Until You Met Me

“Do you have any brothers or sisters?”

Molly smirked around her coffee cup, shaking her head slightly as she listened to Gerard laugh at his own joke. The entire dinner had been the same. Gerard had embraced Molly’s suggestion that they pretend that they didn’t know how the evening was going to end by pretending that they had never met before, and Molly had leant into it, even if she had scoffed and shook her head more than once. It had proven to be a lot more fun than she had been anticipating when she had first looked up at him. She was still trying to get her head around it, to figure out what Ava could have seen in Gerard that Molly herself had missed, but slowly, she had put the questions to one side. She could get answers later, but in the moment, she just wanted to enjoy herself.

“I have a sister” Molly answered, lowering her mug down onto the table “You’ll probably remember her best from the awkward kiss you once shared when you were dared at my fifteenth birthday party” she added.

Gerard ducked his head, trying to hide the red on his cheeks as he laughed. “How could I forget Poppy?” he quipped.

Molly let out a soft laugh. “She forgot you pretty quickly” she said “I think it was maybe a week later that she met the man who is now her husband” she added.

“It was probably for the best” Gerard played along, feigning a forlorn sigh “Things between me and you might have gotten a little weird if I had started to date your older sister” he added.

Molly tilted her head. “Weirder than you showing up tonight?” she prodded, the start of a smile pulling up the corner of her mouth.

“We’ve already talked about that” Gerard countered “I was Ava’s last resort” he added, flashing her a teasing grin.

He knew that she was going to be curious. Despite the explanation that he had already given her, he knew that the sight of him beside her table when Ava had promised to set her up on a date was one that was going to take a little time to get used to, but he didn’t want to talk about it again, knowing that if she probed too much, she would see through the lie that he had told her. He hadn’t done it to make things worse, if he was honest, he didn’t really know why he had done it, but he knew that if Molly figured out why he had really sat down across from her, then he would have done.

Molly scoffed, shaking her head amusedly. “I know for a fact that that isn’t true” she said “I had actually thought of a few possibilities, and your name didn’t cross my mind once. I didn’t even know that Ava had your phone number” she added.

Gerard chose to ignore the first part of what she had said, and the strange twinge in his chest that it had caused. Instead, he shook his head, rubbing his jaw slightly. “She gave it to me when you had your appendix out last year” he quipped “You pissed a lot of people off by choosing to stay in my spare bedroom while you were recovering. I have her number, Sofia’s. Your parents’, Poppy’s” he added with a slightly bashful shrug.

Molly’s answering smile was soft. “You were the right level of worried” she said “And you made me the best sandwiches” she added.

Gerard shrugged again, the tops of his cheeks flushing pink.

For a moment, Molly just stared at him, something which caused Gerard to tilt his head slightly, trying to decipher the expression on her face.

“Can I get you anything else?”

Both Molly and Gerard looked away. Molly looked down at her lap, and Gerard looked up at the waiter who was stood over their table. Clearing his throat, he shook his head slightly. “Just the check, please” he said.

The waiter nodded his head and walked away, leaving Molly and Gerard in silence for a moment before she gently pushed her seat backwards. “I am going to head to the bathroom before we leave” she said “Can you give me a lift home? I wouldn’t normally ask my date, but seeing as it is you” she added impishly.

Gerard made a show of rolling his eyes, but nodded his head. “Of course” he quipped “At least that way I know you’re actually home, and not randomly sitting in my living room” he added.

Molly laughed. “Don’t act like you don’t love it” she chirped as she turned to walk away from the table.

Gerard watched her go, his smile fading slightly as she moved further away. He did love it. For as long as he could remember, Molly had come to him when she needed a shoulder to cry on, or someone to make her laugh, and he had always loved being that to her, but he had never quite been able to figure out the full extent of what he felt for her. Part of him didn’t want to know. He was scared that if he really allowed himself to think about it, he’d realise that what they were, what they had always been, wasn’t enough, and that he’d do something stupid, like tell her, and he was terrified about what it could do to them. Molly had always looked at him the same way and he knew that he couldn’t bear it changing, so he didn’t think about it. He ignored the knots in his stomach when she was upset, and the little flutter he felt when she smiled up at him, knowing that if he even thought about what it really was, it’d almost certainly change everything.

Watching the waiter place the check on the table next to him, Gerard offered him a tight smile before he heard his phone vibrate against the table, causing him to turn it over. Studying the message that he appeared on the screen, he let out a soft sigh and began to type a response, telling Ava that he would meet her the following day to talk about what had happened, and reiterating his request for her to not tell Molly. He knew that she would want to, and that he should have done form the outset, but he hadn’t, and he didn’t want her to hear it from Ava. When the truth came out, he wanted Molly to hear it from him.

“Ready?”

Gerard’s eyes moved away from the screen of his phone, moving up to Molly’s face before he quirked a small smile, determinedly shoving his phone into his jacket pocket. “I am if you are” he quipped.

Molly rolled her eyes, but couldn’t stifle her smile, something which made Gerard grin back at her before he stood up and followed her across the restaurant. He knew that there were a lot of questions, that things needed to be talked about and figured out, but it could wait. That night had been wonderful, and for as long as he could, he wanted to focus on that.