7. Molly
Molly managed to send Lana back to her own suite—not that her friend wanted to go. Now that she had it in her head that their huge, stoic boss had a romantic interest in Molly, she was dying to see them together.
“Just let me stay for a few minutes,” she begged. “I’ll be able to tell exactly how he feels about you from his body language!”
“Body language? Are you serious?” Molly laughed.
“Of course I’m serious!” Lana exclaimed. “C’mon, Molly—I’m an expert at body language. I knew my two boys were into me a long time before they admitted how they felt!”
“Lana, please. I just don’t want him thinking I’m throwing myself at him like Karen Geners does all the time,” Molly protested. “I promise you, there’s not going to be any ‘body language’ for you to see. I’m just going to thank him for being understanding and for erasing that awful video before it could spread to the rest of the Mother Ship and then he’ll leave and I’ll see you at work tomorrow.”
“Good—so you’re coming back?” Lana asked.
Molly took a deep breath. If this was the first time she’d had to deal with the fact that all her coworkers had seen her naked and doing compromising things to herself, she wouldn’t have had the courage to return to work. But it wasn’t the first time—nor even the fifth as she’d told Commander Torus. She was, in a sick kind of way, almost used to it by now.
“Yes,” she said at last. “I’ll just explain to anyone who asks that it was revenge porn my ex posted to hurt me.”
“Do you want me to go in early and explain to everyone before you get there?” Lana asked eagerly. “I’ll be happy to do it.”
Molly bit her lip. It felt like cowardice to let her friend do the dirty work, but on the other hand she was an introvert and Lana was an extrovert’s extrovert. The petite brunette was universally liked by everyone in the department—also she was really good at explaining things.
“Okay,” she said at last. “Thank you—I’ll take you up on that.”
“Good.” Lana nodded decisively. “Then I’ll take care of it. Now, I’ll get out of your hair, since you want time with the boss-man alone,” she added with a wink. “Just remember—body language!”
Molly couldn’t help laughing at her friend.
“What kind of body language am I supposed to look for?”
“Eye contact for one thing—lots of eye contact is good,” Lana ticked the points off on her fingers. “Oh, and if he bends down to get on your level when you talk, that’s another.”
“Commander Torus is nine feet tall!” Molly said in exasperation. “Of course he has to bend down sometimes!”
“He doesn’t usually, though,” Lana pointed out. “I’ve never seen him bend down once to get on Karen Geners’s level.”
“He doesn’t have to because she always wears those stripper heels to make herself taller for him,” Molly pointed out.
“True!” Lana made a face and giggled. “Isn’t she going to be pissed off when she finds out Commander Torus is into you instead of her?”
“Lana, he’s not ‘into’ me!” Molly exclaimed. “See, this is why I need you to leave. Things are awkward enough between us since he saw that video of me…doing what I was doing. I don’t need you making it worse.”
“All right, all right, I’m going!” Lana sighed and gathered her things. “But you have to promise to tell me everything later.”
Molly nodded.
“Fine, but there isn’t going to be anything to tell except that he came and checked on me. Tomorrow at work we’ll all be back to normal…I hope, anyway,” she added, remembering that she would have to face a roomful of people who had seen her naked and masturbating. But again, it wouldn’t be the first time she’d been in that situation.
For a moment, her heart burned with hate. Goddamn Zach for putting her in this humiliating position yet again! What kind of a sociopath got off on hurting and belittling someone else over and over and over? She’d been free of him for five years and yet she was never truly free.
He might not be able to throw things at her or shout in her face or corner her in the bathroom for hours while she cried and begged him to leave her alone or…or hurt her in the bedroom—(that was the closest she could come to thinking of the really bad times.) But though he couldn’t do any of those things to her anymore, he was still able to hurt her and he did so at every opportunity.
I’m just so tired of being hurt, she thought as she waved goodbye to Lana. I just want to be able to heal completely without the wound being opened again.
Well, maybe she would finally get the chance. Now that the worst had happened, and her boss had seen the video and decided not to fire her, she might have finally found a place where she could have peace, Molly thought.
She had no idea that the next few weeks were going to be the least peaceful of her life.