Midnight [ONGOING]

March 15th, 2:33 pm

He was late.

There were many things Arya had expected from a man like Antonio, but tardiness was not one of them. It seemed very unlikely for a man like him to be late, unless of course he had more important things to cater to.

But then again, he had texted her this morning to remind her of their meeting at one, hadn't he?

"You've been sitting here for about an hour now, y'know?" Reed's voice expressed the same frustration Arya felt inside her.

"You don't have to remind me." Arya let out an exasperated sigh. "Why are you here anyway? Don't you have school or something?"

"Don't you have school too?" Reed pretended to write something in the notepad Arya had just noticed.

"What are you doing?" Arya furrowed her brows.

"Shh," Reed shushed her as he continued to add something else to the scribbles on his notepad, "my manager has been suspicious of me since I asked him for this shift."

"You asked for this shift." Arya blinked her eyes. Reed was something else she could not figure out. It was beyond her grasp why he would go to such lengths for her. "Why?"

"Why do you think?" Reed deadpanned.

"You didn't have to do this." Arya picked at the tassels of the fancy white tablecloth. It had some very fascinating details made with embroidery, something Arya had traced around with her fingers multiple times in the past hour.

There was a ding of the bell at the door, pulling both of them away from their conversation. An old couple, probably in their late sixties, entered the restaurant and were escorted to a rather fancy looking table at the back. It even had a cute lil flowerpot along with a couple of heart shaped candles placed in the centre.

The woman's excitement showed with the jump in her feet and her astonished face. The man sweetly smiled at her as he pulled out a seat for her, before pecking her cheek and then taking a seat opposite her. It felt nice seeing them so lost in their bubble. Arya wanted that.

"Chivalry isn't totally dead I guess." Reed pulled her attention away from the elderly couple. "You should text him, you know, to ask if he got lost in a ditch."

"I don't think he'd appreciate your choice of words." Arya pursed her lips, "What if he doesn't have his phone on him? We could be in serious trouble if someone else got to know of this meeting."

"You sure my life ain't in danger Walton?" Arya could see the thoughts that were running through Reed's head with the change of his expressions. He wasn't very good at hiding it, Arya noted. Or perhaps, he wasn't really trying to hide them. "I am not going to end up in a ditch myself, am I?"

"I hope not," Arya frowned.

"Wow, very reassuring." Reed rolled his eyes as he collected the empty mug of coffee off of her table. It was just another thing in the long line of drinks and snacks she had gone through waiting for Antonio to show up.

"Anyways, I should get back to work." He then continued to pick up dishes from the next table.

Contemplating whether to take up Reed's advice, Arya pulled out her phone, a list of pros and cons running through her head. However, before she could come to a conclusion, the bell dinged again, and Arya sighed softly as Antonio's tall built and hardened features came into view.

She stood up, ready to reprimand him for his tardiness, but the sight of blood on his collar caught her attention before she could say anything. She froze in her quest.

"Oh my god, what happened?" It seemed like the blood had caught Reed's attention at the same time too as he rushed towards her table. "Are you injured sir? Do you want me to call an ambulance? Or get you to the restroom perhaps?"