Molly shuffled through her papers one more time, pushing back and extra strand of hair behind her ear. Where was it? She could have sworn she had left it right on the table. Right on the table.
She slammed her papers onto her lap and buried her face in her hands. Rubbing her stinging eyes, she continued to shuffle through her desk papers. Maybe it fell under the desk.
She bent over looking into the dark space below the desk. If only she wasn’t so ridiculously clumsy all the time maybe then, just maybe, Sherlock would actually—
“Excuse me miss.”
Molly jumped hitting her head, hard, on the bottom of the desk. She stayed on the floor for a moment, holding her pounding head with both hands. Then, slowly, she rose from under the desk preparing to face whatever had called her.
She found herself staring into the face of a man.
He was an ordinary man at first look but behind his thin figure and slicked back hair, his eyes were the one thing that entranced Molly. Soft brown with a golden glow they stared at her, his eyes so warm and kind they reminded her of herself is so many ways yet completely different.
The strange new man cleared his throat. Molly’s face flushed as she realized how long she had been staring. He chuckled slightly at her embarrassment making her even more uncomfortable.
“Hi,” he said politely holding out his hand. I quickly shook it trying to avoid any eye contact.
“My name’s Jim, I umm…” I noticed him nervously playing with his hands and I quickly stopped fiddling with mine. “I’m new here and I was just trying to get to know the people around,” he said putting his hands in his pockets.
Molly looked up at him, waiting for his statement to register in her mind. “Uh, I’m…”
Oh gosh. What was her name? Why of all times when someone actually showed some interest in her she forgets her own—
“Molly?” She heard a familiar voice come from behind her.
Lestrade strut up behind Molly, a muffin in one hand and his phone in the other. “Sherlock here today?” He said shoving the last bit of muffin into his mouth.
Molly tried to regain focus, shaking her head she replied, “What? Uh…no…hasn’t shown up today.” Molly felt Lestrade nod beside her.
“Who’s this?” he said his mouth still full of blueberry muffin. Jim perked up and held out his hand, “Jim.” Lestrade shook his hand.
“Lestrade. Greg Lestrade.”
Jim smiled and nodded. An awkward silence settled around us. Molly felt the air thickening with every breath.
“Well, I best be off… See you later Molly, nice meeting you Jim.” Jim half waved as Lestrade walked away. Molly finally met his gaze. He was grinning ear to ear.
“You,” he said pointing to where Lestrade had just left, “dating…’Sherlock’” Molly quietly chuckled to herself, flattered that he would think that.
“Me? Oh, ha, no…no, I’m not dating Sherlock.” She shuffled with some papers on my desk. “He comes here when he’s on a case and I help him all that I can.”
Seeing the confused look on his face Molly continued to explain.
“Oh, well, he’s a detective…sort of…he helps the police solve murder cases and he’s really good at it. The best, actually. Most people don’t see how extremely incredible his talents are. I mean you should hear the things they call him. I don’t believe any of them, of course. You see he has this way of—“
“So you’re not dating him then?” He asked bouncing lightly on his toes.
She blushed. “No, I’m not.” He stuck his hands in his pockets making his shoulders hunch over, “In that case, um, I was wondering if maybe…you would like to meet later tonight at The Fox…with me?”
Molly was shocked. “Like on a date? Tonight?” He laughed, shifting his feet. “Yeah. Is that alright?” She laughed again, the shock finally settling.
“Yeah, oh yes, that—that would be lovely. Thank you.”
Jim smiled beginning to back up to his office. “I’ll see you at 6.” He said backing up. Bumping into the desk behind him, he knocked over a few papers onto the floor.
Blushing, he hastily picked them up, waved to me, and turned. Molly turned back to shuffle her papers once more thinking of the man she had just met.
Jim…Jim… She sighed.
Of course had forgotten to ask his last name.