Page 19 of Emerald Moon
Had a great time!Hope you did, too!
Jo erased it.
Hope you had a good day!
Jo erased that, too.
They typed several messages that all ended with a frustrated sigh as they erased everything they had written.
Hey!!!
A hello wasn’t bad, but they did erase two of the exclamation points before hitting send and tossing the phone to the side on the bed.
The phone began vibrating.Jo looked over and their eyes widened in horror.They were receiving a phone call.From Cass.Panic set in and they stared, stuck in a freeze response as their heart rate skyrocketed.
Robotically, they reached for their phone and answered.“Hello?”
“Hello, Jo.”
“Hi.”They couldn’t force out any other words.
“Thank you for the message.”
“Yeah, sure.”
“I wanted to say hello, too.I hope you’re doing well today.”
Inside, Jo was curling in on themselves from awkwardness, but Cass was being normal.They should be, too.A phone call wasn’t what they had expected, but they could roll with it, right?They’d made it through a maybe kiss and the morning after.This was nothing.
“Doing great.Yep, great.Had a decent day.Made some macarons.”They cringed at the sound of their own voice.
“Sounds good.Today I —“ Cass’ voice cracked and she cleared her throat.“I worked at the flower shop today.”
“I’ll have to stop by sometime.I never buy flowers for myself or anyone.Might be nice.”
“And I should come by the bakery.I’ve stopped in once or twice for a hand pie.I’ve never been one to have a sweet tooth.”
“I’ve got sweet teeth.”
“Hm?”
Jo grimaced.Why did they have to open their mouth to let foolish things come out?“I mean, like, I got a whole mouth of sweet teeth.Not just one sweet tooth.”
Cass took a second and then laughed.
They took a deep breath and tried to relax.This was fine.This was Cass, someone they’d just managed to spend two days with and it was great.
“The sweets others have brought home from Violet Moon have been nice,” Cass added.“I didn’t try them all, but they certainly look beautiful.And you should definitely stop by the flower shop.It’s nice to get yourself a treat, or someone else.Plus, it’d be great to see you.”
Jo’s heart rate picked up again.It was hard not to read into this after what had happened in the tent.But it was just a normal thing to say to a friend, too.Friends want to see each other.
They ignored the heat in their cheeks and said, “Yeah, definitely!”
“And I can make it a point to stop by the bakery more.”
“I’m usually in the back,” Jo offered.“You can ask for me if you do come on by.”They slowly let out a breath and willed their heart to calm all the way back down.They didn’t want to make things weird.This was not a friend crush and it wasn’t a real crush either.Jo just wanted to be a good friend this time.
“What do you do at the bakery?”Cass asked.
