The Functional Arrangement

Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Stephanie simply stared at her friend, clearly unable to find the words to respond to what she'd just been told.

"...Wow," she said after a moment, shaking her head. "I can't say I was expecting to hear that today."

It was the following morning, and Morgan and Stephanie currently sat together at their usual high top table in the atrium cafe, sipping coffee while sharing a blueberry bagel. It was still pretty early - so early that their workday hadn't officially started yet - but Morgan had texted Stephanie essentially begging her to meet her at the cafe right now. Stephanie didn't question it, realizing her friend needed to talk to her about something important.

Morgan, who was unable to hold onto her feelings anymore, confessed everything to Stephanie. She told her about the arrangement she and Marcus had come up with together a few months ago, their plan to break up after his cousin's wedding, the feelings she had developed toward him over the weeks, what happened between them the night before the wedding, their argument afterwards, and then her running into Marcus's ex-girlfriend yesterday after her job interview. Stephanie listened in virtual silence as Morgan explained everything to her, and once Morgan was done she clearly didn't know what to say.

"I can't believe you were going through all this for the past couple months, Morgan," Stephanie said, flabbergasted. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I'm sorry Steph. Marcus and I agreed we wouldn't tell anybody," Morgan said apologetically. "But now that it's over, I wanted you to be the first to know."

"I get it Morgan, I do. But I'm just sorry you had to go through all this by yourself," Stephanie said, her tone sympathetic. "Now I feel really awful that I've been MIA for the past few days."

"Please don't worry about it. After what you went through, I completely understand that you needed your space," Morgan assured her. "I just wanted to tell you what had gone down between me and Marcus. And that you know the real reason as to why he and I won't be spending time together anymore."

"So it's over between you two now?" Stephanie asked. "Like, 'over over'?"

"It certainly feels like it," Morgan said, gazing down at her cup of coffee. "I can't really see how we could make up after this, especially since it seems like he's talking to his ex again. He made it perfectly clear he just wants a 'friends with benefits' relationship with me, and I told him I didn't want that. So I walked away - end of story."

"And you weren't tempted to just go along with his whole 'friends with benefits' suggestion?" Stephanie asked curiously. "I mean, I know it's not necessarily what you wanted, but it would have been better than nothing. You wouldn't have had to break things off with him, at least."

"I know. And if I'm being honest, I had considered it," Morgan confessed. "But in the end I don't think I could have gone through with it. I feel like I could have pretended everything between us was fine for a little while, but I would have just ended up here in the end. I don't want to spend all my time with him wishing he felt different."

"You're very strong," Stephanie smiled sadly, reaching over to squeeze her friend's hand. "And Marcus is an idiot for not wanting to be in a real relationship with you."

Morgan smiled sadly back. "Thank you. And once again, I'm really sorry for lying to you about Marcus for the past few months. We both had agreed not to tell anyone about our arrangement, and I was fine with that for the most part, but I felt really guilty about hiding the truth from you in particular. I hope you'll forgive me."

"Of course I can," Stephanie waved off. "It's in the past. Maybe I would have been more upset about it a few days ago, but in light of recent events I can't really bring myself to be too angry."