mint; （ a. knight ）

5. hickory;

"I'm really glad you're here, Ellie, really I am. I'm just sorry it's under these circumstances." I laughed at Chloe's statement as we sat together on the bed folding laundry.

"What's that even supposed to mean?" I teased her. "I'm so happy to help you out. I wish you would've asked me sooner."

Geoff's lovely girlfriend Chloe was about eight months pregnant with their baby girl and just recently got put on bed rest right before Geoff was going to be gone for almost an entire month. The boys had left for Europe almost a week ago now and, while I appreciated Chloe's fierce need to be independent, bed rest literally meant she was permitted to do very minimal movement.

Thankfully, both Chloe and Geoff had wonderfully supportive families that came around multiple times a day to check in on her and help her with chores. Today I had gone grocery shopping for her and had done her laundry but she insisted on helping me fold the clothes so I could put them away.

"I just mean that helping me out like this kinda goes above and beyond the usual scope of friendship. We hardly know each other." Chloe smiled kindly at me. She really was lovely.

"That's exactly why I wanted to help you out today." I set my pile of clothing aside for a moment. "I feel like if Awsten and I are friends then I should get to know the people in his life, too. Geoff is his best friend and you're dating him. That makes you a person I should get to know." I shrugged and then laughed. "I also just want everyone to like me. I'm not a people-pleaser usually but I still really want to make a good impression."

"No, no! Don't get me wrong at all! I used to do the same damn thing." Chloe laughed. "When Geoff and I first started dating, he would invite me to hang out for like rehearsal and stuff and I would bring them cookies. Like, nobody asked me to do that at all but I wanted them all to like me so I thought I'd bring them treats to, like, make them like me more? I don't know what I was thinking, but Geoff still teases me about it to this day."

"That's actually such a good idea. I need to butter people up with gifts more often."

"What is going on with you and Awsten anyway?" Chloe set the piles of folded laundry back into the basket, settling back against her pillows.

I shrugged, sitting cross-legged to get more comfortable. "I'm not too sure. Awsten is hard to read sometimes."

"Boys are weird," Chloe agreed and then looked thoughtful for a moment. "What's so wrong about having a crush on him?"

"It's funny. I've been arguing with just about everyone in my life that Awsten and I are just friends and there's nothing going on between us." I twisted a ring around on my finger. "It's not that there's anything wrong with having a crush on him. I just worry that it's too soon."

"What do you mean?"

I spread my hands out, feeling silly. "I just mean he broke up with his ex four months ago. I broke up with mine almost six months ago."

Chloe shrugged. "There's really no actual time constraint on relationships. Some people act like there has to be a certain length of time between relationships but that's kind of bullshit, in my opinion. People get over stuff at different paces. Sometimes it takes time and sometimes not. If he's flirting with you now and you're flirting back, I don't think that's a sign he's not ready to be in another relationship."

"Flirting doesn't always mean someone has caught feelings, though." I sighed. "Maybe that's what I'm afraid of. That he's just being his charming self and not thinking anything of it and I'm catching feelings like crazy."

"Give Awsten a break!" Chloe laughed. "He's not that much of a dick and you know it."

She was right. I was being really unfair to him. He didn't strike me as the type of person to play those kinds of mind games with people.