“There’s more where this came from, baby. We’re going to date more often, I promise.”
His phone vibrates with a text. His expression grows grim as he reads it. “What is it?”
“We have to cut our trip short. I’ve got some business at home I need to handle. I’m sorry, baby.”
“It’s okay. What time are we leaving?”
He climbs on top of me. “As soon as I’m done making love to you.”
Morgan
The sunlight beams brightly through the window, causing my eyes to pop open. I turn over, reaching for Jasen, but he’s gone. A note rests in his spot. I grab the note and read it. I Love You!
I smile as I stretch my arms and rise from the bed. I’m not sure what time we arrived in Los Angeles, but I crashed as soon as we got here. I remember Jasen carrying me upstairs and placing me in bed. I blush as I think about the naughty things he did to me in Vegas. I can still feel the ache between my legs. I came to the decision that I’m going to tell Monroe. Everything. And once she knows the truth about what I’ve done, I’ll tell Jasen. The phone vibrates with an incoming text.
Monroe: Call me. It’s important.
I call her immediately. She answers on the first ring. “Is there any reason why you ignored my calls? My messages?”
“I’m sorry. I couldn’t talk with Jasen around.”
The line grows silent, and I immediately know something is wrong. And not because Monroe is hardly ever quiet, but because our twin empathy does work sometimes. And right now, I can feel something is off. “Something’s wrong.”
“I need to talk to you. Can you come here?”
“With Cooper there?”
“He’s not here. I’ll text you the address.”
“Okay.”
“Morgan. Please hurry.”
When Monroe said that she and Cooper were on a getaway, I assumed they were way out of reach. Turns out, they were in Santa Monica. It took me over an hour to get there, due to traffic. I exit the car and am immediately smacked with the salty ocean breeze. The door swings open before I have the chance to knock. “Took you long enough,” she snaps.
“I was in traffic.”
I follow her inside and into the kitchen. There’s an empty wine bottle on the table. “You drank the entire bottle?”
She grabs another bottle out of the refrigerator, pops the cork, and places it on the table. She grabs another wineglass and takes a seat. “I’m stressed the fuck out, Mo.”
I sit across from her. “What happened?”
She pours the wine in both glasses and shoves one towards me. She takes a huge gulp before she answers me. “I think I made a mistake.”
My body stiffens. My heart beats loudly. I wasn’t expecting to hear those words. And although I should be happy, I’m not. “Did you hear me?”
“Yes.”
“I can’t be with Cooper.”
“What… what’s changed?”
The tears slide down her cheeks. “I’ve reached the conclusion that I’m not relationship material. I’ll never be able to commit to anyone. It’s only a matter of time before I get tired of Cooper. Just like I got tired of Jasen.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Morgan, think about it. I’ve always been a free spirit. I’ve never liked rules. Structure. Predictability.”
“Have you told him?”
“Yeah. He got all pissed off. He started throwing shit and accusing me of leading him on. And he’s right, Mo. I made him think we had a future together. That leaving our spouses was for the best.”
She cries softly, and I’m floored. I haven’t seen Monroe cry since she accidently got shampoo in her eyes when we were kids. She didn’t even cry at Grandma Rose’s funeral. I move to comfort her. “It’s going to be okay.”
She shakes her head. “No. It’s not. What is wrong with me, Mo? Why can’t I be like normal women?”
“Because you’re you, Monroe. And that’s okay. What do you want? What will make you happy.”
She sniffles. “I just want to live, Morgan. No husband. No kids. No structure. I want to get up in the morning and fly to New York just because. I want to sleep with whomever I want to sleep with, with no strings attached. I want to go on adventures with different people. I want freedom. That’s the life I’ve always wanted.”
I finally ask the question that’s been burning in my brain. “Are you still planning to divorce Jasen?”
“Yes.”
I nod.
She leans back in her chair, wineglass in hand. “You fucked him, didn’t you?”
“I…”
“That wasn’t part of the plan. How could you do something so treacherous, sleeping with your sister’s husband?”
I see red. “Oh no. Don’t make me out to be the bad guy here. Did you forget I liked him first?”
She huffs. “Is that what made you do it? Because you had some silly-ass crush on him in high school? Face it, Morgan, he chose me.”
“And are you sure that would’ve been the case had he known that I liked him? What makes you think that you were the better twin for him?”
“He married me, didn’t he?”
“Yeah, and look where that’s gonna get him. This is going to crush him when he finds out.”
She stands up. “What he if he never finds out?”
“What do you mean?”
“I need to get away. What if we never tell the truth? We can just switch lives.”
“You mean you want me to pretend to be you permanently?”
“Don’t sound so offended, Mo. I’m sure you’re enjoying yourself. After all, you did fuck him.”
I don’t respond, and she watches me carefully. “You have feelings for him.”
I can’t deny it anymore. All this lying is tearing me apart. “Yes.”
She rolls her eyes and laughs spitefully. “I guess that’s what I get for putting you in this situation.”
“The more I tried to be you, the harder it became. I became myself, but a better version, and I started to care about him.”
“So, you see why we need to do this?”
“Monroe. I just told you I care about Jasen. If we do this…”
“I know. I know exactly what will happen if we do this.”
We stare at each other as her unspoken words pass to me. Her eyes say that she knows I’ll fall in love with him.
I shake my head. “If we do this, there’s no turning back. I’m not going to lie for the next fifteen years and make it much worse now that he thinks he’s fallen in love all over again.”
She shakes her head in return. “We won’t turn back.”
I take a deep breath. “So, what do we do now?”
“We move forward with our next plan. You get Jasen out of the house tomorrow, and I’ll come home and pack. I’ve got so much shit he’ll never realize some of it’s missing.”
“Okay. I’ll text him when I leave here and tell him I want to spend the day with him.”
“Good. That gives me plenty of time to pack.”