Page 82 of June

“God, I cannot wait for my honeymoon. I’ve already bought three new bikinis. Kyle hasn’t seen them. She’s going tolovewhat I picked out.”

Enid laughed.

“I’m thinking maybe four to five hours a week to start. I’ve already done payroll for this pay period, so why don’t I give you the info, and you re-do it so that I can check your work, and if everything looks good, you can start officially on the next pay period?”

“That would be great,” Enid replied.

They talked for a few more minutes about how Melinda could get her a license for the software for her laptop at home, which would mean that Enid would be able to work from wherever and wouldn’t have to come into the office. Melinda would take care of the end-of-day stuff for now, and if Enid passed the payroll test, they could talk about her doing that a few nights a week to give Melinda time to plan her wedding and work on the house. When they finished, Enid walked out and saw Sophie standing there with Rory.

“Are you now employed?” Rory asked.

“Apparently,” Enid said.

Rory laughed.

“You work here, too, now? Are all of my friends going to end up working here, Melinda?” Sophie asked.

“She’s not giving tours. She’s doing the books,” Melinda replied.

Soon after, Sophie, Rory, and Enid left the office and joined the somewhat crowded street. Enid hadn’t planned on asking for a job, and she’d considered Jill for a moment, but now that they weren’t dating, it shouldn’t be a big deal that she’d know exactly what Jill made on every paycheck. Rory didn’t seem to care. Neither had Melinda.

When they arrived at the restaurant and sat down, waiting to be served, Enid listened to Sophie talk about Bryce, how she was coming back to town in just a couple of days, and it was clear that Sophie couldn’t wait.

“I miss her so much when she’s gone,” Sophie shared after their drinks had been delivered. “I can’t wait until she moves here.”

“When is that?” Rory asked.

“Not long. She’s finishing up the work on the house for her aunt. That’s what’s keeping her there. And she still goes to LA a lot for the movie, but that won’t be forever.”

“Have you two talked about movingthere?” Rory asked. “I know you were worried about that.”

“She said she doesn’t want to. She likes screenwriting, and she’s enjoyed working with the production company and the professional screenwriter they paired her with to help her with the technical stuff, since Bryce hasn’t ever done this before, but she said if they offered her anything in the future, she’d just travel back and forth. She wants to live here with me.”

“Is she moving in with you or getting her own place?” Enid asked.

Sophie smiled and replied, “She’s moving in. Initially, we were going to do the thing where she gets an apartment for a year, andthenwe move in together, but we’ve been long-distance and hardly even get a week a month together, if we’re lucky, so I’m ready for her to be here and for us to just be in one place already.”

“Hey, what happened to you and Caroline last night?” Rory asked Enid, changing the subject. “You two just took off.”

“Oh,” Enid said. “Yeah, I took her home. She was tired.”

“You really like her, huh?” Sophie asked.

“I do,” Enid replied with a half-smile.

Sophie didn’t know Enid well enough yet to notice, but Rory picked up on the hesitation in her smile, so later, when Sophie went to the bathroom right before they were about to leave the restaurant, Rory leaned over the table.

“What happened?”

“Nothing. I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know?”

“Just that she got a little freaked out last night.”

“Why?”

“She doesn’t think she fits in with my friends, and there are a lot of you, so it was overwhelming to her. I shouldn’t have brought her. It was too soon.”

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