Off The Table As A Romantic Possibility

Eventually, their hands were clean and soft and the nail polishing had begun. That was when Aubrey brought up the topic Eden had been dreading.

"So, what's up with your mystery guy? Anything new there?"

She really didn't want to talk about Troy. She was still trying to figure her own thoughts out so having a second opinion would probably make things worse right now. There wasn't really anything to report anyway; Aubrey already knew he had given her his number.

"Nope. I only have a week and a half left of seeing him at work before things change. I hope we stay in contact but if we don't, it isn't the end of the world," Eden said casually.

"Do you think it'll go anywhere?" Aubrey asked as she turned to look at her.

"No. He's not my type."

"So he's not a total loser then," she laughed. "You really need to change your type."

Eden glared at her. Troy was the furthest thing from a total loser, even if his career choice wasn't the most stable. He was a really nice guy who happened to have an unpredictable lifestyle that didn't seem to be changing any time soon.

After all the upheaval she had been through in her life and her relationships, she needed stability. Desperately. She wasn't looking for a relationship right now anyway with how terrible her last four boyfriends in a row had been.

"He's a musician, Aubs! I'm done dating artsy types. I like talking to him but that's it," she insisted.

"Let me try and set you up then! I know a really cute guy in software development," Aubrey said with a wink. "He's one of David's friend's roommates and saw your picture I posted about that escape room we all did at the end of January. He thinks you're cute and asked David if you were single the other day."

"I don't know…" Eden hedged.

Would it really be okay to go on a date with another guy when her heart was slightly invested elsewhere? It wasn't like he would know but she would still feel bad about it.

She doubted anyone would be as fun to talk to as Troy but, since he was off the table as a romantic possibility, it wouldn't hurt to at least go on one date to appease Aubrey. It was this sort of matchmaking attempt that made her want to avoid talking about her nonexistent love life at all costs

"You need to put yourself out there more! Especially since you're almost a career woman now. We can wait until you've been settled into your new job for a couple weeks and make it a double date with me and David. What do you say?" Aubrey asked with her most persuasive smile.

Eden sighed. There was no winning against her. "Sure, Aubs. I'll do it. But let's go somewhere fun so I won't be completely miserable if we don't click."

"Done!"

They continued chatting about other things throughout the rest of the manicure. Aubrey's earlier bad mood was completely forgotten and Eden felt herself relaxing as well. It was nice being pampered every once in a while, even if this wasn't her usual sort of thing.

Normally, she didn't have the patience to sit around and wait for her nails to dry so the only time she ever had polish on her fingernails was when she went over to Aubrey's place and they painted each other's. She usually kept some on her toes because it was easier to let them dry while walking around the house. You don't use your toes nearly as much as your fingers so the chances of it smudging were much lower.

Aubrey liked bold colors that complimented her warm skin tone. As a pale blonde, Eden preferred pastels so she didn't get washed out. Her best friend owned a few lighter nail polish colors specifically for when she was doing her nails.

Her manicure was more basic than Aubrey's so it took less time to do. She ended up sitting around in her salon chair waiting for nearly half an hour but it was alright because the two of them were talking the entire time.

Once both of their manicures were done, they each held up a hand near their faces to take a selfie together to post on Instagram. Aubrey used a ton of hashtags every time she posted something. Eden typically used one or two at most, if she used them at all. She was more likely to use emojis in her captions instead.

aubreyycombs had the caption 'Getting a manicure with my best gal fixes everything! #bestpickmeup #besties #manicuresfordays #nailart #nailartofinstagram #girlsnight #nailsnailsnails' while eden.of.the.east simply used the nail painting emoji. How they captioned the same picture showed a fundamental difference between the ways the two women used Instagram.

Aubrey had thousands of followers and a public profile. Eden had a private one and the only people she let follow her were those she had met at least once. As a result, she only had a few hundred followers.

Part of Aubrey's online popularity was the fact that she was a well-known figure in college as the president of her sorority. She knew pretty much everyone in the sorority/fraternity circuit in their area because of all of the coordinated events.

Sometimes Eden felt like she had been inducted into the sorority by default because she usually got dragged along to whatever was going on over the weekend by her best friend. Aubrey claimed she was worried about her becoming a shut in not knowing anybody so far from home but Eden had her number. She simply didn't have time to hang out because of all of her sorority stuff and didn't want to miss out on seeing her.

Sorority parties may not have been her scene but Eden met a lot of cool people she otherwise wouldn't have by attending them. It was also how she met the majority of her lousy ex-boyfriends. Fraternity guys might know how to have fun but she didn't trust them as far as she could throw them.

Not all of them were terrible though. David had been in a fraternity. The three of them had met at a foam fight his fraternity was hosting.