Chapter Sixteen
December 2014, London, England
After work the following day, Molly applied some lipstick and took off her slippers, sliding her feet into her boots and zipping them up. She shut her laptop down and stuffed one of the new manuscripts into her tote bag. She planned on working from home for a few days. The commute, the cold and the general exhaustion were starting to get to her.
When she got to the lobby she spotted Chris chatting to Sue.
‘Evening, Moll. Are you ready to brave the cold?’ he asked.
She smiled at him and nodded. ‘Yep, let’s do it.’ She waved to Sue, and they walked towards the door, pausing as someone else was coming through.
Molly’s face dropped as the tall, dark figure walked towards her. ‘Mark!’ She squeaked. ‘Hi.’
This was the scenario she had been dreading. Would Mark work out that something had happened between her and Chris?
‘Hello, Molly.’ Mark glared at Chris. ‘Who’s this?’
‘Mark, this is Chris, my friend from the train,’ Molly replied quickly.
Mark’s eyes flicked back to Molly. ‘What’s he doing here?’
‘Mark. We walk to the station together.’ She glared at him. How could he be so rude? She could tell from Mark’s narrowed eyes that he wasn’t pleased to see Chris.
Chris turned to Mark and held out his hand. ‘Nice to meet you, mate, I’ve heard a lot about you.’
Mark shook Chris’s hand. ‘Same. Good to meet you too.’ He turned back to Molly. ‘I thought we could go and get some dinner.’
‘That sounds great.’ She turned to Chris. ‘Sorry...’ She trailed off, unsure what to say.
Mark turning up out of the blue had thrown her, and she stuffed her shaking hands into her pocket. She wasn’t sure which one of them she wanted to see more, and that thought unnerved her.
‘It’s no problem. I’ll see you soon.’ Chris nodded to Molly, then Mark, before walking out of the door.
Molly watched him go, not feeling as excited as she should about the prospect of an evening with Mark. She was furious with him.
‘Why did you have to be so rude to Chris?’ she asked as they walked towards the South Bank.
Mark took Molly’s hand and gripped it tightly in his. ‘I’ve not seen you in two weeks, and I show up and he’s the one meeting you from work?
She sighed. ‘You know we get the train together. He works around the corner from me, so we walk to the station together. After what happened to me, I don’t like being on my own in the dark. Why did you have to behave like that towards him?’ She shook her head.
He ignored her reply. ‘He’s not what I pictured. When you said he worked in IT, I imagined some kind of geek with a chin beard. He looks like he spends more time in the gym than behind a computer.’
She shrugged. ‘He’s a friend.’ She took a deep breath. ‘You can’t treat people like that.’
‘Sorry,’ he replied tersely, his grip tightening on her hand. ‘I didn’t mean to embarrass you.’
She let out a long exhale. ‘I don’t care about you embarrassing me; I care about how you treat other people, Mark.’ His obsession with appearances was starting to rile her.
‘Again, I’m sorry, I was just a bit shocked, that’s all,’ he said. ‘I get that being on your own in the dark is probably hard for you.’
She smiled at him. This was the first time he had shown any real appreciation for what she had been through.
‘It is hard,’ she said, ‘but I’m getting braver every day.’
They reached Mark’s favourite Japanese restaurant, where they sat at a table in the window and Mark talked incessantly about his trip to Luxembourg while they sipped green tea and ate noodles.
She raised an eyebrow at Mark’s mentions of bars, late nights, and hangovers. ‘It doesn’t sound like you got a lot of work done,’ she said, wiping her mouth with a napkin.
There was no way she would be able to do her job hungover, nor would she want to.
‘We work hard, and we play hard, Molly.’ He shrugged. ‘My job’s extremely stressful and we need to let off steam. Your job’s not as fast paced.’
‘No, we just meander along like snails,’ she said, feeling irritated.
It wasn’t the first time he’d suggested that her job wasn’t as important as his. She put her chopsticks down in her empty bowl, watching as he did the same.
‘Very funny,’ he replied. ‘I’ve missed your sense of humour.’ He looked at her intently.
She realised he was waiting for her to say that she’d missed him. The truth was that she’d been so caught up in Saskia leaving, and the situation with Chris, that she hadn’t had time to miss him.
‘Really?’ she asked, laughing nervously. ‘You don’t always like my sense of humour.’
‘It’s unique, that’s for sure,’ he said. ‘You didn’t miss me then? I know you were angry with me.’
‘I was,’ she said. ‘You let me down right at the last minute.’
‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I won’t do it again.’
‘Good,’ she replied.
The fury that had consumed her on Friday had dissipated. Was it that she’d moved on from it, or was it apathy? She couldn’t decide.
‘How was the stag do? Did you all make it home?’
He laughed. ‘It was good. Obviously I can’t tell you too much about it.’ He smiled at the waitress who took away their empty bowls, then turned back to Molly. ‘How was your weekend? Was it weird being at home without Saskia?’
Molly swallowed hard. ‘Not at all,’ she said, then took a sip of her green tea.
Her throat was dry, and she was terrified that he would realise she was hiding something. ‘I went out with some friends on Saturday, then to Liz’s on Sunday after yoga.’
‘Sounds busy,’ he said. ‘Now that Saskia’s in the city, maybe you’ll want to come and live here too.’
‘Mark, I can’t get rid of that house, it has too many memories.’ A few recent ones I can’t get out of my head, she thought to herself.
‘You don’t have to,’ he replied. ‘You could just rent it out for a while.’ He picked up the dessert menu. ‘You could make a fortune.’
‘I’m not renting out my house, Mark,’ she said, picking up her own dessert menu. She was irritated by his nonchalance. ‘Saskia’s pantomime is only for a month. She’ll be back home soon.’
‘Maybe,’ he said. ‘What if this is the start of her career? She might stay in the city.’
‘That doesn’t matter. I’m still not leaving Canterbury. I thought you were thinking about moving there with me.’
‘I did think about it,’ he replied. ‘It’s not something I can do right now, but maybe in the future.’
‘When in the future?’ she asked.
He put down his menu, and picked up her hand, squeezing it softly. ‘Can’t we just enjoy tonight? I don’t want to plan out our entire lives right now.’
She felt a sharp pain in her chest. If she pushed him too much, would he run away? ‘Of course,’ she replied, her heart rate slowing as he ran his thumb over the back of her hand. ‘We don’t have to talk about it right now.’
He smiled at her, then picked up his menu again. ‘Are you going for chocolate, or lychee mochis today?’
‘I can’t decide,’ she replied. ‘Why don’t we get both and share?’
He nodded and caught the eye of the waitress, who came over to their table. ‘Can we have the chocolate and the lychee and yuzu mochis please?’ he asked.
She nodded, writing down their order and taking the menus away.
He sipped his green tea. ‘You know, however many times we come here, I still can’t get used to this stuff. I just tell myself it’s good for me.’ He shrugged. ‘Are you coming back to my place tonight? It’s been way too long.’
‘I uh…sure,’ she said.
Being away from Canterbury, and Chris was probably a good thing right now. Having feelings for two people was exhausting.
‘I haven’t got any of my things there though. Can we stop at Boots so I can get a toothbrush?’
He smiled. ‘Don’t worry. I’ve got it covered. It’ll be easier to get to work as well.’
She nodded to the large leather bag at her feet. ‘I was planning on working from home for the next couple of days. I’ve got my laptop and some manuscripts with me.’
‘Come and work from mine,’ he replied. ‘We can go out after I finish work.’
‘I’d like that,’ she said. It had been a long time since she had stayed at his place during the week.
‘Good,’ he replied, ‘Also, I’ve got something to ask you.’
Her stomach lurched and her throat went dry. ‘Go on,’ she said, her voice a squeak.
The room felt too hot, and her clothes felt too tight. Hadn’t he just said he didn’t want to plan their entire future?
‘Would you like to come to my company’s Christmas party with me?’ He picked up one of the mochi and popped it into his mouth.
She smiled. ‘Of course I will, I’d love to.’
She actually felt relieved, not sad that he hadn’t asked her to marry him, and that thought bothered her. Surely that was what she wanted, wasn’t it? She’d been terrified of blurting out that she’d kissed Chris, but as the evening had gone on, she’d pushed her thoughts about the weekend to the back of her mind.
They took the train back to Canary Wharf and walked along the riverside. Molly stopped to admire the reflection of the lights shimmering in the water, and the boats motoring slowly along the river.
When they reached Mark’s apartment, he let her in and took her into the bedroom. Laid out on the bed were a couple of bags, and white boxes.
Molly frowned at him. ‘What’s this?’
‘Open them,’ he replied.
She lifted the lid from the first box. Inside was the exact same toiletry bag as hers. She unzipped it. Inside was a tube of toothpaste, a toothbrush, and a pot of the exact organic rosewater moisturiser that she used.
She gasped. ‘Did you do this?’
He nodded. ‘Open the next one.’
Inside the next box were bottles of her shampoo, conditioner, and shower gel. One of the bags contained a white bathrobe and a pair of floral satin shorts and vest, just like she had at home. Inside a thin white cardboard box was a bra and several pairs of French knickers. The last bag contained a pair of yoga pants, a sweatshirt, and a couple of T-shirts.
‘I said I would make it up to you,’ he said. ‘I’m sorry about last weekend. I thought that maybe the reason you didn’t like staying here was that you didn’t have any of your own things here.’
She didn’t know what to say. He could have just given her a drawer to put her things in, that would have been enough. This was extravagant and overwhelming.
‘This is so kind of you, thank you.’ The pang of guilt in her stomach got stronger.
‘This way you don’t have to drag a big bag with you when you come here. You can have spares of all your things here.’ He stood up. ‘Come with me.’
She followed him into the kitchen where he opened a cupboard. ‘We have granola, and we have yoghurts in the fridge.’
Her eyes pricked with tears. ‘You are so sweet.’
He wrapped his arms around her. ‘I’ve been taking you for granted. I’m not doing that anymore.’