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“Ten minutes…” Danny whispered playfully, stepping around Therese to get out from behind the counter.
“Nine minutes and thirty seconds actually,” she called after him. “Give or take.”
She heard his short burst of laughter as he disappeared into the aisles of the shop floor, though he didn’t turn back to retaliate with another smart comment. After all, he still had five hours, nine minutes, and thirty seconds (give or take) left of his shift, and it wasn’t even his last of the week. Therese on the other hand could already taste the freedom of her first weekend off in… well eight months at least, and she planned on making every second of it count once she was out of this god damn unif-
“Hello, can I have an ice-cream?”
It took Therese a second to locate the person behind the delicately asked question, though when she did she found herself looking down at the most adorable little girl she’d ever seen in her life (though all things considered the only real competition this kid had was the screaming six to ten year olds that usually demanded she pull them a cone while their parents half-heartedly apologized for how aggressive they were being).
“Well sure you can sweety.” Therese stepped over to the cone machine at the edge of the long counter and out of the corner of her eye she saw the little girl following her. “But first of all,” Therese continued, hunkering down to look the girl in the eye now that there wasn’t a counter between them. “Where’s your mom?”
Therese was an old pro at this point when it came to kids trying to wrangle an ice-cream into their hands before their parents had time to tell them no. Usually the parents just ended up paying for it anyway, though recently Therese had been stung bad by a father that had point blank refused to hand over the cash for an ice-cream his son had asked for behind his back, leaving Therese’s manager less than impressed (because of course the finances of an entire supermarket chain rested on the $1.50 that had been lost as a result of the unpaid for ice-cream).
“She’s paying for our groceries,” the girl explained. “But she told me I could get one now so I could eat it on the way to the car.”
Something told Therese the kid was far too innocent to be lying. Either that or she had one hell of an acting career ahead of her, and so she decided to give the little girl the benefit of the doubt.
“Okay well what do you want?” Therese reached up to the counter while she spoke and pulled a plastic glove out of the box. “We have cones or tubs?” She slipped the glove onto her hand and waited for the girl to reply.
It was a big ask after all. With the tub there was more ice-cream, and the combination of toppings was endless, though of course with cones there was the cone, and all the crunchy goodness that came along with it.
“A cone I think,” she answered finally.
Therese nodded. Solid choice.
“Alright, one cone coming up!” Therese stood up straight and reached into the box for a cone, only to feel a small hand tugging on the hem of her shirt.
“Can I help you make it?” The little girl asked when Therese glanced back down, her grey-blue eyes wide with enthusiasm.
It was a lot of effort. Therese had seen attempts at letting kids pull their own cones go desperately wrong in the past, though it was something about her eyes, Therese couldn’t help but nod.
“As long as you’re careful.” Therese pulled another glove out of the box and set the hollow cone back down on the counter just for a second. “What’s your name anyway?” She added then as she hunkered down once more to help the girl slip the over-sized glove onto her right hand.
“Rindy,” she replied, giggling then at how silly her hand looked, dwarfed by the glove. “What’s yours?”
“Therese,” Therese offered, standing back up and grabbing the cone, this time handing it to Rindy. “Okay, you ready?” Rindy nodded. “Cool well, hold it like this.” Therese maneuvered Rindy’s hand so the cone was directly under the ice-cream chute. “And when I pull this lever you move your hand around like this.” She demonstrated briefly. “Got it?”
Rindy nodded again. “Got it.” Her face scrunched in concentration and Therese pulled down the lever slowly, watching intently as the ice-cream slowly started pouring into the cone.
“Okay, slowly…” She reminded her, though Rindy was moving the cone in wide circles and the ice-cream was threatening to spill to one side so Therese released the lever and took the cone off her before it could fall.
“Is it not good?” Rindy asked, suddenly sounding sad.
“It’s not bad.” Therese was sure her first cone had turned out much worse. “Though how about we try again?” She dumped the content of the cone back into the top of the machine and handed it back to Rindy. “This time I’ll help guide your hand, how about that?”
Rindy nodded and positioned the cone back under the ice-cream chute without Therese having to tell her. Therese smiled at the young girls determination and knelt down next to her, holding her own hand over the one Rindy had wrapped around the cone, while her free hand held the lever.
“Ready?” Therese glanced quickly at Rindy.
“Ready.”
Therese pulled the lever again and this time was careful to make sure Rindy moved her wrist in small, sharp circles, allowing the ice-cream to pile up neatly on top of the cone.
“Ta-da,” Therese exclaimed when she let go of the lever again, this time revealing the perfectly pulled cone. “You did it!”
“Wow.” Rindy held the cone up close to her face in order to examine it in more detail. Therese couldn’t help but laugh.
“You want toppings?” She pointed to the different sauces and sprinkles sitting next to the cone machine on the counter. “We have strawberry, bubble gum, chocolate, butterscotch…” She began listing, though from the way Rindy’s eyes lit up she knew the girl had already settled on a flavour.
“Can I have the blue and pink ones?” (Or she’d at least settled on a colour).
“You mean strawberry and bubble gum?” Therese pointed to the two bottles.
“Yea, blue and pink.” Rindy nodded her head enthusiastically. “Because they’re my favourite colours,” she added when Therese reached for the pink sauce – well it was actually red, and it was also strawberry, or at least some sugar saturated version of the flavour, but who was she to argue really.
“Oh yea?” Therese asked absently, positioning Rindy’s hand over a bucket so she could pour the sauce over the cone without risking making a mess of the floor.
“Yep, that’s why my room in my daddy’s house is pink and my room in my mommy’s house is blue,” she explained.
“Your mommy and daddy don’t live together?” Not that it was any of Therese’s business but hey, her and Rindy were practically best friends at this point. She put the ‘pink’ sauce back and reached for the blue.
“No,” Rindy sighed, seeming utterly bored by the mere mention of her parents’ seperation. “Mommy says it’s because sometimes grown-ups just can’t be friends anymore so they live apart because otherwise they argue.”
Therese nodded wisely. “Makes sense,” she agreed. “And what does your dad say about it?” She tipped the blue sauce over the ice-cream, letting a tiny amount drizzle over the top of the cone.
“He says mommy fucked Aunt Abby,” Rindy explained with a nonchalant shrug.
Well.
That would certainly do the job.
“Oh…” Therese didn’t know whether or not to laugh. “Well uh… oh… I mean…”
“Therese?” Rindy was frowning at her now while Therese’s brain attempted to catch up with the sharp left the conversation had just taken. “Therese you’re putting too much blue on the cone.”
“Oh, oh!” Therese pulled away the bubble gum sauce before she emptied the bottle by mistake. “Quick, lick it before it goes everywhere,” she prompted, and Rindy set to work catching any drizzles of bubble gum sauce that threatened to run down her hand. “Thanks Therese!” Rindy exclaimed once the cone was no longer a dripping hazard.
“Uh huh…” Therese was still caught up in their previous conversation. “Rindy is your Aunt Abby related to you through your father or –“ She stopped mid-sentence when Rindy’s face scrunched in confusion. “Y’know what… doesn’t matter.”
That was none of her business and she was happy to keep it that way.
Rindy opened her mouth then to say something else, but obviously spotted something over Therese’s shoulder before she had the chance to speak because next second she was shouting enthusiastically and spraying the ice-cream still clinging to her lips into Therese’s face.
“Mommy! Look!” She held the cone high in the air and Therese moved to one side then stood, so whoever Rindy’s mother was could see the cone without her back in the way. She also casually wiped the side of her face.
“Oh my darling that looks delicious?” A woman hunkered down in front of Rindy, though her back remained to Therese and so all she could really tell was that she had soft platinum blonde curls that sat just below her shoulder and, if her barely see through silk shirt was anything to go by, a great back.
“I helped Therese make it!” Rindy explained eagerly, pointing over her mother’s shoulder to Therese.
The woman stood then and turned to Therese. Her eyes were the same grey-blue as her daughters and her face – Therese couldn’t help but mentally applaud Aunt Abby.
“Hi…” Therese could already feel her face begin to flush, and knowing how red her cheeks were going only made her sound even more awkward, if at all possible, meaning her greeting had sounded more like a squeak than actual distinguishable sounds.
“Hello there.” Jesus Christ her voice sounded like runny caramel or soft jazz or being pressed up against a wall and slowly – “Therese is it?”
“Uh…” Was it Therese? Good question? Yes! Yes it was. “Yes,” she managed dumbly after far too long a pause. “And you?”
“Carol.” She extended her hand and Therese made the mistake of looking down before accepting the handshake – good lord those fingers were long. “Rindy helped you make the cone?”
Therese finally accepted her hand. “Well she wanted to learn, and I’m always on the lookout for an assistant cone maker.” Therese smiled at Carol then down at Rindy, proud of herself more than anything for managing an entire sentence without stuttering.
“We messed up this first one, but this one was perfect,” Rindy explained, looking up at her mother who Therese realised still hadn’t taken her eyes off her. Nor had she dropped their handshake yet for that matter, which left Therese wondering when it stopped being a handshake and became instead a handhold.
Then, in the same second Therese made the mental note to google the question later, Carol dropped her hand and crouched back town to her daughters level.
“And tell me, how did you make that one?”
Rindy began an animated description of events leading up to the great ice-cream cone of 2016 and Therese took the opportunity to briefly check out Carol’s ass (and no, not in a creepy way, in an ‘I appreciate the female form kind of way)(it was also a solid 9.5/10) then check the time on her watch. Much to her eternal joy she was finally done for the day. Well, she was done in a minute or two, but she wasn’t about to split hairs over a few minutes, so she untied her apron from around her waist and reached for her bag under the counter.
“Therese, where you going?” Rindy stopped mid story and looked up from her mother.
“Oh… Well I’m done work now,” she explained, trying her best to ignore Carol’s eyes examining her intently while she spoke.
“Oh…” Rindy paused for a second, obviously thinking. “Then what you going to do?”
Her plan had been to go home, shower, cook herself some dinner, then spend the evening reading in bed, though suddenly that all seemed rather boring when Carol’s eyes were still trained on her intently.
“Well I…”
“Rindy darling must you quiz people?” Carol laughed at her daughters questioning.
“I just wanna know what she’s going to do so if she’s doing nothing we can invite her to the park with us,” Rindy explained, as if her plan should be an obvious one. “So are you doing something?” She looked away from her mother towards Therese.
“Well –“
“You don’t have to say yes if you don’t want to,” Carol interrupted before Therese had a chance to panic about what the best answer would be. “Though if you’re genuinely free this evening, you’re more than welcome to join us,” she added, and Therese could tell from the small smile she cast in Therese’s direction that she wasn’t just saying that to be polite.
Still, she pretended to have to think about it for just a moment. “Well then if that’s the case I’d love to go to the park.” She looked directly at Carol and swore she saw something twinkle in the older woman’s eyes.
“Yay!” Rindy cheered and pulled both women from their apparent staring contest. “We can feed the ducks, and go on the swings, and-“
“And pay for this ice-cream you bought,” Carol interrupted, standing then to face Therese.
Therese just shook her head. “On the house.” Carol opened her mouth to interrupt. “Rindy did most of the work anyway, and you’re saving me from an evening of doing nothing so really, it’s on the house.” Carol smiled at the gesture and Therese stepped out from behind the counter. “Now uh, are you okay waiting two minutes until I change out of my uniform?”
Carol just nodded.
-.-.-.-.-
It was a five minute drive to the park Carol apparently took Rindy every Friday afternoon. Therese knew this because Rindy had talked from the second they’d left the shop until the second they’d set foot on the playground (and somehow also managing to finish her ice-cream in between times). Therese was pretty sure she now knew everything that had happened to the girl in the short five years of her life. As cute as she was Therese was glad to see her spot a friend and run off towards the swings the second they’d opened the park gate.
“She overwhelming you yet?” Carol obviously spotted the shell shocked look on Therese’s face.
“No she just…” Therese searched for the right word. “Has a lot to say.”
“It started when my marriage to her father first ran into trouble,” Carol explained, and Therese was shocked by how easily she was opening up to a practical stranger. “She spoke to fill the awkward silences constantly present in the house.”
“When my dad first died I talked a lot as well because my mother stopped talking completely,” Therese sympathized, not realising until after she’d spoken that not very many people knew about her family situation, least of all a woman she’d met no more than twenty minutes ago.
“I’m sorry about your father,” Carol ran her hand along the length of Therese’s arm quickly and Therese swore it was like being set on fire.
“I was only little,” she shrugged. “No point dwelling on the past.” She thought maybe the whole being sent away to an orphanage by her mother could wait until their second date.
Well, not that, not that this was a first date of course. They’d only just met. That would be weird. Like really, that’d be ridiculous to presume that just because she’d helped this woman’s kid make an ice-cream they were suddenly on a date. Like damn she needed to check herself.
“Therese?” Carol was looking at her oddly now and Therese wondered in a brief moment of panic if she’d said any of what she’d just been thinking out loud.
“Hm?”
“I said do you want to grab a bench?”
“Oh.” (Thank God). “Yea, sure.”
There was a bench a few steps away from them. They sat there.
“So, Therese.” The way Carol said her name left her weak at the knees. “Tell me about yourself?”
“Oh, uh, what do you want to know?” She was never good at this part of a first da- god dammit, no, it wasn’t a date. It was a conversation.
“Well I know you work in a supermarket,” Carol remarked. “Though I presume that’s not been your aspiration in life, so let’s start there, shall we?”
Therese felt a blush creep up her cheek at the way Carol’s lips turned up in a lazy smirk. “Alright.” She paused for a moment to compose herself, then began to explain. “Well I’m currently finishing my masters in digital photography and I’m working on setting up a portfolio of my work, you know, to show to galleries and stuff, though photography doesn’t quite cover the bills just yet so I’m also working part time in the supermarket.”
“I don’t suppose that leaves you a lot of free time to take photos,” Carol commented, reaching into her handbag at the same time and pulling out a carton of cigarettes.
“No not really, though I get offered the odd job on my days off by people that have seen my work before, and I carry my camera everywhere so…” she trailed off and Carol offered her the cigarette carton. “Thanks.” She took one and leaned in to allow Carol to light it before she lit her own. “What about you?” She asked then. “What do you do?”
“I run a furniture store,” Carol explained, her eyes casting out across the playground briefly to make sure Rindy was still within her site, before letting them settle back on Therese. “Though let’s not worry about me right now, I’m not nearly as interesting as you are.”
“I think you’re interesting…” Therese blurted before her brain had a chance to stop her. “What I mean is that – I just think…”
Carol took a slow drag of her cigarette and watched Therese stumble over her sentences, desperately attempting to take back what she’d just said. She turned her head to the side briefly to blow out a cloud of smoke then turned her full attention back to Therese, deciding then to put her out of her misery.
“So what type of photos do you take?” Her sentence cut in over Therese’s stammering.
“Oh… I don’t know, anything really.” She shrugged, though the question put her back at ease. “Mostly candid’s. I find staged photos almost never manage to capture the same range of emotion.”
“Is that why you take photos?” Carol asked again. “To capture emotion?”
“Isn’t that why everyone creates art?” Therese countered, not really feeling nervous at all anymore, especially now that a little of the nicotine had gone to her head. “With the hope that they capture a little of the human spirit in what they do? Maybe even a little of the world?”
Carol smiled at her, impressed by the answer. “I suppose it is, yes.”
“Have you ever tried your hand at it?” Therese asked then, still so desperate to know more about the enigmatic blonde. “Art that is,” she added then when she saw Carol wasn’t quite following the question.
“Oh, I suppose,” Carol offered with a vague shrug. “Before I was married I wrote a lot, though then life gets in the way and suddenly you’re lucky if you have time to write a grocery list,” she explained, smiling briefly at her own joke.
“Though now that you’re divorced would you not-“
“How do you know I’m divorced?” Carol cut over her.
Oh shit. “Well it’s just you mentioned Rindy talking a lot to fill silences between you and your husband and I just – I mean I presumed-“
“Rindy told you earlier in the store, didn’t she?” Carol interrupted again, sighing while she stubbed out the rest of her cigarette.
Therese nodded, her own cigarette more or less burned out in her hand. “I mean not in so many words, but yes.”
Carol sighed. “She’s been talking about it a lot recently, and to anyone but me for that matter. Abby thinks I should take her to see a psychologist but…” She trailed off with a shrug.
“Is Abby… your sister?” Therese asked tentatively, remembering vividly the other thing Rindy had mentioned earlier.
“What? No, just a friend.”
Oh thank god.
She wanted to know more. Wanted to know exactly where this Abby person fit in Carol’s life, though out of the corner of her eye she saw Rindy running over and decided now wasn’t the time to pry.
“Mommy, Sally’s going home so I’m done on the swings now,” she explained rapidly, barely able to catch her breath from all the excitement. “So can we go feed the ducks please?”
Carol turned to Therese. “Want to go feed ducks?”
Therese smiled. “Sure.”
-.-.-.-.-
Half ways to the pond Rindy decided she wanted to be swung, and so insisted on Carol and Therese taking a hand each and swinging her the rest of the way. Carol had smiled at Therese apologetically, though Therese had only shrugged and laughed at Rindy’s enthusiasm. Secretly she loved how domestic the entire situation had felt, though she’d never in a million years admit that. Only crazy people admitted to weird shit like that on a first date (or first not date, whatever).
The lake was quiet when they got there, and Carol produced a plastic zip-tied bag of breadcrumbs from her handbag and handed it to Rindy, watching her run off towards the bank of lake before leading Therese to a nearby bench. They were both silent at first, and Therese used the opportunity to pull her camera out from her own handbag. She could feel Carol’s eyes on her when she lifted the camera to her eye, though she ignored the intensity of the stare, instead focusing on snapping a few pictures of Rindy happily throwing the bread crumbs in the air, or trying to reach out to pet one of the ducks that was eating the crumbs closest to her.
“I can send them to you if you like,” she commented when she took the camera away from her eye, still not looking at Carol.
“I’d like that.” Carol was still looking at her though, and eventually she glanced up slowly from where she’d been trying to put back on the lens cap.
“Would you let me photograph you sometime?” She asked then, caught off guard by her own boldness, yet none the less finding herself incapable of looking away from Carol’s striking gaze.
Carol did look away however, and for the first time all day Therese noticed a blush colouring the older woman’s cheeks for a change. “I doubt very much you’d get anything from photographing me.”
“I think you’re wrong,” Therese countered, still riding high on her burst of confidence. “If anything my worry would be that I wouldn’t know how to capture you without doing you an injustice.”
Carol looked back at her then and for a split second Therese was overcome with the crazy feeling that Carol was about to kiss her. As soon as the feeling came though it was gone again, because as soon as her eyes locked with Carol’s, Carol seemed to notice someone over Therese’s shoulder and her face turned almost sour for a second before she regained her composure.
“Carol darling, is that you?” Whoever it was they were fucking shrill.
“Jeanette!” Therese may have only known Carol for the better part of an hour and a half, though she could already tell the smile she offered Jeanette was fake.
“Darling how are you?” Jeanette came into Therese’s line of vision now when she leaned in to offer Carol a quick kiss on each cheek. It wouldn’t be fair to describe her, Therese thought; next to Carol everyone simply looked grey. Jeanette was just a very obviously upper class shade of grey, and that was about all Therese was willing to distinguish.
“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Carol reassured her, pulling away from the kisses and offering a tight smile. “And you?”
“Oh you know, coping,” Jeanette joked, though Therese had a feeling this woman didn’t know the meaning of the word. “God, I’m just trying to think of the last time we saw one another. It must have been, well, before your divorce was – oh Carol, I’m sorry! I shouldn’t have mentioned it!”
Carol smiled again to reassure her and Therese just sat there, quietly baffled by the boldness of this woman. “It’s quite all right,” Carol began. “Water under the bridge, and anyway, I do think it was the Christmas before the divorce was finalised that we saw one another last.”
Mhm, mhm, such an awful thing to have to go through,” Jeanette sympathised, going quiet then for a second before seeming to notice Therese for the first time. “Oh and how rude of me, I didn’t even introduce myself to your little friend!”
Therese tried not to flinch at Jeanette’s choice phrasing. She was five foot two, not a fucking child.
“Therese,” she offered with a smile and a small wave, barely bothering to make eye contact.
“A lovely name, and what is it you do Therese?”
“Oh…” Therese hadn’t been expecting Jeanette to consider her of much interest past a name, and the question caught her a little off guard. “I’m a –“
“Therese is a photographer,” Carol cut in, smiling quickly at Therese before looking back at Jeanette.
“Oh a younger woman and an artistic type. Someone’s been reading too many wild romance novels,” Jeanette teased. “I suppose she has you a kept woman?” This question was directed at Therese, though for the life of her she didn’t know how to respond.
“I have a, uh, job?” Therese replied dumbly.
“Of course honey, of course, I’m only trying to wind up your… what is it you like to call it these days? My niece uses the term ‘girlfriend’ for anyone she dates, though I know a woman in my book club who uses ‘partner’ and honestly with the whole marriage thing now as well I can’t keep up with what you want to be –“
“Mommy,” Rindy called, breaking through Jeanettes speech and saving Therese from actually physically dying from embarrassment. “I’m out of bread!” Rindy appeared at Carol’s side and Therese looked up at Carol, realising then that she hadn’t been the only one willing the ground to swallow her whole.
“Oh well uh-“ Carol’s mind had obviously drawn a blank as she attempted to regain her composure with Rindy, Therese, and Jeanette all staring at her.
“How about we go look for somewhere to buy a drink and some sandwiches then?” Therese suggested, jumping in when she realised Carol couldn’t.
“Oh, well if the three of you are going to get food.” Jeanette took a step back. “I’ll be on my way. I’ve errands to run anyway,” she explained, not that Therese cared what she was doing as long as she was leaving.
“Yes, well…” Carol stood up and brushed herself down to smoothen out any imaginary wrinkles in her shirt. “Always nice seeing you Jeanette.”
They hugged briefly and then Jeanette was on her way, leaving Rindy’s animated stories about all the ducks she’d met to fill the awkward silence between Therese and Carol the whole way to a nearby café.
-.-.-.-.-
“I suppose I should explain…” Carol offered when Rindy was too busy tucking into her ham and cheese toasty to create more of a distraction.
Therese all but laughed at how casual Carol sounded. “I think Jeanette had us all but married off, so I mean…”
“When I got a divorce,” Carol began, glancing carefully at Rindy making sure she was still preoccupied with her food before continuing. “There were rumours milling around in my old social circles about the circumstances for the divorce. As you can imagine…” She trailed off.
“One of those rumours was that you liked to set up budding artists?” Therese offered teasingly, and Carol couldn’t help but laugh.
“Something like that,” she sighed. “I am sorry though. That was a terribly embarrassing situation for you to have to sit through.”
Therese shrugged. “Based on how red your cheeks went I’m sure it was worse for you.”
Carol hummed in agreement. “And I’m sorry I didn’t let you answer when she asked you what you did as well,” she added then. “God knows I spent long enough with Rindy’s father speaking on my behalf to know how annoying that can be.” She sighed again. “I just, and please don’t take offence…”
“Try me,” Therese offered with a smile.
“Well it’s just…” Carol stalled, in spite of Therese’s prompting. “You’re young and I’m… not.” Therese moved her hand in a bid to cover the hand Carol had resting on the table, not liking the insecurity she’d heard in Carol’s voice. She decided against it at the last second though, leaving her hand floating in mid-air for a moment instead before dropping it right next to Carol’s instead. “And not that it should bother me, but I know the first thing Jeanette did after seeing us earlier was call our old friends and if you’d said you were finishing your masters well…”
“Jeanette would have told them you were dating a college student.” Of course Therese technically still was a college student, though at twenty-four years old she wasn’t what would typically be conjured in the mind of someone when the phrase ‘college student’ was mentioned.
“I suppose you think I’m ridiculous?” Carol asked then, a self-depreciating kind of smile pulling at the edges of her features.
“No,” Therese replied instantly, this time actually having the courage to lift her hand again and place it over Carol’s on the table. “I think you’re anything but ridiculous Carol and, for the record, I think any college student would be lucky to have you.”
Carol turned her hand on the table then so their palms were touching, then wrapped her fingers around Therese’s wrist and squeezed briefly. “Thank you.”
Therese smiled at her. “Don’t mention –“
“Are you two going to eat or are you just going to stare at one another?” Rindy interrupted suddenly, having finished half her sandwich only to realise her mom and Therese hadn’t touched their food yet.
Carol and Therese both pulled their hands away and quickly averted their eyes to their respective plates. “Sorry darling, we’re going to eat now,” Carol apologised, trying her best not to laugh.
-.-.-.-.-
Rindy was resting on Carol’s hip when they left the café, and just above the canopy of trees in the park Therese could see the sun beginning to set for the evening. She checked her watch for the first time since she’d gotten off work. It was almost half eight in the evening and she’d gotten off work at three. It was strange. She felt like she’d known Carol a lot longer than five and a half hours, yet their day spent together had felt like no time at all.
“I suppose you should be getting her home,” Therese pointed, noticing how Rindy’s eyes struggled to stay open.
“She’ll only be cranky tomorrow if I don’t,” Carol agreed, both of them setting off walking towards the west exit of the park where Carol had left the car earlier even though Therese knew if she left by the east gate she’d be a ten minute walk from her apartment.
“Today was fun,” Therese offered then when a brief silence fell over the three of them.
“It was,” Carol agreed. “I don’t suppose…” She trailed off then when Rindy stirred against her shoulder.
“Don’t suppose what?” Therese asked after Carol had re-positioned Rindy against her hip so the young girls head could rest comfortably against Carol’s shoulder.
“Well.” She cleared her throat. “This may seem terribly forward, but I don’t suppose you’d like to come over?” She averted eye contact quickly. “Just for a tea and, you know, a chat that won’t be interrupted by a hyper five year old.”
Therese almost swooned she was so deliriously happy at the prospect of spending more time with Carol, though she quickly schooled her features so as not to come across as, well, crazy. “Yea, that’d be nice.”
-.-.-.-.-
You know what else was nice? Carol’s fucking apartment. Like wow that shit was nice, and on Madison Avenue none the less. (Then again, Therese wasn’t sure you could get anything but nice apartments if you lived on Madison Avenue). Carol was currently putting Rindy to bed and had left Therese to her own devices in the living room, which of course meant Therese wandering around and periodically picking her jaw up off the floor at just how nice this place was.
She wasn’t sure she’d be able to set foot in her shoe box apartment ever again after this experience.
She turned away from examining the decorative white marble fireplace that was the key feature of the living room, to find Carol standing in the doorway, studying her carefully.
“You like it?” Therese wasn’t sure if Carol was referring specifically to the fireplace, or to the apartment on a whole, but either way the answer was yes.
“It’s gorgeous.” Carol laughed at the enthusiasm in her tone and wandered further into the room.
“Glad you think so.” She stepped over to the open arch that led through to the kitchen. “Now do you want that tea or something stronger?” She asked over her shoulder. “Bearing in mind I’m having something stronger,” Carol added when Therese didn’t answer right away.
“Something stronger then.”
Carol flashed her a smile then disappeared into the kitchen only for a few moments before returning with a bottle of white wine and two glasses. “Does a Sauvignon Blanc suit the lady?” She teased, holding the wine bottle out in the air.
“It does,” Therese told her with a laugh, following her then to the couch closest to the coffee table where Carol proceeded to pour them a glass each.
Carol handed Therese the glass then observed her for a moment before speaking. “You know it was nice of you to come along with us today.”
Therese shrugged. “I had nothing else to do, remember.”
“No, I know,” Carol agreed. “But still you didn’t know me and you barely knew my daughter and yet you agreed to spend the day with us, practically on the spot.”
Therese shrugged again, realising that it was probably quite odd, especially when Carol said it out loud like that. “Rindy’s a really cool kid,” she offered as an excuse. “And to be honest so is her mom.”
Bold Belivet, bold.
Carol laughed at the comment. “What? I’m a cool kid?”
Therese blushed profusely. That compliment had sounded a lot smoother in her head.
“That’s not… not at all what I was trying to say there,” she sighed dramatically. “What I meant was...” She paused and worried her bottom lip between her teeth just for a moment before speaking again. “What I meant to say was that I’m glad Rindy asked me to hang out with you guys because you’re so pretty I’d probably have followed you anyway…”
For fuck sakes, really?
Carol quirked her eyebrow.
“No, wait.” Why the hell could she not just say something nice without sounding creepy or condescending? “I mean…” She took a breath and cleared her throat. “I’m glad I got the chance to spend time with you today because-“
Before she had a chance to finish the sentence Carol was leaning across the small space between them, and her lips were enveloping Therese’s in a soft kiss.
“Sorry,” Carol whispered, pulling back almost as quickly as she’d leaned in. “I just couldn’t have you butcher that attempt at complimenting me a third time.”
Therese turned scarlet. Carol leaned in and kissed her again.