I’d spent years preparing for The Foundation vote, working on projects, public and private relations, holding endless meetings and giving weekly presentations, on top of spending extra hours at the office every single day to prove I was worthy to lead. And Molly was leaving.
I stressed to her how important the vote was to me. But her sister was getting married a week after the vote, and there were so many preparations to take care of, and it took so long to reach her family's house, and other excuses for why she didn’t want to be there. Despite the fact that I’d pointed out that she could stay here before we both travelled to her parents after the result had been announced.
But what did I know?
Nothing, apparently.
“As long as you have your passport and ticket, it should be fine,” I said, blinking heavily, as if that would make a difference to my exhaustion.
I even sounded numb. I didn’t know how I could function when all I could see was that dark look in Dom’s eye that fired a heat inside me I hadn’t felt since university. It was still jumping around my body, and one of the few reasons I was still awake.
Molly moved to the front door, dropping to her knees to unleash her rage on her tightly packed carry-on luggage for the second time, even though we both saw her phone at the pub.
“No, it won’t be fine,” she snapped, narrowing her eyes. “I don’t have any of my contacts, do I? How am I meant to call if I don’t know any numbers?”
She was moving into snarky territory again, but I was too tired to smooth it out.
“The signal is so bad out there that you won’t be able to make calls anyway,” I replied. I was used to her not being in contact for weeks when she went to visit her family, especially in the winter.
Her parents lived as far away from civilization as humanly possible, retreating to one of the remotest parts of Norway, hidden by fjords and only accessible by boat. It was a gorgeous house built into the side of a mountain, but I’d only ever seen it in pictures. I met with her parents whenever they visited Molly in London, whereas Molly did everything she could to avoid mine. Which was understandable.
“I’ll go back to Paulie’s tomorrow and ask them if anyone handed it in.” I moved towards her, feeling so dead on my feet that each footstep was an effort. “We need to get your bags ready. Why don’t you pack again and you can have another search at the airport?”
She still had plenty of time before her flight. It was making sure she actually got there that was the problem.
Molly dipped her head as she violently shoved things back into her rucksack.
“I need to talk to you about something first,” she said, suddenly deadly serious.
I didn’t want to leave on a bad note, even though we were already creeping towards it.
“Can’t this wait until you get to Oslo?” I asked. She had a six hour changeover, and that would be much easier.
Molly rose, her expression firmer as she took my hand and led me towards my favourite sofa.
“No, it’s really important that we do this now.”
My eyes flicked to the clock above the kitchen door. “You’ve only got five minutes, Molly, can’t you—”
“It won’t take long, I promise.”
Which meant I either listened to her willingly, or she followed me around talkingatme while both of us grew more agitated.
Maybe if I were more conscious, my mind wouldn’t have flipped to things like she really was pregnant as Dom suspected, or she wanted to elope, or she wanted another cat because Mr Snuggles was lonely.
But I simply blinked again as she sat me down, knees facing each other as she gripped my hand.
I looked at her, really looked at her for the first time in a year. She was frazzled, naturally, her wild hazel eyes settling as she perched on the edge of the sofa. Her cheeks were reddened from the effort of searching, and she was fumbling slightly, sending her messy brown hair flailing around her. Rounded face, dimpled cheeks, freckles I used to kiss. Skinny jeans showing her curvy thighs, and a tight t-shirt doing the same for her stomach and breasts. Her bare feet dug into a soft rug, andshe curled her stubby toes, ones that used to play with mine as we cuddled in bed on lazy mornings.
We’d been through so much together, despite the arguments and the silence that followed, and yet I’d let myself be dragged away from her, always choosing work over her. No matter how many times she asked me to stay, and I told her I couldn’t.
Molly stared at the floor as the silence grew tense. For all her talk of ‘it must be now’, she was taking a long time to speak.
“I think we should take a break,” she finally said.
Through my exhaustion, the impact wasn’t as heavy as it could have been. I drew a deep breath as my eyelids fluttered closed to temper my spike of irritation as she continued.
“I think we need to take some time for ourselves to think about our relationship and what we really want here.”
