Page 12 of June (New Orleans #6)

“Y ou look nice,” Jodie said of Caroline’s outfit.

“Yeah,” Viv added.

“How would you know? You’re reading a book,” Caroline remarked, looking at her roommate, who was lying on her bed with a book in hand.

“I looked up,” Viv said without looking up.

There was a knock at the door, which they usually only closed when neither of them was there or they were asleep, but Caroline had closed it because she wanted a real date experience, and that involved her date knocking on her door. Enid had just texted to say that she was downstairs, but one of the girls in the dorm had let her in, so Caroline didn’t have to go all the way down to get her.

‘So much for that increased building security,’ she thought to herself as a way to distract her brain from how nervous she was.

Then, Caroline took a deep breath and turned to her friends.

“You.” She pointed at Jodie. “Sit in my chair and don’t make any comments. Just say hello. That’s it.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Jodie said with a mock-salute but moved back until her butt was in Caroline’s chair.

“Viv… You always behave, so just keep doing that.”

“Um… Will do,” Viv replied, still not looking up from her book.

Caroline turned around and pulled the door open, finding Enid standing there, looking sexy as hell in a pair of dark jeans and a black V-neck shirt, which looked like it had been made just for her.

“Hi,” Enid greeted.

“Hey,” Caroline replied with a smile. “I’d invite you in, but there’s really nothing to see. You’ve also seen it all before, so…”

“Hi,” Jodie said from behind her.

“Oh, hey,” Enid replied, looking around Caroline and waving at Jodie. “Hi, Viv.”

“Hey,” Viv said back without looking away from her book, just how they’d rehearsed.

“I’d say more, but she told me I’m not allowed to,” Jodie added not in the way that they’d rehearsed.

Enid laughed and replied, “Then, I won’t say anything back so that I don’t get you in trouble.”

“And we’re leaving now,” Caroline said and pulled the door closed behind her. “Sorry.”

“For what?” Enid asked.

“You having to pick me up in a dorm room. I’m almost twenty-one, and I still live in the dorms.”

“I’m twenty-four and live with my parents.”

“Yeah, but you have a reason or an excuse. I just need to ask my parents if they’ll pay for an apartment instead of a dorm room or get a job and pay for it myself.”

“Why haven’t you yet?” Enid asked as she motioned for them to start walking down the hall.

“It wasn’t a big deal at first, but I also feel like I stayed here because Jodie is here. She couldn’t afford to get an apartment without a roommate, so she lives down the hall, and it’s nice, having my best friend this close.”

“Do you like living with Viv? Is that why you don’t room with Jodie?”

“Long story, but Jodie and I met here, so we were each assigned a random roommate freshman year. Then, sophomore year, I applied for student housing late because I wasn’t planning on living in a dorm again, and I’m about to go into my junior year. She’s had the same roommate since she got here, and she likes her enough.”

“And Viv?” Enid started down the stairs.

“Oh, she’s fine. She’s neat and mostly keeps to herself, like I told you.”

“You said long story earlier,” Enid noted.

“Um… Well, technically, Viv has asked me out a couple of times.”

“She’s gay?”

“Yeah. But I’m not into her. She’s great. I just don’t feel it, you know?”

“So, I shouldn’t be jealous?” Enid asked as she pulled the door open for her.

“You’re the one who’s literally dating someone else.”

“Yeah, but I’m not living with her in a confined space.”

“I said no to Viv both times.” Caroline stopped on the sidewalk. “Although, if you really want to know this kind of stuff, you should know that Jodie is gay, too, and she and I have…”

“Oh,” Enid let out and stopped walking. “Really? You two slept together?”

“Sort of. It happened once, and we didn’t full-on do stuff. I mean, we did stuff , but not stuff .”

“I’m confused. What stuff did you do? You don’t have to tell me, obviously, but I’m kind of intrigued now, honestly.”

“We were fully clothed and made out while we got each other off.”

“Well, that’s direct ,” Enid said.

“You asked.” She shrugged.

“Should I be jealous of Jodie?”

“Should I be jealous of Jill ?” Caroline tossed back.

“This is not how I wanted to start this date,” Enid said.

“How did you want to start it off?”

“Dinner,” Enid replied. “I made a reservation.”

“Yeah? Where?”

“This place my friend recommended to me.”

“Rory?”

“Yeah,” Enid said with a laugh. “It’s seafood, but they have steaks and stuff, too. It’s a chain place, not expensive or anything, and they’ve got this donut ice cream sundae that could be fun.”

“It’s a donut?”

“A glazed donut in ice cream, covered with stuff,” Enid explained. “I figured you liked sweets because you ate waffles with everything on them.”

Caroline laughed and said, “I feel like you should know what kind of person you’re dating when it comes to food. I knew I was going to ask you out, so I gave you a preview. I’m lucky that I walk everywhere on campus because I eat whatever I want. I figured I’d take advantage of the high metabolism while I still have it.”

“You look great, by the way,” Enid complimented. “I didn’t say that before. I should have.”

“You do, too,” Caroline replied.

“So, should we go?” Enid asked and held out her hand for Caroline to take.

She did, and when their fingers intertwined, something happened. Caroline glanced down, assuming it was static electricity, but neither of them flinched or pulled away, so she looked back up at Enid, who was smiling at her. Had she felt it, too? Caroline didn’t want to risk asking. They walked down the sidewalk until they got to the closest student parking lot, which was small, and they had to have a certain, difficult-to-get parking pass to park there.

“How did you get a red pass?” she asked when they arrived at Enid’s car.

“Oh, I killed a guy and took his,” Enid joked.

Caroline laughed and got into the car.

“But really, how?”

“I applied for it. I’m a grad student, so we get dibs over undergrads because we’re special or something. There was a waiting list, so I didn’t have it my first semester, but now I have it for life.”

“Or until you graduate,” Caroline added as Enid pulled them into traffic.

“Which feels like it might take me my entire life.”

“It’s one more year. You can do it. I have two.”

“True, but it’s a long year. This program is intense, and the group I just got assigned to me for my capstone project isn’t exactly interested in doing much work. I also can’t do it all myself, unfortunately, even though I’d rather just do this on my own.”

“Can I help?”

“You want to help?”

“Why not?” Caroline asked. “I’m no MBA, but maybe I can offer something.”

“I’m no MBA, either,” Enid said. “Not sure what you can do. I have to come up with a business idea because my team hasn’t come up with anything good yet, and they barely respond to my texts when I give them my ideas.”

“What kind of business?”

“Doesn’t matter. It just needs to be something that could actually work. We have to choose a CEO and other roles and create the business plan as if we were looking for investors. The professor essentially decides what amount of money we’d get based on the plan and our presentation.”

“So, I’m not choosing business as a major. Got it,” she teased.

Enid laughed, and then her hand was in Caroline’s lap. It was facing up, and Caroline slipped her own inside it. Enid didn’t even look at her. It was as if she’d done that a thousand times before and just knew Caroline’s hand would be there. Caroline smiled when Enid’s thumb began to glide across her skin.

“Tell me about you,” Enid said.

“Me? I’m boring.”

“The woman who draws vaginas is not boring.”

Caroline laughed hard at that and replied, “You’re never going to let that go, are you?”

“Nope.”

◆◆◆

“I cannot eat any more of this.”

“Is that what you said to Brooke?” Enid joked.

Caroline laughed loudly and dropped the spoon into the ice cream.

“I cannot believe you just said that.”

“I thought it was a good joke,” Enid replied, laughing a little as she placed her spoon on the plate that still had half a donut on it with melting ice cream all over the place.

“I didn’t say that to Brooke, no. How do you think I was able to draw her so clearly?”

“Okay. I get it,” Enid said, still laughing a little. “I don’t think I like picturing what I just joked about, though, so I’m going to move on now.”

“Are you jealous of Brooke, whose last name I don’t even know?”

“Hell, yeah. You two had one of those magical road trip fling things that always mean so much to people in the books and movies.”

“It was a fling, though. It wasn’t anything real. Brooke was cool enough, but she burped when she drank beer and didn’t say, ‘Excuse me,’ or cover her mouth. She also never paid for anything while we were together, and I’m pretty sure she stole a bottle of my shampoo.”

“Ah. So, she’s a grifter?”

“Probably,” Caroline said. “It was fun. That was what I needed then.”

“And now?”

“I don’t know. Right now, that’s kind of up to you.”

“Me?” Enid asked.

“I like you,” Caroline stated. “I have since the bathroom line, but Jodie showed up, and we didn’t get a chance to talk. Then, we ran into each other at the career fair, and I couldn’t stop thinking about you.”

“Me too. I mean, the same for me,” Enid said.

“Do you want fun?”

“No,” Enid replied. “I don’t just want fun, is what I’m saying. I wasn’t planning on starting anything with anyone. I wasn’t cutting myself off to the idea, but I’ve been in such a bad mood for the longest time, and I wasn’t sure if I’d even be sticking around after I graduated, so it didn’t seem like a good idea to start anything just in case.”

“You’re here for at least another year, right?”

Enid nodded.

“Then, we can see how things go, and if you’ve dumped Jill by then and we’re still doing this, we’d figure it out.”

“Just that simple, huh?”

“It could be,” she said. “I don’t know what I’m doing with you, honestly, Enid. I like you, but I kind of hate the idea of you dating someone else. I know I’m young, and I should be about sowing my wild oats or whatever the old people say, but it’s weird thinking about how you were out with her last night and you’re out with me tonight.”

“Do you want to stop?” Enid asked.

“No,” she replied.

“Will you keep telling me how you feel, then, like you just did?”

Caroline nodded, liking how that sounded.

“Want to get out of here?” Enid asked.

“Is the date over?”

“No, it doesn’t have to be.”

“Want to go to the campus theater?” she asked. “They have cheap movies. It’s an awful action thing this week, but it’s only three bucks, and we get free popcorn.”

“You had me at a three-dollar movie,” Enid replied.

An hour later, they had paid for their tickets and had small bags of popcorn in their hands as they sat in the tiny theater that only fit about fifty people. They were relatively alone, save the group of four about five rows in front of them and the couple a few rows ahead of them and off to the right. Caroline wasn’t hungry since she’d just eaten, so she stuffed the stale popcorn into the cup holder next to her and looked over at Enid, who was doing the same.

“It’s not great, is it?” she asked.

“No, it’s at least a day old,” Enid replied. “But the upside of not eating it is that I don’t have butter all over my hands.”

She held her hand out for Caroline to take, which she did, and Enid moved their joined hands into her lap just as the movie started to play.

Within minutes, Caroline had her head on Enid’s shoulder, and it felt so good. She tried not to wonder if Enid had done this with Jill on their date last night, but it was difficult to focus on the terrible movie in front of her, so the thoughts kept coming back into her mind the moment they left. When Enid pulled her hand away, Caroline worried for a moment, but Enid’s arm just went around her shoulders, and Caroline was snuggled into her side, with her hand resting on Enid’s stomach over her T-shirt. Caroline thought she felt something, though, so she moved her hand and placed it between Enid’s breasts, covering her heart.

“What’s going on in here?”

“You can feel that?” Enid asked.

“Why is your heart going crazy?”

“I’m sure you can guess,” Enid replied.

Caroline lifted her head and looked at her.

“Really?”

When Enid nodded, Caroline’s eyes flitted down to her lips. Enid licked them. Caroline licked her own. They were going to kiss. No, it felt like they were finally going to kiss. Then, the whole room, including the screen, went dark.

“What the–” Enid said, pulling away.

“Put the movie back on!” someone yelled.

The door beside them opened, and a student employee walked in.

“Sorry, the thing broke,” he said as he flipped on the lights.

“What broke?” someone else asked.

“The player.”

“There’s a player?” another person asked.

“It’s just a Blu-ray player back there. What did you think was running this place?” the employee said. “I’ll give you all refunds, but I tried to fix it, and it’s not working.”

“How hard did he try?” Enid asked. “It took him, like, six seconds to get out here to tell us that it’s broken.”

“He probably has a hot date he wants to get to, like I did tonight,” Caroline replied.

Enid smiled at her and asked, “Want to take our three dollars that we’re about to get back and buy a cup of crappy coffee on the quad?”

“And sit at our table?”

“It’s our table now, huh?”

“Yes,” Caroline stated. “So if anyone else is sitting there, we’ll kick them out.”

“I’d kind of like to watch you kick someone out of our table,” Enid said.

At first, Caroline hadn’t been happy that the guy clearly wanted to go home early, so he had obviously pretended like the player had been broken, costing her a first kiss with Enid, but when Enid was saying goodnight to her at her door after that coffee, Caroline actually felt grateful for the interruption because as she thought about it more, she realized that while she had really wanted to kiss Enid, part of the reason why had been that she wanted to catch up with Jill, who had undoubtedly had Enid’s lips pressed to her own already. That wasn’t the right reason to kiss someone, though, and when Caroline kissed her for the first time, she wouldn’t be thinking about anyone other than Enid, so instead, she kissed Enid on the cheek. Enid’s head had been tilted a little as if she had been hoping for more, but she left without saying anything.