“That’s right.” Molly gave a rueful smile. “I can’t believe you only lasted a year in Williamsburg.”
“I like it here. Truthfully, I wish I could stay. But Blair doesn’t love Brooklyn, so…” Hunter stared at Molly, at the golden-blond wisps of hair that spun around her face, which was pink from the cold. “She wants to get married.”
Molly’s stomach pitched. “Wow. She said that?”
“Blair is a girl who likes to make plans.” Hunter smiled tightly. “I’m not ready for marriage yet. But we’ll move in together. We’ll see how that goes.”
Molly didn’t know what that meant, but she nodded supportively.
“The wind is about to pick up.” Hunter glanced toward the water again.
“How do you know?”
“See the whitecaps?” He moved closer to her, pointing out over the river, and Molly could smell something minty on his breath. “Way out there, toward the mouth? That’s how you can tell where the wind is. It’s heading toward us, see?”
Molly nodded. She’d always been impressed with Hunter’s knowledge of the water. He knew more about things like wind patterns, currents, and tides than anyone she’d ever met.
“The nerdy facts you learn being raised in a family of sailors.” He grinned. “It’s cold. Are you hungry? Let’s get you some buttered noodles.”
Molly felt better after spending the afternoon with Hunter, but when she got back to her apartment after lunch, she was hit with a debilitating wave of sorrow. Jake was gone, but he was everywhere—his favorite hoodie tossed over the arm of the couch; his old Crosley record player on the table in the corner; the spices he cooked with that he’d organized alphabetically in the pantry; the little white desk he’d found and painted for Molly just after they’d moved in together.
She picked up Jake’s hoodie and held it to her face, inhaling the scent of him that lingered on the fabric. Something essential, a spring that fed them, had dried up. It felt final, the decision that she would leave him, and Molly was sadder than she’d been all her life. And how was she supposed to keep living in this apartment without him, knowing they were over? It was torture.
Molly reached for her phone, desperate, suddenly, to talk to Nina. She didn’t really expect her to pick up—it was Saturday, and she was still in Vermont with Cash and his family—but she answered on the first ring.
Molly told her everything, and afterward, her friend was silent for so long, she thought the call had dropped.
“Holy shit,” Nina said, when she finally spoke. “Well, I can’t say I’m entirely surprised. I knew something was up.”
“Really? Are you mad?”
“Do you remember our conversation in the bathroom the night of the housewarming party? You’d just realized your period was over a week late, and you were freaking out.”
“Right … I only half remember that.”
“And I kept telling you to wait until the next day to take a test—you were hammered—but obviously, you didn’t listen…”
“Ugh. I should have. I mean, what kind of psychopath finds out she’s pregnant in the middle of being blackout drunk?”
“Uh, my best friend?” Nina laughed. “And no, I’m not mad. I mean, of course I wish I knew about all this earlier—and I can’t believe I thought you were in Europe this whole time—but I get it. You’ve been processing.”
“Yeah. It’s been … the weirdest two weeks of my life? I just … I completely shut down, Nina. I haven’t been able to talk to anyone.” Molly took a sip of her coffee, then instantly wondered if she should be drinking caffeine at all.
“So how exactly did you find out?” Nina asked. “You stopped at Duane Reade on your way home at, like, three in the morning? And bought a bunch of tests?”
“The details are fuzzy, but that sounds about right.” Molly smiled despite herself. It felt so good to finally share everything with Nina. “Jesus, Neens. Can you imagine the cashier?”
“Oh, this is New York. People have seen it all.”
“Truth. So anyway, I got home, peed on a few sticks, and they were all positive. Then I called Hunter—”
“So you did call Hunter. You kept saying you were going to earlier in the night.”
“Oh yeah. Woke him and Blair up, of course. He said I was just mumbling a bunch of gibberish, but he was obviously worried.”