Page 19 of Love, Morgan

“Gonna need more info than that, Morgan.”

Ugh. She was so frustrating when she was asleep. Well, not asleep, but not putting together the perfectly obvious pieces of a puzzle I was handing her.

“It was from Iona.”

“Oh, cool. Did you give her your number?”

I rolled my eyes. “No, I did not.”

“So… how?”

“Ugh. It was from her YouTube account—”

“The Pretty Gift.”

“Yes, thank you. I know what it’s called.” I stared at the wall opposite me. She was infuriating.

She laughed. “I’m sure you do. But, what’s the big deal with that?”

“She’s on vacation. She posted a whole video about it.”

“Did she? I should go watch it.”

“Don’t you dare.”

“Hey, you’re the one who got me into watching her stuff.”

“Yes, and you’ll watch it with me when I’m back.”

“I know you’ve already seen it.”

“And I’ll see it again. What’s your point?”

I could practically hear her rolling her eyes. “My point is, what does it matter if you got a notification from her while she’s on vacation?”

I wanted to crawl inside a shell and live there forever. Ripley really was going to make me spell it out for her, wasn’t she?

I should have called her after breakfast.

I took a deep breath. “In her video, she said she was taking a break for a couple of weeks, taking a vacation for the first time in years. She said she wouldn’t be online or working.”

Ripley thought for a moment before saying, “Ah, I see. So, she’s supposed to be on a break, you woke up to a notification, so she’s working while on a break, and you… Oh my god, Morgan. What did you do?”

I pulled my knees up onto the chair with me, pressing them tight against my chest. Was I going to throw up? I hoped not.

“Morgan?” Ripley prompted when I didn’t speak. “Morgan, what did youdo?”

“I pulled on a hoodie and went right over to her bungalow.”

“Okay… Did you then realize what you were doing and march yourself home again?”

“I’m not walking back to Jackson Point. Be serious.” I was avoiding the question. I knew it, she knew, Alicia knew it, and even Iona probably knew it, but I didn’t care.

“So that’s a no.” She sighed. “What did you say to her?”

“I don’t want to tell you,” I said, pouting.

“You obviously do, otherwise, you wouldn’t have called me.”

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