CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“I hear you had a scuffle with a hill yesterday and the hill won.”
“It won, all right.” Word spreads fast. I’ve been lying in bed for the past half hour, trying to psyche myself up to have a look at my ankle before attempting to hobble to the bathroom. I wouldn’t even have answered my phone if I hadn’t seen Bridget’s mom’s number on the display.
“I’m bruised and battered, but luckily still in one piece,” I add. The bruises started to form on my knees a few hours after getting home yesterday. I’d iced my ankle and lounged in bed, talking to both Hugh and Bridget on the phone before falling asleep early and somehow managing to sleep for nearly twelve hours.
“Poor girl.” Marla makes a tutting sound. “What you need is some good old-fashioned mothering. Bridget is with David for the weekend, so I’m going to come get you and you’ll spend today with me. You can sleep here and decide if you feel like going to work in the morning. We’ll watch movies and eat junk, and you can tell me about this handsome new guy Bridget keeps mentioning.”
I clench my eyes shut as tears threaten. My throat is so thick I have to swallow twice, and in that time Marla says, “You still there, honey?”
I clear my throat. “Yeah, I’m here. Just wondering how you knew that’s exactly what I needed.”
She laughs softly. “Let’s call it mother’s intuition.”
An hour later, Marla arrives to whisk me away. When I got off the phone, I’d invited Celia to come along, even though I knew her answer would be something in the variety of an eye roll or a snarky comment. I got both. I let her negativity slide, grateful to know I was about to have twenty-four glorious Celia-free hours.
Marla makes lunch when we arrive at her place, and we curl up on the couch with our food andBridget Jones’ Diary, which we’ve seen at least a hundred times. “There’s comfort in familiarity,” Marla says as she hits play.
Can’t argue with that. Being here in the Higgins’ house, even without Bridget, makes me feel more relaxed than I have in a long time. I push all thoughts of Celia and work and everything else out of my mind. Well, not quiteeverythingelse; I can’t help the occasional thought of Hugh, which leads to a bit of zoning out now and then as I fantasize about us together, but honestly who could blame me?
It must be during one of those zoning out moments I fall asleep, because the next thing I know I’m waking up sprawled on the couch. The blanket that was draped over Marla’s and my laps is now tucked around me. The room is dark except for the lamp over the rocking chair in the corner where Marla is sitting with a book.
“I blame the pain killers,” I murmur, rubbing my eyes.
Marla sets her book aside. “It’s not the first time you’ve fallen asleep on that couch and I’m sure it won’t be the last.” She’s right; Bridget and I have often fallen asleep during movies or on lazy days when we were hanging out. There’s just something about this couch.
Marla comes to sit beside me, putting her arm around me. I snuggle into her, breathing in her light floral scent, which I know from years of experience isn’t perfume but a dab of essential oil. My own mother always smelled like clean laundry. To this day, I can’t catch a whiff of the brand of detergent or fabric softener we used when I was little without getting emotional.
“What’s on your mind, Ivy Girl?” Marla asks.
I sigh. “Everything is changing. And yet nothing has changed. Does that make sense?”
Her cheek brushes the top of my head as she nods. “Mmhmm. Want to tell me about it?”
“I miss Bridget,” I say in a small, pathetic voice. I sound like a little kid who’s lost her favorite toy. “I feel childish and silly saying that, but it’s true. I miss her. I didn’t expect either of us to stay single forever. I knew one or both of us would experience big changes in our lives eventually, but…”
“You thought you’d be first?” Marla asks.
I’d never given it much consideration, but I suppose if I had actually thought ahead and pictured our futures, I’d have been the one to find love first. “Bridget has always said I’m the romantic out of the two of us. She’s also said my high expectations would likely be the reason I’d stay single.”
“Do you agree?”
“Maybe? I guess. I’ve been single for so long, I’ve built up the image of the perfect guy and the perfect relationship in my mind. Now, without meaning to, those expectations are so high they’re completely unrealistic.” I’ve never said any of this out loud, not even to Bridget. I think it’s easier to say it here and now in this semi-dark room, being held in the arms of someone who loves me, feeling safe and secure.
“What about your‘hot Scot’as Bridget calls him?”
I smile at the mention of Hugh. “Hugh is great. And yet in a way, he’s part of the problem.”
Marla eases me away from her and I sit up all the way, shifting to face her. She looks at me imploringly. “He hasn’t treated you badly, has he?”
“No,” I say quickly. “No, nothing like that. It’s just things are sort of up in the air and he might be going back to Scotland after Christmas. We’ve agreed to take things one day at a time and just have fun, but it goes against everything in my nature. I’m afraid of getting in too deep and having my heart broken.”
“If he does go, it won’t be forever, right? He’d be back?”
“Eventually, yeah. I don’t want to do long distance, though, and neither does he.” I sigh again. “Part of me thinks no commitment would be good right now because I need to focus on myself, figure a few things out.” I don’t go into specifics about what those things are. I haven’t had a chance to talk to Bridget about where my head is at regarding my job. “The other part of me thinks I’m not built for a fling. I just want what Bridget has—a relationship I know is going somewhere.”
“If you’re giving it this much thought, I think it’s safe to say there’s already at leastsomefeelings involved,” Marla says. “The thing is, Ivy, there are no guarantees in life. Sometimes you have to take your pleasure where you can get it. For however long you can get it.” Her gaze drifts across the room to the mantelpiece, where a variety of framed photos sit in a neat row. At the center, the largest of them all is a picture of Marla and Mr. Higgins on their wedding day. They’re young and happy, and from the way they’re looking at each other with big goofy smiles, it’s obvious they’re madly in love.
