Just Between Us

Chapter Fourteen

Elizabeth's POV

At first I thought that Divya was acting weird because of what happened between us, but after last night's charity event she wasn't the same weird as she was on the plane, it was more of a distant weirdness different from the one she displayed before, where she simply seemed ashamed and not sure of what to say.

This was something else and whatever it was I'm sure it was Alice's fault somehow, she must have told Divya something.

"We should eat something." I offered as we walked through the overcrowded streets of New York City. I hate New York and how often I bump with people while walking and how overwhelming the whole city could be.

"Like what?" Divya asked without sparing me a look.

I shrugged, "Tacos?"

"Sure." Divya responded shortly.

I sighed out in frustration. I had no idea why she was being distant, I knew I had to ask her at some point but for now I would let it be, at least until after we ate. So that's what we did, we found a nice tacos place two blocks down from where we were and didn't talk about anything else that wasn't about the food. All this bothered me since I've never —at least not so far— had any problem talking to Divya.

"So... what did you think of the event last night?" I asked as we waited for the waitress to bring me the bill.

Divya looked away from the window and laid back on her chair. "Rich people events are not my favorite thing, I think I confirmed that last night, but it was for a good cause so I guess it was not so bad. Although they probably just use charity to avoid taxes."

"They definitely do, that's why I make donations by myself as well." I responded earning a faint smirk from her.

"Of course you do."

Before I could ask her what she meant by that the waitress was back with our bill. Shortly after paying we left the restaurant, settling on walking around New York aimlessly until we saw something Divya found interesting.

"Are you sure about not going to the Empire State?" I asked her again just to make sure.

"Yeah, I don't feel like being stuck with a bunch of tourists that high up. Maybe some other time." Divya responded as she looked at the many stores we walked by.

I nodded, "How about Central Park?" I suggested instead.

"That does sound more interesting, are we far?" This time she did turn to look at me.

"Not really, probably a ten minute walk from where we are. Let's go." I debated whether or not to grab Divya's hand, ultimately I opted not to and settled to walking with her side by side.

It was cold, not as cold as Vancouver though and not nearly as windy as Chicago thankfully, so the walk around the park was nice... if you ignore the lack of conversation between us, but at least our silence was filled by the sound of people walking or sitting all around the park.

When I saw a pretzel cart I decided to stop by it, "Do you want one?" I offered to Divya.

Just when I thought she would say no she sighed and gave me a nod with a tight lipped smile. "I do, thank you."

I turned to the man tending the cart, "Two pretzels please." I paid for them and passed Divya her pretzel while I had one of my own. "We should probably find a place to sit at."

"There's a bench over that walkway." Divya pointed to it and began to walk to it with me following in tow.

When we sat I waited for us to be done with our pretzel until I got the courage to ask her what the hell was happening with us today.