Ivy's Twisted Vine Redux by Latrivia Nelson (books to read for beginners .TXT) 📕

had already called Ivy and told her exactly what they had seen and what they thought, which is why he had spent the last two hours at his office trying to think of a way to explain the situation to her without loosing her in the process.

As he walked through the doorway of the bedroom, he seemed unsurprised at the junky room. Not bothering to move his clothes, he sat in a chair across the room and took off his jacket.

“Hello,” he said in a scratchy low voice, quietly watching her carefully.

“Don’t you dare try to be civil with me! What in the hell is going on?” Ivy asked with her lips twisted and fists balled up tightly into two small knots.

“What have you already heard?” He looked up at her and saw that she had been crying. Great. He had already lost the argument.

“I’ve already heard everything about you and your little whore.”

“So why are you asking me what’s going on?” He wished instantly that he could have taken his words back. He was messing everything up for himself. He had to stick to being humble. It was his best bet out of this.

“Don’t you dare try to be smug with me!” Her voice screeched as she launched the photo album sitting beside her on the table. “Why are you cheating on me?” Her voice cracked and solemn bitter tears ran down her cheeks again.

“I’m sorry.” He kept his voice calm. “It was the most stupid thing that I could have ever done and if Emerald hadn’t caught me, maybe I would have gone through with it.” He tried to avoid her eyes. “In nearly eight months, haven’t you missed my touch at all, the intimacy that we used to share?” There was no reply. “Well I did. I missed you, but I was too damned afraid to touch you regardless as to what the doctors said.”

“Don’t give me that bullshit,” she said enraged by his excuse. “I’ve begged for you to come to me, but you always flinch away…like I’m a leper.” She backtracked. “Wait. Are you saying you didn’t actually have sex with that woman?”

“No, ” he said playing on her naivety. “Don’t tell me they told you that I had already touched her?”

“They didn’t say one way or the other. They did make it know that whatever you were doing was totally inappropriate.” She could feel herself breaking. Hold! Hold! She pleaded with herself.

“I just felt rejected,” Grey said deciding that the best course of action would be to try to make her feel as though it was her fault.

“Rejected! I’ve never once rejected you, even when I should have! I’ve given you one hundred percent when you deserved nothing. Now, you sit here wanting to blame me for your mistakes. You bastard! ”

Stunned by her anger, he looked up at her as she stood trembling with fear and anger. Wrong move. He retraced his steps. “There is no excuse. I know that now,” he said letting his headrest in his hands. He dare not look at her again. “And you’re right, it’s my fault.”

There was a long silence before either of the two could continue. “So every time that I’m not there you’re just going to cheat on me?” Ivy said feeling the blood rushing straight to her head making her dizzy and nauseated.

Ivy had an epiphany. “How many times have you cheated on me?” She breathed heavily and stared at him confounded. Even though he tried hard to deny his infidelity, Ivy was sure that it had been there a while.

“Once.” He looked down at the ground hiding his lying eyes.

“You fucking liar!” She walked up to him pulled up his chin up digging her nails into his skin and made him look at her. “How many times?”

“It’s irrelevant.” He pulled away. “The point is that I will not do it anymore. It’s not

worth losing you.”

“You can’t even count how many times!” She paced the room enraged. “Oh my God! I have been in hell since the day I let that man touch me, and you and I weren’t even together when it happened.” She gathered her thoughts. “All these months, I’ve been stricken with grief and plagued with depression, because I thought I had wronged you. And by accident it finally comes out that you’ve been wronging me for God only knows how long.” Her tears dried. For some reason, she no longer felt pity for herself or for him.

“What do you want me to say?” Grey finally stood up and tried to calm her down. As she pulled away from him, he grabbed her firmly nearly crossing the lines of abuse. “Listen to me.” He looked in her eyes. “I have been very lonely. It’s not easy going from making love every night to one woman to months without any physical contact, regardless of why.” He prepared himself to lie. “This was the only time, and it will not happen again. You must believe me. Give me that much credit.” He felt guilt in his stomach but knew that it was best to just keep the past in the past. Not to mention, he was treading in new water with Ivy. He had never seen her so damned uncontrollable and inconsolable.

Pulling away again, Ivy looked at the disheveled man in his wrinkled gray suit and tired eyes. Suddenly, he didn’t appear to be the man of her dreams. He was just a man, if that. His promises carried no weight and his tongue carried no truth. She could see in his eyes and hear in his voice that who ever that woman was, she was not the only one that he had been with during their relationship. Yet, she couldn’t tell whether he was being honest about her being the last. She had torn up his house and snooped through his things only to fine that all the evidence that she needed lie in his face and his heart.

“If this ever