“Hunter.” Molly sighed, her muscles aching from the weight of the bag. “I have to get this train. That’s my Uber behind you.”
“Let me ride with you? We can talk on the way there.”
Molly couldn’t argue. She let Hunter take her bag and climb inside the Camry, then slid into the seat beside him. The car began to move.
“You look tired,” she told him. “No offense.”
“I didn’t sleep all night.” He jiggled his knee, and Molly realized she’d never seen him so anxious. He was normally cool as a cucumber. “I’m sorry to bombard you like this.”
“What’s going on, Hunt?”
“I just … look.” He paused, turning to face her, his brown eyes piercing. “I feel like I have this momentum going right now … maybe it’s from lack of sleep, but if I don’t say this to you now, I’m afraid I never will.”
“Say what?” Molly’s heart sped. She was nervous, suddenly.
“I broke up with Blair. We’re not moving in together.” Hunter paused. The relief that flooded Molly’s chest was shocking and expected at once. “We were up all night talking. She didn’t take it well. But I don’t love her, Molly.”
The Uber merged onto the Williamsburg Bridge. Outside, the sky was white and dense with cloud cover. As the car sped across the river, Manhattan’s buildings sharpened into focus.
“I’m sorry,” Molly said. “I guess it’s better you realize that sooner—”
“Wait, just let me finish. There’s more.” He swallowed. “My ex, Lauren—the girl I dated before Blair—do you remember how I told you she was a huge Danner Lane fan? And how we’d been to a few of their shows together?”
Molly searched Hunter’s face for some clue as to where he was going with this. “Yeah. I remember.”
“Well, there was a show I saw with Lauren at Irving Plaza. It was ages ago now, but anyway, I saw you there.”
“You saw me?”
Hunter nodded. “Because Jake pulled you up onstage. It was after the encore—they played ‘Molly’s Song’—and then he pulled you up from the front row.”
Molly said nothing, a collection of memories floating back to her. The flashing lights of a thousand phone cameras, the way Jake had squeezed her hand while he shouted into the microphone: Everyone, this is my Molly. Then, the way he’d leaned down to kiss her, in front of all the screaming fans. Jake and Molly had done this bit many times after the encore performance of “Molly’s Song”; she can’t remember Irving Plaza distinctly, but she knows what Hunter saw.
“Wow, Hunt. That’s crazy that you were there.”
“There’s more.” Hunter paused, something hesitant in his expression. “Do you remember Danner Lane’s show at Brooklyn Bowl? When they were opening for alt-J?”
Molly’s heart stalled, turned to stone. She nodded slowly. “I’ll never forget that show. It was one of the worst nights of my life. I caught Jake making out with his manager’s assistant at the bar.”
“I know.” Hunter locked her gaze.
Molly studied him curiously. “What?”
“I was at that show, too. It was Lauren’s birthday—there was a big group of us. We were hanging by the bar before the opening act, and I saw Jake Danner there, making out with some girl. I knew it wasn’t you because I remembered you, from Irving Plaza. I remembered you exactly. Your hair, your face. Everything.” Hunter drew in a shallow breath. “I watched it unfold. You came in, searching for Jake. Then you caught him with the girl and ran out. He chased after you, but you were already gone.” He blinked. “Jake played a terrible show after that.”
Molly remembered every excruciating detail of that night. She could still hear Jake’s pleading voice in the doorway of her apartment the next morning, the words he spoke verbatim.
Maxine—she came on to me. She kissed me, Moll. She kissed me for half a second, and I pushed her off of me. I swear.
“God, Hunter.” Molly shook her head. The cab was basically stopped now, in traffic on the bridge. “I can’t believe you saw that. Can I … ask you something?”
“Of course.”
Molly swallowed the lump down her throat. She had to know the truth, and she knew in her gut that Hunter wouldn’t lie to her. Not about this. “You said you saw Jake making out with a girl. Were they … really making out? Because he told me … he told me Maxine—that girl—kissed him, but that he stopped it right away.”