And it was nice to see a side of him I didn’t normally get to. We’d never talked about music before.
“Well, if you get sick of it…”
“You don’t have to try so hard to make me happy.You’rethe one doingmea favor.”
“I’m getting a free vacation out of it.” Morgan shrugged.
He hadn’t known that when he agreed, though. I remembered the order of events. He’d agreed to this with the barest amount of detail possible.
I wasn’t exactly sure what that meant yet, but I thought it probably meantsomething.
“You might not be so thrilled with that when you meet everyone else,” I said. “But I hope it’s relaxing for you. You work really hard.”
“I move flowers from one place to another,” Morgan said. “It’s not that hard.”
“Yeah, but you get up at five in the morning to do it. That’s dedication.”
“Dunno about that.” Morgan paused to turn onto the freeway. “So who elseiscoming on this trip?” he asked. “Tell me about them.”
“Well, you know Marta, kinda,” I said. He’d thought we weredating, so he didn’t know her all that well. “She’s bringing her girlfriend, Julie.”
“Julie the town witch?” Morgan asked. “With the skirts and the crystals and the tea leaf readings?”
I laughed at that description. Yeah, that was Julie. “That’s her,” I said. “She’d love it if you called her a witch, do that and you’ll be her favorite person.”
“She almost exclusively wears purple and she absolutely looks like she could curse me if she wanted to. Julie gets nothing but respect from me,” Morgan said.
“She’s a nice person, she deserves some respect,” I agreed. “People think she’s nuts. I mean, sheisnuts, but it’s in a very lucid way. I think she just… sees things a little differently. I like her, and she’s good for Marta. They’re so cute together, you’ll see. And then there’s Chris and his boyfriend, the park owner’s son, Alex. I don’t know him super well, but I shared a dorm with Chris last year while I was working as a ski instructor, and then again this season just passed. He’s cool. Funny.”
“Did you guys ever…?” Morgan asked, trailing off.
“No,” I said. “Not that I wouldn’t have, he’s hot and we get along, but…”
But I couldn’t stop thinking about you, I didn’t say.
Besides, Chris had met Alex on, like, day two of the first season we’d met. They’d hit it off immediately and I’d had the dorm to myself awholelot. I liked Alex for that if nothing else.
I didn’t know him nearly as well, but I figured he had to be okay. One of us.
“And then there’s Brad,” I added. “I’ve told you about him.”
“You have.” Morgan nodded.
“He won’t be happy about you being there,” I warned. “Don’t take it personally, he’s mad at me, not you.”
“He broke up withyou,” Morgan pointed out. “He doesn’t get to be mad.”
But he was right, I didn’t say. He was right about me.
I didn’t deserve him, and I didn’t deserve Morgan, either. I didn’t have anything to offer.
“It was messy,” I said. Morgan didn’t need to know the details of the broken heart I was still piecing back together.
“And you’re still going on this trip with him?” Morgan asked.
“Yeah.” I settled deeper into the seat, shoving my phone back in my pocket. “He qualified for this competition, too. It’d mean a lot to him to win, actually. This whole extreme sports thing is hislife, I just… like skiing and kayaking and bungee jumping.”
“I can’t believe you do that on purpose, for fun,” Morgan said.
