The Gravity of Love (20 page)

"Making those stupid lovely
faces."

"Hanging all over each other."

"Spending all their time at each
other's places."

"Cuddling up on sofas and acting all
cute."

"Going on dates by themselves."

Marty groaned. "That's going to suck.
Yet it still beats out the alternative."

The two looked at Molly, who was leading
the pack, and Harrison who was behind her a few paces. Molly's stance looked
like she was readying to enter the military, her shoulders strictly back, her
eyes glued to what's in front of her, silence alluding her.

Harrison's eyes were only for Molly, on the
other hand. He looked almost disgusted with himself, but that didn't mean he
stopped drooling. It was a toss up on which way this would go, but neither of
the two friends had a good feeling about it.

"It'll be an interesting ride if
nothing else." Joe ventured.

Marty agreed as she continued to survey the
ones in front of her.

_______________________________________________________________________

Harrison rushed in front of Molly and
opened the restaurant door for her. She flashed him a surprise glance, not used
to him ever going out of his way for anyone, then went inside. Her look was
more shocked when he pulled out a chair for her. Handed her the menu that was
just out of her reach before she even asked. Arranged the salt and pepper
shakers so that they could both reach them. And he didn't look over at Joe
once.

Molly nearly had chills from such an
experience. Either somebody had replaced Harrison with someone she definitely
did not know, or he must be terribly sick. He was never one for courtesy in all
the twenty five years she'd been around to know him. She glanced over at Marty,
but she still had that stupid look on her face that told her she knew everything
that was going on. Joe carried a similar one. Did Joe know she had...new
feelings for Harrison too? Had Marty told or was it that obvious? If it
was...did Harrison know? Could that be what was infecting him?

But no, that was quite impossible. Harrison
wouldn't take such knowledge so nicely. He'd more likely be enraged. He had a
girlfriend, a good life, and everything was great when they were just friends.
Why would he see the good side to advancing their relationship? Why would he
when she herself could barely see it?

Yet all the thinking was starting to cause
her a headache. Taking a gulp of water, she stared back at Harrison angrily.
Why was he still gazing at her that way? Perhaps he was just trying to
understand why she was acting a little off. If she could, why couldn't he?
Usually he could sense when she was feeling strange, maybe this was one of
those times and that's why he was being so nice and gentle towards her.

The waitress came and awaited their orders.
Harrison always had to order first it's how it had been forever. He always
got his in first.

"Molly, go ahead." He said
instead.

That triggered something inside, making a
glow of fury start in her chest. What was going on? What was with the alternate
universe symptoms? Besides that, she couldn't order she hadn't even started
to look over food options.

"What is going on with you?" She
said instead of complying.

He looked taken aback. "What do you
mean, Molly? I just said you could order is all." His voice was soft. Caring.
What the hell?

"Why are you acting so weird today?
You're being...not you. It's freaking me out."

The waitress looked as confused as
Harrison. "Um...maybe I should come back in a few minutes?"

Joe waved her over to his side of the table
so he and Marty could order until the others were ready.

"So I act a little nice and this is
how you repay me? Really Molly!"

She shook her head. "You're always
predictable. That's how I get through life with you. But you're off my radar
today and it's making me really uncomfortable."

"So you have to have tactics to get
through life with me? You can't just be my friend? Where's that coming
from?"

Her insides seemed all twisted up. Her
thoughts were scattered and unable to read. Whatever was coming from her mouth
was not coming from her brain. The two seemed disconnected as her head started
to throb. She squinted at him, trying to make sense of it all. "Is there
something going on, Harry?" She finally asked.

"Yeah, we're trying to order here,
what do you think?" He snapped. No more Mister Nice Guy, she had broken
through that. But now he seemed pissed.

Her world was tilting off her axis anyway
and she was hardly hungry. Instead of ordering, she stood up and walked towards
the door without a word.

"Molly, come back. I'm sorry I snapped
at you." Harrison said, running after her and grabbing her upper arm.

"You never apologize for yelling at
me." She commented, staring at his hand.

"You never walk out on me without
yelling back."

Their hard gazes were fixed on each other.
Until Harrison's went lower, to rest on her lips. Suddenly images of his dream
started to invade his brain and took up every thought he had. It seemed to take
over him and he couldn't break free. But hell, he wasn't quite sure he wanted
to break free anyway.

Then sanity started to creep back in when
Molly's eyes widened when he had stopped all speech. Had she been talking?

She couldn't know about his feelings. It
would ruin everything. With the way she was, she'd probably hate him for it.
She wasn't a fan of dating or love and heaven knows how scared of relationships
she is if it's serious. And he planned to make it serious if it was going to be
born.

She was finally starting to get out there and
take hold of his life. Without a doubt she'd think he was a nuisance and only
getting in her way from reaching what she wanted. And he would be he'd want
all her attention all the time for a good long time.

A relationship with Molly would never work out.
It just wouldn't. They were too different and too the same. Too many things
were wrong to ever try to make something glorious and beautiful out of it. And
hell if he'd be the one caught in the cross fire with only his heart standing
in wait to be killed. No, if she didn't want his love, he wouldn't give it to
her.

He'd recline all of it. He'd let go what he
was harboring. He'd go back to the way things were. After all, no lines had
been crossed. Nothing revealed. Everything was still in its early conceiving
stages. It could still be ended. It wasn't too late to put a stop to what would
surely be a disaster that would end up ruining twenty-five years of good times.

"You know what, you're right." He
finally said, his voice coming out strong and unfaltering. Surely that meant he
was doing the right thing with aborting his mission? "I was acting weird.
I haven't been sleeping well again. Whatever, I'm sorry. And...and I forgot I'm
supposed to be meeting Candice right about now."

The ending wasn't a lie. He was supposed to
pick her up and take her out to eat. They had arranged it two weeks ago, but in
his haze of dreaming about Molly, he had overlooked it. "I'll see you
later." He finalized, then turned and walked down the sidewalk to hurry a
few blocks away to home to get his truck. Candice, a willing woman who actually
did want him, was awaiting his arrival.

Inside the restaurant, Joe and Marty backed
away from the big window and scurried to their seats.

"Predictable." Joe was the first
to say. "I knew they'd choose option B."

Marty nodded. "Prepare for long
battles and sleepless nights from those two. They're going to fight this thing
out until there's no emotions left in them."

Joe looked at her in worry. "You think
they'll hurt their friendship over this?"

She shrugged. "I guess only time will
tell."

_______________________________________________________________________

Marty stood in front of the tv, staring in
interest to her friend that was slumped on the sofa. Her arms were crossed
tightly, bound to get some answers and to the bottom of this.

"Why'd you blow up on Harrison, Molly?
He was just being nice. Why'd you need to fight him on it?"

Molly sighed, looking away to avoid eye
contact. "I don't know." She whispered softly.

"You're upset that you did so. Upset
that Harrison is mad at you."

"He's not mad at me. He's...he's
acting weird. It's that false niceness. He's annoyed with me. He's distancing
himself." Molly looked up to her friend. "I think he's...he's trying
to stay away from me."

"But that wasn't like that before.
Just since you got angry for him being nice to you. He was sweet and you got
freaked. Why did you? Why didn't you let him be sweet to you?"

Tears welled in Molly's eyes and swallowing
became difficult to her. "Because...because..." She sniffled and
Marty handed her a tissue. "I'm scared, alright? I'm scared. I don't want
him to be sweet to me because I really will fall for him. And I really don't
want to. It'll mess everything up. It's better if the whole thing is forgotten
but if he acts that way with me like this...I won't be able to cleanse myself
of everything. I just need some time to myself."

"So you're distancing yourself from
Harrison?"

Molly nodded before she realized what she
had to just agreed to. She stared at Marty in horror. "I'm the killer of
the friendship not him! Oh God Marty...I'm the one to blame!

Harrison is probably just being ignored by
me and I didn't even realize it! God, I'm so stupid!"

Marty sat beside her friend and wrapped her
arms around her. "This is why I don't do the emotional stuff." She
teased, then grew serious. "You're not stupid. You're not a friendshipkiller.
You're just afraid and confused. It's a bad time for you and maybe it is for
Harrison too. But you'll both get through this. The clouds shall clear and
things shall make sense once again. Just wait it out. After twenty-five years,
nothing is going to separate the two of you. Especially not a little scuffle.
Just you wait and see. It'll all be fine."

Marty looked to the ceiling and wondered
how Joe was going with his speech.

_______________________________________________________________________

Harrison was pacing back and forth in front
of Joe, who was sprawled lazily over the black sofa. "Look, I don't have
all night. If you're going to talk and get this out, then do so before I fall
asleep from boredom." Joe said, breaking the silence.

Harrison lifted his head with a grunt, as
if only acknowledging his friend's presence for the first time. "I'm
busy." He growled, not stopping in his fast walk.

"Yes, I see that. Busy wearing out
your carpet. Why don't you chill a minute and tell me what has you so worked
up?"

"You know what. It's the same thing
every damn time. The same thing that drives me out of my mind. That
thing."

"Thing...or person?" Joe said
gently. He knew that the man before him was ready to break any second.

"Molly! My God, it's Molly! I swear I
shall go insane soon enough, courtesy of her! She drives me up the wall and I
don't think I can take this much longer!" Harrison met Josiah's eyes.
"I have to break up with her."

Joe looked back in horror. "Break your
relationship with Molly?"

Harrison was taken aback. "What? No,
no no no. Break it off with Candice."

Joe scratched his head and made a confused
face. "How the hell does that have anything to do with going crazy over
Molly?"

"Because...well...okay, I'm not sure.
But whenever I think about Molly getting me aggravated, my thoughts jump to
breaking up with Candice."

"Yes...that's the part I'm having
trouble with. Why?"

Harrison shrugged. "Don't know. But I
really I got to do it, Molly or no Molly. It doesn't matter whether I can tell
Molly of my...strong feelings...or not. It matters that I'm dragging along with
me this woman who I really don't love. That I'll never love her."

"...Because you'll always love
Molly?"

Harrison rolled his eyes. "No, not
because of that. Candice is great but she's not the one. I knew she wasn't from
the beginning. She was just...I don't know. Kind of fun to be with. But now
she's just weight on my mind. And with all that's going on with Molly, I can't
handle it. One woman is too much for me. Thinking on two is overload."

"So when are you going to do
this?"

Harrison stood up with determination.
"Now."

Joe's eyes bulged, looking down at his
watch. "It's nearly midnight!"

"Which is even more reason to get it
over with. I won't be able to sleep a moment until this is finally over
with."

Harrison marched out of the apartment with a
sure stride, leaving Joe in an empty room, debating whether he should sneak
down to Molly's place to see how Marty had done.

_______________________________________________________________________