Page 62 of The Reluctant Roommate

“But not forever, surely?” Heidi injected bright optimism into her voice. “People will forget whatever you did and will go on your résumé and experience.”

Morgan shook her head. “You’re a naïve idiot at times. Some things are never forgotten.”

“Tell me. Maybe we can figure out a way past this.”

“No.” A muscle in Morgan’s jaw twitched. “I’ve told you I was fired. Don’t ask me why.”

Rather than keep looking at the defeat on Morgan’s face, Heidi resumed walking. When Morgan joined her, she took her gloved hand in her own and swung their arms like kids on a school outing. “Transferable skills, then. You must have them. What? Accounting? Project management? Some other finance job where market knowledge is key?”

“Mattingley won’t give me a reference. Nothing past dates of employment and the fact they wouldn’t rehire me.”

“Can you go out on your own?”

Morgan huffed a breath. “It’s not that easy. Word spreads. I got a sort of job offer from a colleague-of-a-colleague, who’s starting a new business, but he’s always barely skirted unethical behavior. I won’t compromise myself like that.”

Heidi turned into the cross street, skating across the ice that had formed where vehicles had traveled. “There are jobs that don’t need references. You’d make a good bartender.”

“I didn’t go through six years of college to be abartender.” Her voice snapped like an icicle plunging from a roofline. “And itwouldn’t support my lifestyle, allow me to keep my house, or pay for Aunt Linda’s treatment.”

The scorn in her voice was crushing. Was that what she thought of her? A menial worker, unskilled, earning minimum wage? She let go of Morgan’s hand. “There’s no need to demean me. I’m simply trying to help you.”

“I don’t need your help,” Morgan snapped.

“But you do.” Heidi’s pulse raced with the need to make Morgan see reason. “You need me to pay rent every month because, if you don’t room with me, you’re stuck with people who are a lot worse. You need my money. And I know you don’t need my company—you’re like an asteroid, Morgan: You circle around people but never get too close—but I hope you like my company.”

A car crawled past, snow tires clicking on the road as they broke through the snow.

“I do need you,” Morgan said with a sigh. “I’m sorry; I’m being a bitch. I need your rent, and I need you. Because you’re a kind and considerate person, and I’m comfortable with you. I’m not at ease with too many people. My parents…they’re the same. Our family keeps to ourselves most of the time, and I was encouraged to share my triumphs with others but never my failures. I guess that explains why I’m like this.”

“I’d say it goes a long way,” Heidi murmured.

“When I was nine, my grandparents divorced. They just outgrew each other after fifty years and went their separate ways. Mom told me not to tell anyone. She considered it shameful to have a divorced couple in the family.”

“I’m sorry that happened. It’s not shameful at all, as I’m sure you now realize.”

“I do. But all the same, you’re the first person I’ve told.”

Heidi’s heart expanded, enough that she took Morgan’s hurt and shame and tucked them into a corner. “I’ve got you. You cantell me anything. I won’t judge. I especially won’t judgeyoufor something so out of your control as your grandparents’ divorce.”

“Thank you. And, please, don’t worry about me. With your rent and my investments, I’m scraping by. I can pay the mortgage, buy food, gas, wine. And in time, and if I do a few upskilling courses on my own dollar, maybe I’ll get a foothold back in the industry.” She stared down at her feet as they marched along the street. “Now I’ve told you, and I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

She sounded so lost, so tentative and broken. So unlike the confident, almost arrogant, Morgan of their early days as roomies.

“Maybe you need to talk to someone about this, Morgan. If not me, then someone else.”

“I don’t.” Her voice held an echo of her usual crispness. “I’m fine. Please, drop it, Heidi.”

Heidi wanted to hold her, stroke that shining cap of hair, soothe her worries, kiss them away. She stopped. Yes, kiss them away, soothe Morgan until the confident woman returned. “If that’s what you want.” How could Morgan get past this if she bottled it up so tightly? “It’s still early. What say when we get home, we eat our turkey leftovers—again—and watch a movie. Something lighthearted and full of sunshine. Nothing depressing.”

“Definitely. Although I’m sure you’d find the sunshine in the most dismal movie.”

“I try.” Heidi gave a little skip, then gasped as her foot slid away on the ice.

“Don’t fall. Or if you do and break your ankle, be aware I’m a lousy nurse. You’d be rotting in your cold bedroom before I’d bring you breakfast.”

“And me being so helpful.” Heidi snorted. “See, I’m not falling. And I’m not going to before our road trip. You still want to come?”

“Of course. I said I would, didn’t I?”