in a book I read recently (Set this house in order by Matt Ruff, an American) I read a sentence that went something like this: "whilst Julie and I waited for one of the tables to open up, she kept asking me about Penny" - both protagonists being in a cafe and waiting, I presume, for a table to become free (I think that's how I would put it).
To my British trained ears and eyes this expression, i.e. "a table opening up", was rather odd - is it an Americanism, a recently coined phrase also used in Britain nowadays, entirely singular to Matt Ruff or just sloppy editing? ?