Page 18 of September (New Orleans #9)

Gwen’s eyes focused on something then, and it couldn’t have been the glop of cheese and chili because that was on the floor, along with the shirt, so Juliet looked down in confusion and couldn’t believe she’d done it again.

“Um… No reason, but is it cold there?” Gwen asked.

“Yes,” she said, laughing. “I just threw this on. Sorry; I keep making you look at my nipples. I really don’t plan these things. Is this considered sexual harassment? I’m not sure what the rules are for people in your profession. Am I about to get sued?”

Gwen laughed and replied, “I don’t think you’re making me look at your nipples. My eyes just go there naturally. It’s the gay thing, I think.”

“Boob girl?”

“Definitely,” Gwen said with a nod. “And I should stop looking at them now because you might consider that sexual harassment.” Gwen met her eyes again and added, “Look at my amazing self-control as I only look at your eyes and not the breasts that I can totally see all of through that very white tank top you wore for our FaceTime call.”

“Hey, I didn’t know we were going to FaceTime. You weren’t even at my place when this conversation started,” she argued playfully and crossed an arm over her chest.

“So, it’s my fault that you don’t have any shirts that hide your boobs?”

“Hey, I do.” Juliet laughed.

“And it’s my fault that you don’t own a bra, either?”

“I own many bras, thank you very much. You’ve just seen me in my most relaxed state, when I’m braless and chill.”

“Is that like Netflix and chill?” Gwen asked.

“It is for a lot of women, I’d imagine,” Juliet said.

Carly barked, and Gwen turned the phone back toward her. Juliet was always happy to see her dog, but she did miss Gwen’s eyes looking back at her while the phone was aimed at her very impatient terrier.

“She needs to go out.”

“Oh, okay,” Juliet said. “I can let you go.”

“Or, you can walk with us.”

“Walk with you?”

“I can call you once I have her on the leash. I’m going to walk her here before we get in the car because I don’t want anyone peeing in my car, Carly.”

Carly barked again as if she might just do that if Gwen didn’t get her outside right at that moment.

“You can walk with us and, I don’t know, tell me about your day or something. If you want to. I don’t imagine you have anyone there to tell, and I know how lonely business travel can be.”

“Done a lot of that?” she asked.

“No, but my family is all about ambition and drive and money, so they have, and I’ve talked to some of them about it. Sometimes, on purpose. Other times, reluctantly,” Gwen replied.

Juliet then watched as Gwen rose and walked, with the phone aimed at her face, toward the front of the apartment. Juliet heard Carly’s paws on the hardwood and knew she was following Gwen to get her leash on.

“You don’t have to talk to me,” Juliet suggested just to give her an out, even though hanging up was the last thing she wanted to do.

“I want to,” Gwen replied before she connected Carly’s leash. “Give me five, and I’ll call you back, okay?”

“Call or FaceTime?”

“Why? Are you planning on getting naked next?”

Juliet laughed and said, “No, but I want to finish eating my dinner, and it’s messy food.”

“Well, now I’m tempted to stay on camera just so I can watch that.”

“It’s why I’m in this tank top in the first place: I had a T-shirt on, but I got cheese all over it, so I changed.”

“Messy and cheesy? Sounds delicious.”

“It is so far.”

“Do you want me to not call you so that you can finish eating?”

“What? No, call me,” she said, sounding a little desperate. “I can tell you how I managed to avoid getting burned by a rogue steam wand today.”

“That’s a story I absolutely have to hear,” Gwen joked, and they hung up when she grabbed her stuff and headed out the door, trying to wrangle Carly, only to reconnect a minute later once she had the dog outside, walking on the sidewalk. “So, rogue steam wand?”

Juliet told her the story of how one of her trainees had left the wand pulled out when they were supposed to push it back in after each use to avoid burns like the one she’d nearly gotten.

It wasn’t as interesting as she’d thought it would be, but Gwen still laughed when Juliet told her that she’d moved out of the way just in time and bumped her elbow on the counter in the process.

“Are you okay?” Gwen asked.

“I’m fine. Small bruise, but not the worst I’ve ever gotten at this job.”

“What’s the worst?”

“Honestly, the paper cuts,” Juliet said. “We have to go over this start and end-of-day paperwork. Some of it is on the computer, but the employees still have to sign a piece of paper whenever they open or close a cash drawer.”

“People still pay in cash?”

“You’d be surprised. We get a lot of small, drip coffee orders, and people don’t always want to put that on a credit or debit card or even tap their phones, so, yeah.

But we still have to have cash for change just in case, and that’s money that someone could steal, so they sign that they’ve counted it and that the amount is correct, and they do that at night, too.

They have to fill out this thing, and the manager includes those in their daily reports.

Whenever I’m training, I have to review all the practice forms, and I’ve gotten so many paper cuts flipping through them. ”

“How many Band-Aids do you go through?”

“Oh, I’m keeping them in business,” she joked. “I know where every first aid kit is in every local Southern Roastery location because I’ve probably had to open it up.”

Gwen laughed a little and said, “Oh, speaking of that; I had some of your coffee.”

“Some of my coffee?”

“Yeah, I went to Southern and got a vanilla latte. It wasn’t bad.”

“Well, if it wasn’t bad, that means it wasn’t great , and I might need to retrain the roaster who made it.”

“I ran into Molly,” Gwen said, changing the subject.

“You did?” Juliet asked and ate a fry.

“Yeah. She was on her way out, and I was on my way in. She looks like she’s feeling a lot better.”

“She is. I called her at lunch today.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. I think she really did just eat something bad.”

“No chance she’s pregnant?” Gwen joked.

“Molly?” Juliet laughed. “No way. Molly is as gay as they come. Not in some of the stereotypical ways; she just loves women. She’s never even dated a guy. Maybe when she was a teenager, but I don’t remember her telling me that. I know she’s never even really kissed one.”

“Me neither,” Gwen said.

“No?”

“No,” Gwen replied. “You?”

“Oh, wow. I guess, yeah. High school, mainly. I had a boyfriend for about six months at the end of my senior year, but we broke up when we went to different colleges.”

“And women from then on for you?”

“It was really women for me all along, but I wasn’t ready to admit it.”

“I get that,” Gwen replied. “So, Molly is all about the ladies?”

And they were back to Molly again? Juliet bit her lower lip, wondering why her friend kept coming up in the same conversation they’d been using to flirt with each other not all that long ago.

Was Gwen flirting with her but was actually interested in Molly?

Or had she not been flirting with Juliet at all, and she’d been reading into it?

“Yeah, she is. What did you two talk about today?” Juliet chanced.

“Oh, nothing much. She had to get back to work, and I needed to get my coffee. Mostly, we talked about Carly.”

“Carly? You talked about my dog?”

“She wanted to visit her while you were gone, and I said I’d have to check with you first.”

“Molly loves Carly,” Juliet replied.

“They spend a lot of time together?”

“Not much, no. But I’ve brought her on hangouts with Molls before, and Carly loves sitting in her lap.”

“So, I should be jealous that Carly loves someone else more than me?” Gwen teased.

“She loves pretty much everyone,” Juliet said. “So, Molls wanted to visit with Carly while she’s staying with you, or you brought it up that she could?”

“Me? No, I wouldn’t just offer someone your dog, Jules. I’d check with you first before I did anything. Molly asked, but then she said that she’d just wait until you got back, so it wasn’t a big deal or anything.”

“She can if you want her to. I don’t mind,” Juliet said, rolling her eyes at herself.

“It’s up to you. Carly is your dog.”

“Would you care if she’s at your house or something?”

“No, but I’d probably meet her at a park with Carly. I wouldn’t invite her to my place to visit with your dog. And she said she’d wait for you, anyway, so it doesn’t matter.”

“Okay. Well, never mind, then, I guess.”

“I’m sure she would rather visit her with you at home,” Gwen said. “So that you two can hang out or go out.”

“ Go out?”

“Yeah.”

Juliet did some mental calculations, and based on the path of their conversation so far tonight, she decided to take another chance and ask, “Do you think Molly and I are into each other or something?”

“What? No, I just–”

“Molly is totally, absolutely into someone we work with.”

“Yes, she did mention that.”

“It’s not me, Gwen. That person is not me. We’re just friends. She likes the woman from IT, who happens to have a girlfriend, so she’s a little miserable at the moment. Molls is all-in on Finley, though, not me.”

“Finley?”

“Yes, her name is Finley. And she’s in this annoying on-and-off-again relationship with someone else we work with, which means poor Molly has to wait for the right moment to shoot her shot, but then she never does.”

“Well, that sucks,” Gwen replied.

“Yes, it does,” Juliet said. “So, there’s that.”

“Right. That. Oh, Carly is done,” Gwen told her. “I’m going to go get her stuff and take her back to my place. Want me to call you when I get there?”

“You don’t have to, Gwen. I’m sure you have things to do.”

“But I haven’t heard about your day yet, except for the whole steamer-wand-of-death part, and I have a story about a poodle with pink bows to tell you about.”

Juliet laughed and said, “Okay. I’d like that.”