanessa is distracted by the sounds of their laugh and enjoyment. One of the men looks at her while Vanessa is looking at them. Then, unexpectedly the man comes and approaches her.

"Hi.", Sean says while sitting beside Vanessa.

"Oh, hi."

"Are you coming alone?"

Vanessa nods her head. "Yup."

"What a good weather to enjoy fresh air, isn't it?"

"Yeah, but i got distracted by the food air from the BBQ area."

"Oh, it must be me and my friends. Why don't you join us?", Sean invites Vanessa to join his BBQ dinner with his friends. "We're having BBQ dinner, even though it's quite early for a dinner."

"Ugh... Actually, I will have dinner with my best friend. So, I don't think that's a good idea."

"Does your best friend live here too?"

"Yeah, we stay together. On the 12th floor."

"Great. You can invite her too."

Vanessa gives her suspicious looks to Sean. "How can you know that my best friend is a female? Have we met before? Because you look quite familiar to me."

Sean smiles and says, "Yes, we met once at the airport convenience store. You might not remember me, but your friend remembers me."

"Oh, I see now. You are the weird guy that she talks about. But you don't look weird.", Vanessa says while looking at Sean from his hair to his toe. "You look much better than what she said."

"Thank you, it's a compliment to me. So, will you join us? Because I've already smelled the food. We have sausages, chicken wings, scallops, beef, and many more."

"Hmmm... I'll ask her. By the way, thanks for inviting us. I'm Vanessa."

"Oh, I'm Sean. Nice to know you. I'll wait you and her there, okay?"

"Okay."

Sean walks back to the BBQ area and joins his friends to prepare their dinner. Vanessa calls Rose by using her mobile phone. From the BBQ area, Sean can see that Vanessa is talking and convincing her best friend to join them. Not long after that, Vanessa approaches to Sean and his friends.

"Welcome, Vanessa. Are you ready for BBQ feast?", Sean says while passing a plastic plate to Vanessa. "Hey guys, this is Vanessa, my neighbour from 12th floor. Vanessa, this is Bob, Jay, Bella, and Fanny."

Vanessa takes the plastic plate from Sean then she shakes hand with all of Sean's friends. Bob has an average tall with curly short hair. Jay is tall but too skinny and he wears cap, Bella wears glasses with black short hair, and Fanny is full of make up and has a curve body. They all are very welcome to Vanessa.

"Is she coming?", Sean asks while grilling the food with Jay.

"Yeah, although she doesn't seem happy with this idea, but I'm sure she will enjoy this."

"Vanessa, what do you want to drink? We have orange juice, coke, and green tea.", suddenly Bella asks Vanessa then pointing to the dining table which have few bottles of beverages.

"No beer at all?", Vanessa asks.

"Sorry, we don't drink beer, but if you want it, I can buy some from nearby convenience store.", Bob answers while prepare some food for BBQ then he passes it to Jay.

"No, no. It's okay. I can drink coke instead.", Vanessa says while reaching the dining table with Bella to take her drink. Then they join Fanny and chatting with each other.

After more than thirty minutes, Vanessa can see her best friend is coming to the BBQ area. She also can see there is a 'thunder cloud' above Rose's head. It's right that Vanessa convinced Rose to join them, but it's because Vanessa thinks that it will be good for her to join this new group so she can forget her problem for a while. Rose was still busy with her online shop business, but she tried to finish handling the customers' messages as soon as possible after she decided to agree with Vanessa's idea.

Sean notices when Rose is coming. He is excited and looks at her with sparkling eyes.

"Welcome, Miss Whatever!", Sean says when Rose approaches them.

Rose looks at him and says, "Stop it. I come for my best friend."

"It's okay. I'm still glad to see you join us. Here, take it.", Sean says while passing a plastic plate to Rose. "Some food is ready on the dining table."

Rose takes the plate and approaches Vanessa.

"Rose, please meet our new friends. This is Bella, Fanny, Bob, Jay, and Sean.", Vanessa says and introduce them each other. "Hey all, this is Rose."

Rose smiles to all of them awkwardly.

"Hi, Rose. Finally, I know your real name.", Sean says.

Rose sighs and thinks that it is going to be the longest BBQ dinner to her.