Page 75 of June

“That’s a lot of people, Enid.”

“They probably won’tallbe here,” Enid said as they arrived at the door to the bar, which was open. “Do you not want to do this? I can text Rory and tell her that we decided to do something else.”

“No, I want to meet them,” she said, but she still took a deep breath when Enid pulled her through the door.

The bar wasn’t overly large, and Caroline was happy to see that it had neighborhood vibes and not French Quarter tourist bar vibes, which she didn’t want tonight. There was music playing, but at a decent volume, so she could still hear Enid when they talked. Booths lined three of the walls, and therewere a few tables in front of them between the booths and the horseshoe bar and its surrounding stools.

“That’s Logan,” Enid said, pointing to the bartender. “And Candace is next to her, pouring that beer.”

“Logan is Rory’s girlfriend,” Caroline mumbled mostly to herself, trying to remember.

“Yeah, and Candace is–”

“The owner, so I need to try not to get her place shut down by looking like I’m under twenty-one.”

Enid laughed and said, “She said it was okay.”

“I’ll be the only one not drinking, Enid.”

“I’m not drinking, either. I’m in charge of driving you home. Besides, Rory rarely drinks, anyway. No one is going to care that you’re not drinking, Care. They’re not that kind of group. And if someone says something, I’ll tell them to go fuck themselves.”

Caroline laughed and said, “You’d really tell your friends to fuck themselves for me?”

“Hell, yeah,” Enid replied.

“Hey, Enid.”

“Rory, hey,” Enid said. “This is Caroline.”

“Nice to meet you,” Rory replied, holding out her hand for Caroline to shake, which she did.

“You too.”

“We’re over here. Mel and Kyle are here already, and so is Sophie.”

“Where’s everyone else?”

“On their way, I think,” Rory said. “We’ll need to pull tables together now. Candace, is that okay?”

“Yeah. Just put them back when you’re done,” Candace yelled from behind the bar.

“Will do,” Rory said.

They walked over to the four empty tables that were in front of the booths, and Caroline got to work moving them togetheralongside Enid when three women who had been sitting in a booth stood up to help.

“Hey. I’m Sophie,” a brunette with brown eyes said.

“Hi. Caroline.”

“Mel,” another brunette with brown hair and eyes but lighter skin introduced herself. “And this is Kyle, my fiancée.”

“Nice to meet you both,” Caroline said, already having a hard time keeping up.

“You too. Are you Enid’s girlfriend?” Kyle asked.

“Uh… not…” Caroline started but didn’t know how to finish.

“We’re dating,” Enid replied instead and rubbed Caroline’s back in that way she’d done at the arcade earlier.

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