Chapter 16

Click

The unmistakeable sound of a camera phone shutter shook Molly out of her peaceful doze where she was daydreaming about Charles.

"Lily why are you taking photos of me while I'm snoozing?" She asked without opening her eyes.

Lily giggled,

"Just updating our social media Molls."

Molly groaned,

"Don't be putting that picture anywhere, I probably had 3 chins and drool!"

"Don't be daft you look gorgeous."

Molly could hear her clicking away on her phone and sure enough, Molly's pinged with a Facebook notification that she had been tagged. She ignored it and kept her eyes shut.

Lily settled on the next sun lounger beside her,

"So Miss Dawes, spill."

"What?" still keeping her eyes closed, Molly pretended to have no clue what Lily was talking about.

"Come on Molls, I picked you up from the airport, we checked in to the hotel, got changed and now we've had a cocktail, but you've yet to mention Mr Marathon."

Lifting her sunglasses, Molly turned and squinted at Lily through the bright sunlight,

"Mr Marathon?"

"You know, the guy you met while you were training. You were obviously with him when I phoned you last week. I can't believe you're keeping this goss to yourself! Is it him that keeps texting you? I've never seen you quite so glued to your phone."

Molly dropped her sunglasses back onto her nose and lay back. How was she going to deal with this one? She had planned to chat to Lily at some point, but she was working up to it and had hoped Lily would forget about their brief chat on the phone. She also thought she'd been discreet about her texts from Charles. She sighed, obviously not.

"Well?" Lily demanded.

"It's nothing...he's just a neighbour and nothing's going on."

"Why?"

"It's complicated, really there's nothing happening."

Molly felt her sun lounger dip slightly as Lily came to sit on it with her. She opened her eyes again. Lily was staring at her, arms folded. There was no getting away from Lily when she knew there was something up,

"Molly what the fuck, why don't you want to tell me?" She sounded hurt.

Molly sighed, pushing herself up into a sitting position and crossing her legs,

"I'm a bit scared to tell you."

"Scared? Why? Oh God he's not one of my exes is he?"

Molly laughed,

"No nothing like that!" Luckily the two friends had completely different taste in men and never had an issue with both fancying the same guy.

"What then?" Lily looked at a genuine loss.

Molly took a deep breath,

"Look Lil, I met him while I was out running, but he's not training for the marathon."

"Ok, so what's the problem?"

"Well he's recovering from an injury and we got chatting. He's just moved in across the road and he asked me out for dinner."

"You've already been on a date and you didn't tell me? Molly! Why?!"

"Just listen, please. When we went for dinner he told me about his injury...he was shot..."

Lily's mouth dropped,

"Oh my God! Where is he from?!"

"He's from Bath, but he was shot in Afghanistan...he's a Captain in the army."

Lily stared at Molly, eyes flicking from side to side, mouth opening and closing,

"Molly, but...no...but,"

Molly laid a hand on her best friend's arm,

"Lily I know, honest, the minute he told me, I told him I couldn't date him. I told him all about your Dad."

Lily's eyes filled with tears,

"You told him about my Dad?"

"Of course, why, is that not ok?"

"No no...I just...I appreciate it, thanks." She leaned forward and hugged Molly tightly. "What did he say?"

Molly shrugged, "Well he wasn't very happy to begin with, he thought it was the start of something, but he understood. He spoke about friends he's lost too. So yeah, that's it." She looked up brightly, hoping Lily would accept her explanation.

Instead, Lily frowned,

"Except that's not it is it?"

"How do you mean?"

"I don't know, just something, you seem...I don't know."

"I'm fine, don't worry."

"Now I know you're not fine. What did you mean by the start of something?"

Molly shifted uncomfortably,

"Just that we clicked, you know..."

"And?"

"And we kissed, before we went for dinner, we kissed and well..."

"Did you shag him Molly?!"

"No! I'm not-"

Lily cut across her,

"-I know, you're not me." She smiled wryly.

"That's not what I was going to say Lil!"

"I know honey, it's what I'm saying." She laughed. Lily and Molly approached their dating lives very differently. Lily was more of a sex now ask questions later where Molly took her time, sometimes too much time and by the time she'd assessed a potential romantic situation the boy in question had often moved on.

Lily continued, "Molly, what's going on now?"

Molly shrugged, "We're friends, we've been hanging out quite a bit. He's new to Edinburgh so I've been a tour guide and we've gone for a run together. That's it."

"And he's happy with that?"

"Well he's not unhappy. He wants more, but I've told him I can't."

"Molly..."

"It's ok Lil." Molly felt the lump rising in her throat and she swallowed hard.

"You like him don't you?"

"He's a nice guy."

"You know what I mean. Molly?"

"What?"

"Was it a lightning bolt moment?" Lily held her breath in anticipation.

Molly nodded, but she couldn't look at Lily.

"I'm sorry Molly." Lily whispered and Molly heard her voice catch.

The two friends looked at each other, eyes full of unshed tears.

"I'm going for a swim." Lily said suddenly.

Molly reached for her hand, but Lily just patted her arm.

"Later Molls."

She sat back and watched as Lily stood up, adjusted her bikini and dived head first into the pool. She knew from experience that it was best to give Lily space and wait until she came back to her.

She wiped her eyes and sighed. She didn't want this to overshadow their whole holiday. She already felt like thoughts of Charles were invading her every waking moment. It was like being 14 and obsessed with the boy who sat across from her in Chemistry. She'd hoped to get some head space by coming away, but it wasn't working. She also felt the looming deadline of him leaving pressing down on her. As if on cue, her phone beeped with a text from him. She looked from Lily swimming laps to her phone and huffed, resting her head back on her towel. So much for a bloody holiday.

— OG —

Charles lay on his bed in his old room, staring up at the ceiling. He'd napped on and off, but he'd been enjoying a lengthy text exchange with Molly. It started when she'd landed and let him know she was there safely and continued on and off until she told him she was going to the pool with Lily and would text him later. 20 mins later, he was dozing when a Facebook notification told him Molly had been tagged in a post. She had added him before she left so he could see her photos. She seemed keen to reassure him that she wasn't going to be kissing lots of different boys.

He rolled over and opened his Facebook app. He rubbed his eyes while he waited for it to load then exhaled loudly when he saw the picture. Lily was obviously taking it, a short elfin looking girl with a shock of spiky blonde hair with pink tips grinned in the foreground of the selfie while Molly, clearly unaware she was being photographed, lay on a sun lounger in the background. She wore a bright pink cut away swimsuit which was more of a bikini joined up down the middle. Her hair was piled on top of her head and she looked relaxed and beautiful. It was the least amount of clothing he'd seen her wearing and he was embarrassed to feel that the reaction in his groin was almost instantaneous. She was gorgeous. He wanted her, but not just physically, completely. He wanted her with him in every way. He flopped back onto his pillow, breathing heavily. Thinking of his Mum's words, he knew he had to do this tour, but then he had to do everything he could to convince her to give them a chance. Starting now.

He opened a new message and typed:

You look absolutely stunning in that swimsuit. C xx

Simple and to the point. Now he just had to hope she'd reply.