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“Yeah. You said you wanted to.”

“I do. If you want to do that tonight, we can, but yeah, I’m not wearing a dress and heels to mini-golf.”

“There are heels?” Caroline asked a little louder than she had planned on.

Enid laughed loudly and took a sip of her coffee.

“Do you want to go to lunch with your friends now? I can join you.”

“You want to eat lunch in the dining hall?”

“No, I already ate. But I can sit there with you.”

Caroline squinted at her and said, “You want to go because you know Jodie and I did what we did and because Viv asked me out, don’t you?”

“What? No,” Enid said, obviously lying. “Is it wrong to want them to know that we’re doing this? It’s wrong, right?”

“I didn’t kiss you the other night because I didn’t want our first kiss to be about me competing with Jill.”

“What?” Enid asked, looking serious now. “You said it was because Viv was inside.”

“It wasn’t. I lied,” Caroline admitted. “I’m sorry. It felt like I wanted to kiss you in part because I wanted to catch up to Jill, and that was wrong, so I didn’t.”

Enid nodded and said, “I get it. Does that mean that if we kissed tonight, it would just be about us?”

“Yeah, it would.”

“Okay, then.”

“Still want to go to lunch to claim me in front of my friends?”

“Yeah,” Enid said. “I’m petty like that.”

“Okay, then,” Caroline replied with a smile, liking that Enid was being petty like that.

CHAPTER 17

There was something about this date that felt different, and Enid knew what it was. It was obvious. She was on a date with the woman she was supposed to be on a date with, and she wasn’t thinking about anyone else. She wasn’t even thinking about the fact that Jodie had given her some serious side-eye when Enid had wrapped her arm over the back of Caroline’s chair at lunch. Caroline had assured Enid that it hadn’t been because Jodie had feelings for her. It had been because Jodie was a good best friend, so she’d just been looking out for Caroline.

Viv, for her part, had smiled at the two of them, which surprised Enid because she had incorrectly assumed that Viv had only told Caroline that she was moving on mainly to make her feel more comfortable and not because she actuallywasmoving on. But Viv hadn’t seemed to mind Enid being there, and when they’d finished eating and Caroline had rested her head on Enid’s shoulder, Viv had even smiled at them a little. Enid had walked Caroline back to the dorm, where they had hung out with Viv and Jodie for another hour or so before Viv had class. Jodie had left with her, having something else to do, so Enid and Caroline had been left alone in the room. They’d both been on Caroline’s bed, with their feet hanging over the side of it, and Enid hadn’t known what to do. Viv’s class was only fifty minutes,and she’d be coming right back, so while Enid would’ve loved to do more with Caroline than justsiton that bed, she hadn’t been surethenwas the time.

Enid had self-control, but if they started making out on the bed, she knew they’d go further than that. Even holding Caroline’s hand like they had been on the bed lit Enid up in a way nothing else ever had. So, she’d done the right thing. She had climbed down from the bed and said her temporary goodbye to Caroline in order to go home and get ready for their date.

While getting ready, she had stared at that dress she’d mentioned to Caroline for a minute, considering surprising her with it, after all, but she opted for jeans and a shirt instead. She’d save the dress for another night because therewouldbe another night.

“You cannot redo a shot without taking a penalty, you cheater,” Caroline said.

“It’s not a redo. I didn’t even hit the ball,” Enid argued. “I whiffed.”

“That’s considered a shot.”

“Is this the PGA Tour, and no one told me?”

Caroline laughed and asked her, “Are you one of those crazy competitive types that has to win all the time?”

“No,” Enid replied. “I was just taking a practice swing, though.”

“Which is it, cheater? Is it that you whiffed or that it was a practice swing?”

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