Page 34 of Molly

“I can make bacon and eggs, don't you worry,” I chuckle, turning and putting some bacon strips on to the pan. I pour her a cup of coffee and pass her the milk and sugar, unsure how she takes it. She skips the sugar but pours a tonne of milk in, stirs it and leaves the spoon in her mug.Noted.

She hums at her first sip and then puts it down in front of her, staring at it for a second before taking a deep breath and moving her eyes to me. “Ryan, last night… What you did, it made me feel really crappy. I've only ever,” she looks away, cheeks reddening slightly. “I've only had sex the one time. And Emma was a result of that. I haven't been interested since. You're different. This feels different to me. I really like you, but I feel like I'm stepping into something that's going to end with me hurt and you running off with another woman. I'm scared that one day you're going to turn around and have some kind of life altering realisation and want Jess... I can't do this if last night is how our relationship is going to be. I can't be second. Not to her.” She looks down again, stirring her coffee.

My first thought is,onlyhadsexonce? She asked me to use my fucking phone as a vibrator last night, but that’s probably not the right part to bring up right now. I take the pan off the stove, put it to the side, and walk around the counter. Once I reach her, I spin her on the stool so that she's facing me and wedge myself between her thighs. I push a piece of hair that's fallen onto her face behind her ear and then move my hand down to grip her jaw, tilting her head until she makes eye contact.

“You are my number one. No one I’ve ever been with compares to you, Mol, no one. I promise, you are the only woman I see. Last night was stupid. I won't make excuses. It won't happen again. Please, believe me when I say that I don't see her as anything more than a friend. I never have. I never will. It's only you,” I whisper.

A small smile tugs on her lips, and her eyes search mine. “Yeah?”

I nod. “Yeah, baby. If my friendship with her makes you this uncomfortable, I'll talk to her. Set some boundaries. I just feel bad for her, not knowing anyone here. We go way back, and it’s nice having a piece of my life back in Melbourne here.”

“Yeah, I get that,” she replies. “I just, she doesn’t like me. When I came into the shop the other day for lunch, she was really rude. She rolled her eyes at me and made me feel unwelcome. And then last night, to call when she knew I was here, just to chat? I don’t know Ryan...”

She’s not wrong. Jess doesn’t play well with other women, never has. I pulled her up on her little temper tantrum, and she apologised, said she’d make more of an effort. But then last night happened, and I’m at a loss. She needs to learn her place in my life now that I’m with Molly.

“You are all I want, Molly. I’ll talk to her,” I say softly.

She hums happily, and I lean in. I kiss her gently, stroking her jaw with my thumb. “You’ve really only been with one other guy? One time?” I ask, looking into her eyes.

She nods and pulls away from me. Picking up her mug, she takes another sip before replying. “I’ve done other stuff, obviously. A few times before Emma. But, yeah, only the one time.”

I like that. She sucked my dick like a fucking Hoover last night, so I assumed she’d had some practice. But losing your virginity in the back of a car? That barely counts as having sex. Not sex like we’ll have, anyway.

16

MOLLY

“So how are you and Ryan, Mol?” Evie asks from across the room.

She’s sprawled out in the brown leather recliner, a sleepy Emma in her arms. Her little head’s tucked into Evie’s neck and it melts my heart every time I see them like this.

My girl loves her aunties.

It’s been two weeks since the almost-sex and phone call incident, and there have been no other speed bumps, thankfully. Ryan and I text constantly and have lunch together when our schedules allow. A couple nights a week we'll have dinner at his place or we'll watch a late-night movie at mine once I've put Emma to bed and on the nights we don’t, we talk on the phone until it’s time to go to sleep.

“Good, really good. He wants us all to have lunch tomorrow,” I reply, leaning back against my brown leather couch.

Penny stands, empty wine glass in hand, and raises an eyebrow at me. “All of us as in...?”

“Ryan, Jess, Beckett, and the four of us.”

“Mmmm.” She walks into the kitchen and buries her head in the fridge before continuing. “Is that what you want? I mean, I’m down. Beckett’s delicious, so that’s reason enough for me to go, but how are you going to go sitting there with Jess?” she calls out.

I play with the end of my fuzzy pink throw rug and sigh. “I just want Ryan and I to move forward, you know? Ideally I'd like for Jess not to exist, but I don't know how to make that happen without going to jail.”

She waltzes back in, with a full glass in one hand and an unopened bottle in the other. She sits down next to me and places it on the coffee table I crafted out of wooden pallets. “Mmm, you don't look good in orange, girl.” She smirks.

I roll my eyes and huff. “I know, I know.”

“Does he still see her a lot, talk to her?” Evie asks.

“Um, Beckett told me she goes in and has lunch with him a fair bit when he’s not with me. I knew she went there, but not as often as she actually does. He hasn’t mentioned it to me, though. He tells me when she messages him, usually. I think he’s just trying to keep the peace, you know? Doesn’t want me to get upset every time she contacts him. To be fair, I haven’t asked him about the lunch thing so…”

Penny scoffs into her wine glass and turns her head to Evie.

“Maybe it'll help to see them together in a group, you know? See the way they interact in a social setting?” Evie chimes in, glaring at Penny.

I nod and watch Emma’s little chest rise and fall as she clings to her. I took today off so I could spend some extra time with my girl and we went to the zoo and then a playground. She’s knackered. I am too, truthfully. The older she gets, the more energy she needs to burn off, and I can barely keep up.

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