Ivy had settled into life in her little closet. After watching the negotiation for the deal on the contract from Aspen, she attacked every contract as if it was her gift to Baxter. Did he see her notes in the margins and remember their time together? She strived to find things that would impress him.

When Tate was out of the office for two days on a business trip with Baxter, Ivy was surprised to see an email from Danielle. As she opened it, she remembered Baxter's assistant knew they had been snowed in together.

She should have realized it was a request to work on another contract for the sale of a building. Her iPhone rang, as she reviewed her reply a second time since there was a possibility Baxter might see it. She didn't have a phone in her tiny office.

"Ivy, Baxter wants to resolve the language before we go out to lunch." She tried to speak, but it sounded like a wheeze. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, just finishing it now. Are you in Chicago too?"

"I always travel with Baxter."

"I just hit send."

"Thanks." Danielle hung up.

If she worked for Tate after passing the bar, would she travel with Baxter? She filled her mind with visions of room service while work was put aside as Baxter lifted her skirt, except Dani would probably sit nearby preventing them from brushing shoulders never mind privates.

Feeling deflated, she wanted a splurge. On her way out, she stopped at Eleanor's desk. "I'm going for an iced coffee."

"Mind if I join you?"

Ivy looked around. "Can you leave?"

She chuckled. "That's what voicemail is for."

"I'm still learning. My old job was customer service, so I was chained to my phone."

They stood in front of the elevator. "My old, old job was executive assistant to Philip Kane."

Ivy whispered. "You were like Dani?"

"Not exactly. Things were different thirty years ago."

The elevator dinged as the doors opened. Ivy didn't look until she heard a deep voice. "Good afternoon, Eleanor."

Eleanor smiled. "Mr. Kane."

Ivy studied the older man. He had the same hazel eyes as his son, but they danced amusingly. Did the boss know they were talking about him? Only if his ears were ringing or bionic. She was just as glad he didn't notice her. He was pleasant to Eleanor, so Ivy's curious mind wondered why the secretary lost her executive position.

On the ground floor, Mr. Kane reached the door ahead of them, but paused to hold it for them to walk through. "Playing hooky?"

"If only. We're getting coffee to fuel us the rest of the day."

He nodded and disappeared into the waiting car as the two women walked down the sidewalk.

"So that's Tate's father."

"Yes. That's Philip Kane."

Ivy looked at Eleanor's profile. She was a beautiful woman for her age and reminded Ivy of a leading lady who aged gracefully. "Why don't you still work for him? I mean as his executive assistant?"

Eleanor sighed but didn't look annoyed with her question. "I transferred to the leasing department before I was married. The hours were predictable. I worked in various departments until I landed in legal after my divorce. The job allowed me to be home early enough for my boys. Now it's an undemanding job to ride out until retirement."

They stepped inside the Dunkin and each ordered. It was a comfortable June day, but the iced drink tasted like summer. On the walk back, Eleanor asked, "Do you have a young man to make you smile?"

One had made her smile, but he was never hers. "I'm always the girl with the crush. I met a guy, but let's just say, I'm not on his list."

"Don't settle. My marriage failed because I never loved him as much as I wanted to."

"Why did you marry him?"

"Because I liked him enough. I had been in love before, but it didn't work out."

"Why?"

She chuckled. "He married some else."

"Like Tate?"

She shook her head. "I wasn't jolted at the altar. Life isn't a fairytale."

Ivy left a heaviness in her heart. The truth stung. "How did you get over him?"

Eleanor's face reflected Ivy's heart. "Some loves you never do."

She frowned. "I may never marry, because there is no one I'll love like him."

"Fight for him. Marry him."

"No, like you said, life is not a fairytale."

Later she stepped out of her closet, and Eleanor was laughing on the phone. Maybe it was a friend, but Ivy suspected she had a fairytale happening. Maybe she would find love late in life, in time for retirement.

One Saturday morning, Ivy found her mother scrubbing the kitchen. "Let me help you."

Ellen Krasinski smiled a weary smile. "Thanks, hun."

With her father working, the house was quiet. She took a cloth and wiped down the cabinets. The radio was on the nineties station. Ivy smiled at her mother when The Backstreet Boys came on. They both sang along.

As the last bars faded, her mother smiled. "You're happy. How's your job?"

"It's okay. I don't love it."

"We don't get to love everything in our lives."

Ivy looked at her. "What do you love?"

"That's easy. You."

"Not dad?"

Her mother nodded. "But love is complicated."

Ivy sighed. "So I've heard."

"Your father wasn't my first love. I was in love before your father."

"Really? How old were you?"

"Younger than you. It was a long time ago." Her overworked mother looked youthful for a moment.

Ivy didn't want to remember Baxter in thirty-odd years. "What happened?"

"He was wealthy and his family didn't approve of me."

Baxter hadn't even considered dating her. She was his fling. "Then you met dad?"

"Eventually. Your grandparents liked me. We came from similar backgrounds."

"But you loved dad when you married him right?"

"Enough, yes. Honey, promise you won't settle. You're on your way to becoming a lawyer. No man will be too good for you."

"Mom, if you're unhappy get a divorce. I'll understand."

She shook her head. "There's no point. The man I loved has been married longer than me. Plus, if we are struggling financially together how would we survive on our own. I'd be an old lady eating cat food."

"I wouldn't let you."

The older woman sighed. "I want you to worry about your future and not me and your father."

"I just want you to be happy."

"Ivy, happy isn't like the movies. Happiness can be a roof over your head and folding boxers. Even though we fight, I'm happy with your father. I'm not alone."

Ivy wanted so much more for herself and not just financially. She wanted to fall in love with a man who made her feel like Baxter had. She did not want family history to repeat itself. "The secretary at work has a similar story. Her true love married someone else, and she had a failed marriage."

"At least my marriage hasn't failed."

Ivy flipped on the vacuum. She didn't agree with her mother's assessment of her marriage. Sucking up the dust and crumbs on the old linoleum floor was therapeutic. Just looking at the worn and yellowed flooring was a reminder of why she had to file her memory of Baxter deep within so it wouldn't come back. She shut her eyes and remembered sitting next to him at the bar. Her body wanted to be close to his. She didn't want to remember when they kissed in Tate's apartment, but her brain worked on its own accord.

Once she cleaned the kitchen, she moved to the bathroom. Each spray of the disinfectant reminded her she didn't belong in Tate and Baxter's world. She and Tate could be friends, but she always had her skinny, snobby bridesmaids. Ivy had other friends, but their lives kept moving while she had been stuck in law school.

She stepped out of the bathroom and smiled. Her mother was on the sofa relaxing with her phone. "Who are you chatting with?"

"An old friend."

Ivy nodded. "It's done. I'm gonna shower and maybe I'll call Freya."

Her mother lit up. "You should go see the baby."

"Don't hold your breath on me having a baby, mom."

"Someday you will. Work on your career first."

Did Baxter like children? Stupid question. He had to have Kane babies to carry on the family with a woman of similar breeding.

Her best friend since sixth grade invited her over. "I'll even change my shirt for you."

Freya had a two-month-old baby, Milo. She married her highschool sweetheart. Ivy never felt like their third wheel, mostly never. Joey had grown up next door to the Krasinskis, so they had been friends forever.

It was Joey who opened the door. "Hey, Frey, there's a stranger at our door."

"Not you too." She kissed his cheek. "You smell good."

"Taken. Very taken."

"I know that. Weird how you never did funny things to me."

He laughed. "Funny things. Are we in seventh grade?" Joey hated Freya in seventh grade. It was probably because Ivy no longer wanted to play with him and would rather sit in her room talking about who knows what with Freya.

"Joey, you know our Ivy has a knack of finding the wrong men." Freya appeared looking beautiful with the baby on her shoulder.

"Obviously you two figured out the sex thing..." Ivy paused. "... In highschool. I know because I covered for you enough."

Joey glared. "You didn't come over to talk about our sex life."

"We have a baby, it's nonexistent. She came to tell us about hers."

Ivy's jaw dropped, but Joe didn't notice. "Not non-existent, but hand Milo to Ivy, she can cover for us again."

Ivy said, "You aren't seventeen. Your wife needs more than a thrust or two."

"She's right. I do, but what do you know about it? You hold the world's record for bad sex."

"I've had good sex." Great, terrific, amazing, stupendous. "Look how he's grown!"

"Ha. The lawyer doesn't want to be cross-examined."

"It doesn't matter, it won't happen again."

"Who, what, where, when?"

"Frey, you sound like a fifth-grade book report. You're embarrassing poor Ivy. She hasn't even sat down. Ive, do you want a beer? No wine since Milo can't drink it."

She giggled. "Just water is fine."

Freya handed the baby to her. "Here, hold him and then dish. I know you. You can't lie to me."

"My mother told me she was in love with a man who couldn't marry her."

"Really? Why couldn't he?"

Ivy frowned. "Two different worlds. Life isn't a fairytale."

"No magic fairy godmother intervened, so she ended up with the postman. Sad."

Ivy needed a fairy godmother, but magic wasn't real. "Yup the postman who she nags at constantly."

Joey put a glass of water next to her. "You don't say. The Krasinskis were my free tutorial on how not to act in a marriage." Ivy didn't defend her parents.

"Ivy was just about to tell me about her latest sexcapades. Spill."

Ivy looked down at the beautiful baby face. She shut her eyes, refusing to think of little Baxters. "Fine, I had hot sex with a guy who will never want a relationship with me."

"When, where, why?"

"Fifth grade, Freya."

"Joey, leave. She won't spill with you here."

"Milo's a guy." The grown man pouted.

"He's good." Ivy didn't want to give him up. She looked around their cute house. It was small, but Joe was doing okay for himself. At twenty-eight, he was pulling six figures as a software engineer, plus what Freya made as a nurse. Why couldn't Ivy like computers? But then she never would have met Tate and spent two days with Baxter.

"I'm waiting."

"Fine. I had sex in Aspen. I wasn't the only one staying there, and we were snowed in."

Freya smiled. "So you finally tripped the light fantastic with a guy who knew how to please a woman?"

"That sums it up. Now I know it's not just the movies."

Freya giggled. "That good? Who was he? One of the Kanes?" Freya grabbed her phone. "Tarzan? He's so hot. It says here he's in the next season. He's younger than us. I'd take a young one for that body too."

Ivy kept looking at the baby. His little one piece summer outfit had a truck on it.

"The older brother is sexy too. His girlfriend is pretty." Ivy's head jerked up. "Shit. The older one? Honey, I'm sorry. You didn't know about the thin brunette."

"Dani?"

"No, Priscilla Bates of thee Bates."

Ivy felt like her heart was in a vise, and Freya's words were turning the lever. She didn't want to look, but she did. He looked gorgeous in a tux with his hand around her waist. Ivy waved her hand. "It was just great sex. The heir to the dynasty would never pick me and his parents would never allow it."

"Look on the bright side, you had actual sex. You'll find a man who wants a smart lawyer."

She shrugged. "Now tell me about you. How is this little guy?"

Freya lit up. Ivy should have tried hard with the baby distraction earlier.

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