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“That’s really generous of you. I know I’ll be too preoccupied to pay attention to the road. So I might take you up on that, if you mean it.”
“I do. And consider it done. You just let me know when, and I’ll be there.”
Molly smiled, and it felt like the hand clutching my heart had loosened its grip a little. “Thanks, Declan.”
She was quiet for a few minutes. “Did your parents have a messy divorce, too?” She tilted her head.
My forehead wrinkled, and Molly noticed.
“You said you have a complicated relationship with your mother,” she explained. “So I thought maybe you had a similar situation to mine.”
I shook my head. It was much easier to talk about my dad’s bout with cancer than my mom’s illness, especially these days. Plus, I’d finally lightened the mood a little. Molly didn’t need me bringing her down any more. So I tried to downplay what I’d said earlier. “Nah, just some family crap.” I stood. “Why don’t you finish your wine and relax for a bit? I’ll go get dinner ready. It’ll take me ten minutes to make a new batch.”
Molly looked over my shoulder toward the kitchen. “What did you make?”
“Belgian waffles with ice cream. Figured part of my job as your roomie was to help you break your aversion to morning foods at night. And I’ll tell you what—since you had a tough evening, this meal’s on me. You won’t even have to do my laundry or pick up my dry cleaning.”
She shook her head, but chuckled. “Thanks.”
I tossed the cold waffles and melted ice cream in the garbage and whipped up a fresh batch. It made me happy that Molly dug in and seemed to forget about her dad for a little while.
“So, how are things going with Julia?” she asked as we ate.
“Good, I guess. We had dinner after work the other night.”
“You went on a date?”
“Not really. We work together and travel a lot, so we often share meals together. But this time it felt sort of different.”
“Like how?”
“She complained about Bryant, her boyfriend, a lot. They’ve been together for almost a year, and she’s never done that before.”
“So she wants you to know there’s trouble in paradise?”
I shrugged. “I thought the timing was interesting. She suddenly lets me know for the first time that maybe things aren’t so great in her relationship, right after she suspects something might be going on between me and my hot roommate.” Right after I said it, I realized calling Molly hot might not be appropriate. I liked to tease her, but I didn’t want to make her uncomfortable. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have called you that. I mean, obviously you’re beautiful, but I don’t want you to think I’m checking you out when you’re walking around the apartment or anything. It’s just the way I talk.”
The truth was, I did check Molly out when she wasn’t looking. It would be pretty damn hard not to. But she didn’t need to know that.
She smiled. “It’s fine.”
“Anyway, the timing could be a total coincidence. But I don’t think it is. How about you? How are things with you and the good doc? Anything new on that front?”
“Not really.”
“Well, maybe seeing us together will give him the push he needs, like it seems to have for Julia.”
Molly swept the last of her waffle around her plate, dipping it into the melted ice cream. “Why does it need to be such a game? If Will likes me, why would he only act on it if he thinks he might lose his opportunity? Same with Julia. The entire thing seems so immature. To be honest, I still can’t get over what I did the other night at the bar. Taking off my bra and pretending to spill water on myself to get a man’s attention? I’m twenty-seven, not seventeen. Looking back, even though it accomplished what I’d set out to do, I’m pretty mortified.”
I shook my head. “I think sometimes we’re all so busy looking for what’s out there that we miss something amazing right in front of us. Does it matter if jealousy or whatever makes us wake up, as long as it does?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess. Maybe that’s just the way life is—but it seems silly.”
It hit me that although Molly was talking about Will, she could have been talking about what went down with her mother and father. And it wasn’t lost on me that Will had the same occupation as her old man, and Molly and her stepmother were both nurses. I was no psychiatrist, but I sensed there might be some deep-rooted correlation.
I got up to put my plate in the sink. “When’s the next time you work with Dr. Hyperopia.”
Her nose scrunched up. “Hyperopia?”
“As opposed to myopia. It’s what you call someone who can see long distance, but not up close.”
