Page 38 of Love, Morgan

“Why would I be? It would be a silly thing to do. Especially since she mentioned she’s not a morning person, so she’s obviously still sleeping.”

I grabbed a tray, turning when I realized Thalia had frozen in her tracks.

She stared at me with wide eyes as I looked around nervously.

“Are you okay?” I finally asked, grateful nobody was too nearby.

“She mentioned she’s not a morning person?”

“Yes?” I frowned, struggling to understand what she was getting at.

“Ms. Franklinmentionedthat she’s not a morning person?”

“Yes? What’s—”

“You talked to her,” she accused, her eyes lighting up.

“Oh.” I pressed my lips tightly together, finally realizing my error. Of course Thalia would notice that. She’d been convinced I was looking for Morgan all week—probably because I was, but nobody needed to look too closely at that—of course she was going to notice any sign the two of us had interacted.

I turned and walked along the counter, selecting items for breakfast.

“Iona,” Thalia squealed a little too loudly as she followed after me, “spill. What happened?”

“Nothing happened.”

“You’ve had a conversation with the woman you’ve been pining after all week. Something definitely happened.”

“I haven’t been pining,” I insisted, feeling my ears burning. It wasn’t that. I didn’t do that, especially for people I barely even knew.

Thalia laughed. “Don’t make me show you Hai’ai and Bo again. What happened?”

“It was nothing.” I rushed through grabbing the rest of my breakfast and walked over to my usual table, desperate to be out of there before she embarrassed the poor chefs again. That was the last thing any of us needed. “We just… ran into each other.”

She sat across from me, watching me critically, but, from the way her eyes danced, I knew she was having the time of her life. “You just happened upon each other. Completely randomly. And Ms. Franklin happened to mention she wasn’t a morning person. During this random running into each other moment.”

“Yes. Exactly. That. That’s exactly what happened.”

“Has anyone ever told you you’re a terrible liar?” She laughed.

Yes. They had. Several times and several people, actually. But that wasn’t relevant.

I focused on eating my breakfast.

She leaned towards me, reminding me of Morgan yesterday, but it felt nothing the same. Loathe as I was to admit it, every part of me responded differently to Morgan than it did to anyone else.

“Come on, Iona, we’re friends, tell me what’s going on.”

My head snapped up, looking at her. Were we really friends? Was it that easy? We still didn’t really know each other, but I supposed we did talk to each other every day.

But it was temporary. In a few days, I’d be gone and we’d never speak to each other again. That wasn’t friendship.

“What’s wrong?” Thalia asked when I didn’t answer and simply sat there staring at her.

“Nothing. Sorry.” I looked back at my plate, guilt washing over me. “Are we really… you know?”

She was quiet for a moment, obviously trying to figure me out. “Friends?”

“Yes.” I burned with shame and embarrassment. That was a question you asked on the playground when you were five, not as an adult to a member of staff at the resort you were staying at.

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