Episode 1032: Starting Over

Enid removed the two juices from her bag, grapefruit, Tansy’s favorite. She put them in the refrigerator to chill while she waited for Tansy to show up.

After a few minutes, with worry so great in her stomach that she wasn’t sure she’d be able to eat a cupcake, Enid opened one of her schoolbooks on the table. She bit into a cupcake and set it on a napkin next to the book. Did it look casual? Like she was in the middle of a snack and study break? Which really was all Enid meant it to be. Even if she deep down wished it was something else.

But she’d promised Tansy they could just be friends, no pressure. She’d rather be friends with Tansy than nothing at all. She’d thought Tansy must want that, too, or she would have volunteered somewhere else. But Tansy sort of seem to be be avoiding her.

Sure they worked together once in awhile on jobs around the shelter that needed two people, but most of the time Tansy seemed to be on the move with a long list of stuff to do on her own.

While the shelter did require a lot of labor to stay up and running, Enid suspected Tansy’s herculean efforts weren’t just about that. It seemed like they were back at square one, the way Tansy had been so tentative around Enid in the beginning, afraid her friendship would be rejected, acting like she had to steer clear, protect herself from that potential hurt if Enid hadn’t told the honest truth about being friends again. But she had.

Enid figured that Tansy was afraid it was too late to salvage the old ease between them so she was tip-toeing around their friendship instead of diving right in.

So Enid had thought of cupcakes, of just sitting together, sharing a snack like they’d done in the early days, maybe it would show her it could go back to being just that simple between them again, if that’s what she wanted.

Episode 1033: Blue Ain't Your Color