Page 7 of Start With A Slap

It took Ivy a full weekto shake the nagging memory of her disastrous brush with Sever Mark, and the unwelcome thrall that he held over her. For the first few nights, her dreams brought it back, but a packed schedule and a hefty workload served to overpower it. TheNever Happenedmantra got easier to believe with each passing day. Whenever it popped into her mind, she would pop it right back out with a quickNever happened, wasn’t me.By Tuesday, her visit to The Fortress of Fuckitude had been effectively scrubbed from her frontal lobe.

It was on this day that Jason found her in the office records room and ruined everything by asking, “Did you call my father?”

Ivy almost dropped the stack of binders she was carrying. Her arms felt numb. He was trying to keep his voice down, but she could see he wanted to shout it as an accusation. “...What?”

“Did you call him?”

“What? No!”Never happened!“Why?”

“He left a message.” His voice tremored as he spoke. “Wants to meet you over a ‘nice dinner’. He says a ‘little birdie’ told him I got married.”

Wasn’t me!“Well— He must have people who check on these things, I don’t know! I didn’t call him!”

Which is not a lie, because I didn’t call him. I went to his house...

And there fell her carefully constructed megamansion of cards, cascading all around her. Itwasher. Itdidhappen.

“Fuck.” Jason paced around her, hands running through his hair. “Okay, okay. Fuck!”

She was right there with him. Panic mode. “Can’t you say no?”

A bitter laugh. “You don’t know him.”

Oh, she knew him all right, much more than she should. “When does he want to do this?”

“Tonight. Eight o’clock.”

“Tonight?”Oh no, no no no no?—

“Tonight,” Jason repeated to himself, and sat on a stepstool.

“Jase.” She put the binders down. She’d almost forgotten that this was about him, not her, and he needed reassurance. It was difficult to see him like this: Jason had no trouble standing up to corporate defense attorneys three times his age, but when faced with the thought of seeing his own father, he regressed to a trembling child.

She’d had no idea it was this bad. What did hedoto him?

It didn’t matter. She would help him through this.

As long as Sever kept his mouth shut.

“You’re going to be fine,” she said, firm but gentle. “It’s just dinner. And if at any second you don’t want to be there, we’re out. He may make you go, but he can’t make you stay.”

That seemed to calm his nerves. “You won’t try any peace talks? Make us hold hands and have a heart to heart or some shit?”

“No,” she promised.God, no.“No hands. No hearts. No shit.”

And no peace, apparently.

At five minutes to eight,seated in the crescent-shaped booth of a swanky restaurant, they awaited the arrival of their shared boogie man. Jason was mellowed out on a co-worker’s Xanax, and as Sever’s ETA loomed ever closer, Ivy wished she’d taken one herself.

She could only pray that Sever would keep quiet about their encounter. His embarrassment had been fleeting, and the slap seemed to amuse him, so it was possible he would bring it up as a laugh. If he did... If Jason knew that his father had touched her, and worse, that she’d been keeping it from him? She didn’t want to think about it.

The dread kept throwing her off as she attempted to give Jason a pep talk. “Remember, whatever he says, they’re just words. He can’t touch you anymore. If you want to leave, give me the signal.” The signal was for him to tuck a cigarette behind his ear, which she suggested mostly because she thought it was hot.You watch too many old movies,he’d said. “And who knows, maybe he wants to apologize.”

As he scoffed at that and muttered his counterpoint, she gave herself a pep talk:you’re going to be okay. This is going to be fine. It’s the sex dreams that are making you think you’re attracted to him. Seeing him tonight will confirm that and then we can all move on.

“Speak of the Devil,” Jason said.

Sever was at the door. With a quick scan of the restaurant, he locked his gaze with hers. The corner of his mouth turned up, and the electricity between them crackled like a live wire. Her nipples hardened and she averted her eyes.Not just the dreams. Fuck.

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