Drudging through the ice and snow that had accumulated on the well-manicured lawn of her little campus, Ivy held on tightly to her black wool sailor coat and made her way anxiously to the dorms kicking herself with every stride for leaving her car parked inside the parking lot. It felt like hours of torture by the time she had finished her ten-minute hike and quickly entered into her dorm to shake off the excess snow and peal out of her clothes that seemed to be frozen to her body.
Awakened by the turn of the doorknob, Trina sat up in her bed. “Ivy, is that you?” she said turning on her lamp.
“Yeah, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you,” Ivy said taking her pajamas out of her drawer.
“It’s cool. Grey called you. He said call him back as soon as you get in. It sounded urgent.” Trina sniffed slightly.
“Yeah, I forgot my cell phone earlier. I figured he had called by now.” Silence. “Why are you in the bed so early?” Ivy asked noticing Trina’s red eyes.
“Kylan and I got into a fight, and I guess I just cried myself to sleep.”
“What are y’all into it over now?” They had only been dating one month and this had been their fourth argument at least.
“He was at the Mu mixer all over some other girl tonight. I thought that he and I were starting to get serious, especially after the other day at his place. You should have heard him going on about how fine I was then. But all he was trying to do was get in my pants, and I was too blind to see it.” Tears start to form in the sides of Trina’s eyes again.
“Oh, T. Don’t cry over him. He isn’t worth it, and you know it.” Ivy grabbed a napkin from her dresser and passed it to Trina.
“Easy for you to say…I slept with him that night at his house,” Trina said interrupting. She was sure that the news would stun Ivy since she had lied earlier in the week and said that she had turned him down cold.
Ivy paused. “Well, I see what all the tears are for.” She sat down on the side of Trina’ bed to try to comfort her. “It’ll be okay though. You just have to learn from this and move on.” In actuality she wanted to scold her friend for being so careless with her body, but she knew that this wasn’t the time. Besides, who was she to judge?
“I feel so stupid,” Trina said crying. “Truthfully, I wanted…no, I needed to hear the things he was saying the other night. Looking in his eyes, you would have sworn that he was sincere, but tonight, he was all over that freshman. I was so pissed off, girl. I just went over and threw punch all over him.”
Ivy laughed. “He deserved it, and you deserve better. But I don’t have to tell you that, do I?” There was a brief awkward silence.
“No, you don’t have to tell me.” Trina tried to smile for her friend. “Go and call Grey. I’ll be fine. I just realized that I really want to be back with Brooks. When we were together things were different.” Trina wiped her eyes.
“Brooks? You hated him. If you two weren’t fighting, you were about to.” Ivy liked Brooks as a person, but as a couple the two hadn’t made a good match.
“Say what you will, but I was happy,” Trina was content with her decision and had already made plans to reunite with her old flame.
“Alright. If you like, then I love it.” Ivy picked up her phone. “I’m going to go and call Grey.” She wondered if her advice had only made things worse.
The phone rang several times before Grey finally answered in a deep somber voice, “Hello,” he said looking down at his caller I.D. to see Ivy’s number.
“Hey, Trina said that you called earlier. I didn’t have my phone with me. What’s up?” Ivy said sitting back down on the couch in the common area.
“A lot.” He sighed heavily into the phone. “I really need to talk to you.” Grey tried to choose his words carefully. “I was hoping maybe that you could come over tonight. I know that it’s late, so if you don’t feel up to it, I’ll come to you.”
“What’s wrong?” Ivy sat up.
“What I need to say doesn’t need to be said over the phone.”
Ivy could sense the stress in his voice and stopped her questions. “Okay, I’ll be right over,” she said hanging up the phone.
*
Half an hour later, Ivy pulled up to River Estates Luxury Condo Community and buzzed Grey. Hundreds of thoughts flooded her mind as she drove to his place. Now she was about to get closure. The gates opened, and she drove silently through the streets until she arrived at his driveway. Hesitantly parking her car, she tried to fight the fatigue that overwhelmed her. Grey came to the front door and turned on his porch light signaling for her to come inside.
“God, what’s going on?” she said aloud softly.
Ivy crossed the threshold of Grey’s home. Without thought, she allowed him to take her coat as she walked into the foyer. She looked around in awe as always. Grey’s home had been decorated by a friend, who as a professional interior decorator out of Houston, Texas. The entire home had been lavishly decorated in black Armani Casa designs. It was modern and masculine. Every piece of furniture was an architectural art piece reminiscent of the Art Deco era of the 1930s. Even his foyer screamed aesthetic harmony with its clean lines, ultra elegant designs and attention to detail.
As Grey put her coat away, Ivy made her way to the living room where she noticed a single shot
