Around the World in 80 Men Series: Books 11-20 (63 page)

“Is it me? Am I being
ridiculous?” She walked slowly back to the bathroom to grab
the box of tissues, then went to the bed to have herself a good cry.
Just as she leaned back against the pillow, Morgan closed her mouth
tightly and groaned loudly as the thought of a pity party felt worse
than what she was upset about. “No! It's not me!” She
got up and stomped to her bags, pulling out her jeans and light blue
sweater. “I'm not crying over you people anymore!” She
pulled the robe off quickly and threw it across the room to the bed.
“I'm not being sad, I'm not going to worry, and I'm NOT going
to waste my time in Fuckland thinking about any of you!”
Morgan was dressed in record time, and stomped quickly to the
bathroom to finish up getting ready.

Twenty minutes later, a very
well put together Morgan was on her way to find food, and a place to
try to out Kai's credit card. She almost smiled at the thought,
because she knew that she wouldn't actually use it, but it was nice
knowing that she could if she wanted to.

Morgan didn't actually find
food right away, which was rare for the always hungry girl, but for
the moment, she actually didn't feel like eating. The wonderful
smells coming from the restaurant downstairs had been tempting, of
course, but she passed on through, hoping to find something better,
later.

The first thing she did was
walk down to the park that she was beginning to love so much. After
she'd sat on a bench and was nearly attacked by a group of birds,
she'd gone across the street to grab a loaf of bread from the bakery
and the flock was happy to take her up on her lunch offer.

“You guys have it easy,”
she told two of the pudgy birds as they snagged a bite from her
fingers. She thought about their carefree lives. They could be
whores. Nobody judged them. Nobody told them to
always be prepared
or
you have to go through growing pains
or
you need to
have more fun
or
you need to be more organized.
But as she
thought about her life, she knew she wouldn't have it any other way.
Going into the job, she knew it would be hard. Even from the
beginning, Julianne had told her to be careful, and that was probably
the best advice Morgan should have taken. It was her fault for
getting attached and maybe it was easier for the robotic girls who
only did their
job
and left, but that wasn't who she was.

She thought about it for a
moment...what was
really
so hard about her life? Okay, so she
happened to fall in love with a few of her clients. Yes, they were
both seeing other people, but again, she had no right to be upset.
She was human, and it did bother her, but that didn't make her life
bad. So Kole was a dick to her? Friends have problems all the time.
Either he'll get over it, or move on with the herd, as Angel said.
“What do you think, Pudgy?” Morgan giggled as the chubby
bird fluttered, then realized she still had a piece of bread in her
hand and quickly waddled back to her.

She was beginning to feel
better again about the whole situation of her life. “I'm really
not going to be upset about this anymore!” Her loud voice made
a few of the birds jump into the air, but came back again when she
held the last piece of bread out for them. She put on a smile again
and decided she was finally hungry.

Morgan walked by the pub and
thought she'd had enough of that, so she went further until she found
a fish and chips type of place. After a big sandwich and a margarita,
the girl decided to get some shopping in.

“Shopping always helps,”
she told herself as she sized up the little stores lined up on the
street. The one that caught her attention first was an antique store.
She didn't know what she was looking for, but when she saw it, she
knew exactly why she'd walked into the store. On a small shelf in the
back, there was a Bo-Peep type of woman with a staff, with two small
sheep at her sides. The figure made Morgan laugh loudly in the store
because the woman figurine had a striking resemblance to herself.
Long blond hair, wrapped in a bonnet and a full chest peeking out of
a light blue dress. Full pink lips, even green eyes. Morgan had to
have it.

The woman at the front
carefully wrapped the ceramic figure and Morgan happily carried it
out of the store, then went on to the next shop. She spent nearly
four more hours shopping before heading back to the hotel with all of
her goodies. She hadn't bought much, but the nice dress she'd bought
at a fancy boutique was sure to impress Kai. It was solid black,
tube top style. Tight around all the right places and coming to just
above her knees. She'd also bought a pair of shiny black super high
heels.

“These...they'll go
perfect with it!” When Morgan was in her hotel room, she found
the diamond earrings Tanner had given her for her birthday and set
the little box inside of her high heel at the bottom of the closet.
She was going to keep the dress hidden until the meeting and couldn't
wait to show it off for her client.

After her perfect outfit was
hidden behind the closet door, Morgan put the unused credit card on
the dresser, then went downstairs to catch dinner. She still had a
couple of hours before her client returned, so getting a couple of
drinks and a nice dinner sounded like a great way to spent her
evening alone.

Chapter Seven

Morgan ordered her third glass
of wine, thinking that the steak and potato that she just had was her
new favorite food. Then again, she thought, if she were face to face
with her favorite pizza place in Sydney, it would be a very close
match.

She scanned the room of the
full lounge and smiled as she thought of her client once again. It
was a shame that he worked so much, and more of a shame that he was
beyond tense about the big meeting coming up, but she would just keep
doing her job.
I have to make him laugh. I can do this, I can do
funny for the rest of the week.
Suddenly, she tried to picture
business cards that she could have made.
Oh! Angel, he would
know!
She pulled her phone out of her bag and called the man
with all the answers.

He answered in his usual Angel
self, “Sticky! Who ya ridin' today?” She giggled and
told him that she was still flying the Kite in Fuckland, but that she
had a question.

“Okay, I'm a call girl
with jokes. What does my business card look like?” Her Angel
didn't need anymore instructions, he answered her immediately.

“Morgan Holland, the call
girl that fucks with funny. Laugh while you're being screwed, call
today bitches!” Morgan laughed so hard that she knocked her
full glass of wine over and it fell to the floor.

“Oh god, you're the best!
I love you, talk to you soon.” They shared a few loud kisses
into the phone, and Morgan began to wipe the wine from the table as
her server approached her with a new glass of Moscato. “Sorry.”
He smiled and cleaned the mess for her.

“Looks like you've had
quite a few of those.” Kai approached her as she wiped a few
drops of wine from her jeans. She jumped at the sound of his voice,
and nearly knocked her wine over again.

“Hey! You're early!”
She smiled as he sat across from her, then explained her wine
mishap. “No, I've only had two, the one that I practically
threw to the floor was...or...is number three.” She pointed to
the full glass that was still untouched. “I just spoke to
Angel, he's the funniest guy I've even known! He said... never mind.
How was your day?” Rambling was a good sign that she was in a
much better mood.

Kai watched her as she took a
sip of number three, and wished that he had more time with the
carefree girl. “Would you mind sitting with me? I haven't
eaten yet.” He grabbed the menu and Morgan pulled it from his
hands.

“Nope, get the steak...
you'll love it!” She motioned for the server and nodded to
Kai, just in case he had something else in mind.

“Well, I guess I'm having
steak.” He finished his order, then put his attention back on
Morgan. “So, are you having a good time? You know, with me
being gone, are you finding things to do?” Morgan nodded then
told him all about her shopping experience.

“I got the cutest little
figurine! It has these little sheep, and the girl looks just like
me!” She giggled at the thought of how Sean was going to react
when it came in the mail for his Ma. “My friend's mom, she
collects sheep.” Morgan was still rambling when Kai cleared
his throat. “Oh, sorry... how was your day?” Her face
heated and she quickly took a sip to distract him from her
embarrassment. He smiled and put his napkin on his lap.

“It was productive, but
Tuesday will be the big day.” Morgan had heard about the big
Tuesday meeting since they met, and she wondered if the man was even
capable of living in the moment instead of living for his next big
meeting.

“I'm sure it'll go just
fine.” She knew that it would, the man worked way too much for
him to lose any deal that he wanted. He didn't smile that time, he
just watched her smiling face as she looked around the room and drank
her wine.

“Do you enjoy... fine
dining, Morgan?” It was an odd question, but she didn't mind
answering it.

“Honestly? No. I mean,
I enjoy dining...,” she giggled and continued, “but
sitting perfectly, eating perfectly, and making sure I don't do
anything wrong...well..it's not exactly fun. What about you?”

“I enjoy it immensely.
It reminds me of why I work so hard.” His food was delivered
as he finished his statement, and Morgan was fairly surprised by his
answer. When the server left again, she asked if he ever enjoyed the
simpler things in life. “That depends on what you call simple?
I enjoy walks, if I have time. I enjoy reading, if I have time. I
also enjoy you...”

“If you have time.”
Morgan smiled at the man as she cut him off, and he laughed loudly
at her boldness.

“Yes, when I have time,”
he continued smiling as he cut into his steak.

“So, do you have time to
enjoy anything tonight?” Morgan raised an eyebrow and smiled
wickedly.
Anything
clearly meant her.

“My time is all yours
tonight.” They both exchanged that look...the look that told
each other there would be a lot of enjoyment of various things that
evening. Morgan was happy he'd returned early and she was happy with
the news he had nothing else planned for the evening. She wasn't
going to get too excited because there might be a phone call, but she
couldn't be upset with someone who took their job so seriously.
I'm
just trying to do my job.

“Do you ever do
anything spontaneous? You know, just pack up and travel because you
want to, not because you have to? Or go skydiving? Or swimming in the
ocean?” Morgan was rambling again, but she had to know if the
man did anything
fun.

“Spontaneous? No.
Everything has a time and a place and should be played out
accordingly.”

“Well, that doesn't sound
like fun at all.” Morgan drew her eyebrows together and Kai
laughed at her questioning look.

“I have fun, Morgan. It's
just in those rare times...”

“You have time,”
she finished for him again.

“Yes,” he nodded,
laughing once more.

“If you eat any slower,
we won't have time for anything tonight either!” Morgan did a
hurry-up motion with her arms, shoving invisible bites of food into
her mouth.

“You're a riot, Morgan.
I'm glad you came,” he told her, then held his glass out for
her to toast.

“I'm glad I'm here too,”
Morgan held her own glass up and that's when Kai noticed something
different about her wine.

He didn't meet her glass with
his, instead he lowered it for a moment, then asked, “you don't
like red wine?”

Morgan felt her cheeks flare.
She hadn't even thought about that little detail. For the past few
days, she'd worked hard hiding her distaste for the wine.
“Uhm...it's...okay. Just not something I would choose for
myself. Okay, I'm lying...I hate it, I mean...I really do. My tongue
feels like sandpaper...” Morgan giggled at her own honesty,
but she hoped she hadn't offended him.

Kai nodded, then broke a smile
himself and met her laughter. Moscato. It was the cheapest wine in
the bar, and he'd always thought it was beneath him. You'd never see
anyone drinking Moscato at a dinner party or a business meeting,
ever. “You just don't even care do you?” He asked, full
of amusement.

“What do you mean?”
Morgan lowered her own glass in confusion.

“You drink the cheapest
wine in the bar, eat steak instead of salad, wear jeans and a sweater
instead of a dress. You laugh loud and...”

“I enjoy life,” she
corrected him on the defensive side.

“Oh, no, I'm not saying
it's a bad thing at all. Like I told you before, Morgan, you're a
breath of fresh air. It's nice to see someone who enjoys life as much
as you and someone who really doesn't care what people think,”
he explained, lifting his glass again.

Morgan smiled and their glasses
finally met with a soft clink.
I wish I didn't care as much as I
do.
She wasn't going to give him that bit of information,
instead, the two just enjoyed light conversation and more joking. He
asked her about all the places she'd traveled and he told her about
his own adventures, which Morgan found all of his stories to be quite
interesting. They sat there together long enough for the girl to
finish her third glass of wine, and long enough for Kai to catch up
and raise her by a glass. He definitely enjoyed his wine, that much
she gathered. When their glasses were empty, the two of them decided
to take dessert up to the room and get into comfortable clothes. The
idea was perfect, and before they left the bar, Morgan asked for a
can of whipped cream.