Thirty-Nine—Mia
A
fter yesterday, I wasn’t sure Ivy would show up for laps, and I had no intention of bugging her into it. A girl needs space and privacy when the ceiling crashes in. But in the meantime, I wanted to kill Tim the Tire King and both of her parents. Honestly, how was Ivy supposed to get over all the crap in her life?
I stopped in the kitchen for a bottle of water. From the window, I could see there was no activity going on in the pool house—the blinds were shut and so was the door. I sighed and headed to the pool, and when I rounded the corner, there was Ivy doing laps. “Hey!” I shouted, surprised.
“You’re late!” she panted, not breaking stride. “It’s almost 7:30!”
I jumped in and caught up. “Slow down! Where’s the fire?” I yelled.
She ignored me and kept swimming.
I didn’t know how many laps she’d done before I got there, but together we did our full twenty, and it was a little bit of work keeping up with her. But she looked great, and I told her so as we walked the perimeter of the pool to cool down.
“I don’t know how that’s possible,” she said, out of breath. “Seeing as how I have had exactly no sleep all night long.”
“Why?”
“My brain refused to shut down with trying to be done—as in done with Tim—and being mad at my mom and scolded by my Gran for being mad at my mom, and just generally being sick to death of myself.”
“Oh… that . Girl, you so need new shoes. Today. ”
“I do?”
We walked over to the steps, and I followed Ivy out of the pool and had to do a double take. When she turned around, I said, “You’ve lost weight.”
“It’s just this suit, I think,” she said, squeezing the water out of her hair. “The chlorine has stretched it out.”
“Oh, I guess that’s possible. Not!” I yelped. “Face it, Ivy, you’re shrinking.”
She looked down at herself.
“You’re looking good,” I said. “Deal with it.”
“ Really?”
“You’ve been to hell and back, Ivy. And then back to hell, and somewhere along the way you decided to look kind of great.”
Ivy looked down at herself again. “Maybe a couple more pounds since Carmel. I guess being out of sorts burns calories.”
“See,” I said, tossing her a robe. “I don’t make the news. I just report it. Now let’s eat.”
Bo was at the sink cutting organic strawberries. He was wearing an apron and rubber gloves and looked more suited for surgery. I grabbed a strawberry and popped it in my mouth. “You’re cutting us some, right?”
“Hey,” he snapped. “Those haven’t had their final rinse.”
I laughed. “Ivy,” I said, “If I don’t make it through breakfast, make sure my obit states clearly my cause of death: consumption of rinsed, but not final rinsed, fruit.”
“Very funny, Mia,” my brother said. “Hi, Ivy.”
“Hey, Bo,” she said, pulling her robe tighter around herself.
“How did you sleep?” he asked.
“Not great,” Ivy said. “But I did nod off for a bit after I ate a couple of nectarines the good fairy left on my doorstep.”
I saw my brother smile at his sink full of strawberries. It was a little weird, and I wondered what that was about, but I didn’t ask.
“So, what’s the plan today?” he said, not really addressing anyone .
“Here’s what I think,” I said. “Ivy, let’s head out about ten, and we will shop for shoes until we find the perfect—and I do mean perfect—goodbye Mr. Tim shoes. We’ll have some lunch. Then you can come over to the campus with me and hang out for about 20 minutes while I take a quick quiz. Are you cool with that?”
She looked at me with no expression. “As it happens my engagement calendar is woefully wide open. So…ten it is.”
I smiled—relieved that she hadn’t taken much convincing. I thought we might be looking at another day in bed. “Great! Hopefully by the time we get home my head will be sufficiently cleared to tackle my sim cards and make a freaking decision about my freaking project. Maybe you could help me.”
“I’d be happy to,” Ivy said. “I’ll take a shower and check in with my many fading job opportunities.” She pulled a face, then gave a fake laugh. “Be back later.”
“Take these with you,” Bo said, handing Ivy a bowl of strawberries. “I know how much you like them.”
“Why thank you, sir,” she smiled. “I do, indeed.”