Chapter 11

The next day was Monday. Rob woke up early to leave for work, and Keira pretended that she was still asleep. The minute the door closed behind him, she breathed a sigh of relief. I have to do something about this, she thought. It's not right to feel this trapped. The thought of leaving Rob literally made her heart ache. He was a wonderful man who had been nothing but good to her for the past two years. She did love him, but lately something had changed, and it wasn't right for her to continue stringing him along. She wasn't afraid to be alone; she just didn't want to hurt him, and she knew that ending their relationship was going to break his heart. After all, he was the one who'd been pushing for them to move in together -- he had no idea that she was having doubts.

Throwing back the covers, she climbed out of bed and went straight to her computer. The deadline for her book was looming larger than ever, and she planned to do nothing but write for the entire day. It didn’t take her long to discover that her writer’s block was still in effect. The words came in fits and starts, and she fought the urge to bang her head against the keyboard. Knowing that she only had a few days left before the book was due, she refused to give up. She forced herself to sit there for the entire morning, typing whatever came to mind, even though she knew that most of it wasn’t going to be good enough for the final cut.

Later that afternoon, there was a knock at her door. “Who the hell could that be?” she groaned. She hadn’t showered or even brushed her teeth, so she wasn’t in the mood to see anyone. When she looked through the peephole on her front door, she was relieved to see that it was Molly. Molly was the one person in the world who Keira could completely be herself around, showered or unshowered.

She opened the door and Molly held up a big, brown paper bag. “I brought Chinese,” she said with a grin. “Thought you could probably use a lunch break.” It was common knowledge among her friends that Keira often forgot to eat when she was in the middle of writing.

The women spread the Chinese food cartons out on the coffee table and sat down to talk and eat. Keira was surprised by how famished she was. She was also amused, as always, by the sheer amount of food that Molly could consume and still manage to stay so thin. “You eat like a guy,” she teased.

With her mouth full of vegetable lo mein, Molly replied, “Damn straight.” Swallowing her food, she continued, “What can I tell ya? I’m passionate about two things: food and men. I devour them both with equal gusto.” She made a big gulping sound, smacked her lips together, and laughed.

Keira knew that Molly wasn’t really a man eater. When she fell in love, she fell hard. Her most recent relationship had lasted for 3 years, but had ended abruptly when she discovered that Shawn had been cheating on her for 6 months. Devastated, Molly had slept at Keira’s place for a week because she didn’t want to go back to her own apartment and face the memories. After allowing herself that one week of wallowing, she'd picked herself up, dusted herself off, and moved on. Molly really did like to live by her "life is too short" motto.

The phone rang, and Keira wiped her hands on a paper towel and answered it. “Hello?”

“Hey, baby, how’s the writing going?”

“Hi, Rob. It’s…going. Molly brought me lunch so I wouldn’t starve.”

“Good, I’m glad you’re not wasting away.”

There was a knock at the door. Startled, Keira walked over to look through the peephole again, taking the phone with her. Standing in the hallway was a delivery man, holding the biggest bouquet of lilacs that Keira had ever seen. Gasping, she said, “Ohhh, Rob…more flowers? You’ve really outdone yourself this time…”

“What do you mean, more flowers? I didn't...” Rob said, his voice trailing off.

Realizing her mistake, Keira was momentarily frozen. When she could finally move, she turned to Molly with her eyes open wide, and smacked herself in the forehead. It was the universal sign for "I'm a dumbass", and Molly instantly understood. "Then who...?" she mouthed silently. Knowing she needed to rescue her friend, she flew to the door and opened it to accept the flowers.

"Let me call you right back, Rob," said Keira, hanging up. Molly was already ripping open the little envelope that was stuck into the middle of the flowers.

Out loud, she read, "Dear Kathryn, you were a sight for sore eyes the other night. They're starting to get sore again - will you meet me for just one drink? Jon." Molly frowned. "Awww, that's so cute. But who are Kathryn and Jon? The guy must have delivered these to the wrong apartment."

There was no answer from Keira. Molly spun around to see what the deal was and discovered that Keira was still standing by the door with both hands clasped over her mouth like she was afraid to speak.

"What the...?" began Molly. She put her hands on her hips. "OK, Keira, you better spill it."

Keira's mind was whirling. How was she supposed to explain this to Molly? And holy shit -- how was she supposed to explain this to Rob?

Slowly coming to her senses, she removed her trembling hands from her mouth and sighed. It took her two seconds to reach a decision. "Alright, Molly," she said. "There's something I have to show you. You have to promise not to kill me though."

She headed for her bedroom and reached for the box of photographs under her bed.