Page 21 of Molly

???

RYAN

“She text you back, brother?” Beckett asks from behind me.

I’m hunched over my desk, sketching out a portrait of a dog for a new client coming in next week. It’s a Dalmatian, so getting the spots perfect is fucking annoying and yet satisfying at the same time.

I sit up straight and turn so that I’m facing him. “Yeah, she wants me to come by for lunch tomorrow. I’m hoping that’s a good sign.”

He walks further into the room, sitting in the leather chair in the corner, spreading out. “So, Jess is still hanging around, huh?” he asks. He’s only met Jess twice in the six years she and I have been friends. He's come up to Melbourne a handful of times, but my family all live here, so it made more sense for me to make the trip back home to see everyone.

“Yeah, she’s just moved down,” I reply.

He nods. “You’re really just friends? She’s never made a move? Nothing you haven’t told me?”

“Nah, I’ve never looked at her like that. I treat her like one of the boys. Always have. You know that.”

“That’s not what I asked you, mate. I asked ifshehas ever tried anything.”

I shake my head. “She sees me the same way I see her, bro, honestly.”

He grins like he knows something I don’t, sits forward and rests his forearms on his knees. “Alright, if you say so. So, I went past Coffee Leaf yesterday on my way in. You know what Penny’s deal is? She single?”

I laugh. Of course, he goes for the scary one. He couldn’t like Evie? At least she’s on my team. “As far as I know, man. I haven’t asked, but Molly hasn’t mentioned her dating anyone.”

“Excellent,” he says, pulling his phone out of his pocket. I’m glad he’s at least interested insomeone. He was engaged a couple of years ago. She was a bitch, plain and simple. He opened his own shop at the same time as I moved to Melbourne; it was doing great. She apparently didn’t like how much time he spent at work, so after one too many arguments, he sold up and started working for someone else; he hated it. He came home one day, and she was fucking some guy she worked with on their back deck. When he left her, he packed his shit and moved down here. He set himself up in a small townhouse and fucked around with different forms of art until I told him I was moving back, and then we opened Inked on Agnes. He hasn’t mentioned a woman since her, I guess that doesn’t mean he isn’t dating, but I’d like to think he’d tell me if he was.

“Why’re you asking, Beck?”

He grins, still looking down at his phone, typing out a message. “She’s hot.”

I nod. She’s alright.

She’s no Molly, though.

10

RYAN

I open the door to Coffee Leaf and pause. I see Evie rushing around, carrying two coffee mugs and a paper bag under her arm. On her way back to the front counter, she catches my eye, and nods towards the staff room. I smile in reply and make my way over, dragging my feet, still unsure how this conversation is going to go.

As I get to the door, I call out, “Mol? You in here?”

“Yeah, honey, come on in,” she replies.

Honey. I like that. The term of endearment makes my body instantly relax.

I walk in and grin as soon as I eye the spread she’s put out. Meats, cheeses, fruits, and crackers are all laid out on the table, along with two bottles of water, a lit scented candle and a vase of white roses.

She’s wearing a pair of dark green flowy shorts that tie high on her waist and a white singlet. Her hair’s piled on top of her head with some loose curls coming down, framing her face. She grins at me and holds her arms open. “You hungry?”

Was I fucking ever.

“You look gorgeous, Mol. You did all this for little ol’ me?” I wink, sauntering over to smack a kiss on her cheek.

She rolls her eyes playfully and slaps my chest. “I like cheese, don’t let it go to your head, old-timer.”

I chuckle and sit down when she does the same. “I feel like a teenage girl in a romantic movie,” I joke.

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