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The movie held up pretty well, but Esther was yawning by the time it was over.
Jonathan sat up when the credits started to roll, stretching his arms overhead. “That was good.”
“Yeah, I like that one,” she said, pleased he’d enjoyed it too. She covered her mouth as another yawn slipped out.
Taking a cue, he heaved himself off the couch and grabbed his laptop. “We should do that again.”
“Sure.”
“How about Saturday?” he proposed, backing toward the door. “I’ll even let you pick the movie again.”
“Um…” Watching a movie on a Saturday sounded like a vaguely date-ish activity. So far they’d confined almost all their hanging out to Sundays and weeknights. But she didn’t have any plans for Saturday, so why not? “Yeah, okay. How do you feel about zombie movies?”
He pulled the door open and gave her a lopsided grin. “I love zombie movies.”
“Is that the biggest sock I’ve ever seen or are you knitting a hat?” Olivia asked when Esther got out her knitting Monday night.
Vilma looked up from her needles. “Someone go outside and make sure the sky isn’t boiling. If Esther’s knitting something other than socks, it must surely be the End Times.”
“Hilarious,” Esther said as she spaced her stitches out along her circular needles.
“What’s the occasion?” Cynthia asked, lifting an eyebrow.
“No occasion,” Esther said. “Just stash busting. I had this skein hanging around, and it’s too thick for socks, so I figured I’d use it up on a hat.”
“Who’s it for?” Jinny asked. “You never wear hats.”
Esther didn’t like wearing hats with her heavy bangs. She either had to pin them back, or they got all smushed against her forehead and it looked weird.
“Is it for a boy?” Penny leaned forward for a better look. “It looks like a man’s hat.”
“It could just as easily be a woman’s hat,” Olivia said with a disapproving frown. “It doesn’t have to be gendered.”
“I’ll probably just give it to my brother,” Esther lied.
She was thinking of giving it to Jonathan. Might as well give the thing to someone who would get some use out of it, and the guy wore knit hats almost every day. Besides, this gunmetal gray yarn would look nice with his blue eyes—not that she’d been thinking about his eyes or anything.
She didn’t want to say who it was really for though. Jinny thought she still hated Jonathan. She didn’t know how much they’d been hanging out—or that they’d been hanging out at all.
He’d come over Saturday night to watch 28 Days Later, and wound up staying until one a.m. so they could watch the sequel too. When Jinny came over the next morning, Esther had cleaned up all evidence of his presence. Which felt a little underhanded. She didn’t like lying to Jinny, even by omission. It was just that she felt weird about being friends with someone Jinny had dated. The fact that Esther had started hanging out with him right around the same time he’d asked Jinny out didn’t help either. Not to mention the fact that he’d asked Jinny out at Esther’s urging. It was all a big mess, basically.
She wasn’t planning to keep it from Jinny forever. She’d tell her eventually. Just…after some time had passed. When it wouldn’t seem so weird anymore.
“I feel like my world’s been thrown out of kilter,” Cynthia said, shaking her head. “Esther knitting socks on Mondays was the one constant in my life.”
“I know, right?” Olivia said.
Jinny turned to Esther and waggled her eyebrows. “Next thing you know, she’ll turn up with a steady boyfriend.”
“Ha ha,” Esther said, keeping her eyes fixed on her knitting.
Chapter Fifteen
It was Saturday, and Jonathan was parked on Esther’s couch with his laptop again. He liked to work at her place, he said, because he could ask her questions on the fly. Also something about the change of scenery bringing out his muse. Whatever.
Esther was making chili for the two of them tonight. She didn’t do much in the way of cooking, but she made a mean pot of chili.
She could hear Jonathan tapping away on his laptop in the next room, his fingers flying over the keys like Mozart at his piano. The sound was oddly soothing, like having a tennis match on the TV in the background.
