If Ivy Could Untangle Ch. 03

Chapter 3

Together, Avery and I waited for the mysterious Steven to descend from upstairs as we awkwardly waited in his living room.

Avery took to making herself comfortable. She sat on the couch and rubbed her eyes, yawning sporadically. She even sank into the corner of the couch like it was her own personal spot.

I found myself wildly uncomfortable, so I struggled to look like I was even happy to be out of the cold. Steven's home was lavishly decorated. Everything was white in accent or finish. The décor for shelves or tables were minimalistic pointed objects that I couldn't possibly define. The walls bore no pictures of loved ones, for they were instead plastered with art that screamed "No Personality Here!" That considered, his kitchen was wildly expensive, and it took only a glance to guess that there was at least $30,000 worth of appliances spread across the counters or islands - yes, plural. An espresso machine, an industrial oven, a beautiful mixer that was paired next to a bread maker. The fridge was massive, and next to it was a portable convection oven. The entire kitchen was white, and I felt as if I was within the walls of some sterilization chamber that held dangerous diseases or bioweapons.

"Avery," I said in a hushed tone as I walked over to her. "What are we going to say when he gets here?"

"Let me talk to him. He's likely listening still, but Steven just needs a moment to warm up to me."

Then a voice from somewhere within the house, followed by light steps and the slight creak of wooden steps, "I wasn't eavesdropping, Avery."

For a few moments, there was no figure to match the voice and inbound steps. Finally, he appeared, and I wondered how much estrogen my body was still producing, because all at once my senses were attacked. His jawline was pronounced, and his stubble was just visible enough to make my heartbeat quicken. His smoldering black eyes and hair caught my breath, only to help me find it in his chest that was outlined by muscles through a form-fitting sweater. My chest tightened as I noticed that his arms, strong, big, and desperate for my thirsting tongue.

Steven spoke again, and his voice was soft and crackling like the quiet crunch of rocks under a tire during a midnight drive that impede one's restless dreams. "Avery. It's been a few years."

She stood immediately, and Avery ran a hand through her hair.

"Yeah, sorry about that. You look... really great."

Steven didn't smile. Instead, he had a permanent grin masquerading upon his face, yet his eyes were vigilant, and they cut our movements into dissectible observations, ready for his cold and careful scrutiny.

"You two look tired." He turned to me and demanded, "Your name is...?"

My mind told me to shake his hand, but I thought about the woman I had met last night, and I considered my mannerisms. Instead, I folded my hands in front of me, and I cautiously waved, "I'm Jessica. Your house is really beautiful. Is it just you here?"

Steven stared me down, and I wondered if he clocked me immediately. Rather than call me out or even answer my own question, Steven asked, "Why did you two come here?"

Avery began to answer, but Steven waved her away. "I want Jessica to answer me."

Avery insisted, "I'll answer for us, actually."

Steven met her fierce gaze and said cooly, "No you won't. Jessica, please."

Avery pushed once more, "What's wrong with me speaking for Jess and I?"

"Because you and I both know that you figured out how to get me to say yes to anything a long time ago." He turned to me, "So, Jess, why are you and Avery here?"

To my surprise, Avery backed down, but she couldn't hide the smile that snuck across her face.

I stammered out a reply, "We're in a bit of trouble, and Avery said that you might be able to help us for a moment."

Steven shot a glance to Avery, and she met his gaze, but then she turned her face to yawn again. "When is the last time that either of you slept?"

Avery answered, "More than a day ago."

"Follow me."

We marched upstairs, and Steven opened a set of doors. Two bedrooms, each with a queen-sized bed. He opened a different door, and he revealed a bathroom.

As if his words were costing him a fortune, he explained with brevity, "There's towels under the vanity. The hot water gets very hot very quickly. Sleep today off. I've got to work, so we can talk more when I get finished this evening." I noticed that Steven was speaking more to me than to Avery, but I was too tired to give it much thought.

Before he turned to leave, Avery reached out and grabbed the sleeve of his shirt. She pulled him in for a hug as he turned around. He wasn't quick to hug her back. His eyes met mine for a moment before he looked away and closed his eyes. His large arms enveloped her, and his hands went down to her lower back, pressing her into him as he held her for a moment.

Then he pulled away and moved down a few doors to his office. As he was about to close the door, he turned once more and said, "I'll make lunch around 11. If you get hungry before then, there's plenty of food in the fridge."

"Thank you," Avery said.

"What else could I do?" Steven added, "It's you."

Steven's door shut swiftly, and I felt the first spark of life within the walls of this house since we had arrived. Maybe I had been wrong about him.

We went to our respective rooms.

I pulled the covers back and began to fall asleep before my head hit the pillow.

---

I woke up at 4:31 P.M.

The thought of leaving the bed caused me to feel ill, but then I realized it was probably only hunger pangs. I sat up and noticed a tray on the floor by the door. A small cup of water, some fruit, a cookie.

Zero time passed before I gulped and devoured the plate of food, and I had a resounding flashback to my first morning within Redwood Manor. How I had woken up, alone, starving, terrified.

Instead, today I awoke with a trusted friend and a potential new ally, fresh food for me, and a passive feeling of safety.

I opened the door to the hall and poked my head out. I could hear the bass of Steven's voice coming from the office walls, but Avery's door was open with nobody inside.

I stepped into the bathroom. The shower was refreshing, and I tried to rub the sleep out of my eyes, but I honestly felt like I could go back to sleep at any moment.

Downstairs I spied Avery at the kitchen counter, sitting on a barstool around one of the islands. She sipped coffee and flipped through a National Geographic magazine. At the sound of my steps, she turned and smiled.

"Seems we both missed lunch. How'd you sleep?"

"I feel like the million bucks I was supposed to have earned."

She smiled, "Hungry?"

I nodded and sat at the barstool next to her. Avery got up and grabbed something out of the fridge. She moved across the room and placed it in the microwave, which was hidden among a panel of cabinets.

"You really know your way around this place!"

"Oh, I guess so."

Her eyes watched me for a moment before they looked toward the stairs. Only once Avery heard Steven's voice from his room, she said, "On a more serious note, I've been thinking about the Doc a little more since we left."

I listened.

"The Doc knew everything about me. The nature of that job relied on secrecy on our end to ensure she could carryout her job effectively. While I never told her about him directly, it wouldn't take very much reason to link him to us. I actually believe we are safe for the moment." She sighed, "I'm worried he won't believe anything but the truth. He usually knows when I'm lying."

I gulped back fear as I asked, "When we were on the run, I imagined that the Doc might have killed us on the spot if she didn't take us back." As I said this, I realized Avery probably wouldn't have come back alive. "Now that we've involved Steven, how do you think she would approach this? She wouldn't just come up to the door and kidnap us, right?"

"Maybe not. The Doctor... No, fuck that! She loses the title as of now. Elizabeth has friends in high places. Let's just say that her program isn't exactly unheard of, nor is it the only campus that performs 'experiments' on people."

"How do you know?"

"When she wasn't with you all, Elizabeth was pretty busy attending meetings with tons of important people. She spoke openly about results, trials, and profile reports."

"Profile reports?"

Avery said, "For all of you, she kept detailed logs about your attitudes, your records, how you were tracking each day... She was thorough, to say the least."

"A moment ago, you said she was might not just show up. Why is there a chance?"

The microwave beeped as the timer was finished.

She paused, listening for Steven, and his voice came out from his office again.

"Did you ever happen to see Madeline working with the Doc- Elizabeth?"

Images flashed across my mind. Madeline was shooting heavy grade weaponry with the Doc. Madeline shot with accuracy. She shot with skill. The Doc had almost spotted me as I had spied on them. Both lied to cover up the activity. Both had lied to my face.

"Yes," I said, "I know exactly what you're talking about."

Avery opened her mouth to continue, but Steven appeared on the staircase.

"Hey," Steven said, "You're both finally awake!" His voice was softer this time, and he smiled as he saw us. "I heard the microwave, and I supposed we could catch up over some drinks, rather than just with some leftovers. It's on me!"

Avery protested, and I realized she was worried about going outside. "No, it's fine! We could just eat here. Plus, Jessica and I don't really have a change of clothes for the evening, or at all..."

He nodded, "I'm almost done for the day. I'll call in a pizza, and by the time it gets here, I'll be finished. But then you two owe me some answers."

Avery said, "Sounds like a plan."

She turned to me and said, "Let's go sit out back for a minute. There's something you should know."

---

"Go ahead."

"The reason that I was nervous about coming here... Well, four years ago, Steven and I were dating. It was pretty serious. I had lived in his house for a few months." She paused for a moment. "I had lived in this house for a few months."

"So, when we walked up yesterday. You weren't looking for a house. You were going back home."

"I hadn't lived here for very long, but yeah. I called it home for a while." She bit her lip. "For about a year, everything was perfect. But then two very bad things happened at once while we met for dinner."

Avery looked at me through teary eyes. "The first: On the day that I had accepted the job for the Doctor, I knew I had to break up with Steven. The job demanded me to be at Redwood Manor for the entirety of my contract. I knew it wouldn't be fair to Steven if I took the job and stayed with him. I also couldn't tell him what I was really signing up for. The money was too good to pass up... so I took the job, and I knew that at dinner I would break up with him."

She continued, "What I didn't know was the second bad thing." Her voice cracked slightly as Avery said, "He had a ring in his pocket, and he was going to propose that evening."

I didn't know what to say.

"So, long story short, he beat me to it." Avery wiped a tear away. "Before I could talk to him, Steven got down on one knee. And then, I had to end things. He didn't understand, and things ended rather terribly."

"God, I can't even imagine."

"So, now I'm back. And he looks better than ever. His company is only getting bigger, and I'm sleeping down the hall from him in the guest room, wishing I could skip back down the hall and sleep in my old bed and kiss him in his arms."

I sympathized with her, and I also lusted over how he must kiss. Fuck, I need more testosterone pumping in me, immediately!

Just as I was about to respond, Steven opened the back door as he carried a bottle of wine in his hands.

"I'm finished! Pizza should be here within 10. Wine anyone?"

Avery blinked away her tears and said, "Fuck yes, I do."

---

Wine had explained a lot of our story to Steven, but he had a general idea.

He knew that Avery and I had gotten lost in the woods. However, Avery had spun a story of it being a trip with a bunch of guys she met, but they got drunk and out of hand... so we tried to run away but got lost in the mountains. Without our wallets or phones, we were sorta screwed, but Avery realized how close we were to Steven's, so she hoped he could help out however he could.

An hour later, the first bottle was gone, and the second glass was getting empty. The pizza had been devoured, and we filled in details as Steven asked questions. Realistically, we seemed to be in the clear. Tomorrow, Steven would take us to the mall so we could get some new clothes, and then we would go "meet back up with the guys" at their apartment in the city. That's where we would split ways with Steven.

Steven seemed to believe it all as well.

We lit a small heater and stayed outside.

As the sun drifted lower, I noticed Avery scoot closer to Steven with each sip of wine. The two made for an incredibly sexy couple, and I had no doubts that they still had feelings for one another.

Steven was recounting us of some of his glory days at his company. "...and you have to realize that I know my code. It's like your own handwriting, and you'd spot it anywhere that you hadn't written yourself. And here I am, staring at it while some Joe-Schmoe tries to present some grand iteration as if it were his own idea." Steven took a swig of wine. "He's standing there in my office, desperately hoping for a raise, all while he is plagiarizing my code!"

He laughs, which makes me laugh, which makes Avery inch closer to him on the outdoor couch.

The story continues, "I ask him directly if he stole the code. The guy lies and says its his own creation. So, I go scrolling back into the code, scanning for lines that I had recognized. You see, when you code, you have to leave notes for yourself, or else a year passes and you have no idea what some parts of your language even mean anymore, let alone what part of your system you were working on. And when a developer leaves notes for themselves, it's always unique to them, or at least it should be, yet I'm staring at my shorthand within his code: DFDA."

I ask, "What's that mean?"

He chuckles as he says, "Don't Forget, Dumb Ass."

"What happened next?"

"I ask him what those letters mean, and his face drops. I fired him then and there for trying to steal my code, let alone using it for a raise."

Avery ran a hand through her hair and brought her knees up onto the couch. They leaned against his thigh. Steven's eyes went to her legs, and they lingered for just a moment too long. He shot a glance at me, and his eyes returned to the glass of wine. He considered it for a moment before finishing the remaining bit.

Steven asked me, "Enough about me. Jessica, what did you do before you met Avery?"

"Oh, I was working a dead-end job in NYC. Trust me, there wasn't much there at all." I wasn't lying either. I had literally been kidnapped, and nobody noticed I was gone.

"Well, that's a shame. Instead, tell me what your dream job would be. If you had the choice to start something tomorrow, what would it be?

I didn't know what to say. I thought about the past year. I had gone from working away at a life I thought I wanted. I was kidnapped. I was... changed, but maybe for the better. Then I fought back, I escaped, and now I was... What was I doing?

I looked at Avery, and I found myself in a strange dreamlike sense. I wanted to laugh! We were relaxing on the patio of some handsome genius, and things couldn't be better.

Except that I thought about Abby and Madeline. Did they have to pay some terrible toll for my actions? I thought about Chelsea, and I hoped she had made it home. I thought about Blair, and my stomach turned.

Then I knew the answer to Steven's question. "I'd want to a superhero." I looked at Avery as I elaborated, "I could go and save people that are in danger. I would be able to fix things for others that I'm too afraid to do now."

Subtlety wasn't going to fit into my schedule.

Avery knew immediately what I meant, but the wine seemed to steer Steven into a deeper yet superficial conversation.

"That's how I'd hope to view my tech. A large section of my company focuses on keeping our users free from targeted ads online. While some consumers might like to have products catered to them, I think it's a wild invasion of our digital rights to privacy."

I nodded blankly, for I had no idea where he could be headed. Avery zoned out, and her eyes drifted away like a constant wave of sleep was crashing over her mind. Yet it wasn't sleep. It was as if her heart was being gnawed away at both ends, forever keeping her away from some quiet oasis of peace.

"...so, this device would hide your internet connection within a blind spot. It would allow you to connect to networks or Bluetooth devices, and no information could be track from you. Your proximity to the routers, your existence through their network... It'd all be a falsified blank slate. Realistically, all they'd know is that you bumped into their servers."

Steven looked at us for some sort of affirmation, but the speech went over both of our tipsy heads. The wine bottle was empty, and I could tell we all wanted to drink more.

"I'll refill us. Steve, did you say that the bottles were...?"

"Through the kitchen. You can't miss them on the wall after that."

I stood to leave. The warm air of the house washed over my body, and as I pulled the door shut, I saw Avery move closer to Steven. His arm lifted to go around her, but it froze midair. For a moment it stayed there as if there were some unknown dangers to lower it, until Steven finally placed it on her and the two fell into one another with a passionate conversation of regretted words or speeches unsaid. I watched through the window, guessing at the words. I assumed they were regretted words or unspoken speeches, so I gave them some time and ventured into the house.

Steven was right, the wine wall was impossible to miss.

I inspected the walls of this dining room, still searching for some personality of Steven that explored beyond minimalistic art and neutrally colored walls. A small bookshelf sat waiting to be unread, as the books had a fine layer of dust atop them.

Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Phillip K. Dick, Frank Herbert... Hard science fiction. It made my skin shudder thinking about the fake languages and niche phrases that made it impossible to enjoy. I tracked a finger over the dust.

The wine jostled in my hand as I walked back to the patio, but it almost fell to the floor as I gasped. I stared through the window.

Avery sat on top of Steven, who's strong hands went under her arms and ran ravage lengths across her back. Suddenly her muscles seemed to be invisible, as Steven completely dwarfed her in size. Their clothes stayed on, but their tongues were within. They both drank and consumed one another.

I couldn't imagine what it would be like to have been separated by some impossible job offer. The engagement that almost existed. The lives that could have been.

I went upstairs again to my room.

A few hours later I tossed and turned for a while. Some thuds had woken me up. I rubbed my eyes as I looked over at the clock. 11:11.

Then I heard her moans through the walls.

Light, quick, fierce.

Then I heard his moans follow.

Low, echoing, relentless.

For a time, they would be quiet. Some shuffle would happen, then they would start to grow loud again. They would laugh, and it was intimate. There's a time when two lovers can laugh at nothing but the sensual closeness that they feel with one another. She'll laugh as he pulls out only to push back deeper, because its ridiculous to think anything can feel as good this ever again. He'll laugh as her pussy grips the head of his cock in between thrusts, because for once his strength isn't enough to stay in power, as with every movement he gets closer to busting within her.