“I need to clean my teeth.” He grinned as he undid his apron and pulled it off. “Just give me a minute.”
I watched him as he disappeared down the corridor, humming to himself.
He was usually exhausted in the mornings, stretched to the end of his limits. Sometimes I could barely get a sentence out of him before he’d had a coffee. So I'd obviously done him some good.
And I was tempted to use that as my excuse to sext him again.
That was why I had to do it as quickly as possible. In and out, no complications. Drop the phone somewhere in the flat, breathe a sigh of relief, and hope Harry never brought it up with me.
I moved into action. I had to find somewhere to put Molly’s phone without it being strange. My eyes scanned the kitchen,but there wasn’t anywhere that screamed ‘I put it there and forgot’. If I left it in the sugar jar or put it in the cutlery drawer, it would raise too many questions.
I heard his electric toothbrush buzz to life as I entered the living room. I had maybe two minutes at most to plant the evidence.
If I’d lost my phone, the sofa was pretty much the first place I’d look, but it was the best option I had. I just had to stuff it so far down the back that they wouldn’t have found it the first time they searched.
Harry and Molly’s house was normally messy, but it suited them. Candles, magazines, and TV remotes littered the coffee table, all pushed out of the way to make room for Harry’s laptop. It sat open right in front of me as I inspected their big corner sofa, looking for the best place to bury it.
Six feet under would have been smarter.
But the idea that Harry was so turned on that he came for me had me stroking one out earlier as I reread the texts.
I just had to hope Harry wouldn’t make the connection between the texts, me showing up, and the phone being found in the sofa.
If I was lucky, they wouldn’t discover it until Molly came back.
I lifted the pillow by the armrest, phone clutched in one hand as I pressed the other down as far as it could go. I needed to make sure the phone could disappear completely.
I wiggled my fingers around, confirming there was enough space to hide it, when Harry’s laptop dinged.
My eyes darted to the screen, open on his email. It seriously annoyed me that he had so many unread emails, but it was the newest one that drew my attention.
Molly – Hi
So, like the idiot I was, I pulled my hand from the sofa, replaced the cushion, and sat down. Slipping the phone back into my pocket, I bent forwards, put my finger on the touchpad and clicked the email.
I figured that I’d already gone far enough; reading one of her emails was nothing compared to what I’d done last night.
Harry’s toothbrush still buzzed away in the background, so I was safe.
Hi, I think it’s best if we don’t text or call when I’m away. I want a bit of space, and the reception here is crap, anyway. They said another storm is coming and the internet will be down for a week or two. I’ll message you when I’m back in Oslo.
I sat looking at the screen, my brow creased.
Harry mentioned last night that he wanted to talk, or being hurt, or something that implied they’d had another argument, but I didn’t think it was at this level.
No kisses, no ‘I love you’s’, nothing to suggest she was even missing him.
Another thought hit me as I realised Molly had just presented me with my get-out clause. Well, five weeks of it, at least. It could give me enough time to create some kind of buffer so that my life didn’t gently go to shit within the next few days. At least in the Harry department. I could pretend everything was fine until Molly left her family's place.
But then came the voice. That fucking voice that told me I could take advantage of the situation.
I groaned internally as I reread the message. All I needed to do was push the phone into the sofa, get up, and leave. Then act surprised if Harry ever told me about the mysterious sexting. Nice and easy. No major complications.
Which was exactly what I was going to do.
I had the phone in my hand, hovering over the crevice I’d already explored. I wouldn’t be like Sally. I wasn’t going to take advantage of someone I cared about for my own benefit. I didn’t do that shit.
And then I looked up at the bookcase in front of me. Filled with hundreds of medical books from his and Molly’s studies, most of them hidden by picture frames, crammed together at the front of the shelves, of all the moments in Harry’s life that he treasured. And I’d been up there way longer than Molly.