Page 68 of Pretend

“You ate all the cookies, didn’t you?” Morgan grumbled into her pillow with a smile when she heard Eric walk into the room. When he didn’t say anything, she rolled over onto her side in time to watch Eric toss his phone on the bed next to her and-

Forgot how to breathe when she saw the picture of her apartment filled with moving boxes. For a moment, neither one of them said anything as she lay there, feeling numb as she took one last look at that photo before she reached over and grabbed Eric’s shirt off the floor and pulled it on, refusing to have this conversation while she was naked. When she was done, Morgan put her glasses on and looked up to find Eric watching her through cold, green eyes.

“Say something.”

“I was leaving,” Morgan admitted, watching as Eric slowly nodded as he seemed to think that over.

“Were you planning on telling me?” Eric asked as he grabbed his phone off the bed and slid it back into his pocket.

“No,” she whispered hollowly.

“You weren’t even going to say goodbye to me?” Eric asked, watching her closely.

“No,” Morgan said weakly, wondering if she’d ever been this terrified before.

Nodding, Eric reached down and grabbed a shirt from the bureau. “You didn’t think that I deserved a fucking goodbye?”

“I didn’t think that I would be able to go through with it if I had to say goodbye,” Morgan said, watching as he angrily pulled on his shirt.

“That’s something, I guess,” Eric said coldly, shaking his head in disgust as he grabbed his boots.

“Eric, I-”

“Why did you agree to go on this trip with me?” Eric asked as he pulled on his boots.

“Because you said that you needed me,” Morgan mumbled weakly as she watched him grab his keys.

“And I needed you to fucking stay, but that wasn’t going to stop you from leaving me,” Eric bit out. “Why did you come to the rehearsal dinner when we both know that was the last fucking place that you wanted to be?”

“Because I wanted to see you,” she mumbled hollowly as she pushed her glasses back up her nose.

“When?” Eric bit out as he leveled a look on her that dared her to lie.

“That night,” Morgan admitted as her gaze dropped to his left hand and watched as he absently ran his thumb over the black wedding band and-

“Then, I’ll make this easier for you,” Eric drawled as he pushed away from the bureau and-

“Didn’t you ever wonder why I never dated?” Morgan asked, watching as he paused by the bedroom door.

“Tell me,” Eric said softly as Morgan climbed off the bed.

“No,” she said, watching as the muscle in his jaw clenched as he turned around and faced her. “I want to know why you asked a woman that you didn’t love to marry you.”

“You want to know why I asked her to marry me?” Eric asked coldly as he made his way back to her.

“Yes,” Morgan said, swallowing hard as Eric came to a stop in front of her.

“What was the plan after this trip?” he asked instead, taking her by surprise.

“I-I don’t know,” Morgan admitted.

“You were still going to leave me,” Eric said quietly as he walked away from her and began pacing the room.

“I don’t know what I was going to do.”

Shaking his head in disbelief, Eric said, “You are fucking unbelievable.”

Slowly nodding, Morgan said, “You really want to do this?”

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