We were carrying the shopping cart down the aisle of the store, filled with dried fruits and flowers and empty tea satchels. I never thought I would desperately need tea making skills, but I hoped I would become a professional today.

I glanced outside watching my brothers and Elric just waiting there by the car, tagging along like they had nothing better to do.

Ugh.Why did they tag along in the first place?

Remi pushed me towards the cashier equally worried as me. Now that I could see it, it was probably driving her insane to spend time with Kai.

It was a bittersweet feeling. She can't be with him and wants to avoid him and then again she wants to see him as much as she can.

I needed to talk to her about it as soon as possible.

We walked out and they helped us carry the bags to the car. Rehan and Ace sat in the front leaving a very awkward squeezing party in the back with me Elric, Remi and Kai.

"Ace..can you turn on the radio?" I asked, hoping that we can avoid the awkward silence.

He turned on the radio, changed a few stations and then he left it at one where the music was pretty decent.

Me and Remi hummed to the tune staring straight ahead.

Luckily we got home without having to endure some awkward conversation.

As we were preparing in the kitchen I kept glancing at Remi for help. She had set up the whole counter in the middle of the kitchen and was filling up a bowl with dried raspberries. The guys were leaning next to the window watching a video on Lucy's phone.

Soooo... I glanced at Remi again.

She winked at me and then cleared her throat. "Okay let's start."

They approached the counter all looking equally confused.

Remi pointed at the first row. "This whole row here is just dried flowers. Mint, chamomile flowers, dandelion petals, calendula, wild rose and so on. You also have white tea, green tea.. I mean you can guess by the smell".

She pointed at the next row. "Orange, Vanilla Flavor, Bergamot Flavor, Blackberry, raspberries..some other stuff as well. Few powders..cinnamon.. This row will give it a strong flavor to the tea. And lastly the third row are the fruits. Dried lemon, dried strawberries and all other fruits we could find. Got it so far?"

Kai nodded.

"Got it" Lucy nodded as well.

Ace smiled. "Seems easy enough."

Rehan leaned over to smell everything. "Can we start? We just mix everything right?"

"No, no no.."Remi shook her head. " First take a wooden spoon and in the empty bowl before you try to mix some flavors from each row to see if you like the combination. Once you are happy with it, you have to either cut the dried fruit or shred or whatever you feel would give the tea better flavor. You might have to blend the herbs some more. Some seem chunky."

"And then we put them into the jars?" I asked.

Remi gave me a nod. "Either that or you can put a little bit in a tea bag. Make a little satchel."

"This legit seems so fun." Rehan pulled his sleeves up. "We can take creative liberties right?"

I got a bit worried by what Rehan considered creative liberties.

Ace ran to the sink to wash his hands.

I glanced at Kai and Lucy and they seemed pretty excited as well. I'm guilty of misjudging men and what they find interesting.

I leaned towards Remi and whispered. "How do you know all this stuff?"

"Two things. Pinterest and direct links" She smirked and continued blending her tea mix.

I looked down at the options. I'm going to make my tea pink with hints of yellow. I focused on the raspberries, the rose petals, cherries, acai berries, hibiscus and rosehips.And dandelion flowers at the end. Perfect.

I loved that I added a bit of mint as well. It was a refreshing mix.

I packed a few mini jars and then focused on filling in a few tea bags. Maybe I can even put one in my room for a nice smell.

Suddenly my nose smelled something sweet. I lifted my head to see where the smell was coming from. Lucy was making something that smelled like warm chocolate cookies.How can you pull that off with a tea?

"You're not cheating are you?" I asked, peeking to see if he had his phone out.

He raised his brow. "I'm not. Why? Does it smell that good?" He leaned over the tea mix and smiled. He then took one of his jars and gave me a smirk. "Should I pack you one?"

"No." I murmured and focused down on my tea.

How about you don't say anything anymore Francy and just focus on your own business.

Suddenly in my sight there was a jar. I glanced towards it and saw Lucy had pushed one in my direction. It was a small closed jar that had his cookie tea in it.

I glanced at the room and no one else had seen it except Remi who pretended to look aside.

I lifted the jar and gave him a nod as a thank you. He smiled and continued filling up his jars.

Suddenly he cleared his throat and leaned over the counter.

"Remi. Since you're the expert tell me how this smells.." He grabbed a tablespoon of Kai's mix and passed it to Remi. She had no choice but to take it and smell it.

I could see her blush.

"This is okay". She tried to contain herself.

But Lucy..

"Okay? Hm then it probably needs something more. Help Kai a bit."

They both gave him death stares and then looked at each other melting into a puddle of shame.

Remi approached him carefully and then tried pointing out a few herbs that might spiced things up. He couldn't stop staring at her and with shaking arm mixed his herbs.

They shared a few awkward words and then Remi got back to her side of the counter like her life depended on it.

Ace and Rehan who were so into their element were completely oblivious. Either that or their acting skills were better than I guessed.

Suddenly Remi scooted over to me. "Um..Can you please come with me for a second"

I nodded and followed her out. What's this about?