What We've Done

Chapter Two

"Did someone walk you home last night?"

Elouise bit back a smile, scrubbing a mug stained at the sides and bottom with dried coffee. "Maybe. It's not that important."

Anne gasped, standing from her place at their small kitchen table and slinking around the island to where Elouise stood. She had a catlike quality about her, from her slender torso to her near-silent steps, that had made Elousie particularly secretive growing up. "You mean to tell me that my Virgin Elouise of a sister has taken to fancying a man?"

Elouise rolled her eyes. "No, and this is exactly why I don't tell you these things Anne. You take it way out of proportion!"

"Oh, little Louise, you're always so sensitive," Anne shook her head, snaking around to the side of the sink. "Come on, even you have to admit it's not every day a man catches your eye."

"Maybe it is, but you don't know. Maybe I just don't feel the need to make every little thought I have public information," Elouise pulled the sink plug, watching the water as it drained, then looking at her sister. A look of smug satisfaction took over her face. "How about that?"

Anne, the eldest sibling, had fought with Elouise more than enough in her life, and knew easily how to win. The younger appreciated level-headedness and didn't like to be flustered or put on the spot; with enough patience, one could coax any response they required out of her.

Fortunately, most people did not have enough patience to deal with her in that way.

"Come on, Louise," Anne sighed, lips drawing to a pout. "Just tell me his name."

Elouise shook her head. "You don't give up, do you?" Anne didn't make a move to respond, opting instead to watch as Elouise dried her hands with a tea towel and leaned against the counter. "It's Henry."

"Henry," Anne mused, grinning upon hearing it. "I know a few Henrys."

"Oh, I'm sure you do."

"Henry Smith, Henry Wagner... even a Henry Davis down at the dock," she peered at Elouise with curiosity. "Recognize any of those names?"

Elouise shook her head. "No, of course not. I wouldn't dare associate myself with your kind of man," Anne reared back in mock shock at the hit. "Besides, I'm sure you wouldn't have heard of him."

"Oh yeah?" Anne moved closer. "Why's that?"

Elouise shrugged. "Just a hunch," it didn't satisfy Anne, but that wasn't her responsibility. "Anyways, I should go get ready."

"For what?"

Elouise ducked away from the counter and onto the doorframe of her room, before turning back to grin fiendishly at Anne. "A date."

"Elouise Mary Anderson!"

She didn't let her finish, closing the door and locking it so that she could get ready for the date in peace. When talking with Anne, it was only a matter of time until the wedding would come up, and then Elouise would have to entertain every sidetrack road she ventured off onto. The dress, the venue- already boring enough, especially on the twentieth mention- then Tony, her fiance, and all the trouble that came with choosing bridesmaids out of her too-large group of friends. It was a never slowing, never stopping, never thinking freight train that would, soon enough, crash into a station.

And Elouise was not ready for Anne to leave.
Not just because she couldn't afford the apartment without her and loathed the idea of a roommate, but also because she would likely be losing Anne forever. Marriage meant so much- too much- that it made her brim with tears just thinking about the day she would have to bid farewell to her best friend.