Emperor of Hearts

Tamara POV

I am a foreigner that has been living in New York for the past two years for college.

In that time, I had made only a handful of friends and I had missed my friends and family back home greatly. Now that I had graduated, my plan was to go back to my home country for a few months and visit before coming back to start work.

Since my flight leaves the day after tomorrow, I wanted to have some fun tonight.

Unfortunately, my friends couldn't join me, but I wasn't going to let that deter me.

I walked into the small corner bar and looked around. It was only about half full, so it wasn't very busy and there were plenty of places to sit.

I walked to the bar and sat down a few stools away from a man in a baggy black tshirt and a black cap that he seemed to pull down even further to hide his face.

There wasn't anything to be ashamed of by being in this place, so why was he hiding?

Is he a criminal?

Royal POV

A girl with a blonde hair sat down a few stool away from me.

She couldn't have been older than twenty-two.

Given her age, she was probably here for either schooling or vacation and for either option there was also the option that she liked diamond crew. If she did, then there's a good chance she would recognize me.

"Excuse me, sir?" She asked and I didn't move.

She was quiet for a moment before moving so there was only one stool between the two of us.

"Excuse me?" She repeated.

"Are you okay?"

I finally looked up, though extremely hesitant.

"I'm fine." I said simply, but she seemed to be very determined.

"Are you sure? You looked pretty down... Almost lonely." She pointed out.

I only gave a simple nod as response and she rested her elbow on the counter with her chin in her palm.

"You don't look very fine."

At this point, I was already getting annoyed.

I downed the rest of my drink and started to order another one.

This random girl held out money to the bartender.

"Whatever he's drinking and a beer please."

My head jerked up and I stared at her before looking down and sighing.

"You didn't have to do that. I really hate owing people things." I said and crossed my arms on the bar, leaning on them.

"Then don't owe me. Pay me back." She said and I scoffed in disbelief.

I went to reach for my wallet and she held out a hand to stop me.

"Not with money." I raised an eyebrow at her.

What exactly do this girl want?

She looked embarrassed so she must have realized how her words could have sounded to the wrong person.

"Tell me something about you. What is your name?" She asked, and it genuinely surprised me.

Was she asking for confirmation?

Did she really not know?

I gave her a hesitant look.

She was certainly starting to be more interesting than annoying.

"Royal" I said, intentionally leaving off my family name.

She smiled at me and held her hand out as if she wanted to shake hands.

I looked at her hand before locking eyes with her and bringing my hand up to shake hers.

I was a little embarrassed when I realized that her hand fit perfectly in mine.

"Nice to meet you, Royal." She said and smiled shyly at me.

"Well, since you know my name, isn't it fair for me to know yours?" I asked, quickly retracting my hands and turning my head back to the drink in front of me.

"Tamara. My name is Tamara." She even sounded a little shy now.

I couldn't help but laugh a little at her change in demeanor.

She must not have planned this approach at all.

"What are you laughing at?"

"You." I said simply and looked over at her.

"You started off very confident and now your demeanor has changed. What has changed?" I asked, already making assumptions that once she heard my name it was all the confirmation she needed that I was a rapper in Diamond crew.

She blushed but smiled as she looked down at her hands.

"I approached you because you seemed sad or lonely... You looked like you were almost hiding from something. I just wanted to make sure you were okay. I expected you to just tell me to go away." She admitted.

While I thought it was very kind of her, I still had my suspicions she was a fan looking for an excuse to approach me.

"So you approached a random stranger just to check on them?" I asked, and she nodded.

"Why?" She took a sip of her drink before answering me.

"I would want someone to check on me. I just wanted to be friendly." She said and smiled at me.

My smile dropped in disbelief.

"You really don't recognize me?" I asked, dumbfounded.

With my current popularity it shocked me that someone at least didn't know me.

She looked confused.

"No... Should I?" Her confusion turned to worry.

"Did we have a class together or something?"

I quickly shook my head in response to her question.

"No! I just... Never mind." I let out a laugh and shook my head, relaxing a bit.

Her worry switched back to confusion again.

"Were you on some drama recently? Or maybe in a group? I wouldn't know. The past two years of my life have been filled with classes, studying and sleeping." She said casually, taking another drink.

"You are in university here? What for?" I asked, trying to steer the conversation away from my identity.

I looked around to make sure no one has heard her and saw most people where sitting at tables away from the bar.

"Majoring in business management and minoring in linguistics." She said and my confusion must have shown on my face.

"Where are you from? Why come all the way to new York for university when you can take those pretty much anywhere?" I asked and she smiled.

"I'm from Italy. I think Studying in a different society is good. I mean, I get to mix up with other cultures. The first year was pretty difficult, but this year was a lot better." She explained.

I noticed that both of our drinks were almost gone already.

"How much longer until you graduate?" I flagged the bartender down while still listening to her.

"I graduated last week." She shrugged and finished off her drink.

"The credits transferred from my University back home."

"That's great." I looked up at the bartender.

"Another round of drinks, please." I held out the money for him and he went off to grab our drinks.

"What was that for?" She asked and I returned my attention to her.

"You said you just graduated right? We are celebrating." I smiled and one spread across her face too.

Tamara POV

Most of the night continued that way.

We talked, getting to know each other and finding new reasons to keep buying each other drinks.

After about the tenth drink, my memory gets kind of fuzzy.

At some point, the casual conversation turned into light flirting.

"Your eyes are beautiful." Royal said to me and I blushed a bright red.

"T...Thank you... Your smile is also " I said shyly and as soon as the words left my mouth, he showed his bright, gummy smile.

"Last call! Raise your hand if you understand me!" The bartender called out to the crowd, which I hadn't noticed had grown since royal and I had started talking.

Just how long had we been talking?

He and I raised our hands before finishing off the last of our drinks.

When most of the crowd raised their hands, the bartender nodded.

"Good. You don't have to go home but you can't stay here." He said and started to clean up.