Narrowing my eyes, I still can’t believe the words coming from her mouth. “She’s your friend.”
“Just saying.” She waves her hand like it’s nothing.
How anyone can say something like that about a friend is beyond me, but I’m pretty sure Ivy’s attitude goes deeper than Snow. Guess we’ll hash it all out now. This fight has been a longtime coming, so this is it—today is the day. I can’t live like this anymore, with her constantly berating me for shit I haven’t done—or things she’s “perceived” I’ve done. It’s too much. After a while, it can wear a man down, and I’m ready for answers.
“You’ve been a real bitch lately,” I hiss at her, closing the door to lessen the noise. “What’s your problem?”
“What’s my problem?” She has the audacity to point at herself, like she’s “Little Miss Perfect.”
“Yeah, what’s your fucking malfunction?” I snarl, my voice growing louder.
“My problem is you won’t commit.” Ivy sits up in bed, tossing the covers aside. “You’re hardly around, and you ignore me half the time, then you run off whenever Snow is having a fit.”
“What the fuck? I mean, if you need me to break it down for you, I will.” I start by counting everything off on my fingers. “I work, which requires me to travel to the city. I ignore you because any time I try to talk to you, it ends up in an argument. And you leave at night to go out, though where you’re going is a mystery to me. And you knew going into this that I didn’t want to get married. You told me you were fine with it.”
“I thought it would change,” she snaps, slamming her hand against the bed.
“Sometimes people do change their minds. Where are you going at night? I’m an open book, but what about you, Ivy?”
She looks guilty. No fucking way. I mean, I had an idea, but—No. Fucking. Way.
“You’re cheating on me?” I ask, my mind reeling.
She looks away and doesn’t say anything.
“Because I won’t commit to you, you go out and fuck another dude? And then you come back to me, and you expect me to commit?” Tossing my hands out to the side, I’m fucking pissed. Fed up. I can’t believe this shit.
“At least he wants to commit to me,” she hisses, glaring at me like I’ve done something wrong.
Crossing the room in three strides, I pull a small box out of a dresser drawer, and her eyes go wide.
“Then you don’t need this.” I open it to show her the ring inside. I told her I never wanted to marry, but I would have given it to her. Until we started fighting, then I began to reconsider.
“What the hell?” she shrieks as I toss the ring out the open window.
“I was going to change for you. I was going to ask you because I wanted to make you happy. But when we started fighting so much, I started to doubt my feelings. I was hoping we would get back on track. But not now.” Staring her straight in the eyes, I motion to the door. “Get out.”
“Wait,” she shouts, scrambling off the bed.
“I’ve screwed up too many times in my life. But I wanted to do right by you. Seems it’s not going to work out that way. Get. Out.”
“But Shane—”
“No,” I say, lifting a hand and cutting her off. Nothing she says to me now will change my mind. “I’m taking a shower. Be gone by the time I’m out. I’m done.” I gesture between us as she moves toward me. “We’re done.”
I slam the bathroom door shut and turn on the water, allowing the spray to get as hot as I can stand. I need to relax.
It’s already been a hell of a morning.
I can’t believe she’s been cheating on me. I’ve made that mistake before and got my daughter Timber out of it, but after that, I was faithful, even when I wasn’t happy. I couldn’t put someone else through that. Anne didn’t deserve that, even if at the time she was a cold-hearted bitch. No one deserves to be cheated on.
Ivy knew all of this from the get-go—knew how I felt. I can’t do it. I can’t be with her if I can’t trust her. That’s what happened with me and Anne—we lost trust in one another. I realize I sound like a hypocrite, but I was young and stupid.
Ivy is young—she’ll be okay.
Being single has got to be better than this shit.
I take a quick shower, needing to make sure the argument didn’t wake up Snow, though it’s likely even Jimmy down the road heard us. Great.