Molly closed the door behind her and I watched her walk in and look around, startling as she spotted me.
“Oh, hi. I didn’t realize you were going to be here.” She nervously picked at the buttons on her coat, crossing her arms over her chest in a way that I hated. I hated that she’d become so jumpy around me. I hated that she didn’t automatically give me a hug or smile or move closer to me.
This wasn’t us.
And I wantedusback.
I pushed off the couch and moved toward her slowly, not like she was prey, but so I didn’t startle her, like she was a rare creature out of her natural habitat and one I needed to get closer to. Because I really didn’t want her to run away again.
“Hey, Mol. How are you?”
I positioned myself by the door. I wasn’t going to lock it, but I also wasn’t giving her the option of leaving without having to pass by me.
“Good, good.” She looked around at anything except me. “I’m meeting Emerson, we’re going for lunch. Is she nearly ready?”
I searched her face, looking for any kind of sign that I was about to fuck things up more, but her expression held strong. I tried to remember a time when she’d ever played poker with us, but couldn’t. Probably a good thing, she’d clean up the table.
“Emerson isn’t here.”
“What? Oh, I’m sure I was supposed to meet her here.” She started to move then realized I was blocking the way and stopped. “Okay, well, I’ll get going.”
I scratched my beard. “No, Mol, you won’t. Emerson was never going to be here. You were always going to meet me.”
I held my breath, waiting for her temper to erupt.
Her face creased in confusion, the shield she’d built around herself to block me out momentarily dropping. “I don’t understand. Why was I going to meet you? Emerson asked me here for lunch.”
I tried not to huff out my frustration. “Oh come on, Molly. You’re an intelligent girl for fuck’s sake. We haven’t spoken in over a month, you’ve been avoiding me every chance you could. Did you think I was just going to let this slide? What did you expect to happen?”
She dropped her bag on the large hall table. “Felix, what do you want?”
“I want you to talk to me!”
“Well, I don’t want to talk to you.”
She may as well have stamped her foot on the floor.
“Tough shit. We’re going to talk like adults, so stop being childish.”
Her eyes flashed at me. Today they were like sun flares, bursting with fire. I don’t know why I’d never noticed before how different they were to Cooper’s, maybe because they were always changing, or maybe because I’d never really looked at Coop’s, but right now, they were the same shade his went before he became really pissed.
Which I should probably be taking as a warning.
“Felix, move away from the door.”
I crossed my arms over my chest like she had, and that wasn’t as easy as it sounded seeing as one still held a crutch. “No.”
“Are you standing against it on purpose?”
“Yes.”
Her eyes became narrower in direct correlation to her rising temper. “Now who’s childish?”
“Oh, fuck off. If you’d spoken to me in the first place, then I wouldn’t have resorted to this, because I can’t exactly chase after you right now.”
She fleetingly jolted out of her mood, her face filled with surprise. “Would you chase after me?”
“Yes, of course I would.”
