Not Pretending Anymore by Ward, Penelope (big ebook reader .TXT) 📕

I followed as she walked back to a door we’d just passed. She opened it and flicked the lights on. The bedroom was decked out in a pink comforter and had pink-and-white-striped window treatments. It was neat, but sort of barren.

“Is this your half-sister’s room?”

She shook her head. “Her room is down the hall. This was supposed to be my room. I was sixteen when he bought this place. He brought me over to show it to me, and this room had been all set up, just like this. I never stayed in it, but it looks like he hasn’t changed anything over the years.”

“Wow. I guess he never stopped hoping you might come spend time here.”

“Yeah.” She sighed, flicked off the light, and shut the door. But she held onto the handle with her head down. “I’m glad I came here tonight.”

I put my hand on her shoulder and squeezed. “I’m glad I came, too…Molly P. Corrigan.”

She turned around with her face all wrinkled. “P? My middle name is Caroline.”

I wiggled my eyebrows. “Not anymore. From now on, it’s Molly Pee-Pee Pants Corrigan.”

She rolled her eyes, but smirked. “God, you’re such a two-year-old.”

“Maybe. But at least I’m potty-trained.”

***

It was four in the morning by the time Molly came back to the waiting room this time. Her dad had been admitted to the intensive care unit, and I’d dozed off in the waiting room down the hall.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you.” She pointed to the snack machines lined up along the far side of the room. “I’m so thirsty and wanted to get a water.”

I rubbed my eyes. “I wasn’t really sleeping. Just resting my eyes.”

She smiled. Taking two bills out of her wallet, she fed them into the vending machine and bought herself a bottle of Poland Spring. “You want something?”

“No, thanks. I already ate two bags of hot fries, some Twizzlers, and a peanut chew that I’m pretty sure took out one of my fillings.”

Molly sat down in the chair next to me. “They’re helping him get changed. I figured I’d give him some privacy and let him sleep for a while. Rounds in ICU usually start about seven o’clock. It’s so late already; there’s almost no point in going home now. I want to be here to talk to the doctors when they come through.”

“So we’ll stay. These seats are pretty comfy.”

“You should go, Declan. You have to work in a few hours. I can Uber home when I’m ready to go.”

I shrugged. “Nah. I can juggle around my schedule. I don’t need to be anywhere at a certain time.”

Molly’s eyes stopped on the end table next to me and widened. “What did you do?”

I’d forgotten all about my project. Lifting the large Styrofoam cup I’d gotten from a nearby nurses’ station, I handed her the snack I’d prepared for her. “Only the reds for my little pee-pee girl.”

She looked inside the cup. “Where did you get these?”

I lifted my chin toward the snack machine, which I’d drained of every last bag of M&Ms. “They sold them in the machine.”

“There had to be ten bags of M&Ms to get this many reds. And where did the other colors go?”

“Thirteen, actually.” I rubbed my stomach. “And don’t worry, no unacceptable colors were harmed during the process. I put them all to good use—though my stomach might disagree right about now. You know, it’s a good thing these machines take credit cards. A buck seventy-five for one bag of candy? What a rip-off.”

Molly just kept looking at me.

“What?” I wiped at my face. “Did I drool on myself during my cat nap?”

She shook her head. “No. You’re fine. It’s just… Why exactly did you buy all these and do this?”

I didn’t understand the question. “What do you mean? Because you like to eat one color. Why else would I do it?”

“But you had to know I wasn’t going to eat this entire giant cup of M&Ms right now.”

I actually hadn’t thought about that. “I wasn’t suggesting you had to eat them all.”

“I know. I realize that. You didn’t spend more than twenty dollars and sit here separating the colors because I might eat them as a meal.”

I wasn’t following. “Okay…”

“You did it because you knew I was feeling down, and I’d get a kick out of it.”

I shrugged. “So?”

Molly reached over and took my hand. She laced her fingers with mine. “You’re a good friend to me, Declan.”

I knew she’d meant it as a compliment, but her saying I was a friend didn’t sit quite right. Our conversation earlier this evening felt like a lifetime ago now. But my feelings for Molly had changed sometime over the last few weeks. At first I’d thought it was just a natural sexual attraction. I mean, there was no denying she was a beautiful woman. But lately I’d been wanting to spend all of my free time with her, and I’d been questioning the feelings I’d thought I had for Julia.

Of course, this wasn’t the time or place to continue our discussion, but nevertheless, hearing her call me a good friend kinda made my gut feel like it had taken a punch.

Still, I squeezed her hand in mine. “Just doing what you’d do for me, if the shoe was on the other foot.”

She leaned her head on my shoulder. “I would. I absolutely would be here for you.”

***

“Molly?”

I woke to the sound of a man’s voice about 6AM. Opening my eyes, I found the last thing I wanted to see: Dr. Dickalicious standing in the waiting room. Luckily, Molly was out cold. We’d both fallen asleep an hour or two ago. I’d been sitting up, but Molly had spread out across three chairs, and her head rested on my lap. Since the asshole didn’t seem to care that he might wake her, I managed to gently lift her head off me and set it down on the chair so I could