Chapter 5

“What time is it?” John asked, slowly waking up. Molly was standing next to the bed, handing him a big glass filled with a thick green cocktail. He took it, and sat on the bed, yawning, still feeling a bit groggy.

“It’s 1:30,” she replied.

“1:30? AM. or PM.?” he asked a bit nervously. He was so sleepy, he honestly had no idea.

“P.m., you silly boy,” Molly laughed and walked out of the bedroom. John looked around and recalled everything that happened during the past few hours. He put the glass on the floor, stretched, and thought he wasn’t feeling like getting up. After a completely spoiled night and quite physically demanding early morning, he felt he would love to stay in bed until late afternoon.

“Come on, baby, get up, I’ve made brunch,” Molly said from the kitchen.

“Yeah, just a minute. That nightmare really ruined last night for me,” he said yawning.

“I can imagine, Margaret is a real bitch,” she replied and the delicate sound of cutlery rattling confirmed she was setting the table.

At first, John couldn’t understand why would Molly mention Margaret, but once he recalled their conversation from a few hours before, he immediately woke up. “Yeah, I am really getting sick and tired of her,” he said.

Molly walked to the bedroom and spotted the glass on the floor.

“No, you need to drink that. It will give you an energy boost, better than coffee, come on,” she picked it up and handed it to him again. John took the glass in his hand again, looked down at it and stirred it a bit. The green goo was lazily waving from side to side.

“It doesn’t look too good,” he said.

“It’s not supposed to look good, it’s supposed to be healthy.”

“What’s in it exactly?”

“An avocado, some parsley, mango, carrot, celery, and wheat grass cocktail with a spoon of olive oil and slice of lemon.”

“Why olive oil?”

“Helps the body absorb the vitamins.”

“Do I have to?” John asked, looking at the thick liquid in the glass. “It doesn’t smell too good, either.”

“Oh my God, just drink it and come eat breakfast.”

John closed his eyes and drank the cocktail as fast as he could. “Holy crap! That’s disgusting!” He exclaimed when finished and shuddered in disgust.

“What, it’s disgusting because it lacks sugar and artificial food colorings?” Molly laughed when he walked into the kitchen.

“Yeah, I’m afraid I can no longer appreciate any food or drink if it has no msg in it,” John replied, smiling.

“Well, I hope I may change your mind one day. Let’s try with breakfast.”

“What is it?”

“Smoked tofu spread, sautéed with tomatoes, onion, spinach, and broccoli. You can put it on the whole meal bread if you want, just please make sure you control the crumbs so they’re not all over the place,” Molly replied, smiling, although John knew she wasn’t kidding; she was the cleanest person that he’d ever met.

The moment John sat at the table, he thought he would need to eat an extra-large kebab in the city later during the day, or he would be walking hungry until he returned to Cindy. Cindy!

“Excuse me, honey, I’ll be right back.” John got up from the kitchen island and walked up to the sofa on which he had left his jacket a few hours ago. It was, however, no longer there.

“Where’s my jacket?”

“I put it into the wardrobe. The sofa is not a place to put your clothes on, honey.”

“Right…” He knew the rules, but he wasn’t expecting he would be staying so long at Molly’s place. His plan was to visit her, bang her maybe, and come back to Cindy before she woke up. The whole sleeping-over thing was not intended.

John opened the wardrobe doors, and started looking for his phone in the pockets. He couldn’t find it. There was his wallet, car keys, yes, but no cell. Maybe his pants? He walked to the bedroom and searched his jeans’ pockets. Again, no luck.

“Molly, have you seen my phone?”

“No, I haven’t. What, you can’t find it?”

“Yeah, funny, huh?”

“Perhaps you left it in your car?”

“That would be odd, but maybe you’re right.”

“Why do you need it anyway? Are you already bored with me?” Molly smiled.

“Honey, of course not, I haven’t seen you for about a month,” he came to her and kissed her, “but with the whole Margaret mess, I need to know if perhaps she wasn’t calling, or maybe Mickey was looking for me.”

“Well, eat your breakfast, then go and check the car.”

“Okay.”

About half an hour later, John was checking the glove box, the floor under the seats, and every single nook and cranny in the car. The phone wasn’t there. He came back to Molly and asked her to call him, that perhaps he might hear the sound. Nothing.

“Either you never took it from home, or it was stolen.”

“No, it wasn’t stolen. I practically came here directly from home, I only stopped to buy myself some coffee, but even then I didn’t leave the car. It must be at home, that’s the only logical explanation.”

“So, are you going home to check it?”

John did not feel like going back to Cindy, especially since he knew he wouldn’t be able to leave the place and come back to Molly anytime soon, but he was worried that perhaps that idiot Rhonda might be calling again (she hadn’t for weeks, but who knew), and even though her phone number was camouflaged, if she kept on calling, Cindy might have finally picked up. No, he couldn’t take such risk.

“Guess so.”

“And you’ll be back?”

“Of course,” he lied.

“Okay, I’ll be going to my yoga class in the afternoon, so maybe you really should take the spare key?”

“No, we’ll be in touch, just let me know when you come back home, okay?”

“All right.”

John went to the bathroom, took a shower, put his clothes on, kissed Molly goodbye and left her place. He was furious he forgot the phone. What the hell was he thinking? It was risky, it was irresponsible. He blamed his lack of attention and general distraction on the nightmare.

As he parked his car in the underground parking lot, he decided to take a smoke. He took one cigarette from the package he kept in the glove box and just as he lit it, he felt, again, that he was going to throw up. John immediately got out of the car, dropped the cigarette on the ground and stepped on it a few times to put it out. He leaned on the car’s passenger door and took a few deep breaths to stop the nausea. He closed his eyes, and when he was feeling better, he opened them and spotted a no smoking sign on the wall, about three yards away from him. John shook his head and thought that if there was anything positive about the nightmares it was the fact that maybe he was going to finally quit smoking. Something all women around him had a problem with.

About forty minutes later, John walked into his and Cindy’s place and heard her running down the stairs. She was all in tears, scared, and stressed out.

“John, oh My God, honey, where have you been?!” She cried and hugged him. He reciprocated the gesture.

“I’m sorry, Cindy, I really am.”

“I couldn’t reach you, you left your phone in the bedroom. I had no idea where you’d been, I called Paul, but he had no clue, either.”

Paul knew nothing about Molly. Molly was only John’s business.

“I know, I’m so sorry,” he replied and kissed her eyes and the tip of her nose. “I couldn’t fall asleep after that nightmare, and wasn’t able to settle down. I didn’t want to wake you up, so I decided to take a ride. I was driving here and there, all around the city, finally stopped the car by the beach and I fell asleep. I woke up about an hour ago and came home directly. I wanted to call you, but I realized I left the phone at home.”

“Oh my God, John, I was so worried, so afraid something bad had happened to you,” she cried.

“It’s okay, I’m here, it’s all right,” he was talking to her softly, calming her down. In a way it was actually quite touching she was worrying so much about him. On the other hand, he hated the feeling of being controlled, of having the duty to explain himself to anyone. It was his life, damn it, why was it that he had to inform people where he was, what he was doing, what time he was going to come back?

“Hey, let’s go somewhere, what’d you say?” he asked looking at her and smiling.

“What do you mean?”

“A date! Let’s go on a date, what do you think? Let’s wear something nice, go and eat some dinner in the city, and then who knows, a movie? Come on, it’s going to be so much fun, we haven’t done it in a while!” he said enthusiastically.

“Yeah? You’d like that?” she asked a bit shyly and dried the wet spots under her eyes with her fingers.

“Of course! I want to make it up to you for all those tears and stress I had caused; besides, what’s so strange about the fact I want to take my gorgeous girlfriend on a date?” John laughed.

“Well, all right.” Cindy smiled. “Sure, it’s a great idea.”

“Fantastic. Just let me know where you want to go, and I’ll make a reservation.”

“Maybe something Italian?”

“Sounds great.”

“Marcello’s?”

“Marcello’s it is. I’m calling right now,” John replied, and took his phone and, as he was checking Marcello’s contact information in the browser, he also sent a text to Molly.

WON’T COME, THE DRAMA CONTINUES. WILL TELL YOU LATER, XO.

John booked a table at the restaurant and spotted a reply from Molly.

 LET ME KNOW WHEN I CAN SEE YOU AGAIN.

WILL DO.