After a fanatical party, Max, Mia, and Eliza had decided to take things slow for the next few days resolutely. So, they had mutually concurred to take a long drive to the outskirts for a day of spa, rejuvenation, and self-pampering.
They were currently seated into a quaint brunch place named 24 Carrots. They served the tea in real white china pots at round tables that mostly just seated two people. The trio had to request an additional chair at their table for Mia. At the glass-fronted counter was an array of cream cakes and pastries, all with English sounding names, and of course, there were the obligatory scones.
The tiny café huddled despondent among the huge city buildings. Washed out under the overcast sky, it hunched in itself, fighting against the drizzle. Hundreds of people rushed by it, outside on the crowded street. The half a dozen customers glanced up as the door swung open, heralded by a blast of cold wind. Unlike the outside, the interior of the café was warm and cheery, with bright lights and colorful walls. The customers relaxed to their conversations as the door swung closed behind the new entrant, and the cold breeze was forgotten.
It was quite early, around nine a.m. in the morning. And the coffee machines were yet to be warmed, so Eliza grasped the opportunity to rest her eyes a moment longer to assimilate the aroma of that place.
The old barista had wearied eyes, yet there was that glimmer, a give away of her good heart. She looked like one of those surviving sparks, one of those who held on to who they really were.
Finally, making her mind upon a breakfast item, Eliza joined the queue, although there were only six other customers other than the New Yorkers.
Eliza tugged a pleasant grin on her face as she pulled out her black AmericanExpress Visa card. "Three Earl Grey Teas, and can I get a warm danish?"
The barista flashed her a wry smile, eyes sunk into their sockets as the dark circles paved the way for the eyeballs. Eliza almost felt awful bothering the old barista, so she apologized immediately. "Sorry, I'm just feeling like being a fusspot today."
Upon the commencement of the conversation, Eliza saw her spark glow a little brighter, her face more relaxed, a smidge more ebullience in her eyes. "That's alright, dear; you be a fusspot."
Eliza laughed unexpectedly, "Thanks for indulging my fuss-pot-ism."
"Don't mention it." The barista whipped up their order in a quick fraction before fixing Eliza with a homey grin and a warm danish.
Eliza brought their order over to the table by the window where Max was furiously texting into her phone, and Mia's gaze was fixated upon one handsome stranger across the room.
"Who're you texting?" Eliza picked up her cup of beverage and took in a deep breath. The sweet, savory aroma wafted through the cold wintry air and lingered around her nostrils for a second.
"Lyndsey is texting me today's gossip." Max refused to even glance up at Eliza as she began texting another paragraph or multiple paragraphs.
"Got anything juicier than last week's party?"
Max looked up, taking a deep breath before she initiated her monologue, "Janice Stately and Tristan McKinley are a major item now. Well, everyone thought that Sean and Janice were this year's Ross and Rachel, but then I found out that Sean is with Dee McGuire now, which pushed Jeff Trainer into Dottie Lord's arms leaving Madison Maryland; alone for the first time since she became student body president."
Eliza's eyes widened in consternation as she almost choked on her drink. She knew she made a mistake when she asked, and she knew she was making a mistake when she further asked, "Where did all of this happen?"
"College."
"But we were only gone for a day."
Max shrugged before resuming her activity, and Eliza simply rolled her eyes at the rich scandals that happened every week. She was glad she had never been on the front pages of any of these, and she hoped that she never would. She found all of this chastening and demeaning and a complete waste of time.
She looked back to Mia, who was still staring at this stranger across the table with almost dreamy eyes. And Eliza was surprised when she followed Mia's line of sight because that handsome stranger was not Mia's usual type.
"Mia," Eliza was saying. Then, "Hello? Earth to Mia? Come in if you copy."
Mia blinked, moving her vision back onto her friend. "Hmm-what?"
Eliza rocked her head back in a chuckle, which seemed to have caught Max's attention, but she didn't spare the girls another solitary glance as she continued typing away. Gossip was more critical than Mia's change in the taste of men.
"You-uh-you wanna climb that tree, Mia?" Eliza dropped two sugars into her tea as she stirred the beverage, all the while gazing smugly at her friend.
"What are you talking about?" The quick red blush across Mia's face indicated that she knew precisely what Eliza was talking about.
"I saw that," Eliza smirked wider. "Maybe you can get him against the wall and..spread'em."
"Oh my god. Liz, that's dirty talk, okay?" Mia's eyes widened when she realized what Eliza was hinting at. She was quick to turn her sight onto her beverage and away from her delusional friend.
There was no way she was that obvious, was she?
She was.
Sure, she had been staring at the sun-kissed guy sitting across the room with his hand hanging idly with his coffee mug and nose buried in a book. Even from a distance, the color of his eyes radiating off the sunlight was stupendous. His eyes were the green of fresh dew glinting in the sunlight off a leaf of green emerald.
His lips were pale and thin, and his nose slender and rounded. A prominent jaw curved gracefully around, and the strength of his neck showed in the twining cords of muscle that shaped his entire body; strong arms, bold thighs, and a firm chest. His glasses uplifted his facial structure with a soft touch, and the loose locks of hair made him altogether alluring. He was a geeky Adonis among the other men in the cafe who were each pale in comparison and complexion.
"I-I don't date nerds," Mia confirmed, squelching her gaze away from him although it took ever speck of muscle in her to do that. The tone of her voice was swayed more towards convincing herself of this concrete fact and not Eliza. She just didn't date nerds, and she wasn't about to start now.
But with every passing second, she found her stance failing.
"Not even the hot ones?"
"No." Mia sipped on her tea, trying to cover her lie with nonchalance, but Eliza could see right through her deceit.
"Sure, whatever you say." Eliza laughed, almost inaudibly, before speaking again. "So, you won't mind if I go talk to him?"
"No." The monosyllabic answers from Mia had Eliza almost choke on her drink humorously. Mia liked that guy; there was no doubt. She just had to put aside her ego and shallow standards and go ask him out.
"You are so shallow." Max voiced Eliza's thoughts, and Eliza almost blinked in astonishment, wondering if she had said anything out loud.
"Excuse me?" Mia looked taken aback as she slammed her cup on the little wooden table facing her twin ultimately.
"I said, you're very shallow."
"Stop pretending like you're superior than me. The only thing you have going on for you is your looks." Mia defended. And both Eliza and Max knew that she only over-explained or defended herself like the accused was when she was in denial.
"Excuse me? We're twins." Max had seemed to drop her phone and ultimately engage in the brawl.
"Perhaps, I stand corrected."
"Knucklehead."
"Taterhead." Mia spat.
"I swear to god-"
"Stop it, both of you." Eliza slammed her hand on the table, eyes narrowed, and eyes brows knit into a cross. "I can't have one moment without listening to your constant bickering."
Eliza got up, smoothening the non-existent creases on her dress as she took slow strides over to the Adonis' table.
"See you drove her away." Mia huffed indignantly.
"If anyone drove her away, it's.."
But Eliza had moved away from the audio frequency of the Kim twins' bickering. She had put on her prepossessing smile and the most hypnotizing gaze as she took a seat across the geeky Adonis.
"Is this seat taken?" Pointing towards the empty chair, Eliza managed to gain his attention.
His eyebrow curled into a little frown and then settled into a thin line before he opened his mouth, "No?"
With a beaming leer, Eliza pulled the chair away from its original position and sat herself down in it. The guy still looked confused as to why Eliza wanted to join him but didn't object.
"Eliza." Eliza nodded, giving him an introductory smile, but he just kept looking at her quizzically.
"¿Si?" He bit his lip. "Puedes hablar español?"
Eliza cursed inaudibly; she hadn't thought this through. She hadn't contemplated the feasibility that he might not be American, let alone speak English. This guy was Spanish, and Eliza failed AP Spanish terribly in high school, so there was no common communication medium.
Fuck, she cursed as she mentally added a facepalm to her crippling anxiety and self-humiliation.
But to set him up with Mia, she dug out the remains of whatever Spanish words she could think of and spewed them at him. Mia was good at Spanish, or was she? "A..mi..amiga..le..gusta..té. Te.. gustaría..unirte..a..nosotros...mierda?"
The geeky guy burst out into fits of laughter, looking at Eliza, trying to grapple with her Spanish. She wasn't entirely sure of what she had voiced, but she'd hoped that he would've gotten the generic idea of what she was trying to say.
Eliza looked at him quizzically, and so did the customers nearby, and so did the twins from across the table. They tried to hide their heads behind a take-out menu, but Eliza knew they were trying to eavesdrop.
"I'm guessing your Spanish is a little rusty?" The guy had finally stopped laughing and slapping his thigh as he managed to compose an average sentence.
"Wait-you can speak English?" Eliza narrowed her eyes, a little embarrassed.
"Yes." The wide-spreading grin was an indication that he was about to indulge in another stomach grasping laughing fit, but he didn't. He just chuckled and took a sip of his black tea.
"Then why did you-"
"I'm sorry I just find it incredibly funny when people are desperately trying to speak Spanish to communicate." His grin spread to the corner of his eyes as he settled his book down on the table and focused entirely on Eliza.
"Did I-did I say something wrong?" Eliza scratched the back of her neck, narrowing her eyes in anticipation, still flushed with her lack of judgment and poor Spanish skills; hence she didn't find that entire scenario to be funny at all.
"You started by saying that your friend liked tea. I'm assuming that you wanted to say that your friend liked me. And then you so innocently asked me whether I wanted to join you to fuck." His breath came in quick gasps between his unstoppable giggles. Tears gathered at the corner of his eyes, threatening to spill over.
"But-but I thought that I asked you if you wanted to join us at our table." Eliza squinted her eyes so innocently that the geeky looking guy felt sympathetic as he restrained his laughter and maintained a somber expression.
"I wish you would've said that instead." The geeky guy smiled through milky white teeth.
"I'm Ivan." He forwarded his hand.
"Eliza." She took his hand as they shook it for a mere second before separating. "Oh god, I'm so embarrassed."
"Don't worry; this isn't even the weirdest thing anyone has asked me by mistake." He slid into a peal of easy laughter, grasping the cup as he rested his arm on the window pane attached to the massive glass wall.
Outside the window was the magnificent landscape. The hills lay charcoal under the sallow morning; feeble rays struggled to shine through the broken layer of cloud and snow. Each peak was a fortress overlooking the valley below, each no more than a barely discernible silhouette against the inky sky.
"Really?"
"Yeah, there was this one time this lady wanted directions, but she ended up inviting me to join her satanic cult." Ivan smiled, eyes focusing enough to lock Eliza's as he leered mirthfully.
"Wow-that-jeez."
"It's not as bad as you think it is. It's a good source of entertainment."
"I figured." Eliza rolled her eyes but managed to crack a grin. "So, do you wanna join us?"
"To do what?" Ivan smirked, eyes roaming all over with a teasing look.
"For breakfast." Eliza rolled her eyes as she picked up her purse and waited for Ivan to join her. "I'm learning Spanish the moment I reach the Upper East Side."
Ivan didn't reply, just smiled instead, and followed Eliza over to her previous table. Max and Mia squirmed in their seats as they pretended to be busy doing something other than eavesdropping.
"Max, Mia, this is Ivan." Eliza sat down on her antecedent seat, waiting for Ivan to grab a chair and sit next to her. And he did.
But the moment Mia's eyes met Ivan's, she knew she was in deep trouble.
Deep, deep trouble.
"Hi." Mia smiled, and Max just waved a very uninterested wave, which cleared the path for him about which of the sister's was interested.
The four of them quickly relaxed into a smooth conversation of anecdotes. Eliza shared her crazy times spent in Greece, and Ivan, an engineering student at Brown, shared his fair share of hilarious stories. It turns out he was an army kid, so he'd been all over the place, which wasn't as fascinating as it sounded. Moving a lot often leaves you friendless and isolated.
"Wait-really?" Ivan jerked up on his seat to look at Mia with more ease. The conversation had diverted from crazy anecdotes and ski trips in Switzerland and Korea to weird things they had done when upset.
Mia blushed, giving him a friendly push as she said, "Come on, don't judge me. I was in a bad place."
"So you looked up people selling mirrors on google?"
"Look it up yourself, scroll down a few pictures, and tell me that it does not make you smile even a little bit." Mia challenged; Ivan looked at her for a moment longer than necessary as he grinned before pulling his cellphone out.
After a few taps and scrolls, his mouth curled into a giggle. "You weren't kidding."
Mia fake bowed as they relapsed back into the conversation. It was like they didn't even notice Eliza and Max for a few seconds.
Eliza distinguished that Mia would catch a glimpse or two every once in a while, or her gaze would keep lingering onto Ivan. The way the two of them could just talk and talk and not care about how they sounded or how they looked was delightfully enchanting. Eliza could detect the obvious chemistry, but she was worried that her friend might ignore that for her fleeting sense of popularity.
Yes, Ivan was different than the guys' Mia usually dated. He was smart, funny, and handsome, whereas Mia dated guys who were neither, okay maybe attractive, but they were neither smart nor funny, just complete dicks who treated Mia like trash.
It had been quite some time since her last serious relationship, and Ivan seemed like the guy who'd never do anything to hurt a girl. Just what Mia needed in her life. And she acknowledged it more than anyone.
After four more rounds of hot beverages and English muffins, Max and Eliza wanted to enjoy the rest of their spa day. Although Mia wanted to spend some more time with Ivan, she knew that she would fall head over heels for him if she got to see this boy any further.
And she didn't need that.
She always opted for hot rich guys, and Ivan was just a scholarship student at Brown with big dreams and even a bigger heart. She thought about every insult her college friends would come up with to humiliate her. They'd call him Mia's charity case, and she couldn't handle that type of embarrassment.
So she had to give him up.
"Alright, then." Eliza picked up her new Chanel bag, which Max and Mia had helped her pick at their previous shopping spree, and linked her arms with Max. "We should head back."
"So soon?" Ivan squinted his eyebrows, seemingly wanting them to stay, or more significantly wanting Mia to stay.
"Yeah, we have an entire spa day planned." Max yawned, not caring about how she looked.
Mia picked up her purse as she thrust her cell phone in it, that's when she realized that Ivan was looking at her inquisitively, almost betrayed.
"You're leaving too?" He bit his lip, hoping that Mia would understand the unsaid.
"Yeah," was what Mia said.
"Mia- haha- you don't have to come with us. It's okay if you stay." Eliza gave her a tight smile with a hidden What the hell are you doing in it.
"But I want to." Mia widened her eyes, urging Eliza to let go, but Max swooped in.
"But we only have two appointments booked, Mia. You will have to wait another hour to book one for yourself." Max had sided with Eliza into setting Mia up with Ivan, but Mia was as stubborn as her sister.
"It's okay; I'll wait." Mia seethed through a mixture of gritted teeth and a tight smile.
Eliza sighed, supposedly having given up on Mia. She had accepted that Mia was, in fact, shallow.
"How many more days are you guys staying here?" Ivan stood up himself, the hurt evident in his eyes. Eliza felt somewhat responsible; if not for her, he wouldn't have even been there with them. But she had only tried to help her friend. Mia was always setting her friends up with guys; it was about time someone did it for her.
"We're leaving tomorrow morning." Max gave him a sympathetic smile.
"Alright, I hope we run into each other some time." Ivan engulfed the two girls into a bear hug but managed to wave awkwardly at Mia before leaving them. The girls watched him get into a taxi and go as Max turned over to Mia, hot under her collars.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Max slapped Mia's arm, but her sister seemed numb to the attack. "He was obviously into you."
"He's gone now," Mia said blatantly.
"Why do you always have to be such a shallow bitch? He was a genuinely nice guy, you-"
"Let it go, Max." Eliza grasped Max's arm as she noticed the upcoming tears in Mia's eyes.
Mia stormed out of 24 carrots with glassy eyes and a stifled sob. Sometimes Max's words stung harder than a honey bee, and Mia was used to them. But today, something had just clicked. Max calling Mia shallow multiple times had immensely hurt her, not because it was mean but because it was true.
Mia had finally acknowledged that.
"I thought you were going to ask Ivan out; why did you bring him over?" Max crossed her arms across her chest, looking at Eliza, condescendingly.
"Did you not notice how Mia looked at him? She was obviously into him. I couldn't do that to her." Eliza sighed as they both walked over to their Mercedes parked amid the second-hand rusty cars.
"I did notice that, but you and I both know that she cares more about her social status amongst her group of fake friends at Yale than her feelings." Max huffed in exasperation. She'd explained to Mia numerous times that all those Barbie dolls she hung out with at Yale were nothing but shallow girls who craved materialistic things.
That they'd leave Mia in a heartbeat if she weren't wealthy like them, but Mia refused to agree. With Eliza and Max having such a tight-knit friendship, she often felt sidelined, and the only people who had been there for her, fake or real, were those girls.
She couldn't leave them.
"I know. I just thought- I thought she deserves someone caring and gentle and kind like Ivan."
"She does, and I hope she realizes that soon."