Chapter 34
CHAPTER 34
LAW
When Carlie heads over to Jenna’s the next morning, and after Malcolm has left, I drive over to Ivy’s apartment. Carlie told me that she hasn’t spoken to Caleb, so I’m not worried about bumping into some kind of reunion. In my gut, I know that they’re not getting back together. I’m dreading the moment I have to admit this to Carlie. She probably suspects too. There was a wariness to her expression when she told me how hopeful Caleb still is.
Ivy answers the door in leggings and an oversize University of Tennessee sweatshirt from college, despite the fact that it’s almost eighty degrees outside. I step inside and pull her into a hug, but she pulls away after only a moment. Ivy has never been one for long hugs. She’s got too much go-go-go in her.
“Hey,” she says. “I thought you were going to Nashville today.” She plops down on her couch and eyes me.
“I made up with Carlie.” This is normally the part where I’d spill about what happened last night, and Ivy waits, obviously expecting it. “She and Chad had a misunderstanding, and she got fired, and she and I ended up talking.” That’s all she’ll get. This is Carlie’s story, and this is where I start compartmentalizing what I tell my best friend and what I don’t.
It’s a beat before Ivy realizes that’s all I’m going to say. She pulls in a quick breath. “Oh my gosh, Law. This is it, isn’t it?” She’s so thrown that I’m not expounding that she glides right over the part about Carlie getting fired.
I tilt my head at her. “Ivy, nothing’s going to change about our?—”
She laughs sharply and interrupts me, shaking her head. “Stop right there, Law, because everything is about to change. Don’t feel bad.” Her voice sounds shaky, though, and I hate that. “It would’ve been the same for me with …” She doesn’t finish, and I don’t know if she was going to say Caleb or Malcolm. “It was always going to change when you met the right person. Or when I do.”
“Yeah.” It seems like so little when we’ve been friends for so long. Eight years, almost a full decade. But she’s exactly right. Carlie is going to be my best friend now, and I want her to be. “Horrible time for me to dump you like this.” I try to make the pronouncement light, and it gets a chuckle out of her.
“I shouldn’t have run away from Nashville,” she says, looking down at the couch. Her hands are half covered by the long sleeves, a sure sign that Ivy is pulling in on herself. “I know better.”
“I needed you,” I remind her.
She shakes her head. “No, you don’t. I see all my clients remotely, and I could’ve helped you just as well without picking up and following you across a few states. I wouldn’t have hurt Caleb like this, and I would’ve eventually gotten used to seeing Malcolm around.” She puts her face in her hand, and I move to sit next to her on the couch.
“You don’t have to be perfect, Ivy. Leaving Malcolm was hard, and I can’t blame you for wanting to just walk away.”
“I’m supposed to know better,” she says into her hand. “To be better.”
I lean back. “Tell me about why you hold yourself to a higher standard than everyone else.” I imitate the breezy way she always says this stuff to me.
She drops her hand and glares at me. “Don’t life-coach me, Law.”
I try not to grin. “Someone needs to.”
“You’re not certified.” But her shoulders have relaxed the slightest bit, and a smile threatens.
“So you can dish it out but you can’t take it.”
She rolls her eyes. “I have to be an example,” she finally says.
“You need to be you—the genuine, authentic you. People will relate to you more if you show you’re human and you make mistakes.” I can’t even keep a straight face as I parrot her words back to her.
She shoves me in the shoulder. “Alright, enough of that. I give, I give.” She sighs and leans back against the couch with me. “I’m going to be alright. I bought a new notebook. I’ll have this solved and journaled out by this evening.” She winks at me.
I chuckle and reach over to take her hand in mine, squeezing it. “The change in our friendship isn’t positive or negative, Ivy.”
She shakes her head at me, and despite more of her advice being given back to her, there’s a sheen to her eyes. She squeezes my hand back. “I know, Law.”
Her emotions are likely heightened by all that’s been happening the last few days, but it makes the shift in our relationship feel that much heavier. It’s not something I would change. I’ve fallen completely in love with Carlie Gallagher. But as Ivy would tell me, humans always have a hard time adapting to change.
I’m going to miss this, even if I want the next chapter more than anything in the world.