I take a sip of my sangria. “You, like, eavesdrop and report back to Morgan, don’t you?”
Eileen’s eyes twinkle. “Me?Never.”
“So…” I try to sound casual. “How does Morgan’s significant other deal with her being gone all the time?”
Eileen’s smile widens. “Why do you ask?”
Fuck. Of course I can’t pull one over on her. I must be blushing so brightly. “Just curious.”
“Morgan doesn’t have time for dating. I’d know—I run her calendar. Her last hookup was…” Eileen counts on her fingers. “Six months ago, at least.”
“She puts her hookups on the calendar?”
“Yes, and… the office walls aren’t so thick.” Eileen takes another drink of her sangria, past a smug grin.
“Oof.”
“It’s not so bad.” She shrugs. “Like my own built-in reality TV show.”
“Doyouwatch TV?”
“Of course,” Eileen scoffs. “I’m likeobsessedwith Island of Love.”
“I learned yesterday that Morgan doesn’t have time for TV.Ever.”
“Isthatwhat she said?” Eileen smiles, a secret on her lips.
I’m about to take a sip of my drink, but I put the glass down. “Say more.”
“You didn’t hear it from me, but… I still hear Heartbreak Hotel from the gym now and again.”
“Morgan?Heartbreak Hotel?!”
“Yep.” Eileen pops the p.
“Fascinating.”
Our sandwiches arrive, and they’re fresh and lovely and some of the best I’ve ever had, even though this place only has one dollar sign in my maps app.
“I’m glad I’m not totally ruined for cheap food,” I say, washing down a savory bite of sandwich with sangria.
“Oh my god, Iknow, right? Morgan hates that I get Starbucks, but she can pry it out of my cold dead hands.”
We laugh together.
“I will say,” Eileen continues, “I have much finer taste than I did when I started working for her. Five-star restaurants will do that, y’know? But there’s plenty of little gems all over. I love this place—I stop by every time we come here.”
“Does it… does it ever bother you? Knowing what a difference money like this would have made when you were a kid?” Mom could have bought us a house somewhere safe, instead of bouncing between landlords for years. The cognitive dissonance has been creeping up on me.
“It’s like… how lions suffocate their prey to death. That’s true, right? I saw a video about it. Anyway, it’s a pretty brutal way to go. But like… nature is brutal. And beautiful.”
Eileen has a thing for analogies, and I sort of understand what she means. “But we’re… not animals, right?”
“Aren’t we? Is there really any proof that we do what we do out of logic? Or is it just like: oh food, oh sexy, oh shiny object?”
“But life can have… the meaning we give it, right?”
“Hm… I think more in terms of experiences. Like, how many things can I go out and do and feel and try before it all runsout, y’know?”
