“Ivy, I have realized that I was moving too fast with this. Before it’s too late, I have to stop this wedding…this relationship.” Grey looked at her for a moment and realized that she was just too emotional to follow him. As horrible as the entire situation was, he had to be direct with her in order for her to understand what he was truly trying to say. “No matter how I try to explain it, when it comes down to it, I don’t want to be with you anymore. I’m sorry, but I just want my life back.”
“I didn’t ask you for your life in the first place.” Ivy’s heart was broken. She could barely make eye contact with him. Who was this person? Where was Grey?
Now that the hard part had been said, Grey felt it easier to play offense. He pushed his point home. “At least you’ll have more time to focus on you.”
“I can’t believe that you are doing this to me,” Ivy said with her eyes close to push back the tears.
“Don’t play the victim here, Ivy. You’ve been plotting to get me to yourself for years. Now, you want to act like I chased you when you know that it was the other way around.” Grey let the words slip from his tongue before he had time to think about what he was saying. Woops… They both stood stunned for a moment unable to speak or barely breath.
Why was he doing this to her? She didn’t deserve this. Not this! Ivy simply could not understand and in his drunken haze neither could Grey for a minute.
“It’s not enough for you break off our engagement, is it? No, you have to go and break off our friendship too,” Ivy said realizing that she had nothing else to say to him. She straightened up her face and regained her composure.
Why can’t she see that I’m doing her a favor, Grey reasoned with his conscious quietly? Just let go. Just let go!
Outraged, Ivy turned on her heals and headed for the door trembling in disbelief. “Alright, Grey. I’ll give you what you want. Goodbye,” she said trying to hold back the storm of tears she felt welling up in her eyes.
“Wait, Ivy,” Grey said trying to stop her! He didn’t mean to say it like that! He didn’t want to hurt her anymore than he had to. He felt all of it, but he didn’t want to hurt her like this. God! What was he thinking? He was so damned perplexed by his own feelings, he could barely think of hers.
As Grey grabbed her arm, he felt Ivy swing around and with her open sweaty palm and slap him across his left eye. Stunned, he stopped. That had never happened before. But who was he kidding? She had every reason in the world to be angry.
Ivy had broken her only remaining promise and now found herself weak with disappointment. Besides the tears that she could no longer control, she also felt incredibly betrayed. Forgetting her coat, she barged out of his house into the cold night air and got into her car. Before Grey could make it to her, she pulled off into the streets at top speed.
“I’m so sorry, Ivy,” Grey whispered exhausted by their argument as he leaned against his doorway. He only hoped that he had done the right thing by her, finally.
Chapter Two: Someone New
Chapter 2
SOMEONE NEW
“For the last time, I am not engaged anymore,” Ivy screamed to Trina as she stepped out of the shower. “So, I wish that you would stop telling everyone that I’m getting married. The wedding is off.” She heard herself say the words, but she could hardly believed them.
“Girl, y’all are going to get back together. It’s just a lover’s quarrel. Everyone has them.” Trina said self-assured.
It had been three weeks since Ivy and Grey had spoken. Ivy had marked each day on her calendar like she was counting down some dreadful sentencing. She had received no phone calls, emails or letters. And she had not tried to contact him in any way either. It was now painfully obvious that Grey’s outcry to be free had been genuine and that their engagement had been broken, but there was something she was holding on to that just couldn’t be let go so easily. Hope!
However, Ivy dare not be too devastated around Trina, because it wouldn’t help things if Grey did come crawling back. No doubt she would take him back. Besides, she hadn’t told her family it was off, and she hadn’t told the bridesmaids they had wasted their deposits on dresses they would never wear. So as far as she was concerned she and Grey had just run into a few minor problems.
For mental reassurance, Ivy had retired her ring to its original box in the back of her underwear drawer to guarantee that if Grey didn’t come return to her, she wouldn’t be forced to take it off in a fit of rage and launch it down the street. It seemed to be a recurring thought lately when she was in rare form, but when she returned to her sanity she would always remember that it was a perfect diamond worth over twenty thousand dollars. Obviously it was not the type of thing to just throw away. When she was alone, she would pull out the ring and slip it on her finger. Still in awe of its brilliance and more important its meaning,
