Page 69 of June

“No, come back,” Enid said before she took Caroline’s hand from where it had been clutching the other one in her lap and turned in her chair to be able to place Caroline’s hand on her own knee. Then, Enid smiled and said, “I meant that I wanted to tell you in person that I’m not seeing Jill anymore.”

Caroline’s eyes widened as Enid’s fingers entwined with her own.

“You’re not?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Because I realized that I only wanted to be friends with her. I don’t have feelings for her.” Enid let her thumb graze over Caroline’s skin. “The way I do for you.”

“Yeah?” Caroline asked with a smile.

“Yeah,” Enid replied. “Ididgo out with her last night, but only to tell her that I wanted us to be friends instead. We endedup ordering in and just hanging out while watching a movie, and it was nice to take the pressure off with her. We weren’t on a date anymore, so we could just sit and talk and relax.”

“So, I shouldn’t worry that you still like her like that?”

“No,” Enid said as she shook her head. “We agreed to just be friends, and she wants to hang out again. Apparently, because I ended things, I now need to help her find her soulmateandget laid.” Enid laughed.

“Wouldn’t that be the same thing?”

“I think if she finds the soulmate first, it is, but she also just wants to get laid.”

“How close did you two come to…” Caroline shook her head then. “Never mind. It’s not my place to ask.”

“Not even close, Care,” Enid told her.

“So, it’s just you and me now?” she asked.

“Yes,” Enid confirmed. “I just wanted to tell you that before our date so that it could just be about us, without you worrying about the fact that I’m dating someone else and me worrying that I was being a jerk for doing that.”

“Enid, you’re allowed to date other people. Just because I struggled with it, doesn’t mean you should feel guilty about it. I’ve just never really met someone I clicked with like that. I mean, no one’s ever looked at my ridiculous sketches of inanimate objects and asked me about the characters around them before.” Caroline chuckled. “You not only did that, but you kept bringing them up, and you weren’t making fun of me.”

“Why would I make fun of you? It’s cute that you do that,” Enid replied.

“Toyou, apparently. No one else. You also aren’t pressuring me to pick a major, find a career, or constantly asking me questions about what I’ll do after graduation. I get that from everyone else. Even Jodie and Viv do it sometimes. My parentsnever let up on it. You, on the other hand, just seem to want me to figure out whatever I’ll figure outwhenever I do.”

“I guess I get that about you. I knew generally what I wanted to do, but look how that has turned out: I’m right back where I started.”

“Maybe there’s a reason for that,” Caroline said as she placed her other hand on Enid’s other knee. “If you were in Tallahassee right now, wearing a sexy business suit with pinstripes or something, you never would have met me.”

Enid laughed and replied, “Why does my business suit have to have pinstripes?”

“It doesn’t. You’re free to wear any kind of business suit you want. In fact, if you wanted to wear one for our date tonight, I wouldn’t mind at all.” Caroline shook her head.

Enid’s laugh continued before she said, “I was thinking more like jeans, but if you want to dress up tonight, we can. I have a dress I haven’t worn in a while.”

“You have a dress?” she asked and swallowed hard.

“I have a few of them, yes,” Enid said. “Why? You want to see me in a dress?”

Caroline nodded rapidly and said, “Not that I don’t love you all casual, but I’d bet you look really hot in a dress.”

“I can wear one tonight, if you want.”

“I want.” She looked down at Enid’s hand, which was still playing with her own. “But I also want to mini-golf tonight, so maybe another date.”

“Mini-golf? Really?” Enid laughed.

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