The server brought two plates over, smiled brightly at Morgan, and then left us with two incredible-looking burgers, the mushroom in front of me and the cashew and walnut in front of Morgan.
“Gotta say, this smells incredible,” Morgan said. “Warm and kinda smoky.”
“It looks incredible,” I agreed. “This one’s garlicky, so it oughta clear my sinuses out.”
“I amreallysorry about the van,” Morgan said for what felt like the thousandth time.
“Don’t be, this is totally worth it.” I grinned, cutting my burger in half for him.
A couple of minutes of sneezing my head off weremorethan worth getting to grab dinner with Morgan on what increasingly felt like a first date.
“Tell me about work,” Morgan said, trading half of his burger for half of mine. “Tell me about your worst customer today.”
“Oh mygod,” I said automatically. “You won’t believe this, I bet people aren’t this stupid with flowers.”
“You’d be surprised,” Morgan said, starting in on his food. “Try me.”
I laughed. “Well, you know how backpacks are measured by volume, right?”
Morgan nodded, making happy noises over his burger, keeping up eye contact to show he was listening as I launched into the story, making interested noises in all the right places.
Paying attention to me. To my dumb story about a terrible customer that he probably didn’t really care about.
I couldn’twaitto spend this trip with him.
“So, about this competition?” Morgan asked when we were halfway through our meals and we’d run out of awful customers to complain to each other about for the day.
“What do you wanna know?” I asked between bites of cashew-and-walnut mince burger, whichwassmoky and incredible, just like Morgan said. I could’ve eaten here every day of the week.
I couldn’t help wondering if Morgan had looked this place up ahead of time for some reason. Maybe he’d been helping Aiden plan for my birthday or something.
“Why you’re taking me along, for a start,” Morgan said. “I mean, I’m still going if you want me to, that’s not in dispute, but…”
“Right. Well, Marta’s bringing Julie, and Chris—you haven’t met him, but you’ll love him—is actually tagging along with Alex, who’s also entering the competition. So is Marta. I’m not being very clear here, sorry. I just… know all this already.”
“I get it,” Morgan said, nodding. “So just… moral support? Do I cheer for you? How do I know if you’re winning?”
I laughed. Morgan wasadorable, and I appreciated that he was trying.
“You know I’m winning if I’m upright in the water and moving forward,” I said. “Kayaking is… intense, but not complicated from a competition point of view. It’s really just a race. Only everyone does the course individually so no one can like… murder the competition.”
“Murder?” Morgan raised an eyebrow.
“Peopledodie doing this. Not normally during competitions, but I’ve never been to one where someone didn’t get dragged out of the water half-conscious, at least. They keep paramedics on standby at these. They’re… not for the faint of heart.”
“You’re not the faint of heart, though, are you?” Morgan asked, more a statement than a question.
Heat rushed down the back of my neck at what felt like the greatest compliment I’d ever been given.
“I hope not,” I said, pausing to get over the surge of happy feelings at Morgan saying that.
I wanted people to think I was brave. Thatmatteredto me.
“The competition is Thursday and Friday,” I said. “We’re heading up early partly so we’ll have a chance to practice, partly because a free vacation is a free vacation and Alex's dad offered us the extra days. You sure you can take the time off at short notice?”
“Already asked Kieran and Felix to cover the important hours and deliveries. Felix sounded excited about being an apprentice florist. Kieran said I needed the break.”
“You do. You work too hard.”
