Chapter 10
READY TO GHOST
By Sunday morning, Molly had given up hope of Dean contacting her.
She’d walked out of Pulse feeling like the paddles of a defibrillator had been supercharged and lit her up.
The game she’d been playing with herself to see if she was confident enough to walk in there again seemed like it was dying with her solo lunch.
When Dean had gone in the back to deal with an issue, she’d taken a few more bites of her salad, moved it around to make it seem like she ate more than she had, then asked the other bartender for her bill. Her plan was to sneak out and never return.
Kind of like “ditch a date Molly.” Only this wasn’t a date and it really didn’t count.
Rotten luck—or good luck depending on how she looked at it—was on her side when he walked back out and caught her ready to ghost.
She’d been shocked he asked her for a date. She’d wanted to say no. She’d even quickly played the scenario out in her head. In the end she agreed.
And now he was ghosting her.
Stupid, stupid, stupid, she told herself as she sat around all week just waiting to hear from him.
The minute her phone went off for the past five days, she reached for it and looked to see if it was Dean.
Heck, she was grabbing it when it wasn’t making any noise, hoping she’d missed a message.
Nothing.
But Sunday afternoon, her phone went off. She hated she ran for it in the living room while she was in the kitchen making her lunch.
And there on her phone was a message that read: It’s Dean. Sorry it took me so long to get back to you. Work has been crazy with the holiday coming up. I didn’t even realize it myself. Are we still on for tomorrow?
Holiday? What the heck was he talking about? Then she realized that the Fourth of July was in a few days.
Molly typed back: We are, but if you’re too busy we can postpone it.
She could see the bubbles on the screen then. I’m off anyway. No reason to postpone unless you’re too busy breaking down the nutrients of a package of donuts.
She giggled. No one ever made cracks about her job. Not funny ones at least. I’m not busy. Lunch sounds great. Just tell me when and where and I’ll make it work.
She wasn’t tied to her desk or a schedule at work. She put enough hours in, she could come and go when she wanted.
There was a huge smile on her face as she saw the bubbles flashing again. She couldn’t ever remember grinning this hard. Not so hard that her cheeks actually hurt.
Now she had to figure out how she was going to pull this off with her attire again.
She dashed to her closet and flung clothes to the side. Maybe a little sundress would work. She could put a sweater over it at work, the AC was always on and it was cool in the lab, then she could ditch it in the car and swap out shoes again.
Yep, that was it.
That part was done.
The other part was a date.
Ugh. Her last one was a disaster.
And the one before that? She didn’t even know when that was!
She needed a boast and picked her phone up, then called her sister.
“Hi, Molly.”
“Do you have a minute to talk? Am I interrupting anything?”
“I’m good. The kids are outside playing with Mike. What’s going on?”
“I’ve got a lunch date tomorrow. I’m panicking.”
“A lunch date with the hot bartender from Pulse? I thought we were all going to go in there with you. You, me, and Ruby.”
“That was before. Now it’d look silly.”
Good thing they never went through with it before. Oh lord, she could only imagine Dean would think she might be some loser who needed her sisters with her.
Or worse yet a stalker.
But she’d gone in there two more times alone and talked to him. That was more stalker-like than if she had gone with her sisters.
This was getting too complicated even for her.
And she was used to complicated things in life.
Excelled at keeping them in line and in perfect order.
But that was work.
This was life.
Her life had never been this exciting.
“You didn’t answer me,” Erika said. “Is it with him? Dean, right?”
“Yes, Dean. And it’s with him. Last week, I went in again, alone. On my lunch. I don’t know. I just kind of wanted to see what could happen.”
“I need to sit down for this,” Erika said. “Why am I just hearing about it now?”
Because she didn’t want her sister to think she was so desperate and lonely that she always needed a pep talk.
Like she was doing now.
“I didn’t know how it was going to turn out. And when I saw him flirting with a bunch of women at the bar and even an employee, I tried to sneak out.”
“You need to stop doing that,” Erika said.
“I know. I know. He caught me. I was embarrassed. But he was so nice and he asked me for a lunch date. He’s off on Mondays and his son is in Pre-K.”
“How do you feel about that?”
“I thought about it. I was thinking that it can’t be he’s bringing women home or sleeping around. He’s got a kid.”
“You’re getting way ahead of yourself for no reason. It’s one date. Go to lunch, have fun, find out more. You’re already looking for things.”
“I can’t seem to stop that trait and I really should.”
But it was hard when she was so used to always being told everything she did wasn’t right.
“Yes, you should.”
“I thought he was going to blow me off,” she admitted. “It’s been like five days since I’ve seen him and haven’t heard a word. But he said he was busy with work and finally reached out.”
“Take a deep breath, Molly. You’re almost hyperventilating.”
She had to get a handle on this soon because the Molly right now wasn’t the Molly who Dean was used to talking to.
Maybe this wasn’t a good idea.
“I should cancel,” she said.
“Why?” Erika asked, sounding confused.
She had to confess. “Because I’m kind of playing a part in there and I’m not sure I can do it face to face like on a date.”
“What do you mean playing a part?”
“I’m dressing differently. It’s giving me confidence.”
“Stop right now. My sister has confidence.”
She snorted. “No, I don’t.”
“You do. You’ve always had it in school and in your job.
You’ve got it in you, but you’ve never let it show in your personal life.
Do you think Ruby and I haven’t talked? If some nice clothes are making you feel better about yourself and letting you come out of your shell, I’ll take you shopping right now and help you buy more. ”
She breathed a sigh of relief, then a giggle burst out.
“I feel like such an idiot. When you say it like that, I’m being silly.”
“You are. Just be you. Seems like it’s working. Have fun and let me know how it goes.”
“I’ll try.”
Try to have fun and maybe share how the date went.
Because if it flopped like she feared, she was keeping that to herself.