Page 93 of October
That was another lie.
“Oh,” Molly uttered, and her tone told Finley that she knew. “Okay. Well, I guess we should stop wasting this water and get clean.” Molly pulled away and reached for the shampoo. “Can I wash your hair now? God, we are such lesbians, aren’t we?” She laughed a little, but it was a nervous laugh.
They finished their shower and walked into the bedroom with towels wrapped around them. Finley didn’t have any clothes to change into, and it suddenly felt very crowded to her in this apartment.
“Hey, babe?” she said as she picked up her jeans.
“Yeah?”
“Um… I think I’m going to go,” she said. “I can’t sleep, and you might be able to get some if I leave, so I think I’ll just head home and call you later.”
“You’re leaving?” Molly asked.
She sat on the end of the bed, still wrapped in her towel.
“I’m not tired, and when I’m wired like this, it’s better for me to either walk it off or build something, so I was thinking I’d go work on your laptop, with all this restless energy.”
“Oh. Okay.” Molly looked down at her hands, which were joined in her lap. “Yeah, that makes sense.”
“I’ll call you later?”
“I’m meeting Juliet for breakfast. That was the plan before…” Molly continued to look down at her hands. “Last night. Gwen isn’t going to be there. It’s just for the two of us.”
“Good. You two need some friend hangout time.”
Finley pulled her underwear on and regretted it because she’d been very turned on last night. Her jeans went on next, though, and she buttoned them as she stared at Molly, who still wasn’t looking at her. After pulling on her sports bra and her shirt, she knelt in front of Molly and took her hands.
“Hey, everything’s okay, and I’ll text you later. Maybe we can hang out after you have breakfast with Jules. Lunch or a movie, if you want.”
“Sure,” Molly replied, but Finley could tell that she was anythingbutsure.
Finley lifted herself a bit and kissed Molly on the forehead.
“I’ll see you later.”
“Yeah,” Molly said.
Finley stood and slipped on her socks and shoes. She didn’t know why she was doing this. She could tell Molly was hurting. And she knew they needed to talk, but she couldn’t. If they talked, and if Molly told her that she regretted last night or that Finley had pushed her into something she wasn’t ready for, this would be over between them, and she couldn’t handle that on no sleep and a very sad and confused heart.
“I’ll text you,” she said again.
Then, she turned, left Molly’s apartment, and pressed herself to the wall next to the front door, taking a very deep breath. She’d known she was in deep with Molly already, but she hadn’t realized just how deep she was. She thought about the psychic old woman suggesting that the two of them should be together, and she thought about last night when she had been on top of Molly, kissing her and feeling Molly pressed to her body. It had started off so perfectly; she hadn’t thought anything could go wrong.
She walked down and outside and decided to continue walking around the block. It was after six in the morning, so not much was open. Finley had always loved New Orleans at this time of day. All the tourists were asleep from long nights out and wouldn’t wake up for hours. Most locals were still asleep, too, or were in their cars, heading to work. The sun wasn’t even up yet, but it was peeking through the night. Finley liked it becauseusually, this time of day calmed her, but now, she was anything but calm.
As she kept walking, she ran into a Southern Roastery location, and it was already open, serving coffee and pastries to the early risers. Deciding she would need coffee to keep her awake anyway, she went inside, showed her employee ID, and got her discount on a coffee and a cinnamon scone. She sat in the store and ate the scone slowly, nearly forgetting about her coffee until she’d finished it. Then, she took the to-go cup with her and decided to head back to her car and drive herself home to see if she could find her backbone there because she needed courage to talk to Molly later about how she was feeling.
CHAPTER 26
Molly sat on the end of her bed without moving for well over an hour. She just stared at her hands, and when she finally realized that she really had to pee, she stood up, went to the bathroom, and decided to get dressed for breakfast. She was meeting Juliet at nine-thirty, at a diner they both loved just outside of the Quarter, and she had tons of time, but she couldn’t stop herself from getting ready anyway. Then, she sat on the sofa and thought about going through all the new puppy supplies before she remembered that they had driven Finley’s car to buy them, and they’d been in such a hurry to tear each other’s clothes off that they hadn’t brought them upstairs. They were still in Finley’s trunk.
“Because, of course, they were,” she said to herself.
She checked the time on her phone and decided to get to the diner early. She needed at least three cups of coffee to get through the day anyway.
???
“Hey,” Juliet said. “How long have you been here?” She eyed the open and empty individual creamers on the table. “That’s at least three cups for you.”
