a friend of a friend of mine

 

Slater didn't think he could be any help with the Ivy situation, but he knew it was on Jay's mind. They were out at the mega center hoping to find some cheap eggs, but there weren't any. So they were filling up on nuts, dry beans, and chocolate. 

"I'd hate for him to give up, you know," Jay said about Dan.

"But you gave up," Slater reminded him as Jay was digging through the containers of strawberries. He finally settled on the blueberries. 

"I know," he nodded. "I won't say it was a mistake, because it really wasn't. I just thought she would be better off with him. And I still don't think I'm wrong. Her mom always liked him. After all, Dan is a friend of the family."

"Gosh, you seem to know a lot about him," Slater said. "Is he a friend of  yours?"

Jay shook his head. "She talked about him a lot when we were together before we decided it was over."

"Did it bother you when she talked about him?" Slater knew it had to hurt, but Jay only sighed.

"At least she was talking then," he said. "Now, I dunno. I thought things wouldn't be so bad, you know, this is her third kid."

"It can be bad," Slater told him about a co-worker he knew who lived in Denver. "His sister  was so bad off that she just became the homeless person and then a snowplow ran over her."

"Don't stay stuff like that," Jay said. 

"Well, it's true," Slater told him. "She can not be left alone."

Jay nodded. "That's what I'm going to tell Dan."