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Colton was looking around the diner, his eyes searching for something—or maybe someone—when he finally settled in my direction.

I momentarily tensed up. My pulse was racing, nervous that he caught me here on a date with someone else. But I dismissed the thought as quickly as it appeared, confused as to why I should be worried when I’m not doing anything wrong.

As my brain tried to rationalize the situation, that’s when I heard Colton call out a name.

But instead of calling my name, he called out someone else’s.

‘Tracy!’ he exclaimed.

I slowly calmed myself down and let go of whatever tension that I had been feeling just then. But the moment didn’t last long enough, when I noticed Colton was walking towards Tracy—who was standing right next to my table.

‘Hello, Colton,’ Tracy greeted him with a kiss on his cheek. ‘Is it break time already?’

‘Yeah,’ he nodded. ‘The bar wasn’t as crowded, so they thought I could appreciate an earlier and a slightly longer break,’ Colton answered.

Noticing that Tracy was carrying the empty plates, his eyes turned to the table.

Then, they landed on me.

‘Clara?’ Colton asked, his eyes widening.

‘Clara?’ I heard Tracy say, with a hint of surprise in her tone.

‘Hey, Colton.’ I gave him an awkward wave.

‘Fancy seeing you here on a Saturday night,’ Colton teased.

For a moment I thought about telling Colton that I was on a date with someone. There wasn’t any harm in telling him, but something was holding me back, so I stopped myself before the words could come out.

‘I was out with a friend just now; they just left,’ I said instead. Technically, it wasn’t a lie. It just wasn’t the full truth, so I didn’t have to feel too bad about it.

I chanced a glance at Tracy, expecting to see a look of disappointment on her face about my partial honesty with Colton.

But to my surprise, I saw a look of amusement instead—as if she was approving of my little white lie.

Using that as encouragement, I continued explaining, ‘We went to watch a movie and thought we would check this place out since it was close by.’

‘Well, I’m glad you did,’ he said before he furrowed his eyebrows when he saw what I was holding in my hand. ‘What are you drinking? Is that water?’

‘Yup, just water.’ I shook the half-empty cup, the water inside sloshing around.

‘You’re telling me you didn’t drink anything else from the menu?’ he said, his tone slightly serious.

Raising a brow at him, I said, ‘Why do I feel like I just committed a crime?’

‘Because you were. But not to worry, we can still fix this. You’re not leaving until you try the best drink in this place.’ Then, turning to Tracy he said, ‘Tracy, I need two chocolate milkshakes.’

Tracy let out a small laugh. ‘Two chocolate milkshakes coming right up,’ and left us, carrying the dirty plates with her.

‘Two chocolate milkshakes?’ I pointed out.

‘You didn’t think I was going to let you drink one alone, did you?’

I let out a light laugh. ‘Definitely not.’

‘Do you mind if I sit?’ Colton said, gesturing to the empty seat across from me.

‘If you must,’ I playfully sighed.

Colton gave me a playful grin before taking his seat.

‘So, to what do I owe the pleasure of running into you here on a Saturday night?’ I asked him.

‘Do you see the bar over there?’ he said, pointing to the bar I had been thinking of going to.

I nodded my head. ‘Yeah?’

‘My aunt and uncle are the owners. They told me one of the workers couldn’t make it tonight, and needed some help, so here I am,’ he explained.

My eyes widened in surprise. ‘Wait, you have an uncle and an aunt who own a bar? That’s so cool.’

He just shrugged, his way of shyly accepting my compliment.

‘Do your friends know?’

‘Some of them do, but not a lot of people,’ he said sheepishly. ‘It’s not something I like to parade about, since people think it means I can get free alcohol for a party.’

‘That makes sense.’ I nodded in understanding.

‘Plus, the bar is more geared towards older people than college students. So, I rarely run into anyone there when I do go and help out.’

‘Do you go help them out often?’ I asked.

‘Every once in a while. They only started asking me recently since I just turned twenty-one before the semester started,’ he told me. ‘I was actually there last—’

But before he could finish his sentence, Tracy was back at our table. This time holding a chocolate milkshake in each hand.

‘One chocolate milkshake for the lady and one chocolate milkshake for the gentleman,’ Tracy said, putting down the drink on the table one by one.

We both thanked her as she left our table, heading off to take the order of a new customer that just walked in.

‘Prepare to have your mind blown,’ Colton said.

I raised a brow at him. ‘You seem pretty confident I’m going to love this.’

‘Trust me, you will.’

‘Well, here goes nothing,’ I said before taking a sip.

Wanting to keep Colton on the edge of his seat, I took my precious time tasting it, holding up a finger to him as I took another sip.

Thinking I prolonged this long enough, I finally said, ‘Okay, you’re right. My mind is officially blown.’

‘I told you so,’ Colton said before taking a huge sip of his own. ‘Now that is a chocolate milkshake.’

I took another sip and just enjoyed the burst of flavour the drink had to offer. ‘God, this is so good. Where have you been all my life?’ I said dramatically.

Colton just laughed at me.

‘You know, it’s really your fault for not bringing me here sooner,’ I teased him.

I was expecting Colton to tease me right back. But when I looked up at him, instead of a playful grin, he had a solemn look on his face.

‘I’ll just have to make it up to you by bringing you here any time you want,’ he deadpanned, his voice devoid of anything playful.

The butterflies in my stomach started to erupt, as my brain went haywire with all different types of questions.

What did he actually mean by that?

But as much as I wanted to ask the question out loud, I refrained myself.

Nothing good would come out of me dwelling on the questions of what-ifs, when all we could ever be was friends.

Wanting to shift the tension, I asked him, ‘So I’m guessing you come here often?’

It seemed like Colton understood what I was doing, and we were back to our usual selves. ‘Every time I go help out at the bar. But I do come here occasionally whenever my sweet tooth is craving something. Most of the time, I’m specifically craving their chocolate milkshake.’

‘So, like, once every two days?’ I teased. I had learnt a number of things about Colton over the last few weeks, but his sweet tooth might have been one of my favourite fun facts about him.

‘More like once every three days.’ He smiled. ‘Nah, it’s just once a week at most, considering I’ve been getting addicted to bubble tea for the past few weeks.’

‘I wonder how that could have happened,’ I said to him, my voice teasing. ‘It’s a cute diner though, I can see why someone would like to come here, even if it’s just for the chocolate milkshake.’

‘There’s a sense of comfort to it, I think,’ he nodded while I took another sip. ‘Or maybe it’s just that it reminds me of Radiator Springs.’

I was pretty sure I had been gaping at him when I registered his words in my mind.

It was just a coincidence that we both had the same thought, right?

Right?

I must’ve been stunned into silence, because Colton started waving his hand in front of me. ‘Clara?’

‘Oh sorry. I just remembered something I had to do before class on Monday,’ I lied. ‘But you’re right. My first thought when I came into this place was how it reminded me of Radiator Springs as well.’

His eyes widened a bit in surprise, seeming as if he was just as shocked as me by having the same thought when a small smile appeared on his face.

I quickly changed the subject. ‘Anyway, going back to the topic of your aunt and uncle’s bar. My friend told me it’s somewhat of a karaoke bar. Is that true?’

He nodded his head, gulping down his drink before answering me. ‘They only do karaoke on the weekends though.’

‘You mean like today?’

‘Yes, like today. You want to check it out?’ His head gesturing to the bar.

I hesitated for a moment. My brain was telling me it was a bad idea, when the goal was to stay away from Colton. But my heart couldn’t help it, wanting to say yes to his offer.

Maybe my brain had been drained from all the midterms I had to take that week, because my heart was winning the argument by the second. Plus, we were only checking out a karaoke bar, which didn’t really constitute a romantic spot for me.

And a part of me was just not ready to say goodnight to Colton just yet.

It was only for a few hours, what harm could it possibly bring me?

Sealing my fate, I said, ‘I would love to.’

We finally finished up our drinks, with Colton offering to pay for us both, even though I insisted I could pay for my own.

‘You can pay for mine next time,’ he said to me with a wink.

The wink caught me completely off guard—so much so, that I didn’t even try to stop him from paying. Colton must have taken my silence as an act of defeat, even though I was trying to calm my racing heart down.

We waved goodbye to Tracy before walking out of the diner. Passing the parking lot, we stood side-by-side on the sidewalk, waiting for the perfect time to cross the road.

‘Come on,’ Colton said, taking my hand in his as we made our way to the bar.

The sound of the music from the bar got louder as we got nearer. I saw a sign hanging beside the entrance that said ‘70s Groove’. There wasn’t a line at the door, but from what I could see on the outside, the bar looked full.

‘I think it’s full,’ I told Colton, expecting him to let go of my hand since I thought we might have to wait outside for a bit.

But instead, he held my hand tighter and said, ‘There’s an empty table,’ before pulling me inside.