Page 44 of Love, Morgan

She wasn’t wrong there. The day she’d arrived, I’d been sitting at the beach bar, enjoying the sun and the view and the relaxation, when a honeymooning couple had pitched up not far away from me, and very almost given the whole beach a show we hadn’t paid for. If one of the staff members hadn’t politely come along and offered them an escort back to their room, Iona would likely have arrived right in the middle of it, and that would, somehow, have been an even more awkward first encounter than the one we’d actually had.

“Hm. Right you are,” I said, moving to look around the sides of the bungalow. “Should I climb onto their balcony and see if I can see into the bedroom?”

She laughed, turning to look at me. “You want to climb another balcony just so you can peep on whether our vacation neighbors are in there having sex?”

I rolled my eyes. “I don’twantto, Iona. I’m just saying Ican. So we can get an answer.”

“If you catch two people having sex in the privacy of their own room by climbing onto their balcony, I don’t think we’ll be getting any answers of any kind.”

“Ugh. Fine. I guess I won’t climb on their balcony.”

“You don’t have to sound so disappointed,” she laughed.

I shook my head, moving to the window beside the door. I wasn’t trying to spy on the people inside, I just wanted to know if therewereany people inside.

The place looked pristine. The same as the bungalows Iona and I had, but with no personal belongings in there, no sign of anything being moved by anyone but the resort staff.

“I don’t think there’s anyone here,” I told Iona. “No belongings, no anything. Just a hotel room.”

“Well, there we go. At least we know this isn’t the mango… gifter? I was going to saythiefbecause that feels like the kind of thing you investigate, but we’re going after someone who sent you a gift.” She frowned in amusement. “Isn’t that weird?”

I laughed. “No. It’s not weird at all.”

“Do you always launch investigations into people who send you gifts? Christmas must be a busy time of year for you.”

She was funny. I liked her so much. More than I ever had just watching her videos. Being around her was dangerous, but I couldn’t help but want to be. The difficult debate between being around her now and missing her more when she was gone, or missing out on my one and only chance to spend time with her, to get to know her.

Who was I kidding? It wasn’t difficult at all. Present me didn’t care how much it hurt future me, I wasn’t giving up this time for anything.

I walked back over to her, nudging her. “No. I don’t investigate every gift I get, mostly because they’re usually signed by the person who sent them. This isn’t about the actual mango—though, admittedly, that’s unusual—it’s about whichever genius thought it would be a good idea to impersonate you.”

She laughed, but the sound broke off abruptly. “Genius…” she whispered to herself. “Oh, no.”

Chapter 14

Iona

Of course it was Thalia. I don’t know why it hadn’t occurred to me before. Perhaps because I’d been too wrapped up in Morgan’s presence, or the fact that I was actually getting out there and making friends like I’d promised my dad, but, for whatever reason, I hadn’t thought through the fact that friends did this kind of thing. Even when Morgan told me she’d helped get Ripley back together with her wife. Even when Ripley was on the list of mango suspects.

But that made sense. Ripley and Morgan had years of friendship behind them as far as I could tell. Morgan knew Ripley was still in love with Alicia, she knew both of them, she was simply pushing them to admit what everyone else seemed to already know.

Thalia… I had no idea what she was doing, but, now that I knew, I was going to have to ask. And I was going to have to tell Morgan I knew who the mango impersonator was. Well, not a mango impersonator, per se. If Thalia had been impersonating a mango, I don’t think she’d have been capable of doing anything that pushed Morgan and me together.

“Iona,” Morgan called, clearly not for the first time, as she waved her hand in front of my face. “Are you okay?”

I jerked back, realizing I’d just completely blanked on her. “Oh. Yes. Sorry. I just… thought of something.”

“Is it to do with the case?” she asked, as if we were actual detectives.

For all I knew, she could be. I didn’t think she was, she’d said she wasn’t, but she’d still told me surprisingly little about herself for someone I’d been spending so much time with lately.

“Uh, no. Maybe. I’m not sure.” I shook my head. I couldn’t tell her yet. If I told her, she’d want to come with me to accuse Thalia, and that could only lead to disaster. I wished I didn’t have a clue what rationale Thalia would give for her actions, but I wasn’t nearly that naive. I didn’t need to stand there watching Morgan listen to that.

Morgan didn’t need it either. She’d been so flirty, I’d thought… But there had been a moment earlier, one where the air between us felt heavy and loaded, where I thought she was going to tell me something real, something about why she hadn’t stayed behind to meet me after the show she was at. Something in her eyes, in her whole demeanor when I asked, told me there was a personal reason for it, and I’d wanted to know. I’d thought we were finally getting somewhere real. And she’d pulled back.

I wasn’t going to force her to tell me things, but I couldn’t put every part of myself on the line for someone who didn’t have any interest in being open and honest with me.

And neither of us needed to stand by and listen to Thalia go on about how I’d allegedly been pining for Morgan and Thalia decided to be the catalyst to push the two of us together.

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