Work Text:
[2:34 pm] syd: do you want to try a bunch of different places with me?
sydney’s text is unexpected, but never, ever unwelcome. you pick it up and read it over, glad for a distraction from the paper you’re currently working on for your shakespeare class (it’s not due for another three weeks, but you want to be done with it sooner rather than later). you’ve been slaving away for hours and your fingers are starting to foreign to yourself after spending so long typing away on your laptop.
[2:35 pm] sure, i need a break from this paper.
[2:35 pm] is there any reason you’re restaurant hopping tho?
your friend’s reply comes a few seconds later.
[2:35 pm] syd: carmy and i have been working on the chaos menu today
[2:35 pm] syd: we were going to cleanse our palettes and get some ideas, but he bailed.
[2:36 pm] syd: i don’t really want to be sitting at these restaurants alone, so you in?
you smile to yourself, closing your laptop and standing up. after you stretch your arms and legs, roll your shoulders back to release tension from your spine, you type back a quick reply, telling her that you’re definitely in. you get dressed in what you think is your cutest cold weather outfit and check yourself in your mirror.
[2:38 pm] syd: okay, cool. meet you in front of kasama.
not even twenty minutes later, you see her leaning against the black brick facade, scrolling through her phone and looking moderately annoyed, no doubt at carmen for bailing. when she hears you approaching, though, she looks up and smiles, waving, which you return. the second you reach her, she kneels down and you look at her, confused.
“sorry. just… your shoelaces are untied. um… i didn’t think you noticed, so… you know… i’m tying them for you,” she says, not even looking up as she brushes off the question she knew was brewing. her fingers move quick and nimble, double knotting your converse without a word, strangely intimate in a way that tying shoelaces shouldn’t be but is because it’s her. the smile she wears when she stands back up is a little shy.
“um… thanks, syd,” you reply, tucking some hair behind your ear.
she nods, looks away, looks back at you. there’s a little tension, but it immediately dissipates when she gets back to the reason for you being here.
“so! like i said, carm and i were going to cleanse our palettes, look for some inspiration for the restaurant, but… yeah, he bailed out on me the second i got here, so…”
carmen, from all the interactions you’ve shared with him (few and far between), is a nice guy, for what it’s worth, if not a little spacy and rough around the edges. you like him well enough, but you can’t help but feel a little annoyed that he left your friend out to dry like this. still, it’s given you an opportunity to spend more time with her.
“well, i don’t know much about food, so…”
“you’re good company and i could use an outsider’s perspective.” syd smiles at you and nods towards the entrance to kasama.
you let her lead the way.