Hank's eyes narrowed at me before he turned to walk away from us. I assumed that someone had overheard our conversation since we were approached about living together throughout the rest of the day. Everyone thought we were dating now and it was getting on Molly's nerves. She'd always hastily deny that anything was happening between us and attempted to change the subject. Her attempts were always futile and whoever had approached us was much more interested in talking about the two of us. I didn't like how quick she was to shut them down but I didn't say anything.
With every assumption, Molly became more irritated and took out her frustration by angrily doing maintenance on guns. I approached her by the table she was working on and crossed my arms. "Come on, you can't seriously be bothered by what other people think." She stood up and slammed the magazine into the bottom of her pistol. "It's so unfair. Can't a man and a woman live together platonically without everyone asking when the babies are coming?!" I forced myself not to laugh at the way she said that. "It's annoying, but it really doesn't matter since we know we're not together. Right?"
Molly sighed. "Right. But this sucks! I look like I ran away to another man the same day I broke up with James." The mention of that bastard's name tightened my fingers around my bicep. "He punched you in the face. It would only be natural that you would run into the arms of your hero." She gave me an irritated look and I quickly added, "Meaning that's what everyone thinks happened. Not what actually happened." John teased me a little between sentences. 'And what you wished had happened,' He said with a chuckle. I continued as if I never heard him. "The point is, that doesn't make you look bad." Her irritation softened and she put the gun on the table. "Thanks for trying to make me feel better."
I smiled and pulled her in for a hug. "Trying? Come on, I totally made you feel better." She struggled for a moment before remembering that I was too strong for her. "Unhand me!" She stopped struggling when I ran my fingers through her hair and started massaging her scalp. She was silent for a little while and closed her eyes to the feeling of the massage before realizing what was happening and jumping away from me. "Pardon me!" She said with both confusion and surprise. I acted innocently. "What is it? I was just comforting you," I said, even though catching a whiff of her hair made me have to adjust my footing and make more room in the front of my jeans.
Her eyes narrowed at me just as Hank's had, and at that moment it was hard to believe she wasn't his daughter. The matter of being different races became obsolete from how much her suspicion looked like his. "I am in no need of comfort, thank you. We have a mission soon. We should be heading to the others," she said as blush began to illuminate her cheeks. She turned away and I followed happily behind her, curious at the fact that she seemed to enjoy my hug.
Once we reached where the team was preparing to scavenge, it was kind of odd to not see James there bossing around Jay and Sarah. I wondered whether he had heard that Molly and I were living together yet, and smiled at the thought of how devastated he would be to find out. Once Jay and Sarah saw us, their faces shifted with awkwardness. "So... We heard what happened," Jay said as he avoided looking at us. Molly dragged her hand down her face with exasperation. "Great. Not you too." Sarah chimed in with curiosity. "So, were you guys having an affair this whole time?" Molly shook as if she was going to explode so I quickly shut the conversation down. "Guys, nothing is going on between us. Molly just needs some time away from James and I'm helping her with that. Now, can everyone drop it, already? You're giving us a migraine."
Molly looked up at me, confused, but I didn't acknowledge her. Thankfully, the team dropped the subject, and soon after we left the settlement to start the mission. There weren't many zombies out where we searched so I had plenty of time to walk beside Molly. On the way, I stepped by a rock that looked completely smooth. I stopped to pick it up and examined it. It was black and oval-like, and it was satisfying to touch. I smiled and caught up to the others. I handed it to Molly and she looked at it, confused. "What's this?" she asked. I shrugged to play it cool as I responded. "A cool rock. I thought you might like it."
She blushed, suddenly. "Hey, wait a minute! You're not trying to do the things I told you I liked back on that island, are you?" I looked at her blankly. "The what now?" My clueless tone made her hesitate and ignore the coincidence even though I very well did that because I remembered what she told me she liked. The next few weeks I dedicated myself to being a perfect gentleman to her and made my shoulder available to cry on whenever she liked. However, she never did cry. I expected that she would after the fallout she had with James, being that she still had feelings for him when they broke up. But every night she soundly slept. I never once heard her grieve for her fallen relationship which I found odd. Another thing I didn't like was that I hadn't heard from the fifth voice. It was like he disappeared out of my psyche, but I was too focused on Molly to get into the reason for that.
One morning, Molly and I were sitting on the couch upstairs eating canned peaches together when I decided to bring it up. "If you don't mind me asking, how have you been lately?" Her attention was on the view through the window before she turned to me. "Fine. Why?" Now it was my turn to give her a look of suspicion. "What?" She asked. My suspicion became confusion as I shifted to place the can I was holding on the coffee table. "I get that Joke Boy was an asshole, but you got to be going through a tough time after ending such a long relationship. We live together and all I see you do is go about your day like nothing happened."
She hesitated and looked down at her lap. "I don't know, I'm just, not as broken up as I thought I'd be. I think I had already broken up with James in my mind, so now that it has happened, I don't need to emotionally accept it. I'm okay, Kane. But, thanks for your concern." I was surprised since we both had expected there to be tears back when we talked about the break-up recovery period. "So, you're completely over him?" She shrugged. "I wouldn't say that. I still think about him. I'm just not the emotional type. You know, as he said." Admittedly, I knew she wasn't a very affectionate person. However, while James had assumed that was a trait, I believed she was that way because of trauma. He never tried to help her and characterized her that way. Now that was what she believed. I, as a very emotional person after an entire childhood of feeling nothing, would show her what it is like to feel.