"I'm just really tired. I want to go to bed." Molly looked out of the window into the darkness, blinking tears that she knew were ready to fall. She desperately needed to get home. She just wanted to close the door on this messed up end of the evening. She couldn't believe how wonderful everything had been. Perfect in fact with the man who she loved so much and or so she thought loved her back. But her head was spinning with the sound of Rebecca's voice:
I love you. I'll never stop loving you.
Molly thought how could she have been so naive? Maybe she was only given a chance to live a love for a few months that she was never supposed to have for a lifetime? Maybe Charles thought of her as a rebound? Someone for him to bother with until Rebecca came running back?
After all he was an extremely successful executive high flyer in an internationally renowned motorsports company. From one of the photos of Rebecca that Charles had packed away in drawers, that Molly found by accident one day, his wife looked like a model and exuded confidence by dominating the shots that were taken of her. Charles and Rebecca initially looked like the dream team. But they were now separated so all wasn't that perfect. Charles unhappiness when he first met Molly was testament to that. She wanted to help heal him with an all-consuming love she never knew she possessed. All the time she was spending with Charles, she wouldn't let doubts creep into her mind that he was too good for her. Joanna wouldn't let her either.
However, Molly sometimes did have a confidence problem deep down. She had no doubt it was from spending her childhood watching the way her mother was always dictated to by her father and any dreams Belinda had for herself, quickly papered over. Although when Molly was growing up and telling herself she would try and find her own happiness personally and professionally and never look back until she found it, at certain times (her ex-boyfriend cheating being one), a niggling thought would creep into her mind that maybe finding happiness in all areas of her life might be just a pipe dream.
Molly could feel Charles looking at her and trying to drive at the same time. She didn't want to look at him in case she cried and couldn't stop.
"Molly, please. Something's happened. I know you. Please tell me?"
"Nothing's happened. Give it a rest, will you? I'm just shattered" Molly could feel her breathing getting quicker and put a finger on her wrist to check her pulse. She felt like she could pass out at any second.
"Look, you've hardly spoken since I've packed the car up. Is it something I've done?" Charles voice was higher than normal and she could hear his mouth was dry and the sound of him exhaling a breath. "If you didn't like the food I brought or if you were bored, tell me and we can do something else this weekend. Whatever you like. Just Molly, don't shut me out." Charles tried to put his hand on her leg and rub his thumb up the outside but she moved it by shuffling further in the direction of the car door.
There was complete silence from both of them for the remainder of the car journey. Charles didn't know what to say and didn't want to say the wrong thing in case he made things worse.
Molly kept it together and when they were nearing Harpenden, she got her house keys out of her bag ready in her hand so she could jump straight out when they reached her house.
"Molly. Listen to me. Can I come in? We need to talk. I'm so worried."
"No. I'm going to bed. Are you not listening to me? That's your problem. You think just because you've got a posh job and that, you can click your fingers and get people to do whatever you want?" Molly spat the words out at him. She looked at him very briefly. His face was illuminated by the bright white lights on the dashboard. He had a deep frown set between his eyebrows and his brown eyes looked pained and disbelieving.
She didn't know whether to feel sorry for him or not as even after the events of this evening, could she be over-reacting? She wasn't sure yet. Looking at him, she still longed to run her hand through his hair, kiss his beautiful lips and stroke his eyelids and his long lashes but for tonight, the shutters were coming down to protect herself before the potentially inevitable heartbreak. Right now, she was too tired to think and didn't want to make the situation worse.
"I'll ring you tomorrow Molly. Please answer your phone." Charles called after her as she opened the car door.
"I'll see." She never looked back.
**OG**
Molly shut the front door behind her all the while hearing Charles car engine getting quieter as he drove away. She threw her bag on the floor and slid her back down the door, crying endless salty tears of despair, anger with herself and disappointment.
**OG**
Charles shut the front door behind him and walked over to the huge leather couch that was in the corner of the room and sat himself down carefully trying to run his mind over events of this evening but he couldn't think of any one thing that could have sparked things off to go dramatically wrong. He could still feel her on his fingertips as they danced together in the dying light surrounded by nature. It was sheer bliss. He knew it was another memory that would stay with him all his days. He was massively conflicted. As he sat he saw the red beep on the phone handset signalling a voicemail. Hoping it would be Molly, he jumped to press the replay button but he put his head in his hands when he heard the full message.
"Hi Charles. I was hoping I could catch you at home as you're normally in at this time. I've been thinking. I need to talk to you. You're still a part of me and I can't live without you. I know we can try again somehow, baby. I can change. Please call me back. I don't want to talk to this machine so I'll try your mobile now in case I can catch you on it."
He knew for a fact Molly must have somehow heard Rebecca's mobile phone message. It could only have been when he was packing the car up as his mobile was set up through the sound system. Perfect fucking timing.
**OG**
Charles sat outside Molly's house tapping his fingers on the steering wheel of the car. He wasn't sure what to do next. He had knocked on her door several times but there was no answer so he sat down on Molly's beloved old style wrought iron garden seat and waited for over an hour.
He rubbed his eyes and ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. He hadn't slept a wink all night. It was a very warm evening so he lay naked on top of the sheets while having a huge portable fan on angled at the bed. He stared at the ceiling for hours on end thinking how fate had acted so terribly last night.
Why, oh, why did Rebecca have to ring at the same time Molly was in the car? He desperately didn't want Molly to get the wrong idea and think that Charles had even the slightest idea of getting back with Rebecca. He wasted a good few years of his life living like that and didn't see how a woman such as Rebecca could or would ever change. He was with Molly now. A beautiful, intelligent, loving, caring person who had a wonderful sense of humour not to mention a figure that was stunning with curves in all the right places. Lady Luck had smiled down on him and allowed him to meet this lady, the love of his life, on a packed commuter train. And it all began by picking up a painting that was on the floor.
I should've had that picture framed, Charles mused to himself.
He remembered that Molly was going to Joanna and David's for a couple of hours this morning as Matthew had a school play with the theme being Superheroes and he needed the trousers on his outfit being taken up a few inches. Joanna wasn't very good at sewing or altering clothes.
He put his hand in his pocket and felt the front door key for Molly's house. She had given him a copy last week in case he ever needed it or if Molly lost hers. He decided to go and wait inside.
Molly had made this 2 bedroom house her own. It was fairly run down when she was brought to see the house by David, but together they saw the potential the property had and therefore Molly bought the house for a bargain price given the area it was situated in. David knew plumbers, plasterers and electricians with him being in the housing trade. After a month or two of renovations, it just needed a lick of paint. And this was where Molly came in, as she loved painting and interior design.
Opening the front door, Charles was immediately surrounded by the feel of Molly. The walls of the interior of the house was a bright white colour with various cream shades of painted antique furniture in each room helped in contrast by either light blue accessories in the bedrooms, greens and light browns in the living room or coral and light coffee shades in the kitchen. Molly proudly used to say to Charles that her decoration ideas gave a contemporary twist whilst keeping the old style feels of the property in place. Charles would kiss the top of Molly's head and say he was proud of his little pocket rocket which won him a playful elbow in the ribs.
But there was no doubt in the paintings that Molly created was where Charles was absolutely stunned. They were all hanging on Molly's living room and hallway walls. He knew nothing about painting and watercolours but the beautiful images she was able to create were astounding. Be it images of the countryside, a vast beach scene or a pictures of real people eg: of a woman and her child playing together, or of a young couple bundling up against the cold, walking on a winter's morning. Anything her mind could conjure up and how she created her pieces with wondrous colours and textures was unlike anything Charles had seen. It was as if her pictures could draw you in and you could spend any amount of time being lost in her minds creation.
Molly dismissed any praise from anyone and just would say "S,alright I suppose. It's just something to do before I go to bed or waiting for my tea to be cooked." It was only Charles and Joanna who had seen these pictures separately and they had both tried to persuade her to show her pictures in a gallery somewhere as they were sure she could garner major interest but these notions were instantly dismissed by Molly.
"Who'd want to see these when you've got loads of more interesting offerings out there. Now I love to see some others. Like some great ones I've seen in galleries in the city. Besides I've only got crappy pencils, paints and that. If you're gonna show your stuff off, you need to get all the bells and whistles and it costs a fortune to get all the best painting equipment. I couldn't justify that." And quite often the subject was closed.
Charles was pulled from his musings while sitting on Molly's settee thumbing through magazines on Molly's coffee table, when he heard the front door open.
"Hi." Charles sat up straight and rubbed his palms up and down his legs nervously. He decided against hugging Molly in case she needed to get some things off her chest first.
"Hi." Molly put her keys and bag down on the floor and sat down on the opposite side of the sofa to Charles.
"Look I let myself in because I'm worried sick, Molly. I know you heard Rebecca's voice message. But please take no notice of that. She can ask for things to be back how they were all she wants but..."
"Charles". Molly interrupted. Her face was serious and she was holding her hands tightly in her lap.
"No let me finish. What I have with you is special and I don't want any misunderstandings..."
"Charles, will you listen? I've got something to tell you. It's really important."
"What is it?" Charles chest heaved thinking that Molly had been thinking about what happened and was making the mistake of ending things. Please God no.
"I got a phone call this morning from a woman called Amanda. She works for that gallery that Joanna gave me the details of. You know the one where they've got various art exhibitions on throughout the year? Well I never mentioned this to you but I emailed her some photos of my work. I thought nothing ventured, nothing gained so she got back to me and said they've got a 2 month slot free coming up but I need to move my work and set up there. Charles do you get what I'm saying?"
Charles felt so unbelievably proud of Molly. He knew that she should take this opportunity with open arms. "I think it's fantastic news, sweetheart. You gonna knock them dead up there plus you could make lots of useful contacts. I was just looking at them again when I came in. I want you to be brilliant. When do you have to go?"
"Monday." Molly said with trepidation. "I'm shitting myself but after talking to Joanna about it, because she knows the gallery quite well, she thinks it's great too as they don't often give opportunities like this to unknowns."
"You won't be unknown for long. You'll see." Charles held Molly's hand and rubbed the back of it with his thumb. He reached up and kissed her forehead. "Do you want me to do anything for you?"
"No. It's okay. I've got a few things to run around and sort out today but can I meet you later?"
"Of course. Just give me a call."
Molly wasn't really touching Charles. Her head was all over the place. She still was unsure about last night and how to feel but she had to put that at the back of her mind. This new opportunity was something sudden but felt so exciting and hoped that Charles would understand and support her which she was sure that he would. He left the house giving her a loving smile and walking backwards down the garden path until he came to her gate which closed smartly behind him.
**OG**
Molly was running down Harpenden High Street buying some important essentials to take away with her. She had called into an estate agents office as she needed the contact details and some information about their branch in Scotland which happened to be within a couple of miles of the gallery. She needed the details as she knew she would be renting somewhere for a while in that area. She did feel like she was walking on air today. A buzzing anticipation building in her stomach. She had just crossed the road to go to the Bakers for some bread when she saw a sight that turned her stomach and made the blood drain from her head. She dropped all of the papers she was carrying onto the pavement.
Charles was sitting in a café talking earnestly with a blonde woman while the woman leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek and stroked it. Then she wrote something down on a piece of paper. She guessed the lady was Rebecca.
I knew it. Charles is meeting her telling her he wants to be with her still. I knew something had to be going on.
Charles looked and saw Molly out of the corner of his eye. He got up and ran for the door. "Molly! Molly!" but it was too late. She had disappeared.
A/N:Sorry to leave it there but I thought the chapter was a bit of a long one.Stay with me on this story as please remember I do adore happy endings. As a warning, there are a couple of swear words too in this chapter. Also I just want to say a big thank you to the ladies on MN for the support as my family's going through a rough patch at the moment. Thanks to everyone for the lovely reviews regarding the story so far. It means a lot.