one less lonely girl

 

Dan was loaded down with groceries. He'd picked up more than he imagined. Evidently. And there was Ivy standing in the park near the apartment complex.

"What are you doing here?" He winced hard thinking she was the worst to keep up with. At least, she was wearing a mask, and he wasn't. All he'd wanted at the moment was fresh air. It had been a rather long hour or so. He'd co-signed for Micah to get an apartment here.

"You didn't tell me you were getting groceries," Ivy sounded as if that would have been the perfect outing and he'd ignored her completely. As if he were the worst roommate ever.

"I wasn't intending to," He shrugged. "I needed to give Micah a lift back to work so while I was there I just picked up a few things." He walked on then, hoping she would follow but he doubted it.

"Micah?" She sounded angry as she hugged herself hard and followed as if she'd been left out again.

"Yes," Dan sighed. "Micah and Iona are moving in." He told her it was a studio in the basement of the apartment complex. 

"That sounds awful," she pushed the button to the elevator and it opened. They both got in.

"Well, they don't have much and he thinks it'll be better this way. At least for Iona. Her brother and his girlfriend had a baby girl and they need space, and he's trying to get Iona to quit at the grocery store."

"But why?"

"Diabetic. juvenile diabetes," Dan clarified. "Micah is working at the lab now at the hospital and still a shelver at night at the grocery store. He's worried she'll get COVID."

"I didn't know she was diabetic," Ivy shrugged as if they might be good friends. After all, it was Iona and Micah that found Ivy and helped her get back to safety while in the Black Hills. "How do you know him, anyway?"

They'd made it to their floor. She took one of the lighter plastic bags. 

"I knew him at school. He was at the Uni for a while," Dan told her they weren't best friends, but he was sure Micah needed someone who could help him get their own place.

"You're just an all-around nice guy, aren't you?" She made it sound like a bad thing.

"I guess I can't help it," he went to put the milk and eggs in the fridge.

That's when she mentioned her archnemesis Gabby. "Do you know her?"

He shook his head, no.

"I know I shouldn't be this way, but I still can't stand her," Ivy went on to say that Gabby was married.

"Is that what bothers you the most?" He brought her a bottle of juice.

"Maybe," her dark eyes looked up at him as if she was full of troubles. "Really, I thought we were friends, but I know she didn't like the fact that I used to date her ex-boyfriend even if she said she didn't." Ivy's heart-shaped face was in a pout, even apple juice wasn't going to help. "She lives here in the building, you know, and..and so does Will."

"I see," Dan nodded as if evidently this was what was bothering her, the past. "Well, I'm sure they have their own troubles too." 

She looked at him blankly as if he was no help at all. 

"Look, Iona and Micah are moving in tomorrow. I promised them dinner," Dan asked her if she would help.

Ivy nodded. 

Dan couldn't say which troubled him more about Ivy. When she talked too much or not at all.