Underestimated Too(108)

“Very,” I replied, looking at the resemblance again. I smiled at the guy, hoping to inch my way in a little.

“Morgan, he really doesn’t look that much like Drew,” Alicia tried discouraging me.

“He does too. You’re the one that pointed it out. I bet if we get him a haircut, and put him in a suit, he would pass just fine using Drew’s identification.

“And what if it doesn’t work? How do you plan on getting Drew’s license from him? And Celeste already gave me hell for lying for you; you know when you sneakily used my phone to find out what you needed to get in.”

“What did you tell her? I don’t want her saying anything to Drew.”

“She won’t, but she forbade me to get involved. She sort of needs her job, especially now that I am a stay at home mom.”

“Drew can’t fire her. Technically she works for me.”

“Not really. You have no say in anything you do.”

That pissed me off. I didn’t like her insinuating things she had no clue about. Well, maybe a little clue, but I still didn’t want her meddling. “Are you going to help me or not?”

“I hate you. What do you want me to do?”

“Yes! And I love you.”

***

Now I really hated Deidra, no, not Deidra, I loved her. I hated these sessions more now than ever. We were pretty much finished with the dirty laundry, and Deidra wanted to dig deeper. I didn’t want to dig anything. Drew and I were already feeling the tension. We had for a couple weeks now, and I didn’t like it one bit.

“Let’s talk about the harsh truth now,” Deidra began.

Great, just what I wanted to hear, her view on the harsh truth. “I’m not sure you see the potential danger you are in, Morgan,” she began.

Drew got up and ran his fingers through his hair, pacing the floor. He didn’t say anything though. He let her continue.

“I’m not in any danger,” I assured her. “We don’t have that kind of relationship.”

“Really? Now, I’m very interested,” Deidra snidely commented, crossing her arms and ankles, leaning against her desk. “Explain to me what you do have, Morgan.”

“I don’t know. You answer that, Drew.”

“No, Drew is not going to answer that. You always want Drew to do the talking. Let’s have Morgan do the talking today.”

I didn’t want to talk. I wanted to get out of there and meet Alicia. I was more concerned with how far she got with our new friend than I was hashing things out with Deidra. “You call it whatever what you want. Your opinion of Drew and me is just that, your opinion.”

“Okay, I’ll call it. You can stop me if I’m wrong. I think you’re with Drew for maybe a couple reasons. First thing, you don’t know any better.”

“I don’t know any better? That’s stupid.”

“Is it? I think it’s a very good possibility. You never grew up with that. You never had that role model in your life. You were lacking men that loved and nurtured their woman. You told me yourself that your father hit your mother.”

“He wasn’t my father, and this isn’t some damn movie where everything is a mirage. How many relationships have you been in? What makes you the relationship expert? You think because you went to school for a few years, got a piece of paper awarding you some degree, that makes you an expert?”

“Morgan?” Drew questioned my mental state, interrupting my rant.

I shot him a dirty look. Did he have any room at all to calm me down? I think not. What the hell was I getting so worked up for anyway? It was Alicia. I wanted to know what the hell was going on there, and it had me anxious as hell. “Go ahead with your observation of my life,” I calmly said to Deidra.

“Okay, let’s just say that’s only one piece of the puzzle. Let’s add another piece and I will speculate about it, that’s it. I’m not giving facts, okay?”

“Whatever, go ahead, speculate.”

“I think you have thought for a very long time now that you can change him.”

“Drew has changed.”

“Has he?”

“What’s that supposed to mean? Yes. He has.”

“Why couldn’t you make it in last week, Morgan? Drew is never going to change. Drew has no reason to change.”

“I have every reason in the world to change,” Drew interjected.

“What? Give me one reason you have to change,” Deidra countered.

“Right there, sitting right in front of you.” Drew waved his hand towards me.

“Why would you change for her? You have everything you want with her. She is your biggest enabler. I see no reason you need to change for Morgan. She lets you tell her what, when, where, and how. She hides away, battered and bruised until the evidence has disappeared so nobody thinks ill of Drew. I’ve told you before, Mr. Kelley, I’m not here to bow down to you like most people do. If you don’t want the cold hearted truth, by all means, there’s the door.”