I glanced over my shoulder. “Are you sure? I don’t wanna have you goin’ out of your way.”
“It’s not out of me way,” he replied. “I’m gonna be workin’ ’ere, so I figure I might as well help you get the workspace together.”
“That’s lovely of you,” I said. “Thanks.”
“It’s settled then,” he chirped. “We can get on it when we finish our tea.”
I placed his cup in front of him, and together, we sat at my kitchen table.
“Have you got somethin’ to work on today?” Morgan asked, sipping his tea.
“Yeah.” I nodded. “I’ve to start a book cover for an author; she has a pretty detailed brief about it. I need to reread it to capture ’er vision as well as combinin’ it with me own to create somethin’ I hope she likes.”
“When is your deadline?”
“In two weeks,” I answered. “It usually takes me a few days to get an outline that I’m happy with, then once it’s scanned to me desktop, things move quicker. I always give meself two weeks, just in case I get a block and lose the vision.”
“Has that ever happened before?”
“Once,” I answered, swallowing. “Family drama sort of knocked me off track for a few days.”
Learning of my da’s affair did more than knock me off track; it hit me like the full force of a fucking train.
“I’ve no doubt whatever you create will be fantastic,” Morgan said. “You’ve never created somethin’ less than incredible.”
Heat rushed to my cheeks, so I lifted my cup of tea close to my face, hoping Morgan would think the steam from the scalding liquid flushed them and not his praise.
“Are you ready to check out the office?” I cleared my throat. “I’m eager to get started.”
We left our cups in the kitchen sink, then entered the soon-to-be office. Morgan scanned the room, either taking it all in or figuring out where to start first.
“Where are you goin’ to put the bed?”
“I was going to take it apart, then just stand everythin’ upright and lean it against the wall.” I shrugged. “I can’t get rid of it; it’s part of the furnishin’ that the landlord provided.”
“These look expensive as hell,” Morgan noted, “and the mattress looks like it would be heaven to lie on.”
“It is,” I concluded. “I have the same mattress in me bedroom, and it’s incredible.”
Morgan placed his hands on his hips, and eyed the flat packs in the corner of the room.
“I can help you take it apart and put it against the wall, then we can put those bookcases and your desk together. It’s a sorry sight seein’ a Mac Desktop with such big monitors sit on a tiny stand like that.”
I glanced at the pathetic stand and sighed.
“I know,” I admitted. “I’m just not very handy; I suck at puttin’ things together. I was goin’ to ask Damien to help, but I forgot. Me friends had twins yesterday, and it’s just added to an already eventful week.”
“Damien?”
“Oh, sorry.” I chuckled. “Damien is me boyfriend. He’s at work right now.”
“Cool,” Morgan said with a bob of his head. “I’m sure he’d help, but since I’m ’ere, you might as well put me to work.”
My lips twitched. “You don’t have to tell me twice.”
Together, we spent an hour taking apart the spare bed and putting the wood and mattress carefully against the wall on the far side of the room. Building the large desk was a much quicker endeavour than I could have ever imagined because Morgan seemed to know exactly what he was doing.
I just had to hand him the correct screw here and there, and he did the rest. When everything was put together, we both lifted the desk to its new designated spot, and I placed the bookcases where I wanted them to go. Sorting out my computer and the monitors took maybe five minutes.
When we were finished, I placed my hands on my hips and smiled.
“I love it!”
Morgan glanced around. “A few of your designs on the wall will tie everything together nicely.”
I agreed and already began filing away ideas of what to paint at a later date. Morgan swiftly moved a lone chair that no one ever sat on in the sitting room into the office, so I could sit in there and sketch while he worked. It made sense instead of us shouting back and forth to one another. Once we were settled, I reread the client’s brief and got to work sketching.
Morgan logged into my business email that was connected to my website and started organising the emails in a categorised list for me to choose from. He would read a brief bit of an email, then we would both decide which file it would go into. He then replied to every single email, and from what I could see, there were a lot of unread ones.