Page 7 of June (New Orleans #6)

E nid hadn’t gotten her contact information. Sure, she now knew where Caroline lived, so technically, she could go to her dorm, but that seemed like bordering on stalking. She also hadn’t caught the room number, only that she’d turned right on the second floor, and she wasn’t sure if it was two or three doors down. Maybe it had even been four. Enid had been a bit distracted watching Caroline’s hair kind of sway as she moved. Caroline was talented. Enid had been able to tell that from the sketchbook she had looked through on the quad, but those drawings had been of everyday things. The ones she’d seen in the sketchbook from Caroline’s road trip had been much more detailed. In fact, the images of Brooke had made Enid a little jealous, which made no sense.

Caroline had captured the woman well, though. If Enid had to guess, Brooke was maybe her own age or older. She could have been twenty-eight or twenty-nine, even, and her body – or, at least, how Caroline had depicted it – was pretty perfect. She either worked out or was just naturally fit, but possibly both because she definitely had some muscle definition. The second drawing Enid had seen of her hadn’t necessarily been of Brooke but more of a part of her. Caroline had drawn a close-up of Brooke’s sex, with legs spread but not visible. The attention was on Brooke’s folds and fingers, which hovered just above them and almost out of the drawing, as if Caroline had run out of space to draw them.

Yes, she was very talented. That was certain. But Caroline was also cute and funny, so Enid wanted to run into her again, and maybe they could hang out. She had no friends on campus, with Rory not being there in the summer, so it would be nice to have someone to talk to between classes or maybe to study with in the library or on the quad when it wasn’t too hot or muggy. With that in mind, Enid was now sitting at the same table today, hoping that she was visible enough in the middle of the most popular part of campus that if Caroline did walk by, she would see her.

She’d been trying to study but had so far been unsuccessful because focusing on her book was difficult when she was also trying to keep her eyes peeled for Caroline. Maybe she should really just stop by the second floor of Caroline’s building and walk down the hall. Odds were, her door would be open if Caroline was in her room, and if Enid didn’t see her today, she could try again another time and just make it out like it wasn’t a big thing. No, that would for sure be more like stalking. She promptly talked herself out of it and looked back down at her book, deciding that she was already spending most of her time on campus because it was usually better than being at home, so she’d run into Caroline eventually.

“Hey.”

Enid looked up and saw Rory standing there with her girlfriend.

“Hey. What are you doing here?”

“I had to pick up some stuff for next semester,” Rory replied. “The textbook I need is in stock, and I didn’t want to have to deal with the crowds in the fall. I couldn’t find it online.”

“She’s just a nerd and wants to get a head start,” Logan teased.

“That too,” Rory confirmed. “Want to grab lunch?”

“Uh…” Enid looked around. “I already ate. But you can hang out with me for a few before my next class if you want.”

“Are you starving?” Rory asked Logan.

“No, I’m okay. I’ll just need to get home by three to shower and change for work.”

“I have a vested interest in you showering,” Rory said.

They sat down at the table, and Rory gave Logan those heart eyes again.

“So, Enid, how’s school?” Logan blessedly changed the subject.

“It’s fine. I’m learning a lot. It’s just also boring.”

“Because you don’t want to keep learning. You want to start doing,” Rory said.

“I guess I want to learn while I do, yeah, not to be done learning. I’m just ready to get to work. In this summer session, they have us starting on my capstone project.”

“What’s that?” Logan asked.

“We have to form a group and create our own business from scratch. I got stuck with three people who really don’t seem to want to put in the work, which sucks.”

“You can’t change groups?”

“I tried. The professor said that this was business: you sometimes have to work with people you don’t want to work with. This capstone project is a huge deal, though. It continues throughout the rest of the program, and if we suck at it, my grade suffers.”

“Can I help?” Rory asked.

This woman really was a saint. She was also newly in love and had two jobs already, with kind of a third one, too, where she helped Candace at the bar. When school started back up in the fall, she would hardly have any time left over for Enid. She’d want to spend whatever time she did have with Logan. Enid was definitely envious, though. She hated that she felt it, but it was there. Logan had her hand on the back of Rory’s neck, and she was massaging it for her. Enid didn’t have anyone to massage her neck, and it hurt because she was constantly looking down at a laptop or bulky textbooks. Then, she thought of Caroline and how it had felt to sit in her room, with Caroline looking over her shoulder. Enid had tried to hide how she had breathed her in. Caroline had smelled a little of mint, which might have been from a piece of gum or possibly her shampoo.

“No, but thanks,” Enid replied, returning her thoughts to the present.

“So, I heard from a little birdie at work that someone has a date,” Rory said.

“Oh, shit!”

“What?” Rory asked.

“I have a date with Jill tonight.”

“Yes, you do. Did you forget?”

Yes, Enid had forgotten. How had she forgotten that she had a date with Jill when she’d been the one to ask her out? How had she been so focused on seeing Caroline again that she had forgotten about the other beautiful woman who had actually said yes to a date with her?

“No,” she lied. “I just kind of lost track of the fact that it was today. I’ve been busy. She told you about it?”

“She texted me,” Rory said. “She seems excited, I think. I didn’t know you were into her.”

“We got to talking at the bar after you and Logan left. She’s nice. I haven’t spent all that much time with her, but I asked her out, and she said yes.”

“Want me to come over and help you pick out something to wear?”

“God, no. My parents would know I have a date then,” Enid said. “Besides, it’s casual. We’re just grabbing dinner.”

“Did you make a reservation?”

“No. Was I supposed to?” she asked.

“It’s New Orleans in the summer. Unless you’re going outside of the city or, at least, somewhat away from the tourists, it’s probably going to be packed wherever you end up.”

“Yeah, okay. I can make one now, I guess.”

A phone rang, and Logan pulled hers out of her pocket.

“It’s my mom. Give me a minute,” she said and kissed Rory on the cheek before she stood up and walked away a little bit.

“I thought you said she didn’t talk to her family,” Enid noted as she pulled out her own phone to make a dinner reservation for the date with Jill that she’d forgotten about.

“She didn’t,” Rory replied. “They’re sort of reconnecting now. It’s a good thing.”

“Oh, cool.”

“She’s going to go back to school, too.”

“Who is?”

“Logan,” Rory replied. “She has these certifications that she needs to get again and some new ones that she wants as well, so she reached out to a friend of hers who runs a trade school. She can go back there, and he said he would let her go for free, which is great. Because she’s already done it before, she just has to get some hours and take some tests, I think. I don’t know for sure. She explained it to me earlier, but she was naked in her kitchen, so I wasn’t really paying attention.”

Enid laughed and asked, “Have you talked to her about that thing yet?”

“No.” Rory leaned over the table. “It’s not a big deal.”

“Up to you. But If you want it, you should tell her.”

“I don’t know that I do. I like what we’re doing already. I think I might like that, too, but I know… she used it… before.”

“Yeah, we talked about that.”

“No, I mean…” Rory looked over to check that Logan was still facing away from them.

“Logan had a thing where she kind of used sex to deal with stuff, and that thing was part of her process sometimes.”

“Oh,” Enid said. “So, you don’t know if she’d want to do that with you because of it?”

“I guess. I don’t know.”

“You should talk to her, Rory,” Enid suggested. “She’s your girlfriend. She loves you. You need to be able to talk to her about this stuff.”

“We both have a lot going on right now. She has a ton going on.”

“She works at the bar. That’s all I really know about. What else is she doing? She’s not in this school thing yet.”

Rory was clearly holding something back, which worried Enid, but she didn’t want to pressure her to say anything with Logan standing about twenty feet away from the table.

“I need to ask her if I can talk to you about it, okay?”

“Are you okay? Is she?”

“It’s fine,” Rory told her. “I promise. Everything’s fine. Logan is so good to me. I’m crazy about her, okay?”

“Sorry. She just wanted to see if I was free to talk tonight,” Logan said as she sat back down.

“Why tonight?” Rory asked.

“I don’t know that there’s a specific reason. I just got the idea that my dad would be out tonight. He probably has a bowling night or something. I told her I was working but that I could call her on my break.”

“That’s great,” Rory said and put her hand on Logan’s thigh.

“It’s progress,” Logan replied. “So, are we still talking about Jill?”

“Yes,” Rory replied quickly. “Enid is making a reservation.”

“Oh, yeah,” Enid said and returned her attention to her phone. “What does Jill like?”

“You could always text her and ask,” Logan suggested.

“Now, where’s the fun in that?” Enid joked. “Is she a vegetarian or anything?”

“No,” Rory said. “I’ve seen her eat meat and seafood, too.”

“Okay. I can’t afford a fancy place. I barely have enough money to put gas in my car until I get a job somewhere,” Enid shared. “Think she’ll mind if we go somewhere kind of middle-of-the-road tonight?”

“She’s not a fancy person, Enid,” Rory said. “She lives off of Po-Boys, mostly.”

“And food from the bar,” Logan added. “I’ve seen her put away a burger.”

“Okay. Maybe burgers, then,” Enid said as she searched on her phone.

“Why don’t you sound excited?” Rory asked.

“I’m excited,” she said, hoping it sounded convincing.

She had been excited. Enid had thought a little about Jill yesterday while she’d been sitting at the booth, waiting for anyone to express interest. Jill was beautiful and funny. She was also friends with Rory, and Rory was a good judge when it came to people. If Rory was excited that Enid was going out with Jill, Enid knew she should be, too. Instead, she was busy thinking about Frank the Fridge and how jealous Tim the TV must be of Larry the Laptop because Caroline watched her movies on that and not on Tim. It was silly and cute, and Enid had gone to sleep thinking about Caroline’s laugh and not Jill’s.

“Are you okay?” Rory asked.

“I’m fine. I just need to make a reservation, apparently, and I wasn’t planning on doing that. I thought I would pick her up, and we’d find a place together.”

“Don’t you want her to think you put a little thought into it?”

“Babe…” Logan spoke up then. “Everyone’s different. Maybe Enid is a little less on the planning side and was being spontaneous.”

“Yeah, I wanted to be spontaneous,” she lied.

“Well, if that’s what you want… It’s your date,” Rory said. “Do you want to go?” she asked Logan.

“I’m ready when you are,” Logan replied.

“Text me later. Tell me how it went,” Rory said to Enid.

“Okay,” she agreed.

Rory and Logan stood, and Enid watched them walk off hand in hand, with Logan carrying a bag from the campus bookstore that likely had Rory’s book in it. Enid closed her own book, leaned back, and sighed. Rory was right, though. If she wanted to actually eat dinner tonight, she needed to find a place that had reservations because most places would be packed, and she didn’t want to have to awkwardly sit or, more likely, stand in the lobby of some restaurant with loud music on her first date with Jill. She found one place that she thought would be okay and made a reservation for seven-thirty. She was supposed to pick Jill up at seven. That would give them time to do the whole awkward thing at the front door, for Jill to maybe give her the tour of her place, and then, for them to drive to the restaurant.

Enid opened her banking app and checked her balance. She had enough money for the dinner and gas for the next few weeks, but she really needed to find a job. Her parents would loan her money – well, they’d give it to her, really – and she’d pay them back whether they wanted her to or not, but she didn’t want to ask. She needed to get out of this damn rut.

Pulling up the app she had recently downloaded for her job search, she scrolled through listings and thought that maybe she should try to ask Melinda for a job, but in the office or something, not as a tour guide. Maybe Mel needed help with the books. Enid could do that easily, and it would just be a few hours a week. She could do the payroll for her, but that might be awkward because she’d know what Jill makes, and maybe Jill wouldn’t want her to know that if they were dating. She sighed again and continued scrolling. Could Logan teach her how to bartend? Candace’s place was hardly a mixologist’s paradise. Logan mostly poured beer and shots. Enid could learn how to do that and work there a few shifts a week. That could help. She hated having to rely on others to help her, though, so she leaned forward, and with more determination, she opened a few listings to see if there was a match.

“Hi.”

Enid heard the familiar voice and looked up to see Caroline standing there, smiling down at her. Enid locked her phone and smiled back, happy that her ridiculous plan of sitting out here at the same table had worked.

“Hey,” she said.

“Can I maybe join you?” Caroline asked.

“Yeah, of course,” Enid replied and motioned for her to sit in the chair next to her.

“I’m glad you’re here,” Caroline said as she put her bag on the chair Rory had been sitting in minutes earlier.

“You are ?”

“Yeah. I was kind of mad at myself yesterday because I didn’t–”

“Get my info?” Enid interjected for some reason and smiled wide.

She probably looked as nervous as she felt, which was odd because she shouldn’t be nervous, but when Caroline nodded, at least some of Enid’s nerves dissipated.