Page 18 of June (New Orleans #6)

T heir date had been perfect so far, and Caroline had wanted it to continue, but she wasn’t sure she really wanted to go to a bar to meet Enid’s friends. She wanted them to take a walk or maybe go into the city and grab dessert after their concession stand dinner at the arcade. They could have gone back to Caroline’s room. Viv would’ve left them alone, and they could’ve just hung out for a while. That would have been awkward, but Caroline didn’t think she could invite herself over to Enid’s house, and that was especially true because she wasn’t ready to meet Enid’s parents or brother. She was barely ready to meet Enid’s friends.

“You’ll help me with names, right?” she asked when Enid parked a couple of blocks away from the bar they had driven past and Enid had pointed out. “And you’re sure it’s okay that I go in there? I don’t want Candace to get in trouble.”

“Rory asked her, and she said it was fine as long as you don’t drink anything. I’ll help you with names, too. I don’t even know who will be there. Rory said it could be everyone.”

“Who exactly is everyone?”

“You want the rundown while we walk?” Enid asked.

Caroline nodded, and they got out of the car. Enid took her hand, which felt like it was supposed to be there, and that made her a little less nervous about meeting some of Enid’s friends for the first time.

“Okay. So, it’s a long list, and I don’t know if everyone really will be here, but let’s just start with Melinda and Kyle. They’re engaged. Melinda runs the tour company Rory and Jill work for, and she’ll own it one day. Kyle just moved here about a year and a half ago, met Melinda, and they fell in love. She’s a French translator.”

“Kyle is a woman?”

“Yes,” Enid replied. “Next up is Bridgette, Melinda’s best friend from high school. She’s engaged to Monica, who is an Arnette, as in the Arnettes.”

“The Arnettes who kind of run the world?”

“Those Arnettes, yes. She and Bridgette are engaged, too, and Monica now owns the greeting card company with Bridgette that Bridgette’s parents started. She might not own it , own it yet, but they work together there.”

“Okay. Kyle and Melinda. Bridgette and Monica. Got it.”

Caroline wasn’t completely sure she did, but she could fake it for now.

“Sophie and Bryce are next, but Bryce lives in Tennessee. She’s coming to town soon. She and Sophie are actually having a movie made about their relationship; how they met, technically. Bryce is writing the script for that, which is kind of cool. Sophie already knew Monica through work, and she still works at Arnette, but I’m not exactly sure what she does there. Bryce is going to be moving here soon, I think.”

“They’re having a movie made about them?” Caroline asked.

“Crazy, huh?” Enid squeezed her hand. “Anyway, after those two, there’s Linden and Asher. They are both wedding planners. I know Linden through Rory, who met her while she was in a wedding party at one of the weddings Linden planned, and they became friends. Linden and Asher were best friends for a decade or something before they recently started dating.”

“Ten years?”

“Yup. Then, there’s Rory, who I’ve told you about. She just met her girlfriend, Logan, last month, but they’re head over heels for each other. It’s cute and annoying.”

“Will we be cute and annoying?” Caroline asked, leaning into Enid.

“I hope so,” Enid said. “Candace owns the bar. Logan works here. Candace, the only straight woman in this bunch, is engaged to Keith, but I’m not sure if he’ll be here tonight or not. Rory is in grad school for social work and has, like, three jobs. I think that’s everyone.”

“Um… You missed someone.”

“You already know me.”

“Jill, Enid. You missed Jill.”

“Oh, shit,” Enid said. “Um… Yeah. Jill is a tour guide at NOLA Guides, the tour company. I told you that before, though. I met her through Rory.”

“And that’s everyone?”

“Pretty sure, yeah.”

“That’s a lot of people, Enid.”

“They probably won’t all be here,” Enid said as they arrived at the door to the bar, which was open. “Do you not want to do this? I can text Rory and tell her that we decided to do something else.”

“No, I want to meet them,” she said, but she still took a deep breath when Enid pulled her through the door.

The bar wasn’t overly large, and Caroline was happy to see that it had neighborhood vibes and not French Quarter tourist bar vibes, which she didn’t want tonight. There was music playing, but at a decent volume, so she could still hear Enid when they talked. Booths lined three of the walls, and there were a few tables in front of them between the booths and the horseshoe bar and its surrounding stools.

“That’s Logan,” Enid said, pointing to the bartender. “And Candace is next to her, pouring that beer.”

“Logan is Rory’s girlfriend,” Caroline mumbled mostly to herself, trying to remember.

“Yeah, and Candace is–”

“The owner, so I need to try not to get her place shut down by looking like I’m under twenty-one.”

Enid laughed and said, “She said it was okay.”

“I’ll be the only one not drinking, Enid.”

“I’m not drinking, either. I’m in charge of driving you home. Besides, Rory rarely drinks, anyway. No one is going to care that you’re not drinking, Care. They’re not that kind of group. And if someone says something, I’ll tell them to go fuck themselves.”

Caroline laughed and said, “You’d really tell your friends to fuck themselves for me?”

“Hell, yeah,” Enid replied.

“Hey, Enid.”

“Rory, hey,” Enid said. “This is Caroline.”

“Nice to meet you,” Rory replied, holding out her hand for Caroline to shake, which she did.

“You too.”

“We’re over here. Mel and Kyle are here already, and so is Sophie.”

“Where’s everyone else?”

“On their way, I think,” Rory said. “We’ll need to pull tables together now. Candace, is that okay?”

“Yeah. Just put them back when you’re done,” Candace yelled from behind the bar.

“Will do,” Rory said.

They walked over to the four empty tables that were in front of the booths, and Caroline got to work moving them together alongside Enid when three women who had been sitting in a booth stood up to help.

“Hey. I’m Sophie,” a brunette with brown eyes said.

“Hi. Caroline.”

“Mel,” another brunette with brown hair and eyes but lighter skin introduced herself. “And this is Kyle, my fiancée.”

“Nice to meet you both,” Caroline said, already having a hard time keeping up.

“You too. Are you Enid’s girlfriend?” Kyle asked.

“Uh… not…” Caroline started but didn’t know how to finish.

“We’re dating,” Enid replied instead and rubbed Caroline’s back in that way she’d done at the arcade earlier.

“Yeah, that,” Caroline added.

“Cool,” Kyle said and smiled genuinely at Caroline.

Enid pulled out Caroline’s chair, and Caroline smiled at her before she sat down.

“What do you want to drink? I’ll grab it,” Enid offered.

“Oh. Whatever you’re getting.”

“Water,” Enid said.

“That’s fine,” Caroline replied.

“Be right back,” Enid told her and squeezed Caroline’s shoulder before she walked off.

“So, what do you do, Caroline?” Sophie asked.

“I’m in school.”

“Grad school with Enid?” Melinda asked.

“No, undergrad. I’m about to be a junior. Same school, though.”

“What’s your major?” Kyle asked.

“I don’t have one yet,” she said, fully prepared for that question because she got it from everyone.

“Don’t you have to declare by junior year?” Rory asked as she sat down next to Sophie.

“Yeah. I’m doing summer sessions right now, but I’ll be a junior in the fall, so I’ve got to declare soon,” Caroline said.

“How did you and Enid meet?” Melinda asked.

“Um… Technically, we met at a bar in the Quarter,” she said.

“Yeah?” Melinda asked.

“We bumped into each other there but didn’t officially meet until we met on campus at a career fair.”

“God, I don’t miss those,” Kyle commented.

“Me neither,” Sophie said. “That pressure, when you’re in school, to know exactly what you want to do and walk up to strangers at those booths to try to see if they have an internship or something you could do in case you got nothing else when you graduated.”

Caroline laughed a little under her breath, even though she didn’t think it was all that funny because that was her life right now, and she really felt everything that Sophie had just mentioned.

“Here you go,” Enid said and, thankfully, sat down next to her.

“Thanks,” Caroline replied and took a long gulp of the much-needed water.

Enid wrapped an arm around the back of Caroline’s chair, and Caroline placed her hand on Enid’s thigh. Enid talked with her friends for a few minutes before Logan joined them and sat down by Rory while she was on her break.

“We’re here. What did we miss?” a woman said, walking in, holding hands with another woman.

“That’s Linden.” Enid pointed to the blonde with blue eyes on the left. “Asher is her girlfriend.”

“Remind me,” she whispered.

“The friends who just started dating. They’re wedding planners.”

“Right,” Caroline replied.

“Oh, and that’s Bridgette and Monica behind them.”

Caroline’s head was spinning, trying to keep up. She’d been somewhat popular in school, but she’d never had this many friends that hung out like this.

“So, you’re a student?” Monica asked about ten minutes later after everyone had settled in around the table, and Monica and Bridgette had sat across from them, off to the right a bit.

“Yes,” she said, repeating it for the fifth time already.

Enid had walked off to the bathroom with Rory a few minutes ago, and they looked like they were talking about something. Caroline hoped she’d passed the best friend test and that Rory wasn’t telling Enid to drop her on their second date or something.

“Do you like school? I loved school,” Monica said.

“You’re a nerd, though,” Bridgette teased her.

“You like that I’m a nerd. I do all the spreadsheet stuff at work for you.”

“That’s true,” Bridgette replied.

“Um… It’s fine. I’m ready to be done.”

“You’re in grad school, right?” Bridgette asked. “MBA like Enid? I thought I heard someone say that.”

“No, undergrad. Almost a junior.”

“My son is a junior,” Monica shared.

“Sorry?” Caroline replied.

“My son, Aaron, is a junior now. Crazy. Well, he will be in the fall. He took four AP classes in high school and was able to test out of a few of the entry-level courses, and he took eighteen credit hours each semester, so he’s a bit ahead.”

“Oh, wow,” Caroline said, feeling like she was every bit the underachiever she’d always thought she was.

“So, what do you want to do?”

“I don’t know yet,” she replied, shrugging a shoulder.

She’d read an article a while ago about how Americans were so obsessed with what people did for a living that after asking a new person their name, it was the next question in any small talk conversation, while in most other countries, people could get to know a stranger well without ever having asked what they did for a living. Maybe she should move to Europe or something.

“Hey. Sorry, I’m late. I couldn’t find parking.”

“Hey, Jill,” Sophie said.

Caroline looked up at the beautiful woman standing by the table. Jill had blonde hair and blue eyes and looked like she could have been modeling a bathing suit on a beach in California. That was whom Enid just ended things with? Was Enid a crazy person? Was she dating a crazy person now?

“I’m back. Sorry,” Enid said to Caroline. “Hey, Jill.”

“Hey,” Jill replied. “And you must be Caroline.”

“Yeah, hey,” Caroline said.

Should she stand up? Was she supposed to shake Jill’s hand? Did people do that, shake the hand of the former date of the woman they were currently dating? Did that even make any sense?

“Jill. Nice to meet you.”

“You too,” Caroline replied.

“You okay?” Enid whispered in her ear as Jill sat down next to Bridgette.

“Maybe we shouldn’t do that.”

“Do what?”

“The whisper-in-the-ear thing, Enid. And your arm is over my chair.”

“It was before, too,” Enid replied.

“Jill’s here.”

“Oh,” Enid said. “Okay. I can back off.”

“It’s not that I want you to. It’s–”

“So, what did you two do tonight?” Jill asked them.

“Mini-golf and an arcade,” Enid replied.

“That’s a good idea,” Jill noted. “I thought you said you were out of date ideas.”

“You were out of date ideas?” Caroline asked.

“Mini-golf was actually Care’s idea,” Enid replied. “And I told you I was rusty with the whole dating thing.”

“We won a lot of prizes,” Caroline said for some reason. “Seriously, does anyone want any candy? We got, like, two of everything and a bunch of other stuff. Most of it is in Enid’s car, but the candy is in my purse.”

“Care won the jackpot on this game. We got a ton of tickets,” Enid added.

Caroline liked that Enid was bragging about her, but she wished she had something better to brag about than the fact that on their last dollar, she had finally won the game played by children, which she’d been trying to win all night.

“That sounds like fun,” Melinda spoke. “We should go to an arcade. I’ll kick your ass at something.”

“I’m sure you would,” Kyle replied.

“So, Sophie, when is Bryce back?” Jill asked.

The conversation went on for another hour, with questions ping-ponging around the bar and Caroline mostly sitting there, just trying to keep up. Enid did her best to try to include her in the conversation when she could, but it was clear to Caroline that she didn’t fit in with this group. She was twenty years old, had no major, no career track, and was offering people candy from the trip to the arcade she had just taken, which only made her sound even more like a kid than an adult.

◆◆◆

“You got quiet back there,” Enid said.

“Huh?” Caroline asked.

“At the bar, you got quiet.”

“Oh. I guess. I got tired,” she lied.

“Care?”

“Yeah?”

Enid pulled the car up to the sidewalk in front of Caroline’s building and turned it off.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, yeah.”

“Are you lying?” Enid asked.

“Yes,” she admitted.

Enid turned toward her and asked, “Was it too much? I shouldn’t have–”

“It was, yes. But it’s more that I don’t fit in at all with your friends.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Enid, you’ve met them. I was the youngest one there. I think Rory’s a little younger than you, but everyone else is a lot older than me.”

“Jill’s only twenty-six.”

“And, apparently, has a job she loves and a cool new apartment she was bragging about tonight. If I had anything to brag about, it was my jackpot win and the Tootsie Rolls in my purse.”

“You don’t need to brag about anything. They’re my friends. They just want to get to know you.”

“You mean Monica Arnette, the heir to the Arnette fortune, who is at least twice my age because she has a son who’s younger than me, I think, and is still somehow ahead of me in school?”

“Care, it’s not like that.”

“None of this is your fault, okay?” Caroline said. “I’m just in a weird mood right now. I felt like I couldn’t touch you or be on a date with you because I didn’t want to make Jill feel bad, and everyone was talking about their upcoming weddings or movies being made about their lives, and I was just sitting there, wondering why you’d want me.”

“Care…” Enid said as she took Caroline’s hand. “I do want you.”

“Jill is basically a Barbie doll in human form. Well, with realistic proportions, at least, but she’s cool. Enid, she’s, like, really cool. I wanted to hate her, but I can’t because she’s so nice. Why would–”

“I don’t like Jill, okay? Not like that.”

Caroline turned to look out the passenger’s side window and said, “Can you drop me off here?”

“You don’t want me to walk you up?”

“Not tonight. I kind of want to wallow for an hour or something and fall asleep.”

“Caroline, talk to me.”

“I will. Just not right now.” She leaned over and kissed Enid on the cheek, which was not where she expected to be kissing her tonight. “I’m sorry. I meant what I said: none of this is your fault. It’s all me. And not in that ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ kind of way, I promise. Will you text me when you get home so that I know you’re okay?”

“Yeah, sure. If that’s what you want, I’ll text you.”

“Thank you,” Caroline said before she opened the door, climbed out of the car, and closed the door behind her.