Chapter 17 About Meeting His Family
Hubert watched her picking out flowers and bargaining with the flower shop owner. She could reduce the price of a pot of flowers worth 10 dollars by half. And he found that she could make the owner think that if he didn't sell the flowers to her, he wouldn't be able to sell them to others. Seeing this scene, Hubert found it very refreshing.
He never looked at the price and didn't bargain when he bought stuff.
Hubert did not expect his wife to be a bargain hunter. Hubert wanted to laugh when he saw that the boss of the flower shop looked heartbroken.
After paying the fees, Teresa started to carry the potted plants she bought into Hubert's car one by one.
Hubert stood by at first and watched her move the potted flowers. Later, he thought that he would look like a pain in the ass if he let a girl carry the potted flowers while he was standing next to the car. Then, he helped Teresa carry the flowers. After that, his car was stuffed with potted flowers.
Fortunately, the owner of the flower shop gave them some paper to spread on the seats in case it would stain his car seat.
"Do you need to buy anything else?"
Hubert asked Teresa as he got into the car.
"The car is already stuffed. If there is not enough space to put other stuff in the car, we don't have to buy anything else. Since we're furnishing our home, it isn't something that can be done in a day or two. When I'm free, I'll take my time buying furniture to furnish the apartment."
Then Teresa put on her seat belt and took out her phone to check the time. She said to him, "Let's go back first. I have to go to my sister's place later."
Hubert silently drove the car.
"Mr. Donovan."
"Go on."
"When Grandma and your parents come over for the weekend, can I ask my sister and brother-in-law to come over and have dinner with us, too? I only have my sister and brother-in-law as my family. And we have obtained a marriage certificate. Whether we have feelings for each other or not, since you want me to meet your parents, how about we meet each other's parents?"
Just in case, their relatives didn't know each other if they met on the road.
Although Teresa still had grandparents and uncles in the village, her relatives resented her and her sister. Moreover, they also took part of the compensation money that Teresa's parents got because they died in a car accident.
In addition, her grandparents live in the house her parents left behind. Therefore, she would not return to the village. And she didn't want to think of those people as her kin.
Her relatives disliked Teresa and her sister, so they refused to take her and her sister in when they found out that her parents had died in a car accident. Even so, when her sister was getting married, her relatives cheekily came to her sister's fiancé and demanded 50,000 dollars. Thus, she and her sister fiercely refuted their relatives. And her sister was determined not to let her fiancé give them the money.
In the end, her relatives didn't get the 50,000 dollars. Then, they cursed and left. And they knew deep down that they wouldn't even attend her sister's wedding.
In Teresa's mind, her sister was her next of kin.
Hubert didn't refuse her and said, "That's right. You can ask your sister and her husband to come and meet my parents on Saturday."
"Okay."
Soon, they were back at Florence Garden.
The car was parked downstairs. Then Teresa started moving the potted flowers upstairs like a tough guy. However, Hubert called the security guards of the neighborhood and paid them a lot of money to help carry the potted plants upstairs.
Hubert thought he could pay others to work so as not to make himself suffer.
Although Teresa felt that he was not being frugal, given that they were not familiar with each other, it would be inappropriate for her to criticize him for wasting money. If she thought about it in a different way, she reckoned he was being considerate and didn't want her to be tired. Therefore, Hubert thought it was worth spending the money.
Soon, potted flowers filled a corner of the balcony.
Hubert went to see the security guards off while Teresa stood on the balcony and watched those flowers. Because the balcony was so big, even though she had bought a cart full of potted flowers, they only took up one corner. And she hadn't installed the flower stand yet. And she was not available for the time being. She planned to assemble the flower stand after she came back early in the evening.
"What's wrong?"
"This balcony is too spacious. It's far from what I wanted."
Hubert took one look and thought she was right. Then, in a cold voice, he said, "What do you want it to look like? Do you want it to look like a small garden?"
Teresa nodded.
"You're going to your sister's place, aren't you? You go over there first. I'll go back to the flower shop and buy more potted flowers."
Teresa looked at the time and asked him, "What time are you going to work?"
"I can be there later."
Teresa figured that he had some privileges as a senior white-collar staff.
Then she took out the bank card and handed it to Hubert as she said, "You have to bargain with the owner. You'll have to bargain for half the price."
Hubert pushed the card to her and said, "I still have money."
Teresa looked at him for a few moments and then stopped insisting.
She had to go to her sister's place. Then she told Hubert again that he had to bargain when he bought flowers. After that, she took the key to the scooter and left in a hurry.
However, what she didn't know was that Hubert took a short video with his cell phone on the balcony after she left and sent it to Mr. Green, the garden planner of the Donovan Manor.
Mr. Green quickly called Hubert.
"Mr. Donovan"
"Mr. Green, you saw the video, right? Set up this balcony as a small garden. Check out how many pots of flowers you need. Then, you pick some cheap and easy-to-bloom flowers in the garden house. And the flowers better be the kind that is large and that has complex patterns. Then you deliver the flowers to Room 808 on the eighth floor of Building B at Florence Garden."
When Hubert went with Teresa to buy flowers, he found that Teresa liked flowers that were large and had complex patterns. She didn't like flowers with simple patterns.
"And remember to get a receipt."
Mr. Green said, "...Okay."
"Deliver these flowers before this evening."
"Okay."
Mr. Green followed any instructions from Hubert.
"Carry the potted flowers upstairs and put them on the balcony. You don't have to worry about anything else."
He would let Teresa decide how to place the potted flowers since she might not like the way he placed them.
Then, Mr. Green respectfully replied to him.
Soon, Hubert hung up the phone.
However, Teresa, who was unaware of Hubert's plan, packed breakfast for her sister and her nephew as she did yesterday. Because she was in a good mood, she also bought her nephew a children's electric scooter.
"Aunt Teresa."
The moment Teresa opened the door and walked into the apartment, he heard Andy yelling.
"Andy, you are up so early today! Come see what I got for you."
"Scooter."
Andy was only two years old, so he didn't speak many words. He trotted over and walked around the scooter joyfully, but he couldn't express his joy in words.
Leila came out of the bathroom. She had just thrown her and her husband's clothes into the washing machine to do laundry while her son's clothes were hand-washed by her.
"Tess, you bought stuff for Andy again."
"I bought a scooter for my nephew. I didn't waste the money."
Teresa put down breakfast, picked up Andy, and helped him sit on the scooter. Then she taught Andy how to drive.
Andy was smart and a quick learner. Soon, he was riding the scooter around the hall.
"Leila, I have bought breakfast for you and Andy."
"I set my alarm clock last night, so I got up early this morning and got breakfast ready. Ask your husband to eat breakfast before he goes to work."
When Leila saw Andy having fun, she had a smile on her face. "You don't have to buy breakfast and bring me later. And you're married now, too. You have your family, so the money you earn needs to be spent on your family. Don't always spend it on my family in case your husband has a problem with that."
Leila didn't want her sister to always spend money to help her family.