Page 51 of Molly's Mr. Wrong
“I was cleaning the grill on the deck, next to the kitchen window. I hadn’t intended to listen, but when you hear your name...” He gave a shrug.
Molly lifted her chin. “I didn’t sayyoulacked substance.”
“Yeah. I’m pretty sure you did.”
“What I meant was...” Her voice trailed as she gave him a look that bordered on pleading. Finn wasn’t going to give her any help. Or a break. But he didn’t mind turning up the heat.
“Whatdidyou mean, Molly?”
“That you aren’t right for me.”
“Ah.” He briefly sucked his cheeks in and sauntered just a little closer, frowning as he asked, “Since when then was that an issue, me being right for you?”
If her cheeks were red before, now they were on fire. “It’s not an issue. Elaine—” She stopped abruptly and shook her head. “Nothing I can say here will help.”
“No. I don’t think it will.”
“Maybe I’d better go.”
Now he shook his head. “No. I think you should have ice cream so that Mike doesn’t get worried about you...then you should go.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
THEWEEKSTARTEDin a rush, with Molly meeting with her supervisor to discuss the first steps in the instructor evaluation process at the college, and then covering classes for a fellow English teacher, Luis Cortez, who had a family emergency. She’d had to cancel her office hours, leaving a note on her door explaining the circumstances, as well as sending a group email to her students. She didn’t go home for dinner as usual after her afternoon class, but instead ate a sandwich at her desk as she prepped for her evening class. The class where she’d see Finn for the first time since the barbecue. She couldn’t say she was looking forward to that. What really stung was that she was in the wrong. She’d said things she shouldn’t have instead of steering the conversation with Elaine Fitch to a safer place.
None of her students had emailed questions or concerns, so Molly assumed all was well when she walked into the room—with the students who weren’t Finn, anyway.
“Did any of you try to see me during office hours today?”
She scanned the class, taking care to let her gaze pass over Finn as if he were any other student.
Finn returned the favor, meeting her eyes in a detached way before opening the spiral notebook on his desk.
“Great,” Molly said. “Glad no one needed assistance while I was away. Okay, tonight you’ll finish your project outlines, if you haven’t already done so, and then start hammering away on the rough draft. Questions?”
“Is everything all right?”
Molly turned her attention to Regina, a grandmotherly type who, like Mr. Reed, was finally reaching for a lifelong dream and attending college.
“In what way?” Surely she hadn’t been able to read the dread Molly had felt walking into the room and facing Finn for the first time after insulting him.
“I heard rumor of an emergency, and if you needed to end class early for any reason, I’m certain we, as a class, would be fine with that.”
“Thank you,” Molly said, “but that won’t be necessary. The emergency was that of another faculty member. I just had to cover classes.”
Regina gave a silent “ah” then started to work. Denny opened his expensive leather briefcase and took out his laptop along with a sheath of papers. With a sigh, he put his laptop back. Molly had made it clear that she wanted the class to do the preliminary steps of the first project on paper, and Denny wasn’t happy about it. Tough. Molly continued to circulate through the room, passing by Finn’s desk as he pulled out the note cards he’d made as per her suggestion.
“What are those?” Debra asked as Molly walked by toward a student with his hand in the air.
“Note cards,” Finn said.
“How clever.” The older woman cocked her head. “I wish some of these methods had been invented when I was in school. How does this one work?”
“What you do is to write one thought on each one, then arrange them—”
“Why don’t you just write your outline on paper? You know. Like a grown-up.”
Denny’s loud voice brought Molly’s head around. The man belonged in a kindergarten class. She was about to intervene when Finn growled, “Because I’m special.”
