Page 6 of Heal You
Jan took her clutch bag from the bar and slid her phone into it.“O-oh.Right.I didn’t realise.”
As she lowered herself from her stool, Morgan quickly wrapped an arm around her waist when she stumbled.Jan rarely appeared drunk, usually only having a few glasses of red wine before she switched to water, but Morgan guessed tonight wasn’t one of Jan’s usual nights.Not judging by the dullness of her usually gorgeous blue eyes.“Whoa.You good?”
Jan placed a hand on Morgan’s chest, her cheeks red as she nodded.“Yes.Sorry about that.My legs didn’t want to work then.”
“I mean, you have sat there for the last few hours, unmoved.I’m not surprised they’re not working.”Morgan grinned back at Jan, her gaze lingering longer than it should.“Think you can make it upstairs without me carrying you?”
Jan blushed further.“I’m sure I can manage just fine.”
“Come on then.”Morgan turned the lights off above the bar and opened a door to the side of the counter.Once they’d safely made it upstairs, Morgan turned back to Jan.“Another glass of wine?”
“Do you have anything stronger?”
Morgan gave Jan a knowing look.“I own a bar.I have whatever strength you need tonight.”
“Maybe a whiskey?No ice if it’s scotch.Just a drop of water.”Jan suddenly frowned and shook her head.“I’m sorry.You own a bar.You know how to make a drink.”
“People like what they like.That’s not for me to decide.So, whiskey with a drop of water is coming right up.”Morgan moved towards her kitchen and took a bottle of scotch from the counter in the corner.She poured herself a glass too, then returned to Jan.“Have a seat.Make yourself comfortable.”
Jan lowered her bag to the side of the coffee table and took her glass from Morgan.Once she was sitting down, her eyes tired and half-lidded, Morgan took a seat beside her.
“Come on.What’s going on with you tonight?”Morgan turned side-on and propped her head in her hand against the back of the couch.“You’re usually the one cheering me up when I’ve had a rough day.This isn’t the Jan I’m used to.”
Jan scoffed.“No, I know.It’s not the Jan I’m used to either.”
Morgan remained silent, aware that Jan was going over things in her head, but she did place a supportive hand over Jan’s where it rested on Jan’s knee.
“I found out this afternoon that my husband has been having an affair.”
“Shit.I’m sorry.”Morgan would usually have some smart-arse response about men, but she’d also found out something very similar yesterday…only it was a woman.It seemed that gender was irrelevant to this conversation.Anyonecould be a scumbag.Still, this wasn’t about Morgan.Jan needed an ear, and Morgan was happy to offer both of hers.“Does Gillian know?”
“Not yet.I don’t really know how to tell her.I was there for her through her divorce, but Icannotimagine going through this myself.”Jan shook her head and sighed.“You never think it’ll be you, do you?”
Morgan puffed out her cheeks, reminding herself of how she felt yesterday.Only her situation was entirely different from Jan’s.To a point, anyway.Morgan certainly hadn’t been married to the woman who had hurt her.Or overly attached.This was a whole different ball game.“No, you don’t.”
“And the worst of it is that he’s been having an affair with a woman I work with.She…works at our company.”Jan frowned.“H-his company.I guess it’s nothing to do with me anymore.”
Morgan could understand that Jan had probably had several knee-jerk reactions to everything since she found out, but was Jan really considering ending it all?On the very day she had found out.“You’re not going to work it out with him?”
“I can abide many things, but a cheater is not one of them.”
“No, I get that.It just seems a shame to throw it all away so quickly, you know?”Morgan was partly speaking from her own experience.While she knew she wouldn’t be intimate with Amanda ever again, it didn’t mean she wouldn’t remind herself of everything they’d shared the next time they came face to face.It may have been nothing more than fucking between them, but Morgandidhave a heart.Shedidcare about Amanda.“Maybe sitting down and talking to him is a good first step.”
Jan shook her head.“I can’t even stomach the thought of being in the same room as him.”
“How long have you been together?”
“Together twenty-seven years and married for twenty-five.”Jan’s voice broke as she said that.Morgan immediately plucked a tissue from the box on the coffee table and handed it over.“Thank you.”
“Could it have been a one-off?You know, a drunken mistake or something like that?”Morgan didn’t know why she was trying to back Jan’s husband up.She guessed it was the ‘bartender solving a crisis’ in her.Quite frankly, she couldn’t give a shit about Jan’s husband.If he could do what he’d done to his wife, then he didn’t deserve respect from anyone.
“I thought so.Hoped so.But he admitted to me that it’s been going on for almost a year.”Jan dabbed at her eyes.“Gareth came to see me today.Her husband.He works for a courier firm that brings a lot of goods into the office.Anais works in the plant hire department within Phil’s company.When he pulled me to one side this morning, I didn’t know what to do or say.I actually laughed at him at one point, and then I realised he was distraught, and I had a feeling it was true.”Jan puffed out her cheeks and slumped a little more.“I asked Phil outright, but he didn’t even deny it.He just kept apologising.”
Fuck.That had to hurt.Morgan wasn’t quite sure how to respond.
“Have you ever been cheated on?”Jan looked up at Morgan, the sadness in her eyes almost taking Morgan’s breath away.It took a lot of strength for women to be vulnerable in front of other people, but Morgan was used to this.She had sat and listened to many of her customers over the last few years.
Only Jan didn’t feel like a customer.She almost felt like a friend.Someone Morgan wanted to know.Someone she wanted to help through this.Of course Jan had Gillian and Finn, but maybe this was the perfect opportunity for Jan to process itwithoutfriends who knew her husband.Morgan was neutral in all of this, really.
