#cullenvhenan

“That was not cool!” she huffs to Avery, still crossing her arms. “You were supposed to—I didn’t know—I wasn’t expecting—”

“Calm down!” He smirks at her. It’s infuriating. “I thought you’d be glad to know that it was her idea.”

She sputters. “Her—what?”

“Yeah. I’d already boxed up the pastries and stuff, and I was about to head out when she told me to start getting the baguettes in the oven. Which she usually does herself. So she definitely just wanted to go flirt with you.” He wiggles his eyebrows playfully.

Of course he does. This is all just hilarious to him.

“Well she didn’t,” Ellinor grumbles. “Flirt with me, I mean.”

“Come on, Ell—”

“I’m serious! There was no flirting! I opened the fucking door and she was like ‘hi,’ and I said ‘oh.’” She throws her hands up in the air. “Literally just ‘oh.’ Like an idiot. I couldn’t make this up.”

“It’s not like you guys haven’t had normal conversations before.” Sensing that she’s no longer...hostile...he kicks his shoes off and hangs his jacket on the hook by the door.

Shr shrugs. “I know. But it takes...so long to get to that point. I always say something dumb or awkward. Like ‘oh.’ And she’s probably like, ‘I have so many better things I could be doing than talking to this loser’—”

“She would never think that.”

“How would you know?”

“Because I work with her?” he says. “And she’s always asking how you’re doing or talking about how she might go across the street for a latte if the shop gets slow.”

Ellinor perks up. “Really?”

“Yes!” Avery says, rolling his eyes. “Seriously. You guys are so weird about this whole thing, I don’t know why you can’t just see that the other is interested—”

“She’s not interested!” she insists. “I mean, not like...not like that. I’m sure she’s just like, ‘oh, that’s Ellinor, my employees sister, who I could definitely see as a friend but nothing more than’—”

“Stop putting words in her mouth, Ell.” He sighs, flopping down on the couch. “You’re just speculating because you’re afraid.”

“I’m not afraid. I saw her this morning.”

“Yeah, and from the little bit that you told me, it seems like that went just great.”

She doesn’t even bother telling him about how she could barely get her words straight when she offered Caridad a coffee, or about how she literally dropped two bagels on the floor by accident stocking the pastry case while said coffee was brewing and Caridad was standing idly waiting for it.

“It was. Fine.”

“Look at me.”

“No,” she mumbles, but he won’t relent.

“Ell. Look me in the eye and tell me you’re really okay with just seeing Caridad a couple times a week at the cafe or bakery or maybe when all three of us hang out.”

She tilts her head back and forth indecisively, and Avery sighs.

“One of you has to make a move eventually.”

“Well it’s not going to be me,” she says decisively, tossing her phone onto the coffee table before heading into the bathroom.

Deep breaths, Ellinor, she thinks, closing the door behind her. It’s not like her to get so flustered about anything, really, but Caridad was another story. She splashes some water on her face and pats a towel over her cheeks, taking one final deep breath before emerging.

“You good?” Avery snorts, and she rolls her eyes at him.

“I’m fine.” She sits down next to him on the sofa, picking up her phone from where she’d left it only to find a text waiting for her on her lock screen.

Caridad

Yeah, that would be cool

She almost drops her phone from how quickly she tries to swipe it open. “What the…” Inside is a text from her that was very obviously not written by her.

Hi Caridad! Avery told me you’re taking the day off tomorrow. I’m off too! Would you want to get boba together?

“Avery,” she breathes.

“Mmhmmmm?”

“What have you done?”

“You said you weren’t going to make a move. So I made a move for you.”

“Avery—”

“I know you’re off tomorrow. And I know you didn’t have any plans. But now you do!”

“I’m going to kill you,” she says, her heart racing. “I’m going to—oh my god, I have to tell her I can’t. This was a mistake.”

“But she already said yes!”

Oh my god. She said yes.

She groans and falls back into the couch cushions. “Fuck. You’re right.”

***

She stands outside the boba shop, shifting her weight from foot to foot. This was a bad idea. Caridad isn’t even here yet. Granted, she made sure to get to the boba shop exactly 15 minutes early. She even woke up early for this. She’d agreed to meet with Caridad at 1, but she woke up at 10, showered, changed into ripped denim shorts with tights and about eight different flannel shirts before deciding on a red one. And she put on makeup for this. And a matching red knit beanie. And all of that only took until 11. Which means she had two extra hours to pace around her apartment anxiously before heading out.

She’d hung out with Caridad alone only two times before this, and both were months ago. The first time was one night when they’d happened to close the cafe and bakery at the same time and ran into each other in the street, and Caridad mentioned that she was going to go get ramen, and Ellinor had stupidly said oh, me too! She was not, in fact, going to go get ramen after work. Or at least, she wasn’t until her brain decided to make up something stupid just to be able to hang out with Caridad. But Caridad had said oh, we could um. Go together. So it worked. In a way. And they got ramen. And it was awkward at first, but after a few glasses of sake it was decidedly less awkward, and they ended up staying and chatting until the restaurant was closing. The other time, they’d planned to go see a movie with Avery only for Avery to bail at the last minute. Ellinor hadn’t thought much of it then (she sure does now), but she and Caridad had gone together anyway. And it was nice. And their fingers had brushed together every time they’d reached for popcorn at the same time, which was...several times. And after the movie, they’d walked the long way home. Neither of them suggested it. But their feet seemed to carry them blocks away from the more direct route to their neighborhood, and they’d chatted together in the quiet street-lit sidewalks until finally it seemed like the only place left to go was home.

But anyway. Both of those times were months ago, and even though Ellinor had been convinced that they could’ve had something then, she’s all but lost hope by now. And yet thanks to Avery, here she was, standing outside the boba shop looking like an idiot waiting for Caridad.

That’s if she doesn’t end up deciding this is a bad idea.

“Ellinor?”

She turns sharply only to find her standing there, and for a second, she doesn’t even know what to say.

These days, if she sees her at all, it’s usually in her standard baker’s jacket and black pants, black hair tied back into a bun or ponytail. Not this time. Today, Caridad is dressed in ripped gray skinny jeans and an off-the-shoulder red top, her hair loose and long and flowing past her bare shoulders. Oh good, she wore makeup too, Ellinor thinks, noting Caridad’s cherry red lipstick and smokey eye combination. It would’ve been weird if only I wore… She shakes her head. Stop being stupid. Say something.

“Hey,” she says nervously. “Uh. Our red shirts match.”

Caridad flashes an awkward smile. “Ha. Yeah. They do.”

You fucking idiot, Ellinor, she thinks.

They stare at each other until another customer steps out of the boba shop and walks right between them out onto the sidewalk.

“Oh. Right.” Ellinor opens the door for them. “Uh. After you.”

Caridad steps inside, her heeled boots clicking gently on the floor. “What are you going to get?” she asks her, and Ellinor blushes.

“Oolong.”

“Oh! Yeah. Me too.”

Ellinor’s eyes widen.

“It’s my favorite,” Caridad clarifies.

“Yeah, me too.”

She manages to order her tea without making too much of an embarrassment of herself, and they make their way out of the shop.

“Do you want to go to the park?” Caridad asks quickly. “I mean, unless you wanted to go somewhere else. I don’t care.”

“No! The park is—the park would be nice.”

With her heels on, Caridad is only just taller than Ellinor. She glances at her shyly as they walk together. We’re probably the same height, she figures, because from where she stands, she can see the way her cheeks redden in the early spring cold, and the way her eyelashes flutter when she catches Ellinor looking at her.

Oops.

The park is surprisingly quiet when they arrive. They sip their boba in silence, walking around the gardens and the fountains that had only just thawed from the winter weather.

“Wait…” Ellinor says suddenly, looking around.

Caridad stops. “What is it?”

“Nothing. I mean. This is where...isn’t this where we walked around after the movies, that one time?”

If Caridad’s face was flushed before, it’s really red now. “Oh,” she says hurriedly. “Yeah. I guess so.”

I guess so.

Ellinor’s heart sinks. It probably doesn’t matter as much to her. “Yeah, I only just remembered. That was. Uh. Fun.”

“Yeah,” Caridad mumbles. “It was.”

Despite her discouragement, Avery’s voice rings in her ears. One of you has to make a move eventually.

Ugh. He’s right, even if she wouldn’t admit it to his face. And if she doesn’t say something now, she’ll probably regret it.

Definitely regret it.

“Hey, Caridad.”

Her eyes snap up from where she’d been looking at her boots, meeting Ellinor’s gaze. “Yeah?”

“What...um. What happened, after that night?” She swallows. “I mean, I thought we’d had a really nice time. I’d hoped that maybe we could’ve hung out again sometime, but I—well, maybe it’s me, I was too scared to ask you, but I did think it was fun and I sort of wished we’d hung out again but you never said anything so I sort of assumed you probably did want to but I did want to and...oh fuck, now I’m babbling, and—”

“You did?” Caridad asks in a small voice.

“Did what?” Ellinor squeaks.

“You—you did want to hang out with me again?”

“W-well—yeah! I mean. Yeah, I did. I just didn’t think you were interested because you’re so. Cool. And stuff. But I thought...that we’d really had fun that night. And—”

“So did I.”

“You...oh.” Ellinor says nervously. “You did.”

“Yeah. It was really nice.”

Ellinor takes a deep breath, considering this. “So, did you...suggest coming to the park on purpose?”

Caridad looks back downward. “Yeah.”

Oh.

She looks up. “Caridad.”

“Yes?”

Clutching her boba in her hands, she takes a single step closer to her, tilts her head up, and kisses her cheek.

“Oh,” Caridad whispers, and she looks into Ellinor’s eyes, blushing, surprised, but smiling. Just a little.

But a little is enough.

The next time Ellinor leans in, she meets her lips in a full kiss, soft and careful and tasting like sweetened oolong tea. Ellinor wonders if her red lipstick will rub off on her. She hopes it does.

“That was…” she breathes when Caridad pulls away. “Nice.”