Page 4 of Heal You (The Study You #3)

Morgan turned away from the entrance to the bar once she’d double-checked each lock was secure.

Jan still sat on a stool, her shoulders hunched and looking like a lost soul, but Morgan was determined to get to the bottom of whatever was going on.

She may not know Jan as well as she wished she could, but Morgan was happy to listen and help.

She would just have to push the whole husband thing to the back of her mind.

She knew it couldn’t be anything Phil had done; he’d always appeared attentive in Jan’s company.

Then there was the fact that Gillian and Finn were good friends with him, too.

Finn wasn’t the kind of person to accommodate someone she didn’t like, so, no, there was no way Jan was having husband trouble.

As she took a moment to watch Jan, or the back of her at least, Morgan couldn’t recall her ever being in here on her own.

She had been surprised by just how quiet Jan had been since she’d arrived, too.

Jan was usually the life of this place whenever they all came in for a drink.

Jesus, she’d even been the one to get everyone up dancing just a few weeks ago in here.

Morgan’s bar wasn’t always a dancing type of venue, but she would admit that the atmosphere that night had been electric.

Mostly because of Jan’s gorgeous smile, but Morgan would never divulge that.

Jan was a married woman, and Morgan didn’t pine after married women. Not knowingly, anyway.

As she turned down the lights—her license only allowed the bar to be open until Midnight—she cleared her throat and approached Jan.

They had all spent so much time in there that Jan’s perfume had become familiar to Morgan.

Subtle but very pleasing, just like the woman wearing it. “You wanna come up with me?”

“Up…where?” Jan looked back at Morgan, utterly confused.

“To my place. Above the bar. I…live here, too.”

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.

Anyone could 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 I cannot imagine 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 Morgan did have a heart.

She did care 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 it without friends who knew her husband.

Morgan was neutral in all of this, really.

“I…don’t know,” Morgan said, frowning as she stared into her glass of scotch. “I guess my latest situation could mean that. Yes.”

“Your latest situation?”

Morgan wasn’t sure it was the right time to discuss this with Jan, it could go one of two ways, but she wanted Jan to know that she kind of understood how she was feeling.

In a fucked up way, at least. “I was seeing a woman. Well, seeing her is a bit of a stretch. We’ve been sleeping with one another on and off for about six months now.

I found out yesterday that she actually has a husband, and I never knew anything about it. ”

“I’m sorry.” Jan turned her hand over and entwined her fingers with Morgan’s. “Feels terrible being the other woman, doesn’t it? Even though he was my husband for twenty-odd years, I feel like the other woman.”

“Right now, I just feel sad about it all. I’d never knowingly get involved with a married woman. Ever . I mean, it’s always nice to admire women…I’ve admired you on way more than one occasion, but I’m not the kind of person who would cheat. I feel…dirty, you know?”

Jan searched Morgan’s face, a slight crease between her brows. “You’ve admired me ?”

“Yep.” Morgan lifted a shoulder. She just hoped Jan didn’t think she had other reasons for inviting her up to the flat. Yes, Morgan found it hard to look anywhere else the moment Jan was in her bar, but that wasn’t what this was. She did want to be a friend in this moment. “You’re gorgeous.”

Jan snorted. “Tell that to my husband.”

“If he’s been seeing someone else, then he’s a fool. A complete fucking idiot.”