“You wanna try supervising these two?” Molly asked.
“No.” He lifted his chin toward the boys. The boys who were actually sitting still, watching the commercials, and waiting for the movie to start. “I prefer to speak eight-year-olds.”
Ha. Only when they were behaving.
Agnes and Charlie separated enough that Molly wasn’t worried about them getting tossed out.
“You know.” Gavin cleared his throat.
Molly gnawed at a chocolate-covered raisin. She had a fairly involved system for eating them. First, she ate off all the chocolate coating. Then, and only then, did she bite into the raisin itself. Then start again with a fresh one.
This was, of course, the only reasonable way to eat them.
When Gavin didn’t continue, she asked, “I know what?”
“I like to think—” he started, then stopped. Was he frustrated with himself? Probably. She often knew that feeling since she had spent a great deal of time as an adult frustrated with him on Rachel’s behalf.
“I like to think, too,” she said, going after another raisin.
“I’m trying to say something here…”
She made a go ahead motion. “I’m trying to listen, but you keep stopping.”
He didn’t speak for a long beat. But she didn’t interrupt since he was, apparently, trying to say something.
“I’m not the monster you think I am,” he said, finally.
Oh.She paused her gnawing at the chocolate. He thought that she thought he was a monster? And he was calling her out on it?
Molly popped the rest of the candy she’d been working on into her mouth, totally wrecking the magic of eating chocolate-covered raisins. She did, however, keep her focus on the screen where the pre-show played and a dancing soda did a samba with a box of popcorn, unwilling to have this conversation face-to-face.
She chewed. She swallowed. She had to say something—
“I don’t think you’re a monster,” she said, slowly.
At least, not much these days. Honestly? She was very conflicted over the whole thing.
“Molly.” Gavin’s smooth baritone invaded her space. “We both know I’m not your favorite person.”
She lifted a shoulder. “There are lots of people who aren’t my favorite people that still aren’t monsters.”
The dancing popcorn hopped on a rollercoaster and turned off its cell phone. She would much rather think about why a bucket of cartoon popcorn would need a cell phone, and what kind of data plan that entailed, but instead she actually looked in his direction.
He pressed his lips together and nodded like he was in some kind of odd agreement with her. And that? That made her heart sore.
Damn.
“Can I ask you something?” She turned and curled her knees up underneath herself.
“Of course.” Gavin offered her the popcorn.
She took a few kernels, nibbling them in the only acceptable way to eat popcorn. Small nibbles instead of tossing the whole mess down her trap. What could she say? She preferred to have a full sensory experience with her food.
“What’s the deal?” she asked, full on meeting his gaze.
He didn’t squirm like most people did when she looked at them like that. He also didn’t glance away. “Deal with what?”
“You.” She waved the semi-full box of raisins in his direction.
