Ivy's Twisted Vine Redux (15 page)

Ivy’s thoughts wondered. “In Madison’s eyes, I am perfect. I made good grades; won almost everything that I’ve ever competed in and never have let my family down. Now, I’m going to wobble across the stage of opportunity with a bastard child and no future.”

“Don’t be silly. You have a future, but it will be what you make of it. And you have options to but they will be what you chose them to be. Besides, don’t be surprised if that little
bastard
doesn’t help you to put your life into perspective.”

“How could a child possibly put my life into perspective? My life was in perspective.” Ivy moved her hair behind her ear and continued in a strained voice. “I had set goals, and I was going after them. There is basically nothing left to say.”

“Well listen to what you just told me. For twenty-one years you have lived for other people and met other people’s expectations of you. Now you have to live for yourself and for that baby.” Trina’ words provoked an argument.

“I have not lived for other people. I have always lived for myself.” Ivy’s voice shrieked with defiance.

“Case in point, your mother was Miss Tennessee State when she was a junior in college, so last year you ran and won the title of Ms. Bryton-Ritz. Your father pledged to a fraternity so you pledged to his sister sorority. Your grandfather attended Bryton-Ritz, so you now attend. Your fiancé complimented a girl in a red convertible the first day of your freshman year, so you went out and bought a convertible. Your grandmother worked two jobs her senior year of college to bring in a dowry,
if you will
, to the marriage, and you now hold the same damned ambition. Have I said enough, yet?” Trina smiled at her now furious roommate.

“Oh, you’re way off,” Ivy said grabbing her books.

“No, I believe I’m right on point, which is why I just thought that you should know that this will be the first thing that you’ve ever done that was not expected or requested of you by another human being. You should be happy.” Trina smiled sarcastically and dodged the pillow Ivy threw at her.

Rolling her eyes, Ivy left the room. What did Trina know? How could she anyone see inside of her soul to tell whether or not she lived for other people? She opened the refrigerator door and stared blankly off into space. Grabbing of bowl of salad prepared the night before she slammed the door and plopped down on the couch. Trina’ words echoed in her mind. Turning on the television, Ivy let out a great sigh. She had been in charge of her life for years. Hadn’t she? She tapped her fingers on the side of the couch. Had she?

“Lived for other people my ass,” she said aloud as she flipped through the channels. She had come to Bryton-Ritz out of out of tradition. She had bought her car, because she loved the attention it got. So what she had pledged to please her daddy? It didn’t matter, she love her sisterhood now. She had gotten two jobs to…. She had run for Ms. Bryton-Ritz because… Shit. She hated when Trina was right.

Ivy was incensed. How could being pregnant be a positive in her life right now? She was a freaking statistic! She was a menace to a health society. Oh God! What if it was a boy? A woman could not raise a man! Her father had said it over and over a hundred times when she was growing up. What if it was girl? What if she had twins or triplets even? What if the baby was reta…she wouldn’t even think it.

Closing her eyes to push the thought out of her mind, Ivy pulled the blanket over her legs. What if Grey was the baby’s father after all and she confessed prematurely? She would have done all of this for nothing and lost everything. But then again what if it was Nicola’s child. It would surely come out baring the complexion of an interracial child. If that happened, she would really be screwed.

“Ivy, it’s Grey on the phone,” Trina said sticking her head out of the bedroom door.

“Tell him that I will call him back,” Ivy said too afraid to hear his voice. She could not bear to speak to him now. She didn’t know if she could ever bear it.

“He says that he’s pulling up outside, so get your things.”

Laying her head back on the couch, Ivy took a deep breath. With all the sudden commotion, she had forgotten that he was picking her up tonight to spend the night. If there was ever a night that she needed to be alone, it was tonight. However, Grey wouldn’t understand if she cancelled, especially since it had been her idea to spend more time together.

Grabbing her bags from her bedroom and her books from the common area, she pulled a coat over her now shivering body and headed out into the snow to Grey’s car. Whatever she did tonight, she wouldn’t tell him, not until she had time to think things through and come up with a plan.

Greeting Grey with kiss, Ivy closed the door to his car and tried to hide her new distractions, but automatically he noticed the hint of melancholy and worry in her face.

“Something wrong,” he said pulling out of the parking lot into the streets.

“No, I’m just tired. I’ve been with Madison all day.”

“He’s here?” Grey asked concerned. The very mention of that man’s name sent chills down his spine. He would never tell Ivy, but he thought Madison was a raving psychotic with a chokehold on Ivy’s life.

“Yeah, he’s here, but he’s leaving out tomorrow.”

“Oh, well I guess I won’t get a chance to see him. I have a hundred things to do tomorrow. Pity.” Grey automatically knew that would get a rise out of Ivy.

“It’s okay,” Ivy said totally unconcerned as she looked out the window.

“Are you sure that you’re okay? You don’t seem yourself.”

“I’m fine, baby,” Ivy said turning and giving him a reassuring smile.

*

Later that evening after Ivy had taken a shower and crawled into the bed overly exhausted and unusually quiet, Grey finished his Wall Street Journal and turned off the lights. Like an old married couple they cuddled the darkness, seemingly relaxed and at ease.

Reflecting on their relationship, Grey was somewhat at peace. For the moment, his sexual inhibitions had subsided leaving him sober enough to focus on Ivy. And he had to admit that he had seen a dramatic change in her behavior since they had gotten back together. She was going out of the way to make him happy and yet still giving him space to breathe.

It was odd, but when Ivy felt good about them, he somehow was able to get more work done at the office and in the classroom. Finishing his MBA wasn’t an easy task, especially when he had such a high maintenance relationship and career, but with a little more than a semester left before graduation, he had no complaints.

It was now clear to Grey what he had to do in order to keep control over the situation with Ivy. The issue wasn’t so much that he had to choose between temporary pleasure with other women or the long-term benefits of his fiancée. Rather, he simply had to keep them miles apart from each other and still at only arms length from him.

Men had a cheap thrill from time-to-time and some men like him had them often. However, Grey had seen over the last month that every man did not have an exceptional young woman willing to stand by his side through thick and thin. He now realized what made Ivy different and special, and he was not about to loose her again. As his father once told him, “Only bring your wife home to your house; leave your whore at the hotel.”

There were a few times that Grey had gone against better judgment and brought someone home with him, because the encounter was going to be so quick it didn’t require a hotel room, or she could be trusted never to return afterwards. But mostly, he followed the rules. No house calls. No unprotected sex. No intimate words of endearment. No virgins. No gifts. No voice messages or written correspondents, and absolutely no calls the next day. He had always made it clear that he was a taken man just bowing down to the dirty temptations. The sad thing was that women accepted his pathetic excuses and allowed him to use them.

“Oh well,” he said aloud as he pondered his thoughts while Ivy lay on his chest resting. He looked down at her angelic face calm and unconcerned and felt a welcomed calm. Life was good.

Chapter Seven: Happy Birthday

Chapter 7

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

“
One month and not one word from Ivy?”
Brooks asked probing Nicola for the hundredth time about his elusive evening. After not being able to get the information he was looking for from Trina, he decided to continue to hound Nicola in hopes that eventually he would break.

“When are you ever going to give up?” Nicola asked while setting down the eighty-pound free weights to rest on an empty bench. “We didn’t exactly hit it off. So, we went our separate ways.” He wiped the sweat from his eyes with his hand towel.

“I’m going to keep asking until I get the right answer, or are you forgetting that’s what I do for a living?”

“I’m not a perp, Brooks. I’m your best friend, and as your best friend, I’m telling you to back off of the subject. Ivy is a dead issue.”

By now, Brooks had come to conclusion that something had happened between Nicola and Ivy because for nearly a month after their date, his partner always seemed occupied in deep thought and very often in a bad mood. Only a woman could have that type of affect on a man.

“It’s just that I even give one night stands a call back after two months. You know…try to rekindle an old flame. Maybe you should just give her a call. Who knows, you might be able to keep it up this time.” Watching Nicola’s face redden with frustration, Brooks retired his questions for the time being. “Dead issue my ass,” he said tauntingly before returning workout. Nicola would break sooner or later; there was no doubting that.

Pretending to watch the flat screen television mounted on the wall across the gym, Nicola thought back to Ivy and wished for a moment that he could have called her and asked all the questions that filled his mind. Did she get back with Grey? Did she move on? Did she think of him? There was so much left unsaid between them, and yet he didn’t feel in his heart that it was over.

Nicola had often daydreamed of running into Ivy on the street and inviting her to go out for a cup of coffee or lunch. In his dreams, she would be happy to see him and spend hours explaining why she couldn’t call. She would smile while they talked holding his hand and laughing at his jokes as only she could, and then they would make arrangements to meet again, this time with the promise of more to come after the morning after. But that was just a silly daydream that he drifted off into when no one was around. She was his little secret; someone he could not have simply because she did not choose to have him.

“Snap out of your daze, lover boy,” Brooks said snapping his fingers. “And check out the bird on the treadmill.”

“Where?” Nicola said returning to his old self, a dog on the prowl. After all, a daydream alone didn’t satisfy his unquenchable appetite for sex or the prospect thereof.

“Old girl in the blue short shorts,” Brooks pointed her out.

“All you can see is her ass,” Nicola said only slightly interested. “What if she turns around and looks like…”.

Finishing her session, the young woman stepped off the treadmill and threw her towel over her left shoulder. Turning around, she made eye contact with Nicola and smiled.

“Damn,” Nicola said forgetting to finish his sentence.

“Told you,” Brooks said laughing. “You’re not going to find an ass like that on an ugly woman. Believe me, I know.”

“Let you tell it… you know everything.”

“I do know everything,” Brooks said condescendingly.

“Then what’s her name?”
“It doesn’t matter. You won’t remember it the next morning anyway.” They both watch quietly as she walked passed them with her eyes still on Nicola.

“You better make a move while you still can,” Brooks said shaking his head.

“I’m already on her.” Wiping his face with his towel again, Nicola quickly followed the small busty Asian woman to the front desk.

“Excuse, me. Could I bother you for just a minute?” He asked gently grabbing her by the arm.

“Do I know you?” she asked in a thick French accent.

“No, but I’d like for you to. My name is Nicola. And you are?” He offered his hand.

“Leaving,” she said turning around to head out the door.

Nicola looked down at his denied hand and smiled.
Okay, it’s like that
, he thought to himself as he jumped in front of her and held her shoulder lightly. “Wait. You mean to tell me you eyeballed me that hard, just to play hard to get once I chased you down? You evidently don’t know the rules to the game.”

“And what game are we playing?” She smiled cleverly.

“When I was a little tyke, we used to call it,
catch a girl get a girl
.” He offered his hand again.

“My name is Kit.” She shook his hand this time acknowledging the attraction between them.

“Well, it is very, very nice to meet you Kit. You know today is my birthday, and I think I just found my present.” Nicola knew that any woman in her right mind would have walked off immediately totally disgusted with his cheap antics, but he could tell that Kit would stay. She was
that
type of girl.

“Today is really your birthday?”

“Honest,” he said crossing his heart. “And I would love for you to go out with me tonight.” He watched her carefully now reading all of her body language. She would definitely say yes.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t birthday boy. I’m working tonight.”

Visibly pouting, he smiled revealing his undeniable dimples. “Oh well, I guess it’s my loss.” Inside, he knew that she would reschedule.