Page 110 of Under Her

“And you’re a bitch. And there’s the door. Don’t let it hit your ass on the way out.” I down the rest of my whiskey and slam the glass on my desk.

She ignores me and comes over to my desk to take the seat across from me.

I blankly stare at her. “Do you have a hearing problem?”

“No, I can hear your bullshit just fine.” She folds her arms over her chest. “Did you know Morgan was in love with you in college?”

My eyes snap up to hers. “Morgan hated me in college.”

Joely unfolds her arms and leans forward. “Trust me, she was in love with you.”

“So…why…” I shake my head, trying to clear my tangled thoughts.

“Why didn’t she act like it? It’s called self-preservation. But then you’d know a little something about that, right? Isn’t that what you did yesterday when you tossed Morgan out of here? Because you thought she’d betrayed you? Isn’t that what you’re doing now while you sit here and tell yourself that you did the right thing by firing her? It’s what we do when people hurt us. We go into defensive mode and protect ourselves in the only way we know how.”

“You’re right. People do that. But here’s the thing. I never hurt Morgan in college. She just started hating on me for no fucking reason.”

She laughs now. “It was thirteen years ago and eighteen-year-old Morgan’s first term at Northwestern. She’d somehow landed the roommate from hell. Tori Watson. Ring any bells?”

I cast my mind back. Something is there, nagging in the back of my head, but I can’t reach it properly to figure it out.

“No.” I shake my head.

“Shame. I don’t know if I’d have preferred that you did remember her. And what you both did to Morgan that night.”

“I never did anything to Morgan,” I growl. I don’t like this chick’s tone or the things she’s implying.

“Morgan had just finished a shift at Starbucks. She came home and couldn’t get in her room. Tori had locked her out because she was inside, hooking up with a guy. You.” She points a finger at me. “Morgan eventually got her to open up the door. But Tori wouldn’t let her in. Told her to find somewhere else to sleep. She spent the night on my dorm room floor.”

“Bullshit. Morgan wouldn’t have stood for that. She’d have told her to fuck off.”

“The Morgan now—yeah, you’re right; she would have. The Morgan back then? Not a chance. She just took it like she did.”

“So, Tori locked her out. How is that my fault?”

“It’s not. But you just stood there and said nothing—besides offering to let her join you and Tori.”

I wince because that sounds exactly like something I would have said.

“You left Morgan with nowhere to sleep, which is shitty in itself. But it was what she heard you say after the door was closed that hurt her most.”

“And what did I apparently say?”

“Basically, you said she was fat.”

“Bullshit. I’ve never called a girl fat in my life.”

“‘Anything over a size four, and I show her the door.’”

Her words freeze in my ears. That was something Coop and I used to say when we were younger and fucking idiots.

But, no, I wouldn’t have said that about Morgan. Would I have?

“Morgan wasn’t fat in college.”

“No, she wasn’t. Not if you take the actual meaning of fat into context. But she wasn’t exactly thin either. And, to morons like you and your frat buddies, she wasn’t a size four or below; therefore, she was fat.”

I swallow back, a sick feeling starting to swirl in my stomach.