Chapter Eleven
Morgan
Upon returning from California in the wee hours of Sunday morning, I sleep all day. There are times when I wake up, and I swear I hear Gia creeping outside my door. She knows, thanks to Ruby, that Dex had invited us out to the party, and that he kissed me, but we hadn’t had a chance to talk yet. I’m not surprised when she is waiting for me as I emerge from my room this evening. Sitting at our table are three boxes of cereal, the milk, a bowl, and a spoon. My best friend knows me so well. I kind of have this love affair with cereal. It is my go to food. My day isn’t complete without a bowl of cereal.
Fortunately for me, Gia loves cereal too and doesn’t find my obsession strange. On any given week, we have at least four boxes of cereal in the apartment. She knows all too well that what I need most after a crazy busy few days away and jet lag is a bowl or two of cereal.
"Sit down, eat your cereal and tell me all about your trip. I do want to know about the Con, but what I really care about is hearing everything about Dex. I will fact check your story with Ruby so there is no need to leave anything out," she demands.
That's one of the reasons I love her. She knows I have a tendency to spend too much time in my own head. I analyze everything, and most of the time, I just deem most information about myself or the happenings around me unimportant. I don't think I'm unimportant, it's just I don't always overly share, and why share boring things? Gia says, as my best friend, it's her job to hear everything I have to say and to be my sounding board. As my best friend, she has no choice but to listen to the boring, exciting, sad, and trivial things going on in my life. She calls me out on my bullshit, and I love her for it.
I sit down and over three bowls of cereal, tell her everything. She listens, asks questions about Dex and the team, and asks me what I thought of the whole thing and if I was going to go out on a date with him.
"If he calls me, and actually asks me out, I will go out with him," I reply thoughtfully, "but honestly, I'm not going to get my hopes up, Gia."
"What? Are you kidding me? It sounds like this guy is really into you. He kissed you for God’s sake!" she retorts.
"Yeah, he did, but it was all in the moment, and with all the excitement of the Con and the party, I bet you he's already forgotten about me."
"Bullshit, Morgan!" she laughs.
"No, really! I'm not being negative about this. I'm just realistic. Think about it, he asked me out before he even knew we were both from Chicago. He was probably just looking for some fun while he was in town. It was a coincidence that we were both from the same place, and he felt obligated to ask me for my number."
Gia gapes at me, and I continue my explanation, "I'm not going to lie, I really liked him. He was really sweet and super cute, but come on, do I really think he is going to call me up and ask me out? No. It is what it is. I'll be sad, but I'll get over it."
As I walk back to the table after placing my bowl in the sink, Gia finally closes her mouth then says, "I don't know what the heck happened to make you think you weren't worthy of a nice, attractive guy's attention, but you need to wake the hell up and smell the damn roses, Morgan. You are beautiful, funny, and despite what you think, an interesting woman. I could continue with all your positive traits, but I'll save it for your next kick in the pants. You need to start having more confidence in yourself. The fact is that you could have just about any guy you wanted. Accept the fact that Dex saw you and didn't even know you and asked you out. That after spending just a little bit of time with you, told you he wanted to go out on a date and then kissed you. He kissed you, Morgan! He's gonna call.” Now it was my turn to stare at her in shock.
"And if he doesn't, the phone goes both ways, if you want to see him again, you can call him! We've already established time and time again that boys can be and will be idiot’s seventy-five percent of the time."
Well. I knew she hated my lack of confidence in myself, and she told me before that I needed to have more, but she had never gotten on her soapbox like this. Not about me.
I clear my throat. "Wow. You know you pretty much just yelled at me for not thinking I'm as awesome as you think I am, right?"
She looks at me for a second, apparently coming down from the high of getting all worked up and says, "Well, dammit, Morgan, you are awesome." She smiles at me and adds, "We just need to get on the same page." Then she walks over and hugs me.
"I love you, Mo. You are my best friend, and you’re like a sister to me. I want you to be happy."
"Ditto," I reply and hug her back.
She walks over and plops down on the couch. As I follow her over she says, "You said one of Dex's teammates was named Simon, right?"
"Yup. Simon…uh, crap…what was his last name?" I say as I lightly thump my fisted hand to my forehead and close my eyes for more focus. What was his name?
"What did he look like?"
"He had blondish, almost reddish hair. He had some pretty stylish glasses on at the party, but at the signing, he wasn't wearing them. He was tall, probably 6'1”, and dang, he was fit. He lives with Dex and his best friend Link. Those guys have got to have a workout room in their apartment," I say more wondering out loud.
"Hmm," She looks thoughtful, but a mix of relief and sadness cross her face.
"Palmer! Yeah, that's it. Simon Palmer," I say with a triumphant smile. I'm glad his name came back to me; I'd be thinking about it until I remembered. I guess I could have just looked him up.
But as I say this, I see her face go blank. "Gia, what's wrong?" I ask.
"Oh…no, nothing’s wrong. It's just, I know Simon, and I haven't seen him in a while."
"Really?" I give her a confused look. "Why didn't you mention you had a friend who played video games professionally?"
"Well, I wouldn't really call him a friend, and I haven't seen him since sophomore year of high school—right before we moved to Indiana." Ahh. She doesn’t like talking about the move from her hometown. All I know is that she had come home from school one day, and her parents told her they were moving. That was that. They up and moved to Indiana less than a week later. It was lucky for me because I gained a best friend, but it was hard on her, and she didn't get along with her parents because of it.
"Ok, so it's been awhile since you’ve seen him. Do you think he will remember you?" I ask.
She laughs, but it's a humorless laugh. "Yeah. He probably will." Just like that she seems to shake whatever memory is clouding her thoughts away, and she goes on to ask more about the actual Comic-Con event.
As I lay in bed, I decide that one, I need to find out what kind of history Gia and Simon have, because there is definitely history. And two, Gia is right. I need to start thinking more positively about myself and what I deserve. So, I’ll make a deal with myself, if I don't hear from Dex by Thursday, I’m going to call him. Dang it, I like him, and I want to see him again.