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Cassie [1:43 PM]
I just wanted to make sure I wouldn’t wake you up on your day off
Before Erin could ask what that meant, Cassie was calling.
“Don’t tell me you came to Boston without telling me again,” Erin said as she picked up.
“No, I’m just bored.”
“So what? I’m supposed to entertain you?”
“You’re supposed to tell me what to make for dinner—I’m grocery shopping but all I want to buy is chocolate ice cream.”
“You gotta get at least one vegetable, Cassie.”
“Yeah, so it can go bad in my vegetable drawer and I can throw it out later?”
She meandered to the next aisle, full of baking supplies she absolutely did not need. She walked down it.
“What if you bought vegetables but then immediately used them to make stir-fry for dinner?”
Cassie pretended to be considering it, but she was already heading for the produce section. “That doesn’t sound terrible.”
“Get peppers and sweet peas,” Erin said. “And carrots if you don’t have any rotting in your vegetable drawer.”
“I know how to make stir-fry, babe.”
“You’re the one who called me,” Erin teased.
Cassie did take her advice when it came to the sauce, though. Erin talked through the recipe as Cassie filled her cart.
“God, now I’m going to have to make stir-fry tonight,” Erin said. “I’ve talked it up so much it sounds delicious.”
“It better be,” Cassie said. She chose a self-checkout lane. “You better not have given me a recipe for a not delicious stir-fry.”
“Well, you know, it all depends on the cook. I can’t be blamed if yours isn’t as good as mine.”
“Oh my God, why do I even like you?”
Erin laughed and Cassie grinned wide enough to hurt.
They kept talking all through checkout and the bus ride back to campus. Cassie updated Erin about her classes and projects, bragged that she’d caught Professor Upton looking at her with this ridiculous Proud Dad face like three times since she’d told him about the job.
Erin talked about her patients—vaguely, HIPAA regulations and all—and Cassie decided she was too hungry to bother putting the groceries away. She wedged her phone between her shoulder and her ear and started cutting up peppers.
She almost dropped her phone, then almost sliced her thumb open, before she finally interrupted.
“Erin, hey, I’m sorry,” she said. “I want to hear the rest of your story but let’s switch to FaceTime so I have both hands to cook with.”
She could have just put it on speakerphone, but maybe she wanted to see Erin’s face. Sue her.
“I’ll call you back.”
Erin hung up and immediately FaceTimed.
“Hey,” Cassie said, grinning.
“Hey.” Getting to see Erin’s smile was way better than hearing it in her voice.
