Page 59 of Something to Someone

She blinked and licked her lips. She stared at me for a moment like she knew I was lying. Like she somehow managed to learn telepathy and read my mind to figure out I was actually thinking thoughts similar to,I like you in my space. I want you in my space. Please stay.

Maybe not those exact thoughts, but something very similar.

“Yes, you need lamps,” she continued, and I made it a point to keep cooking as we talked. I started the garlic bread and cooked the chicken, again just the way my mom did.

Caroline turned her screen every once in a while to show me a piece she thought would look good or to explain why it wasn’t going to work. By the time I had plated the food and was arranging it the best I could on the coffee table—the limited furniture I did have—we’d ordered most of the things I needed and planned to thrift the rest.

She curled up on one side of the couch, and I sat on the other.

“This is amazing,” Caroline complimented. “Don’t tell your mom this, but I think this is better than hers,” she said around a mouthful of food that I found oddly endearing.

I chuckled around my own bite. “I won’t say anything. She would not take kindly to that information.”

“So, how have your first few weeks of work been?”

I nodded. “Good…”

Caroline glanced up from her food with her eyebrows raised, her incredulous look spearing right through me. She made me cave without a word.

With a sigh, I said, “It really is good. I like the company and my coworkers, but it’s a lot. Moving and starting a new job, I needed a night off already.”

She reached for her wineglass and took a long sip. “Welcome to the next thirty plus years of your life! Aren’t you looking forward to it?”

“Working until I die?”

“Yup.”

“I couldn’t think of a better way to spend my life.”

Her smile widened, and she took another bite. Humming around her fork, she shut her eyes slowly like she was savoring the flavor. “If you want some unsolicited advice,” she began, looking back at me. “It will get easier. You’ll figure out whether you love your job or not, and then you’ll make a change if you need to. Just don’t spend your life doing something you hate.”

“Is that how you started your own business?”

She shrugged. “Sort of. I wanted to start a company that was inclusive to anyone and everyone. No matter who you are or what your budget, you deserve to have the event of your dreams. So, when the right…investor came along, I jumped. I also realized that although I work well with others, I like to be in charge.”

I slid my empty plate on the coffee table and settled back with my glass of wine. “I know you do,” I said with a smile. “Did you always know you wanted to be an event planner?”

“Yes, I came out of the womb wanting to plan elaborate parties and gorgeous weddings.” She slid her empty plate onto the coffee table and clasped her wineglass with both hands, propping feet up on the cushion between us. My couch wasn’t too large, so the tips of her toes almost grazed my thigh. “I knew in college, and after I graduated, I got a job at a wedding planning company. My first wedding, I knew it made sense for me.”

“So, you still enjoy it just as much now as you did then?”

She tipped her glass back and took a sip. Her tongue darted out and ran over her lower lip, collecting the excess wine and making me consider what she’d taste like right then. I bet the wine would taste even better on her tongue.

“I enjoy it more now than I ever did back then. My first job didn’t…” She cleared her throat and glanced to her left. The only thing over there was the TV, but it wasn’t on. She looked everywhere but back to me. That was until she swallowed and took a shallow, forced breath. “It didn’t end well, so yeah, I like it much better now.”

There were so many follow-up questions on the tip of my tongue. I knew Caroline so well, but her past, she kept close to her chest. Even in the time I’d spent with her family, they didn’t spare many details aside from the occasional high school story or anecdote from childhood.

I wanted to know everything about her. The good, the bad, and everything in between.

But she didn’t give me an opportunity to press. Not that she would have answered any of my questions anyway.

“So, what about you? Did you pop out of the womb wanting to be an engineer? Actually, I distinctly remember when you were probably sixteen, your mom told me you wanted to be a teacher.”

With a sigh, my head fell back onto the couch cushion. “Yeah, I’m not entirely sure why. I thought maybe I could coach either baseball or swimming and teach, too. I haven’t completely put aside the idea of one day teaching, but I think I’d get my master’s and become a professor instead. Teaching children, even high school, sounds terrifying.”

I finished off my glass and slipped it onto the table next to my plate. I was enjoying our conversation too much to get up and clean. It would be there until I did it and that was fine with me. I liked the little bubble we were in.

Caroline tracked the movement. When I leaned back, her partially lidded eyes followed me.

---