Page 8 of Under Her

“Hey, man.” I pat Coop on the back, taking the stool next to him.

“Hey. Your usual?” he asks me.

“Yep.”

He signals to the bartender and orders me a Corona.

“So, what’s up?” he asks.

“Everything.” My life. Morgan goddamn Stick-Up-Her-Ass-Ford.

I drag my hands down my face and let out a groan.

“That bad?”

“Worse,” I tell him.

The bartender puts my beer in front of me. I pick it up and down half of the bottle before putting it back down.

“Better?” Coop asks.

“Nope.” I slide a look at him. “Mom and Dad went behind my back and hired someone to come and work with me. A ‘co-CEO.’” I air-quote.

“Shit. You’re kidding.”

“Wish I were.” I sigh. “And it gets worse. The person they’ve hired to share my job with me is Morgan Stickford.”

“Morgan Stickford…” Coop’s brows draw together in thought.

“We went to Northwestern with her,” I say. “She always used to sit in the front row. Wore those baggy-ass sweaters all the time. I used to call her Morgan Stick-Up-Her-Ass-Ford.”

“Oh, yeah.” Coop clicks his fingers in recognition. “Curvy. Blonde hair.”

“That’s the one.”

“Fuck…she hated your guts in college, man.” Coop laughs as he picks up his beer and takes a drink. “Why was that?”

“I guess she thought I was a rich prick.”

“You are. But so am I. And she didn’t hate me.”

“Who didn’t hate you?” Dom drops into the stool next to Coop.

“Morgan Stickford,” Coop tells him. “You remember her from Northwestern?”

“God, yeah. Haven’t heard that name in a while though. I used to work shifts with her at Starbucks.”

Unlike Coop and me, Dom’s family wasn’t rich. He was at Northwestern on a scholarship. But he created this dating app after he graduated, and it went big. Really big.

“Did you?” I say to Dom. “How did I not know that?”

Dom shrugs. “She was a nice girl. Didn’t like you though, if I remember right.”

“She hated his guts,” Coop clarifies.

“Thanks for the reminder.” I grimace at him.

“I’ll have a draft beer,” Dom tells the bartender, who just approached. “Why are we talking about Morgan Stickford anyway?” he asks.