by Day, Laura
“What about my life?” Ivy asked him as tears rolled down her eyes. “What about what I want.”
Blake crossed his arms and shrugged his shoulders looking off to the side. “That’s not really my concern.”
They had broken up that day and hadn’t spoken since. Ivy spent prom night crying into her pillow while her friends had a blast. But that was high school. It was a long time ago. She was a grown woman with a good job and her MBA. She made a lot of money and she did very well on the dating scene. She was not one of those girls who was hung up on her high school sweetheart. She honestly hadn’t thought of Blake in years. But now he was here in front of her and he looked like a man.
He was full grown and strong. She had no idea how he had got so strong. She could see the individual muscles on his triceps. It was all too easy to image him swooping her up in those arms. No, those arms were far too tempting.
“See something you like?” Blake asked.
Ellen and Jonas had left the kitchen while Ivy had been lost in her thoughts and she was surprised to see herself alone with Blake.
“Don’t flatter yourself.” She stood up and put her plate in the sink. Her hands were shaking and she needed them to stop. Why did she feel so nervous around Blake? It didn’t used to be like this. She used to feel so relaxed around him. She was always herself with Blake. She never needed to pretend to be anyone else.
“Think we’ll share a room? Bunk beds maybe?”
“Stop it. This is important to our parents. We need to make this as easy as possible for them.” Ivy sighed as she crossed her arms over her chest.
“It’s good to see you again, Ivy,” Blake said, his voice suddenly serious. She glanced up at him and saw he was staring at her. She was wearing skinny jeans, boots, and a long-sleeve shirt and Blake’s eyes were staring at her, going up and down her body like he was drinking her in until he finally looked into her eyes. “You look good.”
Chapter Three
Blake was in the guest room of Ivy’s house. It doubled as the office and there was an ancient computer on the desk behind him. He began to unpack, lining up his vitamins along the dresser and pulling out his laptop and and chargers. Finally, he found his gym clothes. He hadn’t been lying, he needed to train, but he mostly needed to get away from Ivy. She looked way too good. He had secretly been hoping she would had gotten fat or sloppy.
Teasing her had been fun. Ivy was so pale that any embarrassment turned her cheeks a beet red. She was so embarrassed about it, which only made it easier to get to her. Pale skin and dark hair, kids used to call her Snow White at school.
She looked great. She had filled out her shape, giving her the hourglass figure that had eluded her in high school. She wore clothes that complimented her figure now, long gone the baggy jeans and loose t-shirts of their childhood. They had been replaced with well-fitting clothes tailored to her figure. But Blake had barely noticed her clothes; he had been trying to figure out what was hiding beneath them. He knew what her body used to look like when they were clumsy teenagers, but he was desperate to know what it felt like now.
He shook his head to clear the memory. Their high school romance had been filled with nervous fumbling as they discovered each other’s bodies. He had loved her and she had loved him, up until he had ruined it. He needed to find a way for her to forgive him. Being with Ivy was like nothing else; in all of his years he had never met a woman who compared.
The gym. He needed to go to the gym and lift some weights, hit the bag. He would wear himself out, make himself exhausted so he would be too tired to lust after her. It wasn’t a great plan, but it was his only plan. He took of his shirt and his sweatpants and slipped into his boxer-briefs.
“Sorry!” Ivy squeaked as she looked away from him, a bright red blush spreading across her cheeks. “I came in here to get a cellphone charger. I didn’t know you would be in here.”
“Where did you think I was?” Blake asked, turning to face her. He was in just his boxer-briefs, but he hardly noticed. He wasn’t shy. “I mean, there are only three bedrooms in the house. Jonas and my mom are in one, you’re in the other; it makes sense that I would be here...I think you just wanted to catch a glimpse of me undressed.”
“Please,” Ivy said, throwing back her shoulders and making her way to the desk where she grabbed a phone charger.
With one step, Blake was in front of her, standing between her and the door. “Please what?” he asked with a smirk.
“Ugh,” Ivy said, “I thought we were going to be mature about this.”
“I am being mature. I’m trying to talk to you and you’re running away from me. Is there something you want to tell your stepbrother?” Blake asked.
“Don’t call yourself that,” Ivy countered.
“Why not?” Blake asked taking a step towards her. “Am I something else to you?”
“Yeah. You’re my asshole ex who I hoped I would never have to see again!”
It was like a slap to Blake’s face and he took a step away from her. He should have expected that hit. He should have seen it coming. But he still would have taken it. He deserved it and she deserved to give it to him.
“Look, I’m sorry about prom-” Blake started.
“There’s nothing to apologize for,” Ivy said. “It was a long time ago and I’ve moved past it. I’m just not enjoying having your presence at the breakfast table.”
“Then why are you up here?”
“Because I needed a phone charger.”
“Now, right now? When you knew I would be in here getting dressed?”
“Blake, I don’t think about you at all,” Ivy said. “The only reason I’m in here is because I honestly forgot about you. It didn't even occur to me that you were still in the house. Don’t try to pretend I’m going to great lengths to see you because I’m telling you I’m not.”
“I thought we were going to be mature about this, Ivy. That was pretty mean,” Blake said as he pulled his gym shorts on and slipped a t-shirt over his head. He didn’t know what he expected. He hadn’t thought Ivy would still be this mad at him. He hoped she would have thawed a little in the last seven years.
He didn't want to fight with her. He wanted to joke with her and laugh, but she was closed off to him. She didn’t want anything to do with him. He didn’t know how he could show her he was sorry about prom and the things he had said. She stopped listening to his apologies the summer of their senior year and she wasn’t interested in listening to them now.
“So you’re still fighting?”
“Yep. And my mom wasn’t lying. I am good at it. I’m damn good. Have you not heard of me at all?” She rolled her eyes and scoffed. “Not because I’m famous or anything, but just because you used to know me. My name has never jumped out at you?”
“I saw the commercials for that Vegas fight,” Ivy said shrugging her shoulders. “But I didn’t watch it.”
“Well, you should have. I won in three rounds.”
“I’m not interested in watching two men fight. I don’t really care about it.”
Blake clenched his jaw and nodded as Ivy twisted the knife. Why would he have expected anything different. Ivy was the kind of girl who liked prom and dresses with birds on them; she wasn’t impressed by MMA fighting. It was the one thing Blake was good at and she didn’t care at all.
“Well, it’s been really great talking to you, Sis,” Blake said, standing up and grabbing his gym bag. “It’s been a pleasant conversation where I learned you don’t care about me, don’t think about me and find my profession not worthy of your notice. I guess MMA fighting has nothing on accounting.”
Ivy looked at him in rage. “I’m a financial advisor. I give billionaires investing advice. So, no, it’s not as impressive as punching someone. But I use my brain all day instead of my fists.”
“So you sit in a tiny, windowless office typing all day, maybe you have a client buy you an expensive lunch. Sounds like a waste of a life to me.”
“I have a bi
g office,” Ivy said taking a step towards Blake and poking him in the chest. “And it has lots of windows and I have a secretary who does my typing for me. So try something else.”
“It just sounds like a boring and torturous hell to me,” Blake said with a shrug as he walked out of the room.
He smirked to himself; he knew exactly how worked up Ivy was behind him. She would be standing there with her fists clenched shaking her head at him. He glanced back and she was standing the same way she had when he won their arguments in high school. Ivy hated to lose, but she would never continue their fight in front of their parents.
“Bye, Mom!” he called into the living room where she was sitting next to Jonas and doing the crossword puzzle.
“Dinner’s at six, do not be late!” she called to him.
“Yes ma’am,” and then he was out of the house and back in suburbia. He stepped out into the foggy air of his northwestern home town. It was good to be back. Everything felt familiar. He was bigger now, stronger and more mature. Everything around him looked smaller and he was well aware of how much time had passed since he had last been to town.
He hopped into his car and drove the old route to his gym, making the turns and stops without having to think about it. He was, instead, thinking about Ivy. He wished he could read her mind. He was desperate to know what she was thinking. Was she still mad about their high school breakup? Blake felt guilty about it to this day; he hadn’t handled it well. They had been too young and too much in love. His feelings about her had been so intense. He hadn’t been ready for them yet. He wasn’t ready for them now.
Teasing Ivy was one thing, but that was all it could be. He didn’t want a girlfriend. He didn’t want someone who was going to worry about him or expect him home at a certain time. He liked having his own life and his own space. He only had room for girls like Michelle and no-strings-attached sex. Just two people having a good time with no expectations and no rules.
Still, though, he liked making her blush. He loved the way her pale skin showed her emotions so clearly. She would look down as the red passed over her nose and cheeks and then she could glance up to see if anyone was watching her. When they made eye contact at those moments she would blush more and look away, and Blake would be putty in her hands.
He pulled up to the gym and grabbed his gear as he walked inside. He took a deep breath of the gym that smelled like plastic and metal and sweat. It felt good to be back. Everything made sense there for Blake.
Chapter Four
“This was waiting for you, dear,” Ellen said as she passed a white envelope to Ivy.
It was a small and thin envelope, the kind used for Hallmark cards. Ivy flipped it over in her hands and looked at it. Her name was written on the front in perfect and beautiful calligraphy. The loops and lines of her name were meticulously done.
She ripped open one end, being sure not to mar the calligraphy on the front. Inside was a small store bought card, which she stared at in confusion. On the front was a cartoon image of a dog looking up at a crescent moon. She opened it and, inside, in a cartoony font, were the words, “I miss you to the moon and back.” There was no writing on the inside of the card. She flipped it over and looked on the back, but nothing was there either. “Ellen,” Ivy called over the house. “Who is this card from?”
Ellen walked back to the living room and took the card from Ivy and looked at it. “I don’t know, dear,” she responded. “It was in the mailbox...”
“But there’s no stamp or anything. Someone must have hand delivered it. Have you seen anyone at the house?”
“No,” Ellen said with a shake of her head.
Ivy took the card back and looked at it. The cartoon dog on the front was looking over its shoulder to the viewer and had an odd, grimacing smile. It sat alone on a hilltop with nothing but the moon above it. She looked at the envelope and her beautifully stylized name next to the card.
“Maybe it’s from a friend who heard you were back from a visit,” Ellen offered as she walked away.
“Maybe...” Ivy said as she slipped the card back into its envelope and put it in her purse. This didn’t sound like the kind of thing one of her friends would do. Why would they come all the way to the house only to leave an unsigned card and leave? Maybe it was Blake. But no, this wasn’t Blake’s style. He hated store bought cards and thought they were a waste of money. He would also never leave anything unsigned. Blake didn’t hide or sneak around; he did exactly what he wanted when he wanted.
She shook her head is if that could clear the thought of him from her mind. She needed to stop thinking about him. She couldn’t let him in again. Blake hadn’t changed at all in the last five years. He was still the arrogant selfish jerk he had been in high school. He was still charming and witty and funny, but his negative traits overwhelmed the positive ones and she needed to remember that.
She slipped the card and the envelope into her bad. There’s no way it’s from Darryl, she reminded herself. He had moved back east and last she heard was living in New York City. There was no way Darryl had come all the way across the country to give her an unsigned letter.
“It’s not Darryl,” she whispered as she zipped the card and envelope into her bag. She said it like a prayer or maybe something more like a wish.
“Ready to go?” Ellen asked, sticking her head into Ivy’s room.
“Sure,” Ivy answered, painting an excited expression on her face. She and Ellen were going to look at flowers and the country club where she and Jonas would hold their small wedding.
Unlike Jonas, Ellen had never been married before; Blake’s father had skipped town not long after his birth. She was excited for her upcoming wedding even though it was going to be on the smaller side.
Ivy drove down the residential streets of her hometown. They weren’t that strange or unfamiliar to her. She had moved to Seattle about six months ago and had been back to see her father almost every weekend. Now that Jonas had Ellen he would need to see Ivy less and she still wasn’t sure how she felt about that. She wanted her father to be happy, of course. She just wished he had found happiness with someone else. But that wasn't fair. Ellen was sitting next to her, amiably chatting about flowers and food and invitations. She was a nice and good woman and Ivy was happy her father had found someone worthy of him.
“Have you two decided on a honeymoon location yet?” Ivy asked.
“Well, we want to go to Hawaii, but your father is so worried about leaving his store for two weeks. Has he really never taken a vacation?” Ellen asked.
“We used to do long weekend trips,” Ivy answered with a smile. “Sometimes going to the beach or camping. But you shouldn’t let him use the store as an excuse. He has an excellent assistant manger and he deserves the time off. Besides, I’m only an hour away. I can go look in on it for his peace of mind.”
“You’re a good daughter,” Ellen said. “I always liked you when you and Blake were together. You were good for him.”
“Thanks. But that was a long time ago. Blake and I are different people now.”
“Not Blake, he’s exactly the same as ever.”
Ivy agreed with a nod. But she was desperate to change the subject. She didn’t want to talk about Blake. She didn’t want to think about him. But no matter how hard she tried to put him behind her, he kept popping up in her vision.
“Roses and lilies are my favorite flowers,” Ellen said as they wandered the fragrant smelling floral shop. There were brilliant red roses with sharp thorns, white lilies with pink centers, and tall, purple irises.
“Maybe you should have roses for your bouquet and lilies for the centerpiece,” Ivy offered.
“I think that sounds lovely,” Ellen offered. “There are so many colors to choose from. It could be a veritable rainbow of flowers in the hall.”
“That sounds nice,” Ivy said. And it did sound nice. She was going to keep herself together with her father’s upcoming wedding. She was not going to let Blake and his teasing wa
ys get to her.
“Ivy,” Ellen said, turning with a single rose in her hand. “I wanted to ask you something.”
“Of course,” Ivy answered. She figured it might have been a money question. Ivy worked in finance and she was used to people asking her questions about their 401k or investments they wanted to try.
“I’m just so happy that you approve of my relationship with your father. It means the world to me and to Jonas and I really want you to be involved in the wedding. I was hoping I could ask you to be my Maid of Honor.” Ivy looked at Ellen in shock. But before she could speak Ellen continued quickly. “It wouldn’t be much work. I don’t want a bridal shower or anything like that. Just someone to come with me to buy my dress and help me get ready the day of. I don’t have any sisters-”
“Ellen, I would love to,” Ivy answered taking the other woman’s hand in hers.