Hello June

Eighteen

Other than the noises of the traffic and the faint Indy music on the radio of the car waiting for the green light beside them, their car was silent.

Fumbling with the pedals, Seth slowly came to stop at the lights. It was the complexity of the car which was keeping him from glancing in the back view mirror which was angled such that it showed both June and the road behind him.

"So," asked June's sister from the back, leaning forward so that her head popped at his side between the shotgun and the driver's. "Who's car is this?"

Seth glanced at her and then turned back to the road, taking just a peek at the lights which had just turned red.

"My brother in law's." Seth told her, smirking to himself. He knew why April had asked him that. even after driving it for months now, he still found it complex to drive an American car. Driving in America was completely opposite to driving in England. They drove on the left side of the roads here, and so the cars were made in that way too. For Seth, it was trying to write with his right hand; he could do it, but with difficulty.

"Clearly." April nodded.

Seth glanced back at June who was almost glaring at her sister. Her eyes—Seth had never seen such eyes before. Gold and dark, like a setting sun in the mesmerising dunes. Up close, he could see the freckles on her nose. He could clearly see as blood raised to her cheeks making them deep red.

And then she had gulped, and quite unconsciously had bit her lip.

If it were Liz, she wouldn't have hesitated like that. She wasn't like that. She was bold— bolder then most women Seth had known all his life. Liz, if she were in this situation with Seth, would've simply leaned in and kissed him. Just like that.

Just like she had done for the first time.

All Seth had done was corner her by the lockers, and she had smirked, pulled him in by the collar, and then kissed him until he was week at the knees. If it wasn't for his arm behind her at the lockers, Seth would've fallen.

It was the memory of that very kiss which had made is mouth water. He wanted to tilt her chin up, and caress her lips with his own. He wanted to bite that lip for her, and make her moan.

And it was that very memory which forced him to pull back once he was about to pull June closer.

Deep in the dark, at the back of his mind, a sudden thought had struck, causing guilt to take over his mind as well as his actions.

Liz...

"Hey!!" April's voice bought him back from in front the book shelf in the messy room, to the honking of cars which were behind him.

"Sorry." He muttered and pressed the accelerator, slightly shifting in his seat.

"It's okay." April shrugged, her eyes fixed forward as which watching some really interesting thing on the tele.

Over taking a really slow old truck, Seth turned right at a roundabout. He looked back at June to see that she was now busy looking outside at the passing cars.

"Where're we going?" April asked, pulling his attention back to her.

Seth wondered what she could see beside the dash board in her position.

"To my restaurant." He told her, speeding up a bit.

He was taking June to his restaurant. She had been there before, but taking her with him was different. It would almost be like a private tour.

He remembered when had arranged such a tour for Liz. At that time, scrumptious had its inly branch in England, and Seth had had to arrange the whole tour. He was so excited. According to Liz, it was her very first time leaving the country and Seth wanted to make it her best.

Just that, the tour had to be cancelled because of flight cancellation due to Christmas, and after requesting a full refund, Seth had arranged the tour via a Skype call.

"Which is?" April asked, raising both her eyebrows.

"Hmm?" Seth didn't hear the question properly. Then he noticed that, lost in his thoughts, he was going too slow on the busy road.

"Your restaurant." April clarified. "What's it called."

"Scrumptious." He replied. "We named it Scrumptious."

April's brow furrowed.

"Hey Juny?" she looked back at her sister, who just hummed her response. "isn't it the restaurant you told me of the other day? The ice cream one?"

In the rear view mirror, Seth saw a blush crawl onto June's cheeks as her eyes went slightly wide, and she turned to her sister.

"Yeah." She replied. "Yeah, it was."

"Cool." April turned back, to staring at the dash board.

A silent snort escaped Seth, and he angled his face away from the two ladies. It felt queer—a very nice kind of queer he couldn't place—to know that June had been talking about him at home. And specially to know that she had been talking about his favourite ice-cream as well.

"So..." April asked again, like a bored child in some waiting area.

Seth answered all her questions, one by one, slightly amused by her observations—like he was taking the route because he didn't quite know the other ones, and that he was left handed as he was using the left hand to honk, and that he and June didn't know each other long enough to have her sit in front with him—and wondering if she was interested in detective novels.

And turned out, the answer was no when he asked her if she liked book as much as her sister did.

"Nope." She had shaken her head. "I don't like reading made up stories of made up people who either get married, or die in the end."

Seth wanted to point out that wasn't how detective novels worked, but he remained silent, as June was sitting there in the car too.

All the while during the question session, Seth had been stealing glances at June in the back view mirror, watching her smirk at April's silly questions, snort at stupid responses, and scowl at her opinion about books.

"Juny here," April continued nodding back towards her sister, "is a fanatic. I'm not a fanatic."

Juny.

Seth chuckled at the nickname. He remembered Roland referring to June as that too. A picture of a little brown haired girl buying ice-cream came to his mind when he heard the pet name and before his thoughts could lead him anywhere else, he shook his head.

"I see." He took a left, entering the not so spacious parking lot of The Scrumptious Dinner, or in short, the Scrumptious.

"Here we are." He announced like a tour guide, parking in the head chef's private spot, and turning of the engine. "The best English-French restaurant in town, where you can have the best English meals, as well as an un grand repas français, as my head chef likes to call it."

June shook her head, chuckling at his attempted French.

"Finally." April got out of the car first. "I'm starving."