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Well, what the actual fuck was that all about? Ivy watched as Milo stormed from her bedroom. Maybe not stormed, as much as, walked sadly away. He didn’t slam the door. Milo was polite even when he was mad at her and, for some reason, that pissed her off even more. 

She got up and stomped out to the kitchen for coffee. Someone had left just enough in the coffeepot to fill her mug. Normally that would make her day, but Milo’s words had her feeling all twitchy inside.

Judging by the silence in the apartment, none of her many roommates were home. Relieved to be alone, Ivy slumped onto the sofa with her steaming mug. His words kept playing over in her mind. He wanted all of her. What the hell did that mean? 

“What was all the yelling about?” Mai emerged from one of the other bedrooms wearing an oversized hockey jersey, her hair a nest of black tangles. 

“Sorry about that. Oh, and I drank the last of the coffee.”

Mai frowned and put the kettle on for tea. She turned to face Ivy with her back leaning against the counter, her tan legs crossed at the ankles. Her pose was casual and yet the way Mai was studying her had Ivy dreading the rest of this conversation. She had not even begun to untangle her feelings for Milo, and she certainly wasn’t ready to discuss them out loud.

“Fun night?” Ivy asked with a nod toward the jersey Mai wore. Maybe she could deflect the attention away from her and Milo.

Mai grinned and put a finger to her lips. “He’s still asleep.”

Ivy laughed and made room on the couch for Mai. 

“Was that Milo’s voice I heard?”

“Yep.” Ivy really didn’t feel like getting into it, but Mai continued to stare her down until she cracked under the pressure. “He brought me home, and we fell asleep watching a movie.” Why did it feel like her mother caught her with a boy in her room? She had the sudden urge to hide behind the multitude of throw pillows covering the couch. She brought a hand to the side of her face. Her skin was hot to the touch. Good lord, was she blushing?

Mai raised a single, perfectly groomed eyebrow. “And then you two woke up and started shouting at each other because you hate it when your roommate gets a good night’s sleep?”

Ivy winced. “I am sorry about that.”

Mai peered at her over her mug. “So, did you break up?”

Ivy choked on her coffee. “We weren’t together.” She wiped little specks of coffee off her legs with her hand to avoid Mai’s gaze.

“You could’ve fooled me, and pretty much everyone else.” She raised her eyebrows suggestively and blew on her tea. Her mug proclaimed she was fucking lovely in fancy script on the side. It was true, but Ivy didn’t want to have this conversation regardless of how lovely her roommate was. In fact, she planned to spend the rest of the day not thinking about Milo at all.

“Well, we weren’t. And I guess we’re not friends anymore either, so that should clear up the confusion.” She stood to go hide in her room, but Mai was not ready to let her off the hook yet.

“Why are you two not friends anymore?”

Ivy blew out a long sigh, stirring the wisps of hair that had fallen in her face. “I guess he thought we could be more than friends. And we can’t. So… that’s the end of that.”

Mai made a skeptical humming noise, but didn’t push any further. 

“Enjoy your hockey player,” Ivy tossed the words over her shoulder as she retreated to her room away from Mai’s appraising stare. She flung herself onto her bed and tried to forget every conversation she had in the past twenty-four hours. The last thing she needed was for Milo to turn into every other guy she dated. Why was he hellbent on ruining a perfectly good friendship?

Ivy groaned and rolled over, wrapping her self righteous anger around her like a hot, prickly blanket. She was right. They were better as friends. She definitely wasn’t attracted to Milo, no matter how sweet he was to her. Ivy hated sweet. And she definitely was not breathing in the smell of him on her pillows. That would be weird.

This was fine. She was fine. And she did not need Milo fucking things up.

Featured Image by Toa Heftiba via Unsplash