What did it matter if he knew? What if he meant it in the Real Housewives sense?
Somebody pushed pause on the remote control of all things Molly. She couldn’t move.
Was he lying? Did he know? Was he telling her to fuck off but didn’t want to admit it?
That seemed like a remarkably ineffective way to start the fakeness of their relationship.
“I’m lost here. Somebody fill me in?” Gavin asked, placing his hand on Molly’s shoulder like they were for real.
“Sending a thumb means something like screw you,” Sadie said like the badass attorney she was.
“Uh-huh.” Molly and Sadie said at the same time. “Are you serious?” Gavin asked her.
She nodded. “It’s a thing.”
“I just meant ‘all good.’” Gavin gave his own thumbs-up like that clarified anything.
“Didn’t you know that?” Sadie asked, seemingly appalled. But Molly guessed her enthusiastic question was as fake as she and Gavin were.
“Does anyone know that?” Gavin asked, giving them all a get-serious-here look. Everyone except Molly got that look. She got a look that tried to melt her underwear—lace—right off.
She held strong, though.
“Maybe we should give him the benefit of the doubt,”
Rachel said, moving through the patio door and closing it behind her.
“Anyone who follows pop culture or the Real Housewives knows,” Molly said. Seriously, where was Travis and a cocktail refill?
“I follow neither,” Gavin said, his hand still on Molly’s shoulder. He gave a squeeze. “Is that going to be a problem?” His thumb stroked the edge of her neckline. Thus, she wasn’t quite able to verbalize a response. Thus, there was a decent pause before he ended with, “Babe?”
Molly couldn’t move because, dear heavens, what was this? This little movement of skin against skin on her neckline should not have rendered her unable to form a coherent vowel sound. Instead, she tried, and it sounded like someone was strangling a vocal pigeon.
What was that all about?
She tried again. Nope. Didn’t work. And Gavin’s thumb still traced super close to her throat.
“Why are you touching me?” She gestured to her friends. “They know it’s not for real. You don’t need to pretend.”
“You don’t like it?” Did he purr? He totally said that like a purr.
“I didn’t say that.” She scowled. “I just don’t understand why you’re doing it.”
“I’m just…” He shrugged but did not move his hand. “Practice makes perfect and all that.”
“Man, I really hope you don’t fix him up with someone else,” Rachel said with a sigh. “Please don’t fix him up with someone else.”
“What?” Gavin asked, clearly confused. Because who wouldn’t be?
“I think I need to give you a few lessons in communicating via text with your not-really girlfriend,” Kaiya said. “They’re free lessons and I should probably give them to Dan, too, so he knows. We’ll cover the basics.”
“Do not take her class.” Molly glanced up at him.
In hindsight, this was a mistake because his gaze tangled with hers and stuck there like Gorilla Glue.
“I can’t even right now.” Rachel snort laughed.
“This is going to be so fun,” Sadie said with an extremely unnecessary squeal.
