After shaking her hand (his own rough from working on various mechanics over the years), Erik gestured toward one of the wooden tables near them. “Want to sit down?” He offered, slipping a hand into the pocket of his jacket. “We can have a drink while we chat. They have both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages.”
Erik had an inkling that Sydney was a Fox Grove student when he had spoken to her during their first conversation, but he’d waited for her to confirm it herself and she eventually did. The secrecy was familiar to him. A lot of people held back from announcing where they were from with strangers and no one could blame them. It was a dangerous and tense time. It was why he’d figured that a get-together was necessary if anything was going to get done. All of them needed to build a certain foundation of trust before they can take on a larger project, and maybe potentially an expedition. He might have announced a trip, but he wasn’t going to ask for volunteers. Not yet. Maybe in a couple of days.
But it was nice to see so many different faces from various shelters here. He hadn’t been in a room with a group in a while. It was a welcomed feeling. As convenient as privacy was over at his shop, Erik couldn’t help but missed people. He had always surrounded himself with them back before the outbreak. Colleagues, students, close friends – individuals who he tried not to think about too often nowadays.
“Quite like this, like how you’d be in one during a zombie apocalypse or how you’d be in one for a greenhouse meeting?” He said good-humoredly as he glanced down at her. She was a fair bit shorter than him. With the foreknowledge of her shelter, Erik had suspected Sydney would be much younger than him. He was going to be 30 in January, so the Fox Grovers were all pretty much kids to him. Not that he would call them as such. Given his own looks, most people assumed that he was a college Freshmen, so he knew exactly how disparaging that could be. “It is pretty quiet,” he continued, his eyes sweeping the room, “but it is also a Tuesday afternoon. Most of the partygoers are probably still past out drunk.”