Flower Shops [m.w]

Chapter 3

Lacey woke up the next morning to a text from Harper asking if she wanted to come in and work with HARDY. Of course she accepted the offer and began to get ready. She had always loved his music. She rolled out of bed and brushed her teeth and washed her face, pulling her dirty blonde hair back into a messy braid. She put on a pair of leggings and a sweatshirt and a bit of makeup. She grabbed her keys to her old 1972 Bronco and headed to the door. Her and her grandpa had fixed it up when she was 16, it was her baby.

She got in and turned the radio to the country station. More Than My Hometown immediately came on. "Kinda ironic that he's the one that left in real life" She thought to herself. She changed the station and continued driving. Soon she was at work and walked up to Miss Jean. 

"Hey Miss Jean!"

"Hey Lacey, HARDY, Harper, and Morgan are waiting down the hall!"

"Um, uh did you say Morgan, like... Morgan Wallen?" She said, scratching the back of her neck, her pace quickening. 

"Yes sweetie, don't worry he's such a sweetheart! They must really like your work around here if you're already getting to work with him!"

"Oh yea, um ok then I guess I better get to work" She said with a forced smile

Lacey turned down the hall, feeling nauseous. She took small steps trying to convince herself to not turn around and run out those doors right now. Her fight or flight was kicking in and she was very tempted to chose flight, but she kept walking. She was going to have to face him eventually, she just didn't think it would be on the second day of the job.

She took a deep breath, opening the door and there he was sitting there with Harper, his back to the door. Harper gave her a tight lipped smile as if to say "I'm sorry". Morgan turned around and said "Hey Lacey" in that stupid nonchalant voice of his

"Hey Morgan..." 

"Michael called in sick this morning so it's just gonna be us today" said Harper, using HARDY's real name. 

"Ok " said Lacey, sitting down and grabbing her songbook out of her backpack.

She couldn't believe she was sitting across from Morgan after all these years, the last thing she wanted to do was see him, let alone write with him again, undoubtably bringing up old memories she tried so hard to forget. But, this was the job. She was facing towards Harper but could see Morgan looking at her from across the table. Her and Harper began shooting out some ideas to Morgan, with Harper doing most of the talking. Harper kept trying to make jokes and lighten the mood but nothing could get rid of the tension. After about 30 minutes of the awkward conversation, Miss Jean came in and asked if Harper could come help her with scheduling some sessions. Harper got up saying that she might be a while but to keep working. First Hardy wasn't there and now Harper was leaving. The day just kept getting better

Morgan and Lacey sat there in silence before Lacey finally began to get back to the ideas there were talking about just a minute ago. 

"So, we are just not gonna talk about anything" said Morgan 

"You're the one that obviously doesn't like to talk when its needed" said Lacey muttered in a low voice, looking down at her songbook on the table. 

"Lace, im sor--"

"I don't want to hear it. We are going to have to work together so let's just do that"

"You know I tri-"

"Morgan, please, lets just work" Lacey said in a stern voice.

Morgan sat there for a second with a sad expression on his face before saying "ok"

"Me and Harper were talking about an idea yesterday. Something about a country boy losing his girl to a posh city boy. "

"I really like that, it sounds like something Michael would sing"

"Yea that's what I said yesterday, I think that's why he wanted to work with me. I didn't know that he wanted it to be a duet"

"It's your song, you get to choose who sings it, you can always refuse"

"I'm not that petty, you and him singing one of my songs would be huge for me"

"I already do sing your songs, Lace"

"Those are yours now"

"Those are both of ours, we wrote them together. Remember when we would fuck off in art, writing songs instead of doing what we were supposed to" He said smiling.

Lacey laughed forgetting for a second that she was supposed to hate him, thinking of Morgan as the old 19 year old baseball player, not the 26 year old famous singer. 

"That teacher hated us"

"Yea we got kicked out of that class least once a week. Your brother wanted to murder me for getting you in so much trouble. But we both know I got ya in a little more trouble than that" Morgan said with one of those stupid smirks

Lacey's face got bright red as she looked down at the table

"We should get to work" she said, no longer smiling.