Chasing August | TEASER

One

It was a Tuesday afternoon at Frank & Selma's café in the middle of summer when Caroline realized she was incapable of love. Incapable as in finding it, reciprocating it and staying in it. Truthfully, her recent pick of boys could be playing a part in it, considering the first agreed upon rule was to keep things casual and simply see where things go. But if her latest escapades were anything to go by, the answer was they headed nowhere.

Usually she didn't mind. Being able to keep the rose-colored glasses off and feelings in check allowed her to walk away from the flings seemingly unscathed. But next year she'd be turning twenty-five, and while she didn't care much for neither marriage, kids nor a house, she had started longing for something to be more than a quicky when the mood suited.

"Earth to Caroline!" Emma waved her hand in front of Caroline's face, forcing her back to reality.

"I'm sorry?"

"Are you though? Are you really?"

"I swear I was listening."

Emma raised a distrustful brow. "Well in that case, isn't that the strangest thing?"

Caroline realized there was a fifty-fifty chance of replying the right thing.

"Oh, definitely!" she agreed. "The strangest."

Emma scowled.

Per usual, her life choices didn't pay out in her favor. Truthfully, she struggled to stay in the here and now when Emma started her half-hour lectures about how to conceive a baby. It was safe to say Caroline wasn't going to mourn the information lost on her. Because somewhere around the subject of pineapples and its effect on the fertility (Emma), they had grown quite hungry by speaking of food (Caroline), and it all ended with Caroline thinking of all the different kinds of food she could be eating if she had joined this summer's family vacation.

"So..." Emma switched the subject, eyes glimmering mischievously over the rim of her cup. "What's the latest with Philip?"

Caroline took note of the new way she was holding her tea; using both hands cupping the mug, a not-so-subtle way for her to proudly show off her new, sparkling engagement ring.

Emma's fiancé, Noel, had gotten down on one knee earlier this summer at the one year mark of the day they first met.

To Caroline, their engagement marked the day when Noel put impossible standards upon Caroline's own never-gonna-happen-proposal fantasies. Now she found her phone bombarded with invites to join wedding Pinterest boards and romantic songs playlists on Spotify, all in the role of maid of honor. If she hadn't loved the both of them to death, she'd puke at how annoyingly adorable they were.

"We're not picking out china patterns nor are we discussing baby names, if that's what you're asking."

"I know, but you guys have been dating for months, Car."

"Hooked up," Caroline corrected her matter of fact. "It's not dating if you see the guy more often naked than clothed– it's hooking up."

Emma ignored her. "Actually...hasn't it been a full year soon?"

"I wouldn't know."

"I think it is. Wouldn't that be longer than your past flings? Surely that has to mean something." Emma sat down her cup at the same pace that Caroline's mood dropped. "What about a sock drawer?"

"A sock drawer?"

"You know, your own little part of his closet which expands just as the relationship does over time."