Page 41 of June

“Get tested. Yeah, I get it.” Enid nodded and then took a drink of her coffee. “I’ve been tested since the last woman I was with. Just an FYI.”

“Me too.”

“Okay,” Enid replied. “Well, this is weird to talk about before a first date, huh?”

Caroline laughed and said, “Yes. Let’s get back to talking about the appliances with faces I draw because I’m weird.”

“Not the naked women you draw because you can?” Enid joked.

“Woman. It wasonewoman,” she said with her index finger held up.

“You’re really talented,” Enid replied.

“At drawing vaginas?”

“Yes,” Enid said seriously, and her tone had changed.

Her voice was deeper now, and it made Caroline nearly drop her fork on her plate.

“Yeah?” she asked, silently wondering at the reason for that sudden shift.

Enid nodded and said, “Yes.”

“Well, not to try to take this in another weird direction, but I’m not just good atdrawingthem.” She closed her eyes and cringed while Enid laughed loudly. “I can’t believe I just said that,” she added and covered her face with her hands.

“No, keep going. What else are you good at with them?”

Caroline could not stop laughing with this woman. She didn’t want to say goodbye, but after they finished eating, she had to do so outside the dining hall because they agreed that they wouldn’t play mini-golf today but that it could be in their near future. They were going on a date, and that had been her goal anyway, so she could deal with not going to some mini-golf place today if it meant that they got to do that. The only problem was that Enid had a date with someone named Jill tonight.

???

“She’s seeing someone else? Why was she flirting with you, then?” Jodie asked when Caroline returned to her room to find her friend still sitting on her bed while Viv was reading a book on her bottom bunk.

“She’s not seeing her. They’ve had one date,” Caroline replied and climbed up to her bed to sit next to Jodie. “But I do hate that a girl named Jill is going to be two dates ahead of me. Is it wrong to think that way?”

“Depends on what they do on those dates,” Jodie said. “Have they…”

“No,” she said quickly.

“Okay. Then, you’re still in the game.”

“I don’t want a game, Jodie. I just like a girl, and I want that girl to like me.”

“She does. She’s going out with you,” Viv noted.

“Yeah. When?” Jodie asked.

“Tomorrow night,” Caroline replied. “We’re going to dinner.”

“I can help you get ready, if you want,” Jodie offered.

“Maybe. I’ll let you know,” she said, trying not to worry that Enid had a date with someone else in just a few hours.

CHAPTER 11

“So… It’s a nice night,” Jill said into the awkward silence that had developed between them.

“Yeah,” Enid replied. “Um… Do you want to maybe do something else?”

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