‘Hi,’ I said, and I was impressed with my own ability to sound polite when pure fury was pulsing through my veins. ‘Laith, Danielle – it’s so wonderful to see you both again. Entrées were fabulous this year, weren’t they?’
But Laith was not going to pretend to be polite. He narrowed his eyes at me and I watched the tide of furious red creep along the skin of his cheeks. In the ten years since I’d known him he had aged – his hair and body seemed the same, but the skin on his face had sagged, pulling his mouth down and creasing his forehead into a permanent frown.
‘What do you want, Stephens?’
No one moved – the entire auditorium seemed to have fallen silent. I took a moment to ponder – was I really so out of line, approaching them? The timing was bad, yes. But I’d done nothing wrong – so far.
I was making a total idiot of myself and maybe I’d regret it later, but I knew I would have regretted it more if I hadn’t checked in on her. The only thing that mattered to me that moment was that Laith had made her cry.
I wanted to kill him. I wanted to speak to him with my fists and make him say sorry to her. I wanted to teach him to respect her for the person that she was, not the person he was trying to force her to be. I wanted to make him pay for all of the ways that he’d hurt Molly – and Declan – and the way that he’d always treated me.
Laith and I locked gazes. I could see the utter loathing in his eyes, and I hoped that he could see it mirrored mine. I slammed my hands into my pockets to hide my clenched fists and turned my gaze to Molly.
‘I just wanted to come and see how your night was going, Molly. And to make sure you’re okay.’
‘No,’ she said, calmly. ‘I am not okay. I would like you to take me home now, please, Leo.’
She rose slowly and slightly unsteadily – and held her hand out towards me.
I stared at her outstretched fingers and then I took her hand. We entwined our fingers in a way that left absolutely no doubt as to the relationship between us, and I smiled at her tenderly. ‘It would be an honour, Molly.’
She slipped out from her chair and lifted her purse from the table. Danielle was gaping at us and I looked pointedly to Laith, just in case he had somehow missed the body language between his daughter and me. ‘Have a good night,’ I said, nodding at him calmly, and then with a smile at the rest of the table, I turned away from them to find that the entire auditorium was indeed staring at me – at us. I raised my chin and quickly lead Molly towards the exit.
We didn’t say a word at first. My phone, nestled in my pocket, was vibrating continuously – I checked it briefly, and saw several missed calls from Brad, Penny and even Kisani – but they could all wait. As soon as we were outside, Molly started to cry.
‘What the hell happened?’ I whispered, and I turned to cup her face in my hands. I stared down at her in the semi-darkness and the sight of the tears rolling down her cheeks was enough to make me want to storm back into the auditorium. ‘All you did was say hello to me.’
‘He told me I wasn’t allowed to talk to you, can you believe that? Not allowed,’ she whispered. There was a stubborn set to her jaw but misery in her eyes. ‘I told him he had no right to tell me who I could or couldn’t talk to. He said some things about you…’ She broke off, and her gaze fell.
I tilted her face towards mine. ‘What did he say about me?’
‘I don’t even want to repeat it, Leo. He used words that would hurt you,’ Molly whispered, and her gaze dropped. ‘And I lost my shit at him.’
‘That’s not what I heard,’ I said gently.
Molly laughed weakly, then her face fell and the tears started to flow all over again. ‘And then he lost his shit at me, and he’s much better at it than I am.’
‘God, Molly! I’m so sorry.’
‘I’m not. It was overdue.’
‘Did I do the right thing coming to your table? I kind of lost my mind.’ My phone vibrated again, and I sighed and released her to slip it from my pocket. A text from Brad – What the hell is going on?
I suddenly realised the very obvious option I’d overlooked.
‘Fuck,’ I groaned. ‘Molly, I should have just sent you a text.’
‘Yeah,’ she laughed, and then I started to laugh too. ‘That would have been slightly less dramatic.’
‘I heard he made you cry and my brain kind of melted.’
‘Who told you that? I did not cry!’
‘You obviously did,’ I said wryly, and I ran my thumb over her cheek.
‘Well… still… I am a professional, you know – except for the whole arguing with Dad in front of the staff thing. Any crying I may or may not have done, I did in the bathroom. God, this industry is full of bloody gossips!’
‘Isn’t that kind of the point?’
‘I’ll bet it was someone from TM,’ she muttered, and suddenly wrapped her arms around my neck, moving with such force that I stumbled backwards a little. ‘I don’t care what he thinks, or what anyone thinks. I think I’m falling in love with you, Leo Stephens, and I don’t care who knows it. Do you?’