Page 73 of June

“I swear, I have the timing down. I can win this thing.”

Enid smiled and handed Caroline her card.

“I’ve got about five hundred tickets on it and enough for you to play this two more times.”

“You’re giving me your card?”

“It’s not a kidney,” Enid joked when Caroline looked so happy and surprised that Enid would let her use the rest of her money.

“What if I lose? It’s a lot of pressure.”

“Just do it,” Enid said, swiping the card for Caroline.

“Oh, God,” Caroline replied nervously.

She had been unprepared, but Enid loved watchingherwatch the lights move around in a circle. Caroline let them go around and around and around before she pressed the button. She got so close, one light away from the jackpot, but that only earned her one ticket.

“I suck,” she said on a sigh and rested her head against Enid’s shoulder. “Take your last few dollars and win us some real tickets.”

“Oh, babe,” Enid replied. “Just go again.” She handed Caroline the card this time. “I don’t care about the money or the tickets. Just have fun.”

Caroline took a deep breath as if she was about to perform some Olympic gymnastics routine, swiped the card, and handed it back to her. Enid watched on as Caroline stared at the lights, her green eyes bouncing along with them, and Enid could only smile. She wondered if there was a time limit on the thing before Caroline had to hit the button or lose a turn, but just as she was about to ask, Caroline pressed it down. Enid looked at where the light had ended up.

“Holy fuck…” Caroline let out as bells began to ring from the machine.

“You did it. You did it?” Enid said first and then asked. “Holy crap, you did it!”

Caroline jumped in place before she pulled Enid in for a hug. The tickets started adding up on the screen, moving them to their card, and Enid laughed, holding on to Caroline andbreathing her in. When Caroline pulled back a few seconds later, Enid thought they might kiss, but Caroline was so excited, she bounded away toward the bored-looking guy guarding the prizes. Enid followed her, presented the man with her card, and Caroline gave him hers so that they could be added together. While he did that, they looked around at the cheap and ridiculous prizes and up at the wall where there were some decent ones.

“What do you want?” Enid asked, rubbing Caroline’s back again.

“I know we said that we’d get the most expensive one we could, but do you maybe want to go crazy and just get, like, one of everything we can instead?”

Enid laughed and replied, “Let’s do it.”

Her phone buzzed as Caroline started to pick out the little pieces of candy that went for one to five tickets. They would be here a while, so she checked the message.

Rory Winter: We’re all going to hang out at Candace’s tonight. Want to come?

Enid looked up at Caroline, who was pointing to some toy that was eight tickets.

“Hey, want to go to that bar I mentioned? Owned by my friend.”

“I can’t drink, remember?”

“No, but you can still go. Some of my friends will be there.”

Caroline’s head snapped to her.

“Jill?”

“I don’t know.” Enid shrugged. “I can ask Rory.”

“No, it’s okay. I kind of want to meet her if she’s there.”

“You do?”

Caroline shrugged a shoulder and asked, “Are you really okay with me being there?”

---