The Carmichaels

Chapter Four

La Esquina was far less packed than the restaurant along the boardwalk had been. River could see only a couple of people through the glass doors and windows of the upscale restaurant. Before heading in, River glanced at the watch’s face where it rested on her inner-wrist and read that it was 11:50.

Feeling jittery, River opened stepped into the restaurant and was immediately blasted with cool air. Once the scent of food hit her nose, her stomach’s response was instantaneous; it growled lowly and River glanced around, self-consciously hoping no one had heard.

River did a quick glance of the patrons in the restaurant, trying to figure out where she was supposed to sit, when she spotted a familiar face among the crowd, waving her over.

Seo-Jun. Her heart skipped a couple of beats, and she forced her legs to move forward, forced herself to look graceful as she made her way over to him. She hadn’t expected him to be here so early. She thought she’d have time to prepare more, have time to get her feelings—whatever feelings these were—under control.

He was wearing that exact same smile he had worn yesterday—unclouded, addictive, a smile that made her want to smile, too. His hair was a little neater today than it had been yesterday, not as windblown, and the camera wasn’t around his neck, though, when River got closer, she did see it resting on the table beside him.

“You came,” he said.

River slid into the seat across from him and once she was seated, he sat down, too.

“I did.” She wondered if he could hear the disbelief in her voice. She certainly could.

He glanced at the purse River was carrying. It was red and didn’t at all match her all-white ensemble.

He grinned. “I see you got your things back.”

River offered a small quirk of her lips. “Today, actually.”

A waitress dropped by their table and asked in heavily accented English if they wanted to order. River grabbed the menu that was sitting in front of her, looked through it briefly and settled on the first thing on it. After they ordered and the waitress was gone, silence descended on them.

River glanced at Seo-Jun to see that he was watching her intently and then she looked away again. She wasn’t good at connecting with people. She could talk so casually with Hannah because they’d grown up together, other than that, River only spoke to other people when it involved business ventures.

This entire situation was new to her.

“Do you mind if I…” Seo-Jun reached over and grabbed his camera, still staring at her intently. “…if I take another picture of you. You look really pretty right now.”

Blood rushed to River’s face and her gaze snapped over to Seo-Jun, surprised and embarrassed because she didn’t know what to think of him calling her pretty so casually.

“I hope I’m not being too forward,” he said quickly, his hand still curled around the camera. “It’s just…” He didn’t finish the sentence, as he seemed to struggle with what to say.

“It’s fine.” Her voice sounded weird to her ears so she cleared her throat. “I don’t mind.”

He grinned. “Great.”

He picked up the camera and pointed it directly at her. Like yesterday, River felt…vulnerable with that camera lens turned on her. She looked down at the table studiously, like it was the most interesting thing in the world.

It was over as quickly as it had started and Seo-Jun studied the picture he had taken, a small smile on his face.

“You’re really photogenic,” he murmured, looking up at her. “Are you sure you’re human?”

“I’m only human, so it would seem.”

Seo-Jun glanced up at her, slight surprise on his handsome face. “You’re smiling.”

When he mentioned it, River could feel it, then. The small smile that had made its way onto her face. She pulled her lips in immediately to stop herself from smiling, and looked up at Seo-Jun subconsciously. She usually only did polite smiles for shareholders and family gatherings, and then perfect, plastic smiles for photoshoots. The only person who had ever seen her genuinely smile was Hannah, and even those were far and few between…

“I like it,” Seo-Jun said. “You should smile more often.”

River watched Seo-Jun as he placed the camera on the table beside him. Instead of focusing on how his words made her feel, and the blossoming of warmth that spread through her chest at his words that were so simple and yet, seemed to touch her so deeply, she focused instead on the way he handled the camera.

She said, “Is that camera important to you?”

Seo-Jun looked over at her in surprise, but nodded. “It was my mother’s.”

“Was?” she asked gently.

He smiled and for the first time, that smile was not light-hearted. “She…she died.”

River bit her lip. She had figured based on his face when he had said the camera was his mother’s. She knew the face of someone who had lost a parent. She had seen such a face many times, staring back at her emotionlessly.

“I’m sorry.”

And she was. She knew how difficult it was to talk about what someone had lost.

Seo-Jun’s face brightened and his smile this time was not as sad as it had been before, though River could still see traces of it in his eyes.