Page 7 of Heal You (The Study You #3)

Morgan held her phone in her hand, staring down at the screen.

Amanda was calling her, but she was praying it would ring off before she found the courage to answer it.

She didn’t want to deal with her own life.

She’d spent enough time helping Jan out with hers.

Yes, she was avoiding the situation, and no, she didn’t care.

Amanda was just…too much for her today. She would have an answer for everything Morgan threw at her, and right now, Morgan didn’t have the attention span for that kind of conversation.

All she wanted when the time came to confront Amanda was the truth. Plain and simple.

She’s going to bullshit her way out of this. I know it.

Morgan lowered her phone to the shelf beneath the bar and got back to work.

In the grand scheme of things, her situation with Amanda wasn’t that important.

Morgan had specifically avoided any sort of attachment with her because she didn’t want to be tied down.

With the right person, she would love nothing more than that, but there had always been something about Amanda that just about kept Morgan at arm’s length. Today, she was grateful for that.

She groaned when her phone pinged. If Amanda didn’t stop the constant calls and messages, Morgan was going to block her. That wasn’t really what she wanted to do, she would prefer to move on with her life without adding to her never-ending block list, but it was something she was considering.

Only as she lifted her phone again, it wasn’t Amanda. It was Jan.

Hi, Morgan. Thank you for everything you did for me the other night and the following morning. I don’t know what I would have done without you. I owe you dinner when you’re available. Jan x

Morgan tried to suppress a smile but failed.

Jan wanted to take her for dinner to say thank you?

Well, Morgan couldn’t turn that down even if she knew she should.

Jan’s situation was going to be complicated, Morgan wasn’t stupid, but that wasn’t her main concern.

No, her biggest issue was the idea of being alone with Jan again.

That woman knew how to dress, she knew how to present herself, and fucking hell…

she was hot. Four days on from Jan showing up here, and Morgan had her firmly on her mind.

Morgan had always thought Amanda was hot, and yeah, she was.

But Jan? Oh, Jan was on another level entirely.

Before last night, Jan’s confidence whenever she walked through the door to Morgan’s bar was like nothing she’d ever come across before.

But it wasn’t a confidence that intimidated you or made you question the kind of person Jan was.

It was just a sexy ‘I’m an older woman, and I know my worth’ kind of confidence.

Amanda, on the other hand, knew she was attractive, and she didn’t care who she looked down her nose at.

She tapped her foot against the floor, trying to find the right words to respond to Jan.

Morgan had almost put herself in it the other day when Jan had gone up to the flat with her, and she really didn’t want Jan to think that she was doing this for her because Morgan was a lesbian.

Yes, she’d been accused of that before today.

Morgan appreciated women—how could she not?

—but she would never try it on with someone going through so much.

Throw in the fact that Jan was straight, and Morgan knew it was a recipe for disaster.

That had been the very reason she’d put anything she felt for Jan to the back of her mind the second she knew she was a married woman.

Hey! Great to hear from you. I couldn’t let you leave last night. You weren’t in the right frame of mind to wander the streets. You know I’m around if you need anything.

Morgan chose not to add a kiss to the end of her message, even though Jan had put one at the end of hers. She would simply play it cool and leave it at that.

Her phone buzzed in her hand.

He was home when I got here. I thought he would be at work x

Morgan winced as she read that message. With the mood Jan had been in that morning, she didn’t imagine seeing her husband was really what she wanted. The pain in her eyes, the shake of her hands, it just…felt devastating. This didn’t even involve Morgan, but her heart did break for Jan.

She responded immediately.

Are you okay?

As she waited for a reply, the bar door opened, and Amanda walked through it. Morgan clenched her jaw. She didn’t want to do this now. Not while she was working and certainly not in front of the few daytime paying customers she had dotted around the place.

“Why aren’t you answering my calls?” Amanda lowered her handbag to the bar with a thud. “I told you the other week that I’d be here for a couple of days with you. You didn’t let me know what you wanted for dinner, so here I am, empty-handed.”

Morgan’s brows rose. Even though Amanda had no idea Morgan knew the truth, she was still surprised Amanda had walked through the door. “Could I have a word with you out the back?”

Amanda smirked. “Sure. A word .”

“No, I’m serious. I do want a word with you, so whatever ideas you have in your head about what’s going to happen out there, you can get rid of them right now.

” Morgan recognised the look in Amanda’s eyes as she rounded the bar counter and stepped through the door Morgan held open for her.

It led to the cellar; it was cold and damp, but this wouldn’t take Morgan long at all.

She would be back in the warmth of the bar in mere moments.

“What’s going on?” Amanda folded her arms across her chest and leant against the wall.

“Okay, so…let me explain this to you.” Morgan carded a hand through her hair and cleared her throat. “You’re going to go back out into the bar, get your bag, and leave.”

Amanda scoffed. “Excuse me?”

“You’re married, Amanda. You have a fucking husband. Did you not think that was something I should know? Did you not think it was important for me to have this information so I could decide if I wanted to do this with you?”

“H-how do you know about my husband?”

Morgan couldn’t believe this woman. Did it really matter how she knew? “I found out last weekend. One of my regulars saw you leaving the flat, and they know you. They also know that you’ve been married for thirty years.”

“That’s nobody else’s business!”

Morgan nodded slowly. “It’s my business, Amanda. I can’t do this with you if you’re married. I know we’ve had a lot of fun, but it stops now. Right now. Please, don’t come here again.”

Amanda snorted and pushed off the wall. “You’ve no idea what you’re walking away from. You’ll be sorry.”

“Sorry to walk away from a cheat? Nah, I don’t think I’ll regret this decision at all.” Morgan opened the door again and ushered Amanda back out into the bar. “Take care of yourself. I have a job to do.”

Amanda stood on the other side of the bar, dumbfounded by Morgan’s reaction. She blinked repeatedly, but Morgan wasn’t discussing this any further. Amanda was married, and that was that. It didn’t need any further discussion.

“Morgan, can we work this out?”

“Nope. We can’t.” Morgan lifted her phone from the shelf and found two messages waiting for her.

Am I okay? That’s quite the question to ask. The honest answer is no. I’m not. Still, I have no choice but to pick myself up and move on with my life. I don’t know what that looks like yet, but at least I’m not staying with a man who sleeps with other women. That’s something, I guess x

Then came the other message, timestamped almost ten minutes later.

I’m sorry. That was too much. You don’t need this. Thank you again x

Shit. Jan must have thought that Morgan’s lack of response meant she didn’t care or that this was all too much. Only she did care, and she would care a whole lot more the moment Amanda left her bar. She quickly started writing out a reply.

Would you like to come over tonight?

Jan likely wouldn’t take her up on that offer, but Morgan secretly and stupidly hoped she would. She could be an adult and offer another shoulder to Jan, right?

Morgan looked up. Amanda was watching her intently. “Are you going to leave?”

“No, I’m not. I’m not leaving until we’ve talked about this.” Amanda moved closer and lowered her voice. “You have no right to judge me when you take a woman up to your flat who has only come into your bar for a drink! Because that’s what happened, Morgan. You encouraged me up those stairs.”

“Mm. I did. And you had no issues using your legs and taking yourself up them, did you?” Morgan sighed. She couldn’t be bothered with drama. “I really need to get on and serve my customers.”

Morgan’s heart jumped when Jan responded.

I think you gave me enough of your time on Monday night.

Chewing her lip, Morgan thought about how best to approach this. She wanted to spend time with Jan again to find out what the next step for her was, but she didn’t want to sound desperate.

Look, I’ll be here all evening. If you find yourself at a loose end and want to talk, you know where I am.

Satisfied that her response was good enough, she locked her phone and shoved it into her back pocket. “Right, I’m off to do some work. Please leave, Amanda.”

Amanda took her bag from the bar this time. “I’m not done with this. I will be back.”

Oh, I’m sure you will , Morgan thought. “And when you do, I’ll tell you the very same thing again. Whatever the fuck we were doing… has ended.”

* * *

Armed with a huge arrangement of flowers, Jan stepped inside The Corner bar and looked around.

Damn it. It seemed Morgan wasn’t working tonight.

Jan didn’t really know why she was here; she wasn’t sure it was the wisest idea in the world, given the fact Morgan had revealed a few things to her earlier in the week, but Morgan seemed to care.

She seemed to want to be there for Jan. At the moment, it felt as though Morgan was all she had when it came to someone she could talk to.