Page 34 of June (New Orleans #6)

“Y ou mean it?” Caroline asked.

They were lying on their sides now, facing one another. Gone was the toy and the tie. They were blissfully naked, and Caroline’s hand was stroking Enid’s cheek, needing her to confirm what she’d said only a few minutes ago.

“Yeah, I mean it. I’m actually going to look for an apartment tomorrow. That list of availabilities you showed me – I’m checking out a couple of them. There’s a one-bedroom I’m really interested in.”

Enid pulled Caroline in a little closer.

“But the job…”

“The interview went well. Sylvie and her colleagues all seemed to really like me, and I liked them. The pay they were offering was good, not great, but there were ways to work my way up to great potentially.”

“All of that sounds good, Enid,” she replied. “You can’t just stay for me.”

“I’m not.” Enid shook her head. “Don’t get me wrong; I thought about it. But I know I can’t put that kind of pressure on us. This is too new for that.”

“Then, why aren’t you moving to Jacksonville?”

“Well, for starters, I’ve never wanted to live in Jacksonville. I thought I could do it if I really wanted the job, but the job was only okay. The interview was good, but I mainly did that because Sylvie went out on a limb for me, so I didn’t want to let her down. Besides, if they ever decide to offer roles remotely and I interviewed well, they could think of me in the future. Then, there’s the fact that I’m actually starting to like grad school.” Enid chuckled. “That one meeting with my group really made a difference. They all kind of looked to me to be the one making the decisions, and I liked sitting around the table with them bouncing ideas off one another. There’s pressure because we have a massive project ahead of us, and we need to do well to graduate, but it’s not a real job kind of pressure, so it’s a practice run, and I think I could use that. I could learn a lot, too, and it’ll help me narrow down exactly what I want to do. I’m pretty sure it’s finance, but there are a lot of nuanced roles in finance, and this will help me figure out which one I want. If I left, I’d be doing this all online, and it would take another year. I would have to take more classes next year just to get ready for this whole capstone practice business building thing again with a different group, and that sounded exhausting.” Enid kissed the inside of Caroline’s palm, which was still on her cheek. “I talked to my parents about getting an apartment today and crunched some numbers based on my paycheck with NOLA Guides, and I think I just need them to take care of the first month and security deposit. They said they would, and I’ve already worked out interest terms for a loan with them.”

“You did interest?” Caroline laughed. “You are such a nerd.”

“I know,” Enid replied. “Not all of us can be the sexy, creative type.”

“You’re a sexy nerd, though,” Caroline said, slipping a thigh between Enid’s.

“Thanks.”

“So, you’ll be moving into your own place, staying in school, and working with Melinda and Jill?”

“Melinda offered me an opportunity that I didn’t really take seriously the other day, but I’ve been thinking about it a lot.”

“The extra hours?”

“No, it’s more than that,” Enid explained. “She wants to open another office. Jill would run the one in the Quarter, and she wants to see if I can get trained up to run the other one. Mel would oversee the whole thing, but I like the back-office, day-to-day stuff, and she just kind of tolerates it because it gives her the chance to do what she really loves – showing people around the city.”

“You’d run NOLA Guides?”

“One of them,” Enid said. “Mel told me if I work this year and everything goes well, that would give her time to find the new location and lease it. I could then manage it, and it’s possible that that would be it: I just manage it for a while and find something else. But if she opens a few more spots around the city, she would need someone to run a couple of them. Jill likes doing the tours, too, so I don’t think she would want to be that in the weeds on the business side. It might be me.”

“So, you went from having zero opportunities to having two in the same week?”

“I know. Crazy. But they’re both opportunities. One of them is here and will work around my class schedule.” Enid moved her center a little against Caroline’s thigh. “The other is far away and would require me to move, which would mean I couldn’t have this.” She moved her hips. “And I really, really like this.”

“So do I,” Caroline said as she pressed her thigh into Enid.

“I tried not to consider you, Care. I knew the right thing was to make the decision based on everything but you, but I couldn’t. You’re just there in my mind and my heart. I was sitting at my desk, smiling for the people on the other end of that video interview, but my smile was fake because I couldn’t stop thinking about what would happen if I got the job and left. I know what I want.”

“What’s that?” Caroline asked as she continued to move her hips along with Enid’s.

“I want to be here with you. I want to finish school at the top of my class if I can. I want to work with Mel and Jill.” Enid moaned.

Caroline kept up her pace and said, “Want to hear what I want?”

“Yes,” Enid replied, closing her eyes.

“I want to be here with you. I won’t get anywhere close to the top of my class, but I do want to graduate. I think I’m going to declare a business major in something like…” She grunted and rocked her own sex into Enid’s thigh. “Administration, because I want to maybe do something with my art, and I need to know how to handle the business stuff.”

“I can help with that,” Enid offered.

Caroline rolled them over, flipping Enid onto her back, and continued rocking into her, loving the feel of her own sex on Enid’s thigh as she pressed down.

“Yes, you can. But I still need to graduate,” she replied.

“Fuck! Don’t stop,” Enid said.

Caroline watched as Enid’s head went back and added, “I want to work with the street artists.” Her breathing was getting too fast, making it hard to keep this up and talk at the same time. “God, Enid. I want these stupid characters to be seen by people.”

“Yes!”

Caroline wasn’t sure if Enid was responding to her or what she was doing to her.

“I want… to have my… apartment with Jodie… and you’re there… a lot.”

“I’ll have… a one-bedroom,” Enid managed.

Caroline chuckled against Enid’s neck and said, “Yes, there, too.”

Then, Enid’s hips lifted and dropped, and she started coming. Caroline rocked her through her orgasm while Enid gripped her ass. She tried to make herself come on Enid’s thigh, but she had been talking too much before to focus on her own pleasure. When Enid was nearly all the way down, though, Caroline felt fingers slip between her thighs. Enid was inside her now, and her palm pressed to Caroline’s clit. Caroline rode Enid’s hand, letting her orgasm crash over her before she dropped down on top of Enid.

“Want to come apartment-hunting with me tomorrow?” Enid asked not all that much later as her fingers drew lazy shapes over Caroline’s back.

“You want me to?”

“I kind of want you to like the place,” Enid said.

Caroline looked down at her and replied, “Yeah? It’s important to you that I like your apartment?”

“Well, I do plan on signing a one-year lease right around the same time you’re doing that with Jodie, so if things work out, we’ll both need to sign another in about a year. If you like my place, maybe we make it our place by then. If not, we could find a new place together.”

“Thinking a whole year ahead?”

“I usually think five years ahead. It can be a problem.”

“I usually think about five minutes ahead, but what you said sounds really nice, Enid.”

“Not too much?”

“I mean, yeah, but it’s whatever.” Caroline pretended to play off how much it meant to her that Enid was thinking about a year from now.

“Oh, so it’s just whatever ?” Enid rolled them over and began tickling Caroline’s sides.

“Stop! That tickles!” She laughed until Enid slowed and stopped completely, straddling her hips and staring down at her with something like adoration in her eyes.

Caroline hadn’t ever had anyone look at her how Enid always did, and she hoped she always would.

“Want to maybe pop that champagne and eat some of those cookies I brought?”

“Yes. Then, we hot-tub,” Caroline replied. “My guess is your new apartment will not have a hot tub for us.”

“It will barely have parking for your car when you stay over,” Enid said.

◆◆◆

“So, how was it?” Jodie asked.

“How was what?”

“The hotel room. You two had a whole night alone in a fancy room. A suite, right?”

“It was great,” Caroline replied as they sat down at the table. “I can’t believe she did that for me, but it was perfect. There was a hot tub, champagne, and a view. I got–”

“Laid?” Jodie interrupted.

Caroline laughed and said, “I was going to say that I got to wake up to her, and I want that.”

“You’re not going to, like, move in with her right away, are you? We have an apartment lined up, Care.”

“What? No. We’re not that crazy. She’s getting her own place, too. I’m checking it out with her after lunch. It’s a one-bedroom, though, so we’ll probably spend a lot of time there. Is that okay? I know you wanted to get our place together, and it’s not like I’ll be at Enid’s every single night, but that’ll give you and Viv some space as well.”

“As long as we don’t lose our friendship. That’s my only rule,” Jodie replied.

Caroline nodded just as Viv arrived, carrying a tray of drinks.

“This is heavy. Can you take yours, babe?”

“Babe? You’re at babe already?” Caroline teased.

“Shut up,” Jodie said while laughing.

She took two of the drinks off the red tray and placed them on the table, enabling Viv to sit down next to her with the rest of them. Caroline removed her own drink and Enid’s while Viv took Jill’s and Rory’s off and set them aside.

“So, did you have a good birthday?” Viv asked.

“I did, yes. Thank you for my surprise.”

“You being with Enid gave us time to be together, so it worked out,” Viv said and smiled over at Jodie. “Did you tell her?”

“Tell me what?” Caroline asked.

“We’re together. We’ve decided to stop pretending like we’re just dating and that there could be other people. We don’t want that, so we’re together,” Jodie explained. “This is my girlfriend, Viv. Viv, this is my best friend, Care.” She motioned with an open palm between them.

“That’s great, guys,” Caroline replied.

“It is, yeah,” Viv said with a soft smile as Jodie placed an arm over the back of her chair.

“Hey,” Enid said. “We got the food.”

“Great. I’m starving,” Caroline replied.

Enid and Jill both carried full trays, and Rory walked behind them, holding a couple of sandwiches wrapped up. They were probably for her and Logan for later or something. Enid sat down next to Caroline, and Jill sat on Caroline’s other side. Rory sat next to Viv.

“You probably need to replace all those calories you lost last night, huh?” Jodie joked.

“So, you and Viv didn’t have sex all night in our room?” Caroline teased back.

“No, we did,” Viv said it in such a way that it sounded like she really thought Caroline was asking the question.

That caused everyone to burst out laughing.

“I got you the spicy mustard,” Enid said, dropping a few packets down by Caroline’s sandwich and fries.

“Thank you,” she replied, not even knowing how Enid had known that Caroline liked spicy mustard on some of the Po-Boys served at Henry’s place.

“Where’s Logan?” Jill asked Rory. “I thought she was joining us.”

“She got held up.” Rory looked over at Enid, who gave her a smile. “I’ll bring her this later.” She held up one of the sandwiches wrapped in aluminum foil.

“Everything okay?” Caroline asked Enid softly.

“Yeah. Rory just told me something about Logan while we were waiting for the food.”

Caroline looked at her expectantly.

“Can’t say. It’s a best-friend thing. Is that okay?”

Caroline leaned in and gave her a quick kiss. Then, she turned to Jill, who was dipping a fry in ketchup.

“Hey, thank you.”

“What for?” Jill asked before she ate her fry.

“The hotel room. I know you asked for something special for us.”

“Oh, that? That’s nothing. Mel and I can get deals pretty much anywhere around here.”

“But you didn’t have to do it for Enid and me. Given how things started with… well, the three of us, kind of, you didn’t have to.”

Jill nodded and replied, “Enid was right: she and I are better off as friends. And I like it when my friends are happy. Maybe I’ll call you my friend, too, and not just my friend’s girlfriend.”

“Yeah, I hope so,” Caroline said.

“Does that mean you’ll loan me your girlfriend every now and then so that she and I can hang out?”

Caroline laughed and replied, “No problem.”

“Good.” Jill smiled at her.

They all ate their lunch together, and when Rory and Jill needed to go back to work, Enid and Caroline walked them there while Jodie and Viv headed off to have a day in the city.

“We’ve got some time before the apartment appointment. Want to check out the art on the Square again?” Enid asked as they walked hand in hand. “It’s basically like your own version of a career fair now.”

Caroline really hadn’t thought of it that way, but Enid was kind of right, and for the first time ever, Caroline could see her future. She would finish school, and if they were still together, which she hoped they were, they’d have a place of their own. Enid would be rocking whatever job she ended up choosing, and Caroline would have her art displayed on the Square or somewhere else in New Orleans. They’d have lunch together some days and dinner together most nights. They’d go out with their friends, and maybe Caroline would even have a better relationship with her parents by then. She had never been able to see beyond the next few days or weeks before, but now, she knew what she wanted, and she turned to Enid and gave her a smile.

“Let’s check it out. Then, I’ll buy you some beignets,” she said.