Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 86596 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 433(@200wpm)___ 346(@250wpm)___ 289(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86596 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 433(@200wpm)___ 346(@250wpm)___ 289(@300wpm)
“Is that what you really think?” He whispers again.
I nod. “I have to.”
Because if I don’t, then this entire relationship has been wasted, and we haven’t learned anything.
“What should I do, Molly?”
He sounds so dejected—so miserable.
“You should…let me know what happens. And let me know if you need anything.”
Spoken like a true friend, eh?
Back in the friend zone, apparently, the way we started.
“Okay,” he says at long last. “I will.”
My reply is barely audible. “Kay.”
“Bye, Molly.”
Oh god, I can’t even say it. “Goodbye, Eli.”
And just like that…
He’s gone.
twenty-four
eli
“Are you talking about Laura? Your ex Laura?”
Jack Jennings is seated in my living room, on the couch, staring at me somberly. He knew this was serious as soon as he saw the look on my face when I opened the door—my red eyes and red nose.
“Damn, Cohen—is everything okay?” he’d asked, slipping into the apartment and immediately enveloping me in a hug. Jack never would have hugged me years ago. Having a daughter has softened him in a good way and made him a better, focused player.
He's never been more popular, and it’s partly due to fatherhood.
“Yeah, I’m talking about Laura.”
“Fuck.” He runs a hand through his hair and lets out a breath. “And she’s pregnant?”
“Uh, yeah—she’s super pregnant.” I make a curve over my midsection pantomiming a large, round belly.
“And she just made herself at home while Molly was here?”
“Yes.”
“Holy shit. That could not have been good.”
It wasn’t.
But it also could have been worse. “Molly didn’t stay. She got up and walked out of the room as soon as Laura began talking, then had her shit and was out the door soon after. She never got to hear the good stuff.”
“What’s the good stuff?” Jack leans forward, chugging the beer I’d set down in front of him.
“Just the part about her making a huge mistake. That Keith was a dimwit, and she could barely stand making conversation with him, and that he was nothing but a pretty face with no brains inside his pretty little head.”
“I mean, we all knew that,” Jack says, trying to make light of a complicated situation.
“I think what you mean is ‘Dude, that is so fucked up.’”
“That’s exactly what I mean. Who the hell does she think she is, flip flopping like that and fucking with both your heads.” He pauses in thought. “DO you think he actually knows she was here?”
I scratch my head, then rub my eyes. “You know, part of me doesn’t believe he does. A part of me suspects that she came here to shoot her shot and beg me to take her back. She wants me to take her at her word and…take her back. Raise the baby. Buy her shit. Make her look good.”
“And then what?”
Jack is hanging on my every word.
I shrug, all the pieces of the puzzle falling into place. “I suspect that if I would have welcomed her back with open arms, she would have told Keith to piss off, that the baby is mine, and she never wants to see him again. But since I told her to get the hell out of my place and contact me through Donna, she went home and pretended she was running errands or got her nails done, and he’s none the wiser.”
“That’s so fucked up,” Jack says on his own accord.
“Again, this is only my theory.” I take a drink of beer but wince. It just hits the wrong way and feels all wrong and not at all what I need. “She’s playing both sides and using this pregnancy to get what she wants.”
The most cunning of evil bitches.
“First, she used you, then she used you, now she wants to come crawling back.”
“Yup.”
“And Molly was here.”
I nod miserably. “Yup.”
“I am so sorry, man.” Jack puts his large palm on my shoulder.
“She and I just spoke on the phone. She definitely wants nothing to do with me now.”
Jack shakes his head sadly. “Maybe she’ll come around, even if Laura is having your baby.”
“Nah, I don’t think so. Laura is toxic, and no woman in their right mind would want to date me as long as I’m tied to her. I can’t imagine what she would be like, and I can’t fucking believe I wasted almost a decade of my life with her.”
They say people come into our lives for two reasons: to be a blessing or to teach you a lesson.
Teach me a lesson?
What has she taught me other than that she’s a relationship ruiner—ours and mine. That I’m an idiot who blindly looked the other way, ignoring the fact that she didn’t love me anymore. I grew complacent. I was too busy and too career focused, assuming she felt the same way and wanted the same things.
Apparently, she wanted a baby and a glamourous life.
Jesus, stop rehashing the obvious. We get it. She sucks.