𝚁 𝙴 𝙵 𝙻 𝙴 𝙲 𝚃 𝙸 𝙾 𝙽 | 𝙴𝚛𝚎𝚗 𝚡 𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛

𝙽 𝙸 𝙽 𝙴 𝚃 𝙴 𝙴 𝙽

I woke up Saturday morning feeling sick with nerves. I was finally going to see Niccolo...

I had no idea how long we'd be today, but I knew I also got the pleasure of seeing Eren afterwards.

I'd realized once I got home last night that I had no idea how to get to Eren's place from the coffee shop—and if we were going to meet, I definitely wasn't going to go over to his place late at night.

So I'd reluctantly texted him, asking for directions. And surprisingly, he said he would just come pick me up from the coffee shop once I was done.

I didn't think much of it—I was still trying to calm my nerves. How bad can it be?

I didn't let myself finish the thought, and for the majority of the morning, I did whatever I could to distract myself until it was time to leave.

The coffee shop wasn't too far from my place, so I walked. Leaving around 2:30, I could easily make it there on time.

I was the first one to arrive—a few minutes early. I stood outside the shop off 5th, watching as cars drove by and looking around at all the other people who were shopping for today. The sun was out again, which I was really grateful for. At least now the only reason I was shaking was from nerves and not the cold.

"(Y/N)?" I heard Niccolo's voice, and I turned around to see him smiling at me gently.

"Hey, Niccolo."I put up a smile myself. I can do this.

He jerked his head behind him at the coffee shop."Shall we go in?" Niccolo asked, opening up the front door for me.

I laughed a bit at the gesture, walking in.

I hadn't been here in a long time, but it was exactly how I remembered. It was a cozy, small little shop with hardly any people inside. A few people in different groups were scattered around at some of the wooden tables, and Niccolo and I found our own table for two by a window that viewed the street.

We silently sat down across from each other, and once we were both settled in, I found it was extremely hard to meet his eyes. I felt my chest tighten up the longer the silence grew.

"So... did you wanna get something?" He asked.

I shook my head. "Nah, that's okay, I had some coffee this morning." I didn't have a single drop of it this morning—I had no idea why I said that. "Did you want anything, though?"

"Eh, maybe later." He paused, and I met his gaze, finding it hard not to buckle under the pressure. "It feels weird, hanging out..." he admitted sheepishly.

I nodded, not really knowing what to say. "Yeah, it's been so long." I gave him a reassuring smile.

"How is everything with you?"

Again, I didn't really know what to say. "Well, everything's been... alright, I guess. What about you?" I asked quickly, steering the topic away from me. "You said you were at the cooking school you always wanted to go to—which is amazing. How's that going?"

He nodded, sitting forward and crossing his arms on top of the table. "Yeah, it's actually been great. I didn't know if I really had it in me anymore—to cook, you know. After what happened, I found it really hard..." He trailed off. "But this has kind of forced me to find love in it again, and you know, remind me why I even loved to cook in the first place."