The Woman Who Counted (A Sherlolly Tale)

Chapter 20

            Molly’s eyes opened to the darkness of her bedroom and the absence of Tom. Of course, She thought, He’s gone to his parent’s home without me…again.

            Molly was getting sick and tired of Tom leaving her. They’d had their ups and downs, but she did love him and she wanted him to let her come with him. She had met his parents, and they were lovely. They seemed to really like Molly. There was no reason for him to not let her go.

            Molly sighed and looked over at her alarm clock. 2:43am. Why was she up so early? She noticed Toby was curled up in Tom’s spot. She sat up in her bed, looking around the room for what caused her to wake up. After a few minutes of silence, she lay down again, closing her eyes. A few minutes later, she was drifting off to sleep when she heard footsteps in the hallway. Her heart stopped, and she sat up, listening as the footsteps stopped. She eyed the door, watching as the doorknob slowly turned. After what felt like minutes of just the doorknob turning, the door started to slowly slide open, and she screamed.

            “Molly,” Sherlock Holmes said. “You may want to keep your voice down. You’re neighbors may think you’re being killed or something.”

            Molly swung her feet over the edge of her bed and stood up. She walked over to Sherlock and punched him in the stomach.

            “You arse!” She almost shouted. “What the hell are you doing at my flat? It’s…” She looked at the alarm clock. “Three in the morning!”

            Sherlock held a hand to his stomach; the punch had been harder than he expected it to be. He looked down at Molly, whose cheeks were turning red with anger. “Nice to see you too, Molly.”

            “What are you doing here?” Molly asked.

            “I’ve got a … visitor at my flat,” Sherlock explained. “She um…thinks I’m working, but I really just wanted to get out.”

            “She?” Molly questioned, raising her eyebrows at him. “Your girlfriend?”

            “You assume she is my girlfriend because she is staying at my flat?”

            “Yes. Am I wrong?”

            Sherlock didn’t answer for a few seconds, clearing thinking about whether he should tell Molly the truth or not. “No. Your right.”

            Molly laughed. “Who is it?”

            “Janine.” Sherlock said.

            Molly kept a smile on her face, although she still felt rather irritated with Janine. She had no idea why she didn’t like her. “I’d congratulate you, but don’t seem too happy about it.”

            “Well,” Sherlock said. “She’s not exactly my girlfriend. Well she is, but…not exactly.”

            “Let me guess,” Molly crossed her arms across her chest. “You’re using her?”

            “I’m…” Sherlock trailed off, thinking of a way to make himself sound better. “Exploiting the fact of our connection.”

            “Is that what you’ll tell her when she finds out?”

            “Possibly…”

            Molly shook her head. “Sherlock, you can’t do this to her.” Molly didn’t like Janine, but this was still wrong.

            “Why would you care?” Sherlock asked.