The Functional Arrangement

Chapter 26

Chapter 26

Morgan's last day at Lawrence & Starling had finally arrived.

It felt strange that she was saying goodbye to the job she'd been working at for over three years now. So much had happened while she was here, and not all of it was terrible: her relationship with Justin may have ended in disaster, but she had met Stephanie while working here, and that was a definite plus. Morgan had grown a lot in her career too, and she knew the skills she developed as a marketing consultant here would help her in her new job venture. It felt almost bittersweet to finally say goodbye.

Marcus was also coming by the office today, which Morgan could hardly forget. She was nervous to see him again to say the least, though she knew she shouldn't be - it was just Marcus, after all. A man whom she'd spent a majority of her time with over the past few months and pretended to be in an intimate relationship with. But deep down Morgan knew that this meeting was going to be different... so much still needed to be said, and it felt like today was going to be the day where they finally were going to say what was in their hearts.

God, am I even ready?

She supposed she had to be. Her feelings toward Marcus hadn't changed, and she could only hope that his had.

In addition to it being Morgan's last day, today was also the company's holiday party. Technically the festivities didn't start until the afternoon, but no one seemed to want to concentrate on work today. Everybody spent their morning adorning the office with Christmas decorations, handing out little gifts to their coworkers, and chatting happily with each other about their plans for the holidays.

Morgan spent most of her day saying goodbye to each one of her coworkers and talking with them about her new job. All of them seemed sincerely happy for her and her new venture, and Morgan couldn't help but feel excited to start this new chapter in her life. She baked Christmas cookies for everyone as a kind parting gesture - she wanted to be able to leave them on a good note, despite the fact she knew most of them had spread nasty rumors about her and Justin over the past few months. Their gossip was part of the reason Morgan had been so eager to leave this job, but she also didn't want to leave on bad terms. It was all water under the bridge at this point anyway, so there was no point rehashing it.

So far, Morgan had been having a pretty good day. And it was made better by the fact that Justin hadn't shown his face yet... if she was lucky, maybe he wouldn't turn up at all. That would probably be the best parting gift of all.

The desks in the main part of the office area had been pushed to the side to make a more open area for the party, and most of the employees at Lawrence & Starling had congregated to chat before the festivities began. Soft Christmas music filtered in through the speaker system, "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" currently playing, and Beth from Accounting was passing around red Santa hats for people to wear.

"God, it's going to be so weird not having lunch with you everyday in the café or at the deli next door," Stephanie pouted, moving to wrap her arms around Morgan for the hundredth time that day. One of their coworkers had already broken out the alcohol, and Stephanie had indulged in a few glasses of eggnog. "What am I supposed to do for my lunch hour now?"

"I'm sorry Steph," Morgan said sadly, hugging her friend back. "But it's not like I'm moving across the country or anything. I'll still be in the area, and we can try to meet up for lunch a couple times a week if our schedules allow it."

"It's just going to be really hard without you," Stephanie said, still looking forlorn as she pulled away. "So much has been changing lately, I'm just having a hard time dealing with it all."