Not Pretending Anymore(32)

My eyes slanted to meet Molly’s. “Yeah. We live very close.”

“Is that how you two met?”

Good ol’ Will was definitely nosy, wasn’t he?

“Actually, yes.” I looked at Molly. “I’ll probably embarrass her if I tell the story, won’t I, Mollz?”

Molly’s eyes flared yet wider. “Maybe you shouldn’t tell it, Declan.”

I couldn’t resist. “I was on the L on my way home one night. Molly here was sitting across from me reading a book. I couldn’t keep my eyes off her. The corners of her lips kept twitching as she read, like she really wanted to smile. Like a dumbass, I let her get off the train without trying to talk to her. But that night, I couldn’t stop thinking about her. So the next day I took the train at the same time, hoping to run into her again. She wasn’t on it—and not the next day or the day after that, either. Then, one night a week later, I was walking to my train at a totally different time. On my way, I passed a bookstore, and the book she’d been reading happened to be in the window, so I went in to pick it up. The clerk told me the second book in the series had just come in, so I grabbed a copy of that, too. When I got on my train twenty minutes later, there she was.” I looked at Molly adoringly. “I sat next to her, gave her book two, and asked her out for drinks.”

Emma had dreamy hearts in her eyes. “That’s the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard.”

I winked at Molly. “I’m just glad she didn’t think I was a stalker.”

I had to sip my drink to keep myself from cracking up at the look on Dr. Dick’s face. I’d heard the term green with envy before, but I’d never actually seen it on another human being. His skin looked a little sallow.

Some guy walked over. “Hey, Will. Do you have a minute? Mark and I are thinking about doing a stint volunteering with Doctors Without Borders. We wanted to get your take on which area we should go to since you’ve volunteered a few times before.”

“Yeah, sure.”

I’d been feeling pretty smug about myself the last few minutes, but hearing that Dr. Dick volunteered his time took some of the wind out of my sail. The closest I’d come to helping save lives was the time I’d yelled, “Watch out” when a baseball was flying toward my sister’s head. How the hell could I compete with that shit? Better yet, why was I feeling like I had to? Maybe I was getting myself a little too into character.

After Will walked away, Emma excused herself to go to the ladies’ room, which gave Molly and me some alone time.

“You saw me on the train and fell madly in love?” She chuckled. “Could you lay it on any thicker, Romeo?”

I shrugged. “Hey. I’m a helpless romantic. You’re a very lucky girl.”

Molly sighed. “We haven’t had a chance to catch up lately, but things with Will didn’t go exactly as I’d hoped on our date.”

“What happened?”

“Well, it’s my own fault, really. I’d stressed how you and I were in a non-committed relationship, so Will took that to mean I was into doing casual.”

My heart sped up. “You mean he wants to be fuck buddies?”

She shrugged. “He didn’t say that point-blank. But he told me he’d never asked me out before because he didn’t think I was the type of woman to do a casual relationship. Basically, he decided to ask me out once he found out I was open to that type of thing. But the problem is, I’m really not a casual dater. The thought of being with someone who might also be sleeping with other women, especially Will, doesn’t appeal to me at all. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t need a man to propose marriage or anything, but once I have feelings for someone, I’ve only ever been monogamous.”

My palms were sweaty. “So you two are…”

“No, we didn’t have sex on our first date.”

I felt a giant wave of relief. “I’m sorry, Moll. What are you going to do? Will you tell him how you feel?”

“I’m not sure I’ll actually need to say anything since he hasn’t asked me out a second time. I don’t think he’s interested in casually dating me, much less anything more.”

Was she blind? I shook my head. “Oh, he’s interested, alright. The dude practically had smoke puffing from his nose when he saw me standing next to you.”

“I don’t know about that…”

“Trust me, Moll. I know.”

Molly bit down on her lip. “I guess only time will tell.”

Yeah, but I’d bet my last dime it was going to come sooner rather than later. There was no way that guy wasn’t going to try to lock her down. He felt threatened.

I sucked back the remnants of my drink in one gulp, feeling like I needed a few more to take the edge off. “You want another wine?”

“I usually limit myself to two when I go out. But since you’re here with me, and I won’t be traveling home in the dark by myself, sure. Why not?”

After I got us another round, Emma came back from the ladies’ room. Molly introduced me to a few more of her friends, and we had some laughs. But throughout the evening, I caught Dr. Dick with his eyes on Molly at least a dozen times. At one point, he was talking to her co-worker Daisy. The woman was blatantly flirting with him, making as much body contact as she could and tossing her blond hair around. Molly looked over and saw it, too, and my heart clenched at the disappointment on her face. So I put my arm around her shoulder and pulled her close. Apparently, Mr. Casual didn’t like that too much, because within a few minutes he was again by our side.