Chapter 28.1: Bidding farewell was never easy
"We have a guest in the backyard…" Jason said while walking down the stairs.
"Oh…" Ivy finally realised a shadow was seated by the table outside the sliding door and instantly knew it was Nancy.
"Wash up a little… I will prepare dinner…" Jason said before entering the kitchen to chop up the ingredients for a soup he had in mind. After Ivy cleaned up at the washroom, she sneakily went outside to the backyard with an umbrella.
When Jason had just left the pot of soup to boil on its own, he sighed at the sight of the slight opening of the main door when he stepped out to look for Ivy. He knew she must have gone to find Nancy. He walked towards the sliding door to check on them.
"Nancy! It's raining too heavily for you to stay here. Come in…" Ivy offered as Nancy stood and was delighted to see Ivy standing in front of her.
However, she shook her head at Ivy's offer. "Seeing you doing fine, I am satisfied. I will head home now as Nick will be worried…" Nancy said as she took her umbrella up to hover above her before leaving.
"Nancy…" Ivy called out as Nancy turned around.
"Thank you…" Ivy smiled as her eyes twinkled feeling grateful that Nancy has finally changed for the better and was also concerned about her not just this once but back then during their Landsfield trip together.
Nancy couldn't help but to smile in return. "Be careful on the way home…" Ivy said as she watched Nancy nod and walked away.
The pact she made with Nancy reminded her that her time was short and soon she will need to leave Jason. The thought was enough to make her turn her lips downward. Jason, who was watching her inside couldn't help but to wonder what made her react that way as he knocked loudly on the sliding door to catch her attention. Ivy was startled at the loud bangs as she turned to her left to see a furious Jason signaling her to get inside the house immediately.
She giggled while running back into the house only to find him caught up with her at the main door with both arms sticking out holding to his waist..
"What were you doing standing outside under the rain? Yet you're not well yet? Trying to catch another cold, is that so?" Jason scolded before jumping in to help her dry herself.
Ivy was enjoying the scolding while half realising she was going to miss all of it soon. Her heart suddenly felt heavy as she watched Jason fuss over her. Jason noticed she was exceptionally quiet after Nancy left and looked sad. He couldn't help but to be curious at what was bothering her.
"What's on your mind?" Jason asked as he folded his arms in front of her.
"Nothing in particular. Just enjoying the sight of the rain." Ivy lied as she went into the kitchen to find a pot of soup was boiling and had nothing left for her to help. Jason knew she was trying to hide something as he pulled her to the living room and sat her on a two-seater couch facing the sliding door.
"You love the rain don't you?" He said after taking a seat beside her. She was half enjoying the sight of the rain but half worried about Jason who could catch on to her exact thoughts as she quickly thought of ways to cover up.
"I do. It motivates me to do things and it's always giving me this relaxing effect." Ivy smiled as she took a deep breath.
Jason watched the rain and wondered its' amazing effects as he contemplated on prying further.
"At least I am not alone today." Ivy said while reminding herself to enjoy every moment with Jason.
"What's going on?" He asked, feeling something was off.
"Did Nancy say anything nasty to you?" Jason shifted himself on the couch to face her.
"No, she didn't…" She said reassuringly before she sighed at her effort of trying to escape from him, asking further. She couldn't possibly tell him the truth. Not just yet although Nancy seemed to have gotten better but she wasn't prepared yet.
"Then, you're still bothered by Ann's issues?" He asked as Ivy thought for a bit and realised she wasn't bothered about Ann's issues anymore but instead she was more bothered about leaving Jason for further studies in another town soon. She shook her head as Jason patted her head.
"Jason, how do you face something you dread?" Ivy said softly as she laid on his shoulder comfortably, trying to deviously change the topic but also connect it to the matter that was bothering her.
It took Jason by surprise for a moment at her gesture but he knew she was probably looking for comfort as he put an arm over her and let her lay closer to him. Ivy didn't resist but instead was appreciative of it. Lucky, who was sitting on the floor in front of them, couldn't help but to jump up on the couch and snuggle with them as well.
"Why? Is there something you're trying to avoid?" Jason asked while raising an eyebrow as Ivy thought of a lie to cover the real meaning behind her question.
"Well, there is this history lesson teacher who kept picking on me in class to answer her questions. Just because I nearly flunked last semester. I haven't really read up on history lessons yet. Kinda lazy." Jason pinched the tip of her nose as she twitched it.
"Now, that isn't really much of a good reason." Jason commented as he smirked.
"I know. I know." Ivy rolled her eyes and half regretted creating a lie only to be nagged in return.
"She is doing it for your own good though. Who knows if you could score so much better in finals?" Jason encouraged knowing Ivy always needed it when she was at a crossroads.
"She is definitely anticipating a better score but I know my limitations just like my science subjects. They are purely beyond saving." Ivy sighed as the lie she created slowly became a truth.
The thought of her finals coming up was adding more stress to do well while juggling with her heavy load in internship. On the other hand, she was also trying to link his comments to her real worries.
Ending their fake relationship and returning him to Nancy who was the rightful person to love him was the right deed. It was indeed beyond her limitation on who could love who but at least, she realised, loving someone has many ways and one of it was to let the person go and watch the person live a happy life.
"Well, just don't make it a habit though. There's still time." Jason smiled knowing Ivy was thinking through things in her mind. Although he didn't know her exact thoughts, her doubtful look made him knew, she always wavered and underestimated herself a lot.
"Just treat it as a challenge and be ready for the worse. Just like accounts. Be prudent. Accept the consequences. What could be worse than that? When you face your fear and fight it, you will then understand what it's like to be at your lowest point. Nothing could come in your way thereafter. I'm sure you will grow up to be a strong independent lady. So, do what you can before the lesson begins and who knows you got lucky with her questions?" Ivy began to admire Jason being enthusiastic at encouraging her although it was merely a lie.
His encouragement somehow gave her some valuable insights in preparing to leave him; be ready for the worse.
"You're smart anyway, why worry?" He added as she pondered on his points. She nodded in agreement after a moment with a troubled smile.
"Does that make you give up on law already?" Jason asked feeling that she must be concerned about her next choice of faculty as well which she avoided the topic earlier at the balcony.
"Possible." She shrugged trying to hide that she had already made her decision as she sat straight back up.
It was the first step she laid at the declaration of moving towards the direction of ending their fake relationship. Her only wish was that when the time comes, he could still remain as her friend.
"There's still time. Anything can happen." Jason urged as Ivy gave a sad smile. It was hard for Jason to tell it was a sad smile in the dim room but he knew she was smiling and that alone made him glad as he quickly went to the kitchen to check on their dinner.
She watched him disappearing into the kitchen.
"If only you knew you were preparing me for what…" She thought in mind as she hoped she would be strong enough to not let a single tear spill when the time came as she wiped away some from her eyes.
Over the next few days, she got busy with Jason over a few meetings while taking over Ann's tasks under Marcel's supervision. Her job scope had became more significant that she had to burn the midnight oil to catch up with her studies. Jason noticed her room's light was bright a few nights but didn't go in to check on her thinking she must have wanted to sleep in peace without any dreams.
On Saturday morning, Ivy received a nagging call from Andrew and Sandra after a very late all nighter.
"Hello! Ivy!" Andrew wailed from the other end. It was so loud that it annoyed Ivy who was sitting on the study table with her eyes closed.
"Are you in Jason's place? Why aren't you replying to our text messages?" She could tell it was Andrew without opening her eyes to check on the caller ID or say a word. Instead she put him on loudspeaker as he whined further while she laid her head on the table.
Jason heard Andrew over the phone when he walked past Ivy's room and decided to enter and check on her. He knocked lightly but did not hear a response as Andrew was too loud. As Jason twisted the door knob, Lucky was scratching on the door from inside and quickly ran out of the room as he entered.
He slowly approached Ivy and noticed she looked like she was asleep. Jason wanted to tell Andrew to call back but halted instead when Andrew spoke again. Ivy was trying hard to wake herself up but her body just refused to listen to her.
"Ivy, are you pulling an all nighter again? You know ever since you started your internship, you seemed to have sold your life away…" Andrew whined and with that, Ivy forcefully sat up all of the sudden to retaliate against Andrew with her eyes still closed.
"None of your business… I saw your messages. I will see you at five at the hotel itself. Go find your girlfriend and whine. Don't forget to pick her too tonight." Ivy mumbled followed by a yawn as her eyes finally willingly opened but in a shock to find Jason standing beside her.
"You sounded really tired, girl. You better get some sleep!" Andrew urged while Ivy yawned a huge one this time.
By the look of it, Jason confirmed the bright lights from her room every night was the sign she was burning midnight oil. Ivy stared at Jason who caught her red handed.
"Bye…" She mumbled to Andrew and hung up as she laid back lazily on the table looking at Jason.
"Thank you for the offer tonight..." She mumbled and smiled in an attempt to avoid Jason from scolding her.
Jason walked over closer to the table as he thought to himself.
"If the workload is too..." He paused in mind. "No..no... Wrong entry." He told himself.
He cleared his throat. "I'm sorry for giving you too much workload over this week. You should sleep. Your eye bags are bad." Jason said while touching her eye bags.
"I can't." She said between her yawns as she sat up straight. "You need to." Jason persisted.
"Forcing yourself to sleep is so ridiculous. I just cannot sleep at this hour although I am well, I don't know if it's tired, yawny..." Ivy mumbled as Jason interrupted her.
"Exhausted. I'm sorry. I guess if it's too tiring I should not let you follow me to meetings but only focus on the accounts part."
In mind, Ivy was persuading herself to get up many times as she wanted to shower. "I know what I'm doing..."
When she finally forced herself to get up, she lost her balance and sat on the floor instead.
"There... Was it really an all nighter last night?" Jason asked while carrying her to bed.
She was half scolding herself for giving herself away while trying to recover from her dizziness but was too tired to fight. She only had three to four hours of sleep today, she recalled. The bed was so comfy to lie on that she couldn't even open her eyes but instead lifted her hand which Jason caught mid air.
"Sleep… Don't fight it… I will wake you when lunch is ready…" Jason gently said as he patted her shoulders watching her slowly drifting to sleep.
An idea came to mind as Jason quickly dropped by the music room and wrote the lyrics to a song which were lingering in his mind as he spent the entire morning composing it. By noon, he completed the piece of song which was inspired by Ivy as he proudly went to cook lunch thereafter.
He decided to surprise her at tonight's emcee job instead. Considering it was a charity event, he had contacted the organiser to volunteer a performance and they had gladly agreed to his arrangement.
Instead of waking her up for lunch, Jason woke her for a late lunch with a bowl of lamb stew and congee before chasing her to get dressed for the job. She was smart to wear slacks this time with heels and a coat over her strapless blouse, he thought, as she needed to walk around a lot.
"Why aren't Nancy and Nick here tonight?" Ivy asked as they alighted after Jason parked.
"Cause I decided to give Nick a break… After all, I should play host to ensure your side event is a success." Jason teased as she smiled with a wink.
"Our young lady Ivy is getting more and more professional each day I see…" Jason teased again after taking a head to toe look at her as they walked over to her group of friends waiting for her at the entrance.
"I will take that as a compliment any day…" She smirked as he passed to her a duty tag.
"Send them in to the table first while I speak with the organiser. Just show them the tag." Jason said as Ivy nodded and split ways with him to greet five of them.
"Hello…" Ivy greeted gently, acting as a very warm host but Belinda and Laura were skeptical of her. It was their first time seeing her in her formal wear and Lance stood mesmerised by the sight. Andrew and Sandra couldn't help but to admire her looking different from her usual messy look as well although they saw her in formal wear before this.
"Hello, Ivy…" Lance said as he walked out a little before Laura pulled him back. Ivy managed to exchange glances with Sandra and Andrew and winked to tease both of them.
"Shall we? I will show the way." Ivy smiled after a moment of awkwardness between Laura and Lance as she pointed to her right and led the five of them to the entrance of the event hall. The usher let them all pass the moment she showed her VIP pass, which impressed Laura and Belinda. The ballroom was clearly decorated into a charity event hall but both girls didn't bother as long as it was free.