Reeling in Love

by Gloria Herrmann

  “This is really good. Here… Try,” Tiffany commented and shoved her cup with the bright pink straw into Molly’s face.

  She took a sip and had to agree it was pretty darn good. “Here… You try this one.”

  Tiffany swallowed some of Molly’s enormous cardboard cup of pure caffeine crack and her eyes grew wide. “That is strong. How can you drink that stuff?” She crinkled her nose and her mouth turned down in disgust.

  “It’s survival juice. When one needs caffeine, this is how you get your fix. It goes straight into the bloodstream without needing an IV.” Molly took a sip then sighed happily. She could literally live anywhere in the world, just as long as there was good coffee around.

  * * * *

  Molly changed into a pair of jeans and a fitted top in an apple-red color, feeling a little more attractive than when she’d been out earlier. She was sitting at the table in the hotel room, waiting for Tiffany to get out of the shower. Molly was curious where Mackenzie was. She’d sent her a couple of messages and was hoping she was okay.

  She was skimming through some of the shots she had taken that day when she heard the familiar sound of the door unlocking. Mackenzie came in, wearing a magnificent smile.

  “Hey, I’ve been trying to get a hold of you,” Molly scolded her as Mackenzie ventured closer to the table where Molly sat.

  “Sorry. I meant to call, but I was a little distracted,” Mackenzie apologized.

  Molly smiled and was happy for Mackenzie, but she knew if she’d been the one to pull the whole not-answering-her-phone stunt, she’d never hear the end of it.

  “Sit. I want details, woman.” Molly peeked out of the window. They had all the curtains open now that Tiffany felt human again, and the view was stunning, even in the early evening. The sun was beginning to set, giving way to the millions of lights that would soon sparkle and make Vegas magical.

  Mackenzie plopped down and looked at Molly. “He’s amazing.”

  “Okay, that’s a start. Why is he so amazing?” Molly asked with a smirk.

  Mackenzie had a faraway look on her face. Her eyes were filled with delight as she started to explain all the things she’d learned about Jason. Molly would have thought they’d known each other for years from all the information Mackenzie now possessed. Molly would be shocked if her friend didn’t know his social security number.

  “Really? All this from a lunch date?”

  “Crazy, right?” Mackenzie said as Tiffany emerged from the bathroom, wrapped in a white terrycloth robe, billowing steam following her out.

  “Mackenzie, how was lunch?” Tiffany asked sweetly.

  “I was just telling Molly. It was incredible. He’s incredible.”

  “Hmm, so when are you seeing him again?”

  Mackenzie looked up toward the ceiling and replied slowly, “That’s the thing. He sort of wants to have dinner a little later.”

  “Mackenzie, this is a girls’ trip,” Tiffany complained as she unwrapped the towel from her head. “Can’t you see him for breakfast or something?”

  “I know. I know. But can you blame me?”

  Molly didn’t mind the prospect of Mackenzie going out again, but Tiffany did have a point. They would be leaving tomorrow night to go back to their normally scheduled programs—their daily lives.

  “It’s not like it can go anywhere. I guess I don’t see the point.” Tiffany’s hand was on her hip and her stance was squared.

  Molly sighed. She really hoped that the two of them weren’t about to battle again. She wasn’t in the mood. So what if Mackenzie went out? She deserved to have a good time and maybe even get laid.

  “Tiffany, we can still have a great time. We were going to go gamble tonight, and Mackenzie is cheap, so she wouldn’t be any fun, anyway.”

  Tiffany rolled her eyes and started to stomp back to the bathroom. “It’s supposed to be a girls’ weekend.”

  “It has been. We’re all here, aren’t we?” Mackenzie called after her, which was met with the slamming of the bathroom door.

  Great, now Tiffany is pissed off.

  “Seriously, what the hell is her problem?” Mackenzie turned and said to Molly.

  “You gotta see it from her point of view,” Molly said calmly, trying to stay neutral.

  “She’s jealous that it’s not her, because if it were, she’d be out and about having a grand ole time and expecting us to just deal with it. But, because it’s me, she’s all in a huff. This is the crap I can’t stand about her.”

  “You have a valid point. However, just go out and have fun. I’ve got Tiffany. But maybe tomorrow, let’s have a nice brunch and maybe do something together?”

  “Fine. I may not be back tonight—just an FYI.” There was a sly glint in her eye as she rose from the seat.

  “Really?”

  “You have no idea how much this guy turns me on.”

  “And it’s probably been ages since—” Molly started to say, when Mackenzie nodded.

  “Yes, since Gideon, there hasn’t been another,” Mackenzie confirmed.

  “Oh my, are you serious? Mac, it’s been, what?”

  Mackenzie raised her hand to stop Molly. “A long time. We don’t need to hash over how long. Trust me. I know it’s been a very long time.”

  Molly allowed that to sink in. She’d had no idea that Mackenzie had been celibate for nearly two years. Not that Mackenzie should be out landing as many one-night stands as possible, but it wasn’t like she hadn’t dated anyone since the breakup two years ago. She was just more than a little surprised that Mackenzie had gone without. Maybe that was why she was so uptight and cranky. The poor dear needed to get laid.

  * * * *

  “I still think it’s kind of annoying that she’d rather go out with that bouncer guy than hang out with her besties,” Tiffany complained as she pulled the lever down on a slot machine. The machine was large and loud, chiming each time she pulled it. It was one of the more old-fashioned ones. Most that surrounded them only required you to press a button.

  Where is the fun in that?

  “Oh get over it.” Molly yanked her lever down, staring as she lost more money. “You should be more annoyed that we aren’t winning anything.”

  “Give it time. Be nice to your machine. Tell it how much you love it. Who is a good lil’ machine?” Tiffany cooed to her machine, stroking it gently and patting it. “Who is going to give mama lots of money? You are, that’s who.”

  Molly laughed and, sure enough, as soon as Tiffany pulled the handle down again, it made a different chime, almost a shrill. As though paying the winner actually hurt, coins sputtered out, clinking hard against the metal. Tiffany seized her cup and tried to catch all the dirty silver coins as they flooded out. Damn, that’s a lot of nickels. Molly snatched her nearly empty cup and tried to assist Tiffany, who wore the largest grin ever.

  “I won, Molly. I actually won.”

  After the machine had quit throwing up a ridiculous amount of nickels and they’d collected the coins, they went to the cashier booth to turn them in. The look of disappointment on Tiffany’s face was priceless as she learned she’d only won around forty dollars.

  “That’s it?” Tiffany asked the lady if she could recount it. The woman nodded and ran the buckets of coins through a large machine. Molly guessed it was a scale of some kind. After being cashed out and paid, Tiffany sulked away. “That kinda sucked.”

  “You still won forty bucks,” Molly tried to point out, hoping to ease the blow.

  “Yeah, but I must have put in at least sixty, so where’s that money?” Tiffany wore an angry scowl.

  “I don’t know, but let’s grab something to eat. All this winning has made me hungry. And since you’re the big jackpot winner, you can treat me,” Molly teased as she wrapped her arm around Tiffany’s shoulders.

  * * * *

  It was amazing how fast a trip could go by. There wasn’t enough time to see or do everything they wanted, but Molly felt like they’d still had a lot of
fun. They’d spent most of Sunday just lounging around the pool and being lazy. Sometimes that was the best. The night before, Mackenzie had come back to the hotel suite around the same time that Tiffany and Molly had. It was nearly time to go. They were reluctantly packing their bags. They had booked a night flight and would touch down in Seattle close to midnight. Overall, the trip had been a success and it had served its purpose. They’d just needed to escape Seattle for a little while.

  Molly was filled with some dread as they boarded their plane. As they took off, she peered down through the tiny window at the large square in the desert that was filled with light. The land surrounding Vegas was nothing more than dark and lifeless shadows, nothing shiny and magical about it. The wonder was lost. Vegas almost appeared small. It set in how all of it was an illusion, a magic trick or act, like the ultimate Vegas show. Getting the bird’s-eye perspective really drove that home. There was a comfort in knowing that even something that seemed so grand was truly tiny in reality. Molly closed her eyes and instantly saw Owen. Some things in life weren’t as minuscule.

  Chapter Eleven

  Home, sweet home… Molly greatly cherished the forgotten peace and quiet of her beloved space. Her studio… The sunlight filtered in through a mask of gray and white clouds. Molly sighed happily as she worked. The silence in the large space was lovely. Not that she didn’t enjoy the constant chatter of her best friends, but some days, solitude could be equally wonderful, and today was that day—no phone calls, messages, models or interruptions. Workdays like this were glorious and rare. She had been equipped with coffee and plenty of editing. The hours of productivity were priceless.

  Her cell phone rang. As with everything in life, sometimes things were short-lived. She was reluctant to answer, but curiosity got the better of her. It was Owen. She wasn’t the least bit surprised. She had been expecting him to reach out to her at some point.

  “Hello,” she answered, trying to keep her voice neutral and polite.

  Molly had done a lot of thinking while being miles and miles above the ground. She’d come to realize that she needed to focus on work and bettering herself before she could jump into a serious relationship. She owed that to Owen or to anyone else that she might end up with. Maybe it had been the altitude or cabin pressure in the plane, but Molly finally accepted that perhaps Mackenzie was on to something. Molly needed to know why she wasn’t any good at being a girlfriend. Was she better off alone, not complicating her life or anyone else’s by getting involved, not dragging someone into her emotional abyss? The thought of getting married or locked into a long-term relationship scared her. Molly was at a crossroads. She needed to get her shit together and learn how to pack away her emotional baggage so she could be able to be in a relationship or accept her fate as a crazy cat lady and start her collection of felines.

  “Molly, what are you up to right now?”

  Busy avoiding you was the first thought that popped into her mind. She hadn’t realized how much she’d missed the sound of his voice.

  “Working,” she answered coolly, not wanting him to think she was available.

  “I figured. You probably have a ton to catch up on since your Vegas trip.”

  How did he know I was in Vegas? Molly guessed one of her friends must have told him, because she’d kept it vague as to where she was traveling, not wanting to have to explain herself to him.

  “Swamped. I haven’t left all day—just work, work, work.” She emphasized each word.

  “Excellent.”

  Excellent? What the hell? Molly was a tad irritated now. “Well, I’d better go. I have so much to do.”

  “Great. Well, I’m here. Go ahead and open the door. See ya in a minute.”

  She could hear him smiling through the phone, which only annoyed her further.

  She may have missed the sound of his voice, but now she wanted him to go away. How was she supposed to focus on herself if he was always around? She needed to explain her plan and make a clean break—or, at the very least, get him to understand that they were not a couple. He needed to know she couldn’t do the whole relationship thing, not until she got her shit sorted out, then maybe. But only because he always brought good coffee. Molly felt a laugh attempt to escape her.

  She answered the door, trying hard not to smile. She didn’t want to encourage him in any shape or form. She repeated to herself, Act cool and calm. Be nonchalant. “Hey, Owen.”

  “Hey, Molly,” he mocked her in his usual silly, but adorable, fashion. He held up two white plastic sacks with red Chinese lettering on the outside from her favorite restaurant.

  Damn him.

  “Did you get extra fortune cookies?” Molly couldn’t believe the words had just slipped out of her mouth. She was mad at herself for being so easily won over by coffee and food.

  He nodded and kissed her on top of her head. “How could I forget?”

  Why does he have to be so perfect? There had to be flaws somewhere. Maybe he hid bodies in his basement—or something truly awful—because no one was that awesome all the time. And she certainly didn’t deserve such a thoughtful guy.

  “Oh, just get on in here with that,” she ordered and closed the door.

  Owen was already at the table, emptying the bag. Various sizes of white cartons were lined up when Molly stood next to him, watching him work. He dumped out packets of soy sauce, chopsticks and at least a dozen fortune cookies he’d thoughtfully brought.

  Molly was wrong. There were close to two dozen fortune cookies. “How were you able to score so many of these?” She couldn’t resist and snatched one. Do I dare read the fortune? Nah. Molly savored the toasty sweet flavor of the hard golden cookie, crumbling up the tiny paper message in her palm. Screw Confucius.

  “Oh, they love me there. Ming is the sweetest lady,” Owen explained.

  “You even know her name?” The old Asian woman who ran the best takeout place in all of Seattle wasn’t Molly’s biggest fan—or at least that was what she figured, since it was like pulling teeth getting extra fortune cookies.

  Owen nodded and asked, “You eat there all the time and you don’t know her name?”

  “She’s usually stingy with the cookies.”

  “It’s probably because you haven’t asked her name.” Owen pulled out chopsticks for both of them. “Sit and eat.”

  Molly sat and he started to serve her. “I can get it.”

  “No,” he said quickly and shoveled chow mein onto a paper plate.

  Instead of arguing, Molly began to eat and was enjoying every bite that she managed sloppily to put into her mouth. She’d not mastered the art of using chopsticks, even with all the times she’d ordered takeout Chinese. She just wasn’t coordinated enough. Owen joined her. They ate in comfortable silence, then he stared at her for a moment.

  “You have a little something right here.” He pointed to the corner of his mouth, but quickly took a napkin and gently dabbed her mouth with it. “Got it.”

  “Thanks,” Molly said awkwardly.

  Owen sighed. “So, what’s going on, Molly?”

  She’d been expecting this. He had every right to question her, but couldn’t a girl finish her Chinese food first?

  “What do you mean?” When in doubt, play dumb.

  Owen rolled those gorgeous eyes toward the ceiling. Molly could see the frustration brewing behind them. “Come on. You know exactly what I mean. You take off. You don’t tell me to where. You hardly answer my texts. What happened with us?”

  Like a bandage, sometimes just ripping it off quickly was for the best. “There is no us, Owen.”

  “Well, you could have fooled me.”

  “You said we were a couple. I never did. I told you I was horrible at relationships. You were warned.” Great. Now she was losing her appetite and everything had been so delicious, especially her favorite orange chicken.

  “Is this because of the way dinner ended that one night?”

  “It’s much more than that.” Molly had begun to fe
el guilty as she watched the array of emotions pelt his handsome face. “Owen, I like you. I really do.”

  “But?”

  “But, I need to figure out why I suck at this.” There. She’d said it. She had been honest.

  “You don’t. You just don’t want to give us a shot, and I don’t get it. I mean, what are the odds of us meeting the way we did?”

  “I know,” Molly answered softly. He was right about that. It wasn’t every day you got a fish thrown at you by a hot guy.

  Owen was quiet and Molly could see he was thinking and pondering a solution. “I have an idea.”

  “Hmm, okay, let’s hear it.” She was open to hearing him out, but she had no intention of going along with whatever solution he had in mind.

  He reached across the table, cupping her hand. “Give me a week.”

  “A week for what?”

  “To make you realize that this could work between us. Think of it like a fun challenge, to see why we are good together and that you don’t suck at relationships.” He winked. It was like the fatal blow. His wink always got to her.

  Molly huffed. A week wasn’t going to prove much—or would it?

  * * * *

  Day one of the week-long challenge that Owen had issued started the very next day. She wasn’t quite sure what he had up his sleeve, but, knowing Owen, it was going to be good. He was going to pull out all the stops just to prove a point. Molly had even called Mackenzie and Tiffany to ask them their take on the whole thing. Of course, they had both sided with Owen, who had naturally won them over. Big surprise there. What did he do? Show up with Chinese food or coffee? How does he have this great power over my best friends? They were supposed to have her back, not his.

  Since there was no one to convince her that she was right, Molly decided stick with her original game plan, ‘just go with it’. She was going to enjoy the week with Owen for what it was, knowing in her mind that there was no way one week was going to change a lifetime of her being flawed in the relationship department. In the back of her mind, she prayed that maybe she was wrong, but a leopard didn’t change its spots.