Page 33 of June

“Enid, huh?” Jodie asked with a lifted eyebrow.

“Get in line,” Caroline replied with a laugh.

All three of them got their food, but Caroline couldn’t get her card swiped again without joining the line a second time, so she did that, and by the time she joined Viv and Jodie at one of the few tables in this smaller hall, they had nearly finished their chicken sandwich and burger.

“So… Enid, huh?” Jodie asked before eating a fry.

“We just talked outside for a few minutes,” she said as she sat down across from the two of them. “She had a class to get to.”

“Did you get her number this time?” Jodie asked.

“I did, yes. She has mine, too,” she replied.

“When are you going to text her?”

“Why can’t she textme?” Caroline asked before eating a fry of her own.

“Oh, just text her!” Viv spoke up, sounding exasperated about the whole thing. “You clearly like her. Just text her.”

Jodie looked over and laughed at her, looking surprised that Viv would suggest that. When Caroline looked at Viv to make sure that she had heard that right, Viv just gave her a shrug, which told her that she had.

“I guess I could,” she said.

“Okay. So, text her that you want to hang out sometime,” Jodie suggested. “Keep it casual. Maybe tell her that you could hang out on the quad or grab a drink somewhere. Simple.”

“I can’t grab a drink with her yet. I still have close to a month to go,” Caroline reminded.

“Oh, yeah. Shit. I keep forgetting. Coffee, then?”

“Or, you could try being honest and tell her that you like her and don’t want to just hang out,” Viv suggested. “The direct approach doesn’t always work;Iwould know. But at least you’d know where you stand.”

Caroline offered her a soft smile and replied, “Maybe I will.”

CHAPTER 9

Enid 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 sincetheywere 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 tormentwasfun sometimes.

“What if I get dates preciselybecauseof 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 consideredflirting, 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 forEnidto continue their flirtatious banter.

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