Dangerously Yours Till Eternity

Ivy continued walking.

She knew that hadn’t been just a figment of her imagination. They were watching her, she had known that for a long time. This had only just confirmed it.

Act normal, Ivy.

Nothing about this was strange at all. Nothing.

By the time she got back to the table, Elsa was wearing Chris’s jacket, leaving Chris in his light blue shirt.

“He is such a gentleman.” She said patting his shoulder lightly.

“Yeah.” Ivy replied, taking her seat.

“Let’s talk about your drawings again.” Chris said with a slight smile.

“Elsa’s singing inst–”

“It was when she was 16.” Elsa slammed her wine glass on the table and everyone at the table looked at her, even Jett as he cursed inaudibly under his breath.

“Oops, sorry.” She giggled, her eyes twinkling with drunken happiness.

“Water, Elsa?”

“No. As I was saying, it started with her first love. She was so cheesy.” Elsa laughed, throwing her head back while Ivy’s hand tightened around her wine glass, embarrassed.

“She confessed her feelings to him with her drawing and he rejected her. Plain flat out rejection. The funny thing is, she had spent months learning how to draw to confess her feelings. When he saw it, he was horrified. If you had seen it, you’d be horrified too.”

Jett chuckled lowly. “You do have some muchiness in you then.”

Ivy shrugged.

Well, everyone had an embarrassing past one time or the other in their lives.

No big deal.

She could feel Chris’s gaze on her but she refused to acknowledge it.

“How are you even listening? Aren’t you engrossed in work?” She slurred, taking another gulp from her glass.

“I heard ‘confessed feelings’ and–”

“Ohhhh, I’ve got one more. The wedding!”

Ivy’s eyes flew wide so fast, she almost choked on air.

“You n-need water.”

“No.” She protested, pushing the bottle away.

“The wedding was so crazy!”

This Elsa was going to ruin her.

Elsa didn’t know about what had truly happened that day but Ivy didn’t want anyone knowing that she was ever about to get married. Besides, she had made Elsa promise that she wouldn’t talk about it to anyone. Had the wedding eventually happened, it would have still stayed a secret.

That had been the plan from the beginning. The only reason it had made headlines was because she had been absent. Besides, after the debt had been settled, by some miracle – or more accurately, her mysterious husband’s power – the news had disappeared completely from the internet.

“You were both guests, right?” Chris asked, pouring himself the WineRed drink for the first time.

“Oh-oh-oh.” Elsa laughed. “You should know about thi–”

“Shoot!” Jett declared, standing up. “There is an emergency, we have to run.”

Elsa groaned in annoyance. “Work, againnn?”

But the news filled Ivy with utmost happiness.

Luck must be finding her irresistible today.

Red dress, thank you.

“Sorry Ladies.” Chris stood up too. “I’ll find a way to make it up to you.”

“Wait, I need to tell you about her we–” she slurred before she yawned again, slowly losing her battle against sleep.

Ivy stood up to pick Elsa up but she was having some difficulties. Chris came over again and picked her up easily in his arms.

Davies had close for the night, so Ivy would have to drive.

While Chris helped Elsa into the backseat of the car, Ivy said a ‘thank you’ and rushed into the driver’s seat.

She had to get far away from this man as much as possible, with all these heightened emotions that came with him being around.

His hand stopped the door before she could slam it shut.

Wo-oh! He was fast!

“Let me drive you ladies home.”

“I thought you said you had an erme–”

“Jett will handle it. I have to make sure that you are safe.” He said, his gaze pretty intentional. She couldn’t help but observe his brown eyes yet again. “Both of you, of course. You must know how much I love taking precautions.” He added with a chuckle.

The condom.

She wasn’t exactly sure why that had been the first thought that flashed through her mind but it had been it.

That night, he had laid her on the bed, pulled a condom from his drawers while he whispered the words ‘precautions, precautions’, trailing kisses down the crook of her neck.

She felt butterflies flutter in her stomach and she knew that with the dark light in the parking lot, she was only a moment away from pulling him into the car, all consequences be damm!

The surge of something risky flashed in her eyes, her hands tightened around the wheels.

His smile turned into a knowing smirk, like as if he could read every single thought, see every single picture that flashed into her mind.

Yet he looked so calm and in control, like she was the one overthinking everything. Like all of the double meanings of his words were things her mind just came up with and he hadn’t meant any of it.

Elsa murmured gibberish in her sleep and whatever spell she was under broke instantly.

How dare she think that about the person Elsa was pursuing? Her stomach twisted in unpleasant painful knots.

“No.”

She slammed the door shut immediately but she didn’t drive away yet and he didn’t leave either.

She was a bundle of nerves.

Why was she finding it so hard to control herself?

Then slowly, she whined down the car’s tinted window.

“Sorry about that. Just that we are running late and all. We had a great time. Elsa will text you in the morning.” The words rushed out of her mouth.

With that, she drove off, restraining herself from looking back at him through her side mirror.

He wasn’t flirting with her. He was interested in Elsa and Elsa was interested in him. He was just a one night stand! She was even certain that what happened between them meant no big deal to him.

She groaned, tightening her hands around the wheels again, as she rolled down the window more, so the breeze could help her cool down, also so that Elsa wouldn’t feel nauseated in her sleep.

When they got home, she helped Elsa to her bed.

She tried to feed her a glass of water but Elsa was too drunk and she was dead asleep.

Ivy washed up, then settled in bed next to Elsa, thinking about how today had gone.

“The movies are the ones I enjoyed the most, then the beach. The restaurant wasn’t that bad too except for the time when you got drunk and started spilling all my secrets.” Ivy said, tucking the strands of hair that had fallen over Elsa’s face behind her ear.

“You must have had too much to drink tonight. You’ve never done that before.” She said thoughtfully as she pulled the blanket over her.

“I kind of like the fact that you are drunk and asleep since that mean you wouldn’t be talking my ears off about your Sexy greek god.”

Ivy paused and Elsa’s light breathing filled the silence.

Ivy sighed, falling back on the bed.

“You almost told them about my wedding, Elsa. You promised you’d never do that.”

Goosebumps laced her skin at the memories of the strangest wedding ever, which unfortunately, had been her own.

Then she thought about what had happened in the parking lot.

She let out a frustrated sound, facepalming.

“Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! What is wrong with you, Ivy?! I’m legit not going to be able to sleep today because I’ll keep thinking about this all through the night. And when I’m 50 and I’m stinky rich, while I’m on one of my many private yatchs, I’d still remember this night. It will ruin all the beauty sleeps and naps I’ll ever have.”

Her heart weighed down with sadness then, “I hate keeping secrets from you. I know you love Chris so much but I wish you’ll stop inviting me to go to places with you when he is there. I’ll do anything for your happiness, Elsa, but when you do that inviting thing and I see him, it’s really hard for me too.”

She paused, listening to Elsa’s light breathing again before she continued.

“I have feelings for him, you know. I’m trying my best to get over it because it is so wrong and it is such an obstacle.”

Her heart ached terribly  and suddenly she felt like, if she could just say it right now, maybe the secret wouldn’t weigh so heavily on her any longer.

After all, Elsa was asleep.Copyright Nôv/el/Dra/ma.Org.

“Your Chris is…” She paused, fighting an internal battle before she finally gave in. “My Handsome Man.”

There was silence for some moments.

What a relief.

But all that relief turned into sheer terror real quick, when Ivy turned to her side, only to see Elsa, very awake and staring right at her.