Page 43 of Pity Present
“Why didn’t Thor ask me to work out with him. I can work out,” she says heatedly.
“I don’t know why he didn’t ask you,” I tell her. “You’re quite lovely.”
“You didn’t ask me either,” she accuses.Oh, but I wanted to, Molly.
“I thought you and I were friends,” I say, all the while not feeling in the least friendly toward her. “I didn’t want to hog your time and keep you from finding a real prospect.” Her posture slags, so I know I’ve just hurt her feelings again. But in the long run, this is a much better scenario than dating her for real and then writing about it for all of Chicago to read. She’d never forgive me for that.
“Why did you friend-zone me so quickly?” she wants to know.
I can’t tell her the truth, so I lie. “I guess I just felt like we had a strong friend chemistry. I figured we could both use a pal of the opposite sex while we’re here.”
“I’m not sure I’m going to keep coming to these things.”
“Really, why?”Also, yay!Not only will I not have to write about her, but maybe then I can be honest with her and let her know I’d be interested in dating her. I’m tempted to tell her that either way, but if she gets mad and outs me to the other people at the event then my job might be in jeopardy.
“I’m not sure this is my kind of thing.” She sounds dejected.
“You might be right.” She widens the distance between us, andI belatedly realize she thinks I’m rejecting her again. The rest of our dance is spent in painful silence.
As the music ends, Trina approaches us. She’s with Kyle. “Molly, I’d like to introduce you to Kyle. I think the two of you might have a lot in common.”
Molly rolls her eyes. “Kyle was the ex I was telling you about.”
“Oh dear,” Trina mutters. Then she looks at Kyle and accuses, “You leftMollyfor another woman?” She says this like it’s the most unbelievable thing she’s ever heard. I agree.
Kyle’s face flushes a deep red. “To my great shame.” I’m guessing he says this to try to lessen the horror of his crime. To my surprise, Molly appears to be buying it.
“Contrition looks good on you, Kyle,” she tells him.
“Can we go somewhere and talk?” he asks her.
No, you can’t.But before I say that out loud, Molly side-eyes me and asks him, “Why not?”
While I like Kyle well enough as a human being, and only earlier today determined to put him in Molly’s path for the entertainment ofChicago Wind’s readers, he’s nowhere near good enough for her. I thought she was smart enough to know that.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
MOLLY
“You really do look beautiful tonight,” Kyle repeats appreciatively as we walk to the outskirts of the ballroom together.
I know I do.Melissa’s friend Fernando, while wildly eccentric—I mean, the man wore harem pants like he was starring inAladdin—definitely knows what he’s doing with hair. He only took off about two inches, but he spent ages cutting layers that make it look like my hair is in constant motion.
I don’t know why I agreed to talk privately with Kyle, except I knew I couldn’t stay near Blake for another minute. Against my better judgment, I want him for more than a friend. He’s nice, intelligent, kind to others, sweet, and extremely good looking. The fact that he’s determined for us to be nothing more than pals is really making me mad.
“What did you want to talk about?” I ask Kyle.
“I wanted to tell you again how very sorry I am about the way things ended between us. I’ve thought a lot about it and in retrospect I realize that we might have really been perfect together.”
“Forgive me for finding that hard to believe, Kyle. You did cheat on me.”
“Which was a horrible thing to do. I think that things would have been different had we been living together. We would have seen each other more, and I would have been always thinking of us as a unit, not separate entities.”
“A unit, huh?” That’s probably the least romantic thing he could have said to me.
“You know what I mean. You were only in town for a couple weeks out of every month. It was hard to settle in with such limited time.”
“You’re an all-or-nothing kind of guy, huh?”
