Page 24 of September (New Orleans #9)

“T hanks for inviting us,” Juliet said.

“Anytime,” Gwen replied.

Carly was sniffing around Myra’s front yard while Juliet held on to her leash.

They’d finished eating dinner and their dessert, and once the sun was officially gone, they’d moved things inside.

Elisa and Myra hadn’t wanted either of them to help with the dishes, so Gwen had offered to walk Juliet to her car.

“Buster and Carly really get along well, huh?” she added, trying to keep Juliet there as long as she could because she wasn’t ready to say goodnight to her yet.

“Seems like it,” Juliet replied. “Will you bring her over here to hang out with him while I’m gone?”

“Sure, if you want me to,” she replied as she stuffed her hands inside her pockets.

“I just want her to be entertained, have fun, and not be alone,” Juliet said.

“She won’t be. I’ll be with her. And if you’re good with it still, I’ll walk her with the dogs I trust.”

“Yeah, that’ll be good for her, I think.”

“I’ll pick her up tomorrow, then,” Gwen said. “Before you hit the road.”

“Okay. Can you be there by eight? I have to leave early. It’s a long drive.”

“Sure,” she replied. “Whenever. I’ve got dogs I walk by nine, so I need to grab her and her stuff before then.”

Juliet nodded, and Gwen wondered how much longer they were going to stand by the car and talk about the dog.

“Well, we should go. I think she’s sniffed every blade of grass here.”

Gwen laughed a little and said, “Yeah, okay. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Good night,” Juliet replied with a soft smile.

Gwen watched her and Carly get into the car after that and waited for them to pull away, giving Juliet a little wave before she went back inside Myra’s house.

“Okay. Did you kiss her? Please tell me you kissed her,” Elisa said when Gwen arrived in the living room.

“She’s tipsy. Forgive her,” Myra said, nodding toward her girlfriend. “She finished that whole bottle of wine.”

“It went well with dinner,” Elisa replied. “And did you kiss her or not?”

“What? No, we just talked and let Carly sniff the yard.”

“That sounds weird,” Elisa said.

“It’s not. She’s a dog; she sniffs things,” Gwen said and sat down next to Elisa on the sofa.

“I feel like we spend a lot of time talking about the dog and not talking about each other. Like, I didn’t know her dad was a florist, and her mom was an accountant because we spend all our time discussing Carly and Juliet’s travel schedule. ”

“Well, you might be friends, but you are technically getting paid to take care of her dog. And she said that this job was new, so she’s probably stressed about Carly, right?” Myra reasoned and wrapped an arm around Elisa’s shoulders.

“Yes, but I like her. I want to get to know her.”

“You should tell her that, then,” Myra suggested.

“Yeah, ask her out,” Elisa encouraged. “She’s really nice, Gwen. I like her for you. And don’t think I didn’t notice that you had your arm over her chair.”

“It just happened.” Gwen smiled at the memory. “But she didn’t push me away.”

“No, she didn’t. She had her hand on your thigh there for a minute,” Myra noted.

“She had her hand on your thigh?” Elisa asked, turning her head toward Gwen. “Where was I?’”

“Sitting there, but it was under the table,” Gwen said. “And it was only for a second. I liked it, though.”

“I bet you did.” Myra laughed. “So, are you going to talk to her? And I don’t mean about the dog.”

“We’re slowly getting to know each other, which is fine; I don’t mind taking our time. But she’s going to be traveling for so much and soon… I just want to get to know her and see if I’m right in thinking that there’s something between us.”

“Tell her you want to talk then and leave Carly out of it. If Juliet brings her up, try to change the subject,” Elisa suggested.

“Yeah, I guess. I mean, like you said, I am getting paid, so I can’t just ignore it if she brings her up.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you like this before,” Elisa said, squinting at her. “And I’ve seen you with every girlfriend you’ve ever had.”

“Well, she’s not my girlfriend.”

“Not yet,” Myra noted.

“Elisa, you’ve never really seen me in this phase. You’ve seen me with girlfriends, yes, but not much before that, when I really like a woman and think that she might like me, but we haven’t said it out loud yet.”

“It looks good on you,” Elisa said, smiling at her.

“It’s kind of scary.”

“Didn’t you just tell my daughter that love is scary, but you should still go for it?”

“Well, don’t go quoting me to me ,” Gwen replied with a wink. “I’m going home now. I have to wake up early to go pick up Carly.”

She stood.

“Are you okay to drive?” Myra checked.

“Yeah. I finished my beer, like, over an hour ago, and I ate everything on my plate. I’m good,” she replied. “But thanks for checking on me.”

“Anytime,” Myra replied.

◆◆◆

The following morning, Gwen arrived at Juliet’s just before eight and knocked on the door, preparing to keep this conversation about Carly since Juliet needed to hit the road and Gwen was technically on the clock.

“Hey, good morning,” Juliet said with a wide smile. “I made you something.”

“Um… Hi,” Gwen replied. “And why are you so chipper? It’s early.”

“Not for me. Early riser for work, remember?”

“Sorry; I haven’t had my coffee yet. Did you say you made me something?”

Gwen walked into the apartment and found Carly right there, ready to sniff her legs.

“Hi, Carly,” she said, letting her sniff around.

“I made you coffee,” Juliet replied. “The good stuff. I’d hoped you hadn’t had any yet.”

“You made me coffee?”

“Yeah, and it’s medium roast. Your new favorite.” Juliet smiled as she walked into the open kitchen and carried a mug over to Gwen.

“This is great, but do you have a to-go cup? You have to hit the road, right?”

“Not yet. I’ve got some time.”

Juliet nodded for them to sit on the sofa, so Gwen followed her over there and let Carly sit next to her.

“So, how was your night after I left?” Juliet asked.

“Good. I went home pretty much right after, though. Thanks for this,” Gwen said.

“No problem. If you’re over here and you want to make more, there’s a whole setup in the kitchen. Help yourself.”

“Am I not taking her home with me?”

“You are. I just meant if you need to drop her off here for some reason and you’re over here.”

“You’ve given me a ton of coffee already. I think I’m good for a while.” Gwen took a sip. “Damn, this is good, though. What’s in it? It tastes a little different than the stuff you made at my place.”

“Salt.”

Gwen looked up at her in confusion and said, “What?”

“Pinch of salt. It helps make it less bitter, smoother.”

“You really added salt to my coffee?”

“A pinch. You can’t even taste it.”

“I knew something was different,” Gwen pointed out.

“Yeah, that it tasted good.” Juliet laughed. “Don’t be a baby. Drink your salt coffee.”

Gwen laughed, too, and took another sip.

“It really is good.”

“So, I’ve got a few minutes before I have to go. Anything you need for her this week?”

“Not that I can think of,” she said. “I’m good. Do you have her food in the freezer, though?”

“Yeah, take whatever you need,” Juliet said. “And I got her some new t-r-e-a-t-s, too.” She spelled out the word. “I’ll put those in a bag for you.”

“Then, I’m good. Where are you off to today?”

“Some tiny town in northern Louisiana. I’ve never even heard of it, but Andrew used to cover it, I guess. They’ve got two stores there, and they’re both not doing all that well, so I’m going to retrain the staff.”

“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”

“A little of both, I suspect. It’ll be easier because they should know the basics, but also harder if I have to correct a bunch.

I’ll be there for a few days, and if they don’t get it together after that, people will lose jobs, and I’ll have to go right back there to train the new staff.

What have you got going on while I’m away? ”

“Me?” she asked and took a sip to stall for a bit. “Nothing. I’m sure I’ll hang out with Elisa and Myra and maybe grab drinks with friends or something, but I don’t have anything planned officially.”

“No hot dates?” Juliet asked.

Gwen met her eyes and said, “No hot dates, but I will have a woman by my side every night.”

Juliet looked confused at first and then disappointed, or, at least, that was how it looked to Gwen.

“Carly, Jules. I meant Carly. She sleeps next to me in my bed, remember?”

“Oh, right,” Juliet said and laughed. “Of course.”

“You?”

“What about me?”

“Any hot dates up there in northern Louisiana?”

“In a town I’ve never heard of? No, not likely. I’ll be in the stores and then in my hotel room, eating whatever fast food they have up there and probably staining more shirts.”

“Do you want to talk while you’re there?”

“I figured we would because of–”

“Carly. Yeah, I know. I meant just talk, though. I’ll obviously keep you updated on her because that’s my job, but I was hoping we could talk about not Carly, too.”

“We don’t always talk about her.”

“I know. But I liked getting to know you more last night at Myra’s. I was hoping we could do more talking like that.”

Juliet smiled at her, gave Gwen a slow nod, and replied, “I’d like that.”

“FaceTime? You know, so that you can see Carly, too, and not at all because you might be in a see-through shirt with no bra on.”

Juliet laughed and said, “Odds are, if the food is messy, I’ll make a mess.”

“That’s kind of cute,” Gwen said with a smile.

“It is? My klutziness is cute?”

Gwen nodded and replied, “Definitely.”

Juliet sighed and said, “I want to stay and keep talking now, but I have to go.”

Gwen took a quick sip of her coffee and went to stand.

“You can stay. Finish your coffee. You’ve got a key.”

“No, I’ll walk you out. You can say goodbye to Carly at the car, like last time. Then, I’ll walk her and take her with me.”

“Did you drive? I’ll get the food and stuff ready.”

“Yeah, my car’s out front, parked next to yours, actually,” Gwen said.

“Okay. Well, let’s go, then. Come on, Carly.”

Carly jumped off the sofa at the sound of her name, and they walked to the kitchen, where Juliet packed a bag and handed it to Gwen. Then, Gwen watched Juliet say goodbye to her dog for the second time in as many weeks and drive off, leaving them both standing there, wishing she hadn’t left at all.

“Your mom is really pretty,” Gwen said to Carly. “And really… just, like, everything else, too, you know?”

Carly looked up at her but didn’t seem to grasp what Gwen was saying.

“Okay. Let’s walk first, and then we’ll head home.”

She walked Carly around the block to let her go to the bathroom and drove her home, where she put Carly’s stuff away and prepared to leave again to get her morning walkers.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket just as she got to her door after putting Carly back on her leash. She pulled her phone out and smiled.

Juliet Francis : I’ll be done by five. Want to talk at six? I’ll have food. You can have food as well, and we can FaceTime while we eat dinner together.

Gwen Benedetti : That sounds good to me.