Page 9 of June (New Orleans #6)

E nid got home with enough time to shower and change for her date, and she was currently wiping off the bathroom mirror from the fog from her earlier shower to be able to see herself better. She’d put on a pair of her nice jeans that she wore on the nights she went out and a green off-the-shoulder shirt that brought out the same color in her hazel eyes, but that only made her think of Caroline’s green eyes she’d seen earlier that day and not Jill’s blue ones, which she should be thinking about since they were about to go out on a date.

“Hey, I need the bathroom. Can you stop doing whatever strange thing you’re doing in there?” EJ said through the closed door.

“I’m staring at my naked body, thinking about what I’m going to do with it later,” she replied, laughing silently.

“Gross. God, why are you so weird?” he asked. “No one wants to know that, but definitely not me, Enid. How do you even get dates?”

She yanked open the door, and he yelped and covered his eyes, expecting to see her naked. She laughed wildly and walked right past him. Having a little brother to torment was fun sometimes.

“What if I get dates precisely because of how weird I am? Ever think about that? Sure you don’t want any pointers?” Enid laughed until she closed her bedroom door behind her.

There, she grabbed her purse, which had a strap on it because she hated carrying clutches around the city, having almost left them in several bars over the years, and made sure that she put her phone and wallet inside. She dropped some ChapStick and her house and car keys in there, too, and on her way out, she checked herself one more time in the small mirror that was on top of her dresser and then left the room. When she got into the hallway, her phone buzzed. Expecting it to be Jill, she pulled it out of her purse, preparing to tell her that she was on her way, but when she saw the name on the screen, it wasn’t Jill’s.

Caroline Timothy : So, Miranda apologized for not asking about you earlier. She said that she was having a bad day because I put Cup O’ Noodles in there and then pressed the wrong time accidentally, so everything kind of boiled over, and she doesn’t like the mess.

Enid laughed and stared at the message for a minute, feeling like she shouldn’t reply right away. She was going on a date with someone else. Yes, she and Caroline were maybe friends now, but she had been thinking about Caroline a lot more than she’d been thinking about Jill, so it felt wrong to be returning the message when she was on her way to pick up another woman.

“Have a good night, honey,” her mom said on her way out the door.

“Thanks, Mom,” she replied.

The drive to Jill’s took about twenty minutes, and the whole way there, Enid kept thinking about Caroline’s text just sitting there on her phone, waiting for some kind of response. She was pretty sure what they had been doing could be considered flirting, but they hadn’t exactly overtly admitted to that, so she wasn’t sure if Caroline was trying to be the brave one here, sending the first message, or if the whole Miranda thing was meant to be an in for Enid to continue their flirtatious banter.

When she parked her car, she pulled out her phone and stared at the message again. Deciding that replying wouldn’t hurt anything and it would help get Caroline off her mind for the night so that she could focus on her date, she typed a response and hit send. Then, knowing that her first text was a ridiculous one to send to someone, she quickly typed and sent another message to try to make up for the silly one.

Enid Becker : Tell Miranda that I appreciate the apology and that I forgive her.

Enid Becker : Also, hi.

Somehow, when she looked at her messages together now, her second one looked even more ridiculous than the first one had been just on its own, or they were at least tied for the most ridiculous. Enid sighed, wishing that she could have taken them back, but it was too late now, so she shoved her phone into her purse and headed toward Jill’s apartment, trying to refocus on the fact that she was about to be on a date with someone who was not possibly flirting with her via mentions of cartoon furniture.

“Hi,” Jill said with a wide smile on her face after she opened her apartment door.

“Hey,” Enid said, smiling back at her.

Jill was wearing a pair of skinny jeans with black ballet flats and a sleeveless turtleneck, also in black. She had makeup on, but it was light and appeared mostly natural. Her hair was pulled back into a high pony, and she looked beautiful. Not only that. Jill looked hot. She also looked like she’d put time into getting ready for their date, which meant that she cared, and that made Enid feel even worse about forgetting about their date being tonight.

“Do you want to come in?” Jill asked.

“Sure. We have a few minutes,” Enid replied.

“We’re on a schedule I don’t know about?”

“I made a reservation. It’s not to a fancy place or anything, but I didn’t want us to have to sit around and wait for dinner all night.”

“You made a reservation? That was thoughtful,” Jill said as she ushered Enid in. “And I thoughtfully picked up my dirty clothes and actually did dishes today so that you wouldn’t see how my mess of an apartment usually looks.”

Enid laughed and walked inside, taking a look around at the pretty decent one-bedroom place that Jill had described a little to her over text.

“It’s nice,” she said.

Jill’s apartment was in an old building, so the walls were made of solid brick, which actually gave the place some real character. The living room and dining room were both open, but the kitchen was one of those tunnel-style ones, and it only looked big enough for one person to be in there comfortably.

“I moved in about a month ago,” Jill shared. “My old lease was up, and I didn’t want to renew. Melinda technically still has the old apartment above NOLA Guides, but she and Kyle have had a lot of sex there, so even though she offered it to me, I turned her down.”

Enid laughed again. Jill was funny. She also seemed light somehow, like she didn’t have a care in the world, and Enid decided that she needed someone like that in her life because she’d been feeling like she had the weight of the world on her shoulders for the past two years now, maybe even longer.

“Do you want the tour?” Jill asked.

“Sure,” she replied.

“This whole area is open, which I really liked when I saw the place.” Jill motioned to the living room and dining area. “There’s really only just the kitchen, which is moderately clean but very small, and the bathroom and bedroom.”

Enid didn’t know if she should ask to see the bedroom because that could come out wrong, so she just nodded. Jill tilted her head as if reading her.

“Do you want to see the bedroom?”

“Sure,” she repeated. “But not in a… not like…”

Jill laughed and said, “It’s just a room, Enid.” She then took Enid’s hand and pulled her about ten feet across the living room toward a half-open door. “My room.”

She pushed the door open the rest of the way, and they stood in the doorway. Enid looked inside and thought it was fairly standard as far as rooms went. Jill had a queen bed with white bedding that looked fluffy and comfortable. The tables and dresser matched in a dark wood, and she had a modest TV sitting on top of the dresser.

“Bathroom is through there, but it’s just a bathroom,” Jill added, nodding to a closed door next to what Enid now assumed was the closet.

“Nice,” she said.

“It works for me,” Jill replied.

She had dropped Enid’s hand when she’d pushed the door open, but then she took it again, and they walked back toward the front door. Jill let go of her when she went to grab her purse and then looked at Enid.

“Ready?”

“Yeah,” Enid replied.

They left the apartment and made their way to Enid’s car. Jill hopped inside without preamble, and Enid got in the driver’s seat. She joined traffic and turned the radio down a bit so that they could talk without yelling at each other.

“So, how was school? You had class today, right? Rory said she bumped into you on campus.”

“Yeah, I had a class. No big deal. It was boring.”

“Aren’t most classes?”

“Pretty much,” she replied.

“Do you have to go to grad school to do what you want to do? It didn’t sound like it the other night when we were talking at the bar.”

“I don’t have to, but MBAs get better jobs usually, or they get paid better, at least. I got that good job out of undergrad, so I thought I was fine and didn’t need the advanced degree. I hadn’t exactly planned to be back here so soon.”

“I wonder if I should go back to school sometimes. I mean, I’m a twenty-six-year-old tour guide. It’s not what my parents dreamed for me, you know?”

“What else would you like to do?”

“Nothing. I like what I am doing. It’s just that it barely pays the bills most of the time. When I wanted a new apartment, I had to save up for the security deposit. I get benefits because I’m full-time, but they’re not that great, and I don’t exactly have a 401(k), either.”

“But you like what you do? That’s got to count.”

“It does, but it’s not exactly reliable. I’m paid hourly, but not much because I make tips. Tips are good on some tours, and on others, I get hardly anything. At least one tour a week, there are no tips at all, and I put a lot of work into my tours.”

“What do you mean?”

“There are the scripts and the locations we have to visit, but I do extra research. I try to add on to the tours however I can. Sometimes, it’s researching the history of a location; it’s telling a story of a ghost with dramatic flair. Other times, it’s taking them a little out of the way to show them something not included in the tour. I do a lot of that research off the clock, so when I don’t even get a single tip, it kind of sucks. Some weeks, mostly during the summer, the money’s good. When the off-season hits, the tours aren’t as packed, and the tips dry up a bit, so there’s a seasonal element to it, too.”

“If you get promoted to manager, would that help?”

“Sort of,” Jill said. “I would be paid more because it’s a salary position, and the benefits would be a little better, but I’d miss out on at least some of the tips, so it might still be the same amount of money or maybe even less than what I make in some months now. It’s more regular, though, so it would at least be a consistent paycheck.”

“Well, that’s better than what I have right now,” Enid noted as she turned right.

“Why don’t you come work with us, Enid? Your best friend works there, and so do I. Mel is cool. She’s a great boss. Plus, you know her already. It could be fun.”

“I don’t know. I don’t think I’d be interested enough in it to put in all the work you do for it.”

“I can tell you some of my secrets,” Jill offered.

“Oh, yeah?” Enid chuckled.

“Well, yeah. You’re buying me dinner tonight. It’s the least I could do.”

When they arrived at the packed restaurant, they only had to wait a couple of minutes for their table. Enid hoped Jill didn’t mind that it was a chain place with jalapeno poppers and that there wasn’t much New Orleans about it, but even if Jill did mind, she didn’t say anything to her, so Enid just picked up the menu when the hostess walked away and tried to find the least expensive thing on the menu for herself. Finding a salad and feeling like that could work, she looked across the table at Jill, who was still looking down at her own menu. Enid smiled.

“Are you staring at me?” Jill asked.

“Maybe a little,” she said.

Jill looked up and replied, “Just checking.”

Then, she winked at her, and in that moment, Enid felt awful. She was on a date with this beautiful woman who was funny and had just flirtatiously winked at her, but Enid was thinking about green eyes instead of blue. Not knowing what to do about it, she made conversation until they ordered, and they just continued chatting until they were finished with their food. Jill told her about the tours she regularly gave and shared a few funny stories. Enid talked to her about school and her ex-girlfriends. They laughed about them and decided against dessert. Enid paid the check, and about an hour after the date had started, it was over because she hadn’t planned another activity. Maybe she should have done so, but Jill didn’t say anything when they got in the car, so Enid drove them back to Jill’s place.

“So, do you want to come in?” Jill asked her when they got to her front door.

Her hands moved to Enid’s belt loops, and her fingers slid through them, pulling Enid a bit until she was just inches away from her.

That was why Jill hadn’t said anything. She thought they were going back to her place to continue the date.

“We can watch a movie or something,” Jill added. “It’s still early. I think I have wine somewhere, but if I don’t, I do know I have coffee. I always have coffee.”

“You think you have wine?”

“Yeah. Monica is into wine, and when I told her that I knew nothing about it, she started buying me bottles randomly and trying to teach me things. I should have at least one good bottle in there that we could open.”

Enid looked down at where Jill’s hands were now, on her hips. She was gently pushing and then pulling back as if she didn’t know what to do, but she wanted to be touching Enid somehow. Enid met her eyes and smiled at her.

“Maybe I should just kiss you goodnight and call you later,” she suggested.

Jill squinted her eyes at her and asked, “You don’t want to come in? I cleaned my apartment, Enid.”

Enid laughed because Jill was being playful now, and she liked it. It helped ease a little bit of her tension, and it was definitely needed right about now because it had been a while since another woman had had her hands on Enid’s hips like this, so it was doing things to her.

“I know. I saw. I’m a witness to anyone who claims you never clean it.”

“But you don’t want to come in and enjoy it?”

“Oh, part of me definitely wants to come in and enjoy it,” she admitted because it was true.

Jill was so pretty, and Enid liked hanging out with her. She was also horny, so she knew that if they went inside and things started up, she’d have no problem finishing them, but something felt off about them doing this on their first date.

“Are you trying to be noble or something right now?” Jill asked.

Enid nodded and leaned in. She pressed her lips lightly to Jill’s and pulled back before it could go any further. That felt right for the night, and she hoped it would be okay with Jill as well.

“I’ll call you,” she told her when she took in Jill’s slightly annoyed expression.

“You better, because that was a weak kiss, Becker.” Jill lifted an eyebrow that had Enid rethinking the whole nobility thing.

She laughed and said, “I’m being chivalrous.”

“Chivalrous means taking care of a lady.” Jill smiled at her and let go of Enid’s hips. “I get it, though. Another time, maybe.”

“Good night,” Enid said.

She turned to go with a smile on her face, but when she got back into her car, she thought about that kiss. It had been chaste, and she could have really kissed Jill. Why hadn’t she? Jill clearly wanted her to come in, and even if sex hadn’t been on the table, a hot make-out session had been, at least. Enid knew why she hadn’t gone inside. She knew why she had only given Jill that weak kiss. She pulled out her phone to check her messages, and finding one from Caroline, she lit up at the sight of the simple reply.

Caroline Timothy : Hi back. ;)

That winky face at the end of Caroline’s message had her smiling wider than she had all night on her date with another beautiful woman. Enid didn’t know what to do, so she put her phone away and drove home.