Page 74 of Pity Present
Taking her hand, I say, “We have to get our order in by eleven or we’ll have to eat lunch.” Then I pull her in the direction of the elevator.
Once we’re inside, she declares, “I’m getting the chocolate chip pancakes. How about you?”
“That sounds good,” I tell her. “Why don’t I get the Swedish pancakes, and we can share?”
She nods her head. “Perfect.”
We’re at our table and seated with only five minutes to spare, so we order right away. I ask for a cup of coffee and Molly gets a hot chocolate. She divulges, “I’ve had at least two hot chocolates every day since I’ve been here.”
“Sounds like you know a good thing when you find it,” I tell her.Not unlike me finding her.
She giggles. “I was planning on being really good and not having a lot of sweets, but I went off the rails and now I don’t even know where the rails are.”
“The holidays are the time for decadence,” I assure her.
“So,” Molly says, “you’re going back into the trenches today.”
I feel a guilty heat under my collar while answering, “I want to find out what else Trina has up her sleeve that we might be able to incorporate at the coffee shop.”
Molly looks over my shoulder. “Isn’t that Thor sitting over there? And Krista, too?” I turn around and sure enough, Krista and Thor are sitting near us at separate tables.
“I wonder why they’re not sitting together,” I say.
Molly exhales loudly before announcing, “That’s probably our fault. Or ratheryourfault.”
“My fault? How do you figure?”
She glares at me meaningfully. “You’re the one who broke up their first date when you started acting like you were interested in Krista.”
“Ah, yes. But I was really interested in you.”
“You had a funny way of showing it,” she murmurs sardonically.
“That’s because I’d decided not to pursue anyone while I was here. As such, I was trying to give you and Thor some time to connect.”
“So, you were never interested in Krista romantically?”
“I was not,” I assure her. “But I have an idea, if you’re game.”
“What’s that?”
Standing up, I tell her, “I think I should go ask Thor to join us and you should ask Krista and once we’re all at the same table, we can update them on our new status. That way, they might decide to reconnect.”
“Our new status?” she asks flirtatiously. “What might our new status be?”
I give my shoulders a brief shrug before telling her, “I was thinking we should tell them that we’ve paired off and that neither of us is available.”
Her smile is positively blinding. “Let’s do it!” She practically sprints toward Krista before I’ve even taken a single step.
Once Molly reaches her destination, I head to Thor’s table. “Hey, man,” I say. “How about joining me for breakfast?”
I don’t think he saw me coming because he startles when he hears my voice. “Hey, Blake. How are you?”
“Really good,” I tell him. “Would you like to join me?”
Pushing away from his table, he stands up and grabs his plate. “I’d love to.”
I lead the way to Molly’s and my table, with Molly and Krista only seconds behind us. When Krista sees me, she stops dead inher tracks. “You …” she accuses like I just ran her dog over with my car.
