Chapter 5
Morgan
Jen poked her head around the corner with a plastic container of salad in one hand.
“So, was it miserable without me? Tell me how much you regret not taking me up on my offer. Tell me everything and why you’ve been avoiding me since Saturday.”
Morgan shook her head and laughed while she continued checking the drawers, boxes, and bins to make sure everything was stocked for the day.
That was supposed to be done at the end of each shift, but she couldn’t guarantee the piercer taking her place had actually done that.
While she was a mess with organization and finding things at home, here there was already a system in place to keep her on track.
“You, my friend, are always missed,” she said, sticking her head into a cabinet. “How’s your back?”
“Better. Stop deflecting.”
“Fine. It wasn’t miserable. And I haven’t been avoiding you.”
It had been far from miserable, but she’d been trying for two nights and a day to not think about how far from miserable it had been or the reason for that.
Which was the exact reason she really had been avoiding Jen yesterday. She’d put off their weekly reality TV date, saying she was tired from the night before, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to avoid her at work come Monday.
Jen stuffed a forkful of lettuce and cucumber into her mouth. She was wearing another worn-in T-shirt with the sleeves cut off and loose light wash jeans with her blonde bob pinned back to keep it out of her eyes while she bent over to work.
She eyed Morgan while she set up her station in the little corner room at the back of the shop that served as the piercing area. Morgan knew Jen didn’t have a tattoo client until one, so she had an hour to grill Morgan for details.
Between bites, Jen asked, “I guess Kim was happy?”
“So happy.” Morgan closed a drawer and turned to look over her shoulder at Jen. “They’re so disgustingly happy that if I did want a relationship, that’s what I’d want.”
“You could, you know.” Jen leaned against the door frame and aimed her fork at Morgan. “Have that, I mean.”
“Could and want are two different things.”
She realized the box of gloves was running low, so she slipped past Jen to grab another couple of boxes. When she returned, Jen was still eating her salad and leaning against the door.
“So what else happened? Was the food good? You know that’s the one reason I regret not taking you up on that invitation.”
“The food was great,” Morgan said, sifting through needle pouches and sanitizing wipes. “The bread pudding was the best I’ve had in years.”
The reason for that probably had more to do with the person she’d been eating it with than the dessert itself.
“Did you dance? I wish I could have seen that.”
“No dancing,” Morgan said.
“So then what? You just ate and sat in a corner by yourself all night?”
“Not exactly.” Morgan closed a drawer and looked around to see what she could check next. Anything to avoid eye contact.
Jen pondered that statement, then dropped her fork in the salad container and pointed a finger at Morgan. “You met someone!”
“No, I didn’t meet someone.”
“Don’t lie to me.” Jen wagged her finger. “Who is she, and what happened?”
“Nothing happened,” Morgan said. “I just met Melanie’s coworker. She saw me sitting alone and came over to chat and keep me company while I was waiting to talk to Kim.”
Jen pressed her lips together in a knowing look. “You know that’s not nothing, right?”
It was very much not nothing in Morgan’s head. And her heart, if she was being honest. That ease of their conversation. That smile with those adorable dimples… those weren’t nothing.
But that was as much as anything was going to be.
“It’s nothing,” she said. “I swear. Besides. You know my stance on relationships.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Your stance is you don’t want one.” Jen snapped the lid onto her salad container. “What if this could just be a little fun for a while? Nothing serious.”
Morgan shook her head and moved toward where Jen stood in the doorway. “This is not a nothing-serious woman. I don’t know a lot about her, but she gives me all-in vibes.”
Jen moved out of the doorway. “You could ask her. Maybe you’d be surprised.”
“I already told her I don’t want a relationship. And she said the same.”
“What if she only said that because you said that?”
Morgan tried to wrap her brain around that one and came up empty. “Why would someone do that?”
Jen rolled her eyes. “I don’t know. People do stuff like that all the time. Maybe she was embarrassed or something.”
“Embarrassed about what? I’m the one who said it first.”
“Right. And maybe she did want to start something with that introduction, but she was embarrassed to admit it after you said you weren’t interested.”
“That’s silly,” Morgan said, struggling even more to understand. Why wouldn’t someone just say what they mean? Or not say something they don’t mean?
“People are silly. I don’t know what else to tell you.”
Morgan moved past her and into the tiny office/break room that wasn’t much more than a small cave carved out of the back wall.
“Well, it doesn’t matter, because that was the end of whatever it was.
” Morgan decided to switch gears. “Want to get a drink after work? Nolan just told me there’s a good band playing at that little brewery across town. ”
“I’m gonna say no and rest my back some more,” Jen said. “Stop trying to weasel out of this conversation and tell me about her.”
Morgan shrugged. “She was pretty. Blonde. Kind, as evidenced by not wanting me to sit alone. She’s a teacher. Works at Great Oak High. And she likes… actually, I don’t know what she likes. See? I don’t know anything about her. So this was nothing, like I said.”
Morgan tried desperately not to think about Danielle working right down the road. She was probably in class right now, teaching a bunch of teenagers about the symbolism of something or other. Just a few short blocks away. Walking distance.
Not that it mattered.
“You could have at least gotten her number. In case either of you changed your mind. Or to get to know her better, even as a friend. Or, you know, if you wanted a little fun.”
That number. It had been sitting in her phone, taunting her all of yesterday. She wasn’t going to use it, of course. That was a one-way communication tool only, in case Danielle wanted a piercing. Which Morgan figured she’d never take her up on.
“Actually, I did.”
Jen stared at her, eyes wide. “What?”
“She might want a piercing and is pretty clueless, so I told her to reach out if she wanted. But I don’t think she was really serious.”
“Oh, so now you don’t think someone meant what they said?”
Jen had a point.
Maybe Danielle really had been serious about that.
Morgan grabbed her water bottle from the counter and took a chug before closing it and setting it back down near someone’s half-empty Pepsi.
“You done grilling me? I’ve got a septum out there waiting for me.”
“Already?”
“They were outside before we opened. Nolan let her in to wait.”
“All right. I’ll let you get to them. I’ll just go be bored over there until my one o’clock shows up. Or until I get a walk-in wanting something quick, tiny, and tacky.”
Morgan shook her head again as she walked up front and tried not to think about that number in her phone or the woman who had given it to her.