the long winter into a cold gray

Ivy thought she might be getting back in shape. She was trying. Of course, losing the pounds was like watching the snow melt. Neither had no place to go. Or so it felt.

And Jay just looked exhausted most days. She thought it might have been the COVID. But he wouldn't speak of it. He didn't say how long he was in the hospital with oxygen. Nor how many days he was getting his energy back through rehabilitation. But he never complained and he went to work. Still, he was a mystery to her. She was thinking he always would be. And she didn't know how to change that.

"But are you telling him what you went through, while he was gone?" Dan's words stung her deep when all the while she was trying to show she still thought about him when she came over with some of his favorite coffee one afternoon. Of course, she wanted him to see the baby too, but Dan seemed distant around the baby. He wouldn't touch her. 

"I don't want Jay to know," Ivy said about the matter.

"Well, you might need to see a counselor of some kind," Dan shrugged and thanked her for the coffee beans. 

Ivy knew she shouldn't have brought it up so she asked him if there was anything new.

He mentioned his roommate which put her off. That was not supposed to happen. "Why would you?" She was a little smug as if she would never approve.

"Because he needed a place," Dan said Jory didn't need much. He was quiet and slept at decent hours. "I hardly know he's here," but he said they ate meals together and Jory liked to tidy up when he could.

Of course, she'd been none of those things when she lived here. Not even now. She hated dealing with dirty disposable diapers and no way was she cooking these days. 

All the while she was hoping he'd met someone and was spending his days with that someone as if early spring had already arrived, but no nothing exciting was happening in Dan's life. In fact, Ivy was certain it was even more boring now with this new roommate. 

"Did you just find someone completely like you?" She made a face of disgust.

He almost smirked. "Try not to worry too much about me, I'm doing fine," Dan said. "Just think about Hope and you and of course Jay."

Ivy nodded. She knew she should, but it was always easy to figure out what other people should be doing instead of her own life.