To Be Young And In Love In New York City

Chapter 11: "You're Choking Her"

"Is that all?"

"Yes." Yuna smiled at Colette. "Thank you."

"Of course," Colette gave her a toothy grin. "Is River gonna be here?"

"Yes, in five minutes. I am leaving."

Colette waved goodbye to her as she watched her timid figure disappear out of the door. Yuna's English had gotten much better, thanks to River who made it his to job to teach her and Nari the basics. Han had caught on pretty well without anybody's help.

She took a seat behind the counter of the cashier of the restaurant. They still hadn't come up with a name for it but Han told her that it wasn't something to worry about because apparently, River had a really good idea in mind.

River.

They hadn't spoken to each other since Central Park, since their almost kiss and that had happened a week before. It caused no hindrances to their work because the next few tasks that Han and Yuna had assigned to them were to be done individually. It was relatively easier work, due to the major amount of it being done in the first two weeks.

He was going to arrive in less than five minutes and she didn't know what she'd say or act. Should she just ignore the obvious tension between them and act as if everything was normal? Or was that too ignorant? She had no clue. She wished Niki was there, next to her. Niki would know exactly what to do and say.

Niki and Colette were spending barely any time together, thanks to their heavily packed schedules. It had come down to saying a 'Good Morning' when they woke up and a 'Good Night' when they headed off to their rooms after a long day. Between Colette's work at the restaurant, their college classes, assignments and shifts at J.B's, they spent next to no time together.

In their many, many years of friendship, not spending enough time with each other never turned out to be a problem. They had gone days, even weeks sometimes, but it never affected their relationship, because the moment they reconnected, it was like they had never been apart. Despite this fact, Colette couldn't help but feel distant. She had hoped that when they both started sharing an apartment, they'd spend a lot more time together but unfortunately for her, it didn't turn out that way.

She shrugged to herself as she brushed the thoughts away and got back to neatly arranging the decorative items she had bought around the cash counter. The big glass door to the restaurant flew open, and a man stood in the doorway. Colette couldn't recognise who it was at first due to silhouette the sun made of him, but as he took small steps inside, River's face became clearer.

His stoic face gave no place for any emotion and his dark eyes were darker than usual. His pink lips that were usually curved into a smirk lay as a straight line across his face. They stared at each other for a while, neither of them saying anything. Tension hung in the air. River broke eye contact and walked over to a group of boxes, picking one up. Opening one, he began uncovering the new items they had ordered without greeting her.

Colette decided not to say anything either, grabbed hold of a cloth and began wiping the counter clean as anxiety overtook her rational thoughts. Did he not like the almost kiss? Is he into me or have I been overthinking it this whole time? What if he just likes me as a friend and I misread his signals?

She shook her head. No. Stop overthinking and don't jump to any conclusions. For almost 40 minutes, they did their work, neither of them saying anything. Colette prayed for Han to randomly appear and break the silence but there was no sign of him. Sighing to herself, she continued doing random things to keep herself busy; clear away boxes, clean the counters thrice, arrange and re-arrange decorative items and so on. She could hear River kicking the last box for the day aside and take small steps towards the cash counter, towards her and stopped when he was right in front of it.