Imagine That: Multifandom Part Two

first friend【two】| yelena belova

The waitress soon returned and gave Yelena her dessert, and not without checking her out yet again. Yelena glanced at me disapprovingly when I gave her another look, but said nothing else. We chatted for a little longer, her enjoying her dessert and me finishing my drink, before my lunch break was over and I knew I had to get back.

The same waitress – whose name tag read Andrea – gave us the bill and let us split it. But just as I predicted, she wrote a little something extra on Yelena's card receipt and slid it over to her before leaving.

"It's her number," I said with amazement, laughing when I put my jacket on. "I was freakin' right! God, I'm good."

"Maybe you were," Yelena said with mild surprise, looking at the receipt, before putting it in her pocket. "Probably won't do anything with it."

I quirked a brow. "Seriously? You should talk to her. She seems nice. And she was definitely interested in you."

Yelena considered it, glancing at the till where Andrea was serving another customer.

"It's really easy," I assured her, realising she'd never dated before because of her past, and so this would all be new to her. "No pressure or anything. Just approach her and say hi. And then the rest will play out itself."

"I don't know," she said, looking back to me with disinterest.

"Yelena, go over there," I said with encouragement. "You'll be fine. Promise."

She hesitated, watching me as if searching for confirmation. When I nodded, she took a deep breath and went over to the till. I smiled as I subtly watched their conversation, too far to hear anything but it looked like it was going well. Yelena was smiling shyly which was rare with her, and Andrea seemed to be enjoying the attention, checking her out and flirtatiously touching her hand on the counter.

Without thinking much of it, my smile faded when I saw just how flirtatious she was acting. It was a little icky to witness and left an unpleasant feeling in my stomach. I think I felt... jealous? Which was stupid, because I'd literally talked Yelena into going over there and I had no reason to be. But seeing it all play out was a different story, and a small part of me wanted to yank Yelena away and forget this ever happened.

It was a momentary feeling, strange, and I tried to ignore it. She was my friend and this was the first time she was putting herself out there – I was merely being overprotective.

Though, when Yelena finished her conversation and left with slightly pink cheeks, I realised it might have been more than a little jealousy I was feeling.

Trying to push that to the side, I plastered on a smile as we walked out the store. "So? How did it go?"

Yelena shrugged, smiling a little. "Alright. You were right. She was nice. I said I'd call her." 

"That's great," I said, sounding excited for her, but I wasn't too sure I actually was.

"Enough of that anyway," Yelena said, giving me a sideways glance. "We don't want you back to work late. Let's go."

"We've got time, don't worry about– woah!"

I was cut off when Yelena put her hand out across me, stopping me from walking further forward. A cyclist suddenly sped past us, inches away from knocking me down if she hadn't stopped me, and I widened my eyes with surprise at the suddenness of it all and also the feeling of Yelena's hand protectively over me because she still hadn't let go, even when she yelled out a string of Russian curse words to the cyclist. It was kind of attractive, admittedly, seeing her so protective, and that's when I realised...