My dad thought I was pressuring her, taking things too fast when she wasn’t ready. But he just didn’t get it. How could I possibly have been rushing things when we’d known each other since we were kids? What didn’t she know about me? I never held back with her. She was aware of how much I loved her. How I’d do anything for her. Even hang around with Tim if it meant I could see her outside of school.
Again, my dad voiced his disapproval when he realized what was going on. He saw the way Tim looked at Cassidy, how it was killing him to have to be around us. My dad knew that Cassidy was coming between us, and he didn’t like it. He knew that neither of us could say no to her. She was the one pulling the strings, making us jump, pitting us against each other, even if it wasn’t her intent. I got the girl, but I ended up losing my best friend over it.
And to think that I might have lost Cassidy because of Tim makes my heart ache. She held on to that baby because it was his, not mine. She gave up her life to protect his child. She refused to treat her cancer because of the life they’d created. She withered away to nothing, letting me think she was doing it for me, when the whole time she was doing it for someone else, someone with deep ties to the both of us.
Shit like that messes with a person’s head. I’ve tried not to dwell on it since I found out about Cassidy and Tim, but seeing him again after all these years brought my anger raging to the surface. I couldn’t hold back, and seeing him with his hands on Ivy, thinking he could take away everything that’s ever belonged to me, was the last straw.
Why can’t my father understand that? Why is he being so hard on me for what I think was a perfectly natural reaction under the circumstances? I didn’t beat Tim to a pulp like I’d wanted to. We both walked away. Nobody ended up in jail. No one pressed charges. It’s over and done with.
Or is it? The longer my dad draws this out, the more irritated I get. It’s not going to end well, especially if Tim and I happen to cross paths in the meantime. He better stay the fuck away from me.
“Earth to Eric,” Ivy giggles, running her thumb softly along mine. “We’re waiting.”
“Yeah, man. There’s no way I’m letting this food get cold after I slaved away all morning getting it ready,” Will mutters.
I open my eyes to see them both staring at me anxiously. “Sorry,” I apologize, hanging my head. “I just realized how much I have to be thankful for, and it kind of blew me away.”
“Aww, baby,” Ivy says, getting up out of her chair to wrap her arms around me and giving me a quick kiss. “I love you so much.”
“All right, if you two are going to get all smoochy, I’m out of here,” Will whines, yanking his napkin off his lap and throwing it on his plate.
“Relax, Will. If you wanted a kiss, you should’ve just said so,” Ivy quips, grabbing his face and planting a big ol’ smack-a-roo in the middle of his forehead.
“Ugh,” Will groans as he wipes his brow with the back of his hand.
“You’re welcome,” Ivy responds, making me laugh. She smiles at me, running her hand across my shoulders before retaking her seat.
“Can we just get on with it?” Will mumbles. “My spinach casserole’s starting to congeal.”
We rejoin hands, and I decide to speak from the heart. “Dear God, thank you for this food. Please watch over and protect Ivy and the baby, and if you have a minute, be sure to bring a plague of destruction upon our enemies. Amen.”
“Amen,” Will says heartily.
But Ivy squeezes my hand. “Eric, c’mon.”
“What? He’s right,” Will jumps in. “We’re going to need all the help we can get.”
“I just don’t believe in putting bad karma out into the world,” Ivy replies, fiddling with the handle of her beer mug filled with apple juice. “It always comes back to haunt you.”
“But we have to be prepared,” I reason with her. “After hearing what went down with Lauren yesterday, anything goes.”
“We need to come up with a plan,” Will proclaims, stabbing the serving fork into a piece of dark meat.
“So you’re really not going to finish the screenplay?” I ask, turning to Ivy for confirmation.
“I don’t see what good it would do.” She shrugs, scooping a spoonful of sweet potatoes onto her plate.
“Short term, it’d get Lauren off our back, but long term, it’d make Tim look like a giant dick. And I don’t want to see that happen, for Ben’s sake,” Will admits, passing the cranberry sauce to me.
“I thought you’d be spending Thanksgiving with them,” I comment offhandedly, gauging his reaction.