‘Yeah, but you watch me panic if he happens to walk around the corner.’ She rubbed her forehead as she sought my gaze. ‘Sorry, I wish I wasn’t like this. He’s just always moving the bar, you know? His approval is my addiction. Whenever he asks me to do something, I try so hard but it’s never quite good enough so I get sucked into this cycle of always trying to make him happy and it means my whole life ends up as an endless quest for his favour.’
‘You don’t have to live like that, Molly,’ I said. I wanted to cup her face in my hands and smooth away the worry lines that surfaced on her forehead and around her eyes whenever the subject of Laith arose. I leant towards her and added, ‘With the resources you have, you could do literally anything you can dream of. What a waste to spend a life with such potential stuck doing something you don’t have a passion for.’
‘I wish I were braver,’ she murmured, and her gaze sought mine, as if she could find the impetus to solve the problem somewhere in my eyes. ‘I wish I was someone with real courage, like you. If you were in my shoes, you’d probably resign and use your trust fund to solve world hunger or something. You must think I’m a spineless fool.’
‘It’s only natural that you don’t want to disappoint your parents. But life is pretty short, and you only get one shot at it.’
‘I realise that living my life trying to please Dad is completely ridiculous,’ she murmured, fiddling with her wine stem. ‘I know we were joking about finding a defining moment but I do have a bit of a plan. I’m going to make myself open to the possibilities and see if I can find something that really brings me to life. Then I might have the guts to leave.’
I shifted on the bench seat so that I could rest my arm against the backrest and face her fully. As I did so, I accidentally brushed my knee against her thigh. We both tensed, and my gaze flew to her face to watch for her reaction. She bit her lip for just a second, and then she lifted her gaze from the wine glass to my face. I was close enough that I could see the way her pupils dilated, and when she released a withheld breath, I felt the air warm against the skin of my neck. Molly’s gaze was curious; she was assessing my reaction, just as I was assessing hers. She didn’t seem at all hesitant – but she wasn’t really giving much away either.
‘So…’ I murmured. ‘How will you make yourself “open to the possibilities”?’
‘I don’t know yet,’ she admitted. Her voice was low and she spoke slowly. ‘Do you have some ideas?’
Oh, I had plenty of ideas – and more were coming to me by the second.
‘Why don’t you go after some new experiences and see where they lead you?’ I suggested quietly.
‘Oh, I’ve had a lot of experience already,’ Molly said, and she leant her elbow on the table. She rubbed at the back of her neck with her hand, staring at me from beneath her lashes, waiting for my response.
‘You have, have you?’
‘Not too much, although I’m not actually convinced there is such a thing,’ she said suddenly. ‘Actually, I’d say I’ve had just the right amount.’
She spoke so casually that I started to wonder if I was completely misreading the situation. I continued to stare at her for a moment, then realised my addled brain wasn’t going to make sense of it – that there was only one way to find out.
‘What kind of experiences are you talking about?’ I asked her.
‘That depends what you were talking about,’ she said pointedly.
‘I was going to suggest travel,’ I said, and then we both started laughing.
‘You were bloody not!’
‘I was!’ I protested, and Molly straightened her posture. Her gaze dropped to my mouth, and I thought for one shocking second that she was going to kiss me, right then and there. My chest felt frozen – too tight to draw in enough air to speak normally. She leant closer still, her eyes fixed on my lips, but then when her face was right before mine, she lifted her gaze to mine. Our eyes locked, and from the corner of my eye I saw Molly’s lips part. I was literally holding my breath by that stage, unable to move, other than to lean towards her ever so slightly.
‘Li-ar,’ she whispered very slowly, and then she grinned at me as she pulled away and straightened in her seat to face the harbour. I laughed – but it was a weak and uneven laugh. In equal parts I was shaken by her game and delighted by her playfulness but one thing was certain – I was completely under her spell. I reached for her elbow and very gently turned her back to face me. Our eyes locked again, and this time the playfulness was gone altogether.
‘Have dinner with me tomorrow,’ I said.
‘We had dinner here tonight,’ Molly pointed out. She wasn’t going to make this easy, but that was just fine with me – I loved the challenge of this more pointed interplay between us.
‘Not like this,’ I said. ‘A proper dinner.’
‘You mean a dinner where we don’t spend half the night talking about the tragic death of my beloved big brother?’ she said, one eyebrow high.
‘Would that be okay?’
‘Can I pick the venue?’
‘Why?’