Let's Make Up

Movie

Molly heard the sound of little feet running down the stairs and soon saw the person, that belonged to the sound, poke her face into the room.

"Are you awaaake?" Avery asked like a begging puppy.

"I am!" Molly said with a smile and clicked on the bedside lamp.

"Daddy never wants to get up early on weekends. He's such a lazy butt." The girl said making Molly laugh.

"Oh, I don't think your dad is lazy, he's pretty energetic..." She caught herself thinking about how aggressive he could be when he was in the mood and how he seemed like he could always be ready at the drop of a hat. She shook her head to stop thinking about him in that way while also in the presence of his child. "I think he just enjoys having some time to rest. He probably misses having cuddles instead of chasing after a certain little girl who's always on the go." She finished with a wink.

"Okay..." Avery thought about it. "I was gonna ask if we could watch cartoons but let's go cuddle with Daddy then!"

Molly blushed. "Avery, I'm not sure that's a good idea."

The girl made her eyes big and sad. "Why not?"

"Well, it's not very proper for grown ups to go into each other's rooms unannounced." She said, unsure of how to explain any better and feeling like a hypocrite for saying that when she also went into his room and got into his bed without much of a care besides her own hopes.

Molly grabbed a hair tie that was on the nightstand and quickly pulled her hair into a messy bun since she knew that Avery wasn't going to leave her alone any time soon and having her hair out of the way would at least help her feel a little put together.

"Whoa!" Avery said in awe, "You did your hair without a brush or a mirror!" She blinked up at Molly who was laughing again at the girl being so amazed by such a small act."Do mine too! pleeease?!"

Molly told Avery to sit facing away from her and to look with her head back and chin up toward the ceiling. She got another hair tie and gently raked her fingers through the girl's fine blonde hair, pulling it into a bun like her own.

"There." She said, "Now we match!"

Avery felt the top of her head and smiled brightly.

"Do you want to go take a look in the mirror?" Molly asked.

Avery got up in excitement, taking Molly's hand, when they were both surprised by John leaning into the room and knocking gently on the wall to get their attention.

Molly smiled at him bashfully and wondered how long he had been there. He met her eyes and smiled back with affirmation.

"If you two are done with your makeovers then we could get some breakfast going." He said and Avery ran over to him.

She did a twirl, asking if he liked her hair, and told him how cool she thought Molly was. John asked her if she had gotten permission to go into Molly's room and she had the same look from the previous evening where she knew she had done something wrong but hadn't meant it to be bad.

Molly got up and told him that she was very polite, making Avery look at her with complete innocent gratitude. John felt like he was embarrassingly close to swooning by just having Molly make his daughter so happy, so he abruptly said it was alright, and left for the kitchen.

At the breakfast table, Avery sat beside John and across from Molly. The adults were drinking their coffee and they were all eating eggs, toast and sausage. John had to remind Avery a few times not to talk with her mouth full, but, it was hard to convince her when she got her mind on something.

"Molly, do you still think I look like Rapunzel?" She asked.

Molly put on a thoughtful face, placing her thumb and pointer finger on her chin.

"Nope. With your hair like this, you look more like Cinderella."

"I do?!" The girl sounded delighted.

"Yes! Which sadly means I'm going to make you do all the housework around here today!" Molly said with a pretend evil laugh.

Avery cried out while playing along. "Noooo!!! Daddy save me!"

John just laughed at them and rolled his eyes at the woman across from him.

"Who is your favorite princess?" She asked Molly while they were still on that subject.

"The Little Mermaid, I think." She replied. "I can relate to her a bit."

John raised an eyebrow.

"How so? Making deals with any sea witches lately?"

Molly smiled at his knowledge of the princess stories and continued.

"Well, I'm kinda stubborn and left everything I knew behind just for a personal dream and had to relearn everything." She smirked, looking right at John. "And maybe I have... daddy issues."

She saw him gulp and take a deep breath.

Avery then asked who her dad's favorite princess was and he remembered Molly falling asleep on the couch, sharing their first kiss right after. He told her Snow White, using the excuse of her being old fashioned and liking that she did all the cooking and cleaning. He smiled at Molly again, playfully, and added, "It's nice that she sleeps alot too."

"Oh my gosh, Daddy!" Avery said with shock in her voice, "Molly looks like Snow White!"

John rubbed his neck and glanced at the woman across from him who now had her elbows on the table and her face rested in her hands with amusement.

"Well... They're both brunettes. And they have big dark eyes." He agreed.

Molly felt a flutter inside her as he carried on, "Molly is also a pretty good cook. She can also sing, you know?"

Avery looked at Molly with amazement. "You can?"

She blushed at the expectant girl. "Not if you guys put me on the spot like that!"

"Daddy, you know everything about Molly!" The girl announced.

"Molly, do you know everything about Daddy?"

"Not really..." She said, not wanting to make things awkward.

Avery thought about it and piped up again. "Daddy's favorite colour is blue, his favorite food is potatoes," She said with a giggle, "And he's 41!"

"42." John corrected her and reached for his cup.

"Oops, yeah, 42!" Avery blinked up at him. "How old are you, Molly?"

"I'm 29." She said simply, making John choke and sputter on his coffee.

"You alright, Johnny?" She asked, making him only nod slowly at her, clearly shocked by what he just found out.

Avery told them that they were both old and asked if she could finally go watch cartoons, so John got something set up for her and came back to help Molly in the kitchen.

He came up behind her and looked her over. "I didn't realize that you're still in your 20's"

"Hardly. I'll be 30 in a couple weeks actually."

John said nothing back and got a glazed look in his eye while watching her tidy.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Molly asked, snapping him out of his daydream.

"Molly, I'm just so..." He paused to gather this thoughts, "Nevermind, I don't want to put you in a bad mood, so I should stop."

"No, you can't do that to me. Tell me what you were going to say." She said strongly.

"Well... you know... I was just feeling bad for myself I guess, while feeling bad for you."

Molly gave him a confused look.

"Helen was so worried about me getting you pregnant... but I kind of wish I could. I know I'm getting old to be a father of a newborn, and I'm just letting my imagination get carried away, but I just can't believe that's been robbed of you. Especially with hearing your age. I see you with Avery and just know you'd be the best mom."

He lifted her chin from looking down.

"And don't get me started on how cute you'd look with a fuller figure and big round belly." He added to lighten the mood.

"Do you honestly think that?" Molly asked, not yet sure how to feel about what he was saying.

"Of course I do. I'm really upset that I never moved to the city. I wish I had met you earlier. I hope you're not uncomfortable with learning that I'm quite a bit older than you. 12 years is a lot I suppose."

Molly shook her head at him.

"I don't care about that. But, you wouldn't like City-Molly. Out getting tattoos every other night, drinking a lot to try and feel something. Dressing like a hooker just to get attention."

John pressed his lips together and told her it didn't matter.

"I can't change the past, but that wouldn't be who you were if we'd been together then."

"And what if I'm not who I'm supposed to be now?" She challenged.

John set the rest of the dishes in the sink and turned to her, standing up straight.

"I hate when you talk like that. Probably just because it makes me think you're unhappy being with me. Anyway, I'm sorry to have upset you, I should go check on Avery."

Molly only nodded silently in response.

In the afternoon, Avery asked if they could all go to the playground, and John agreed. They decided to walk there and being in the fresh air made Molly feel better. She chased the girl around the equipment and pushed her on the swings. John couldn't help but continue imagining her as a real mom and felt pride thinking how onlookers would perceive them as a mother and daughter playing together with their matching hairstyles. The day seemed to fly by and after dinner, Avery asked if they could watch the movie that her mom had picked up, to which John told her that he hadn't yet previewed it, but that it was a possibility for the next evening. Helen had said it would be fine to watch, but hearing that she hadn't screened it made him a bit nervous to turn it on for Avery. Molly could tell that he was already feeling a bit down that Saturday was over and that they only had Sunday left. Soon it was bath and bed time, and he asked Molly if she wanted to keep him company while he watched the movie. She agreed and they got comfy on the couch, not sitting too close since they worried that Avery could still get up and see them snuggling, not that the girl would actually mind though.

John found the movie boring. It was some basic wannabe musical that had a fairytale setting and not much depth to the story. The characters had colorful hair and he wondered if that was why Avery picked it, since she was still very much into princesses and girly things. A new character had just been introduced; a man wearing a purple wig who was wearing a lot of heavy eyeliner. John saw Molly sit up slowly from out of the corner of his eye, so he turned to her and saw she looked pale.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"I... um... I think I should go to bed." Molly replied with a hollow voice. She pulled out her phone and scrolled through her contacts, opening a new message screen for someone listed as 'JW'. John watched her go, a little dumbfounded, as she didn't say anything else and closed her bedroom door behind her. He thought about the initials and remembered her far away expression when he'd asked why she had left the city.

"Because of winter." He recalled her saying.

He realized right away that it was a name, and not a season, that she was avoiding, and that 'JW' was Julien Winter. Feeling a little sick to his stomach that she was so quick to reconnect with him, he stared at the actor in disgust. John tried to look past the costume to understand what Molly had liked about him. He admittedly had a good singing voice, was tall and had a strong jaw with a muscular physique. He felt the scruff on his face, that he kept trimming instead of shaving, and wondered if she just had a type that she liked since Julien was also unshaven. Finally he'd had enough speculating and turned off the movie without anymore hesitation. He was glad he hadn't played it for his daughter and had trusted his gut feeling. The pie that Helen made came to mind, and John couldn't help but feel that she also had something to do with the movie choice, but figured he was too upset to message her and would wait til morning to address things with Molly as well. He headed up to bed and had jealous thoughts all night. Picturing what they would talk about, John imagined that they would make up, confess their love for one another, and that she'd be gone when the sun came up. With all his over thinking, he also wished he'd never allowed the movie into his house in the first place.

In Molly's room, she stared at the blank screen she had opened, wondering if seeing Julien had been a sign since she was already questioning herself the evening before. She finally typed out a message,

Molly: I saw part of your latest movie. Congrats on a big singing role.

It didn't take long for her to get a reply and she felt a pit in her stomach that she couldn't explain.

Julien: Molly Dolly! Its been a while... How have you been?