Days after, Ivy was continuing in her decision of putting distance with her loved ones. This time, not out of fear of not being able to hide her grief but for the simple and good reason, she had no answer to give to all of their questions. Her words at the gala left ambiguity they all wanted to elucidate but they didn't know, Ivy herself wanted to elucidate the ambiguity her life became. In less than a month.
This time, hiding from them wasn't hard. She didn't even have to lie about work. She was literally at the edge due to work.
The little rain she neglected and didn't take as a threat grew into a tsunami coming her way and if she doesn't found a solution really fast, it would submerge her and left her bankrupted.
Due to her constant turning down of their plans, Liam and Andy had enough of her hiding behind work went it was clear she was avoiding them on purpose.
In her office, Ivy only had her eyes to witness their determination. Sitting at her bureau, she looked at the two men in her office, sitting on the sofa at the back of the office. She was greeted by their unannounced visit a few minutes ago and since they took a seat, no words left their mouths.
"Listen guys, I don't know why you came here without prior notice but I have no time to entertain you. If you have nothing to say, you better leave because I have no time for this," she broke the silence been done revising the reports in front of her. The frowned she carried since the moment she began to read didn't fall off. Bad news was all she got.
The presence of the two was only adding more pressure on her. She felt like giving up on everything and let it all sink but with a quick reminder of her dream, she clenched her teeth and went through it. Having them watching her was adding another load, her personal life problems. Reminding her of it when all she wanted was to forget about it. She didn't need more weight at the moment. A breakdown would soon visit her if it continues.
"You are driving us from your office Ivy?" Liam asked, offended look on his face. He never thought such a day could ever happen. Ivy chasing them away.
Ivy rolled her eyes, her lips lifted up, "I'm not but like I told you for the n time, I'm buried under work. I can't literally breathe right now," she said showing the documents in her hands. Her bureau was a mess, papers everywhere on it. The guys wondered how she was able to tell which one was which. Disorganized, Ivy signature.
When they came in earlier, they almost beat themselves up to have doubted her. Tired eyes, messy hair, papers everywhere and any how. It was all it took for them to see she told them the truth yet they decided against leaving without talking with her.
"With what are you so busy? To the point to have no time to breathe," Andy spoke. Frowning at the mess she was trying to put in order, with ease, seeing from her quick action. It was an organized mess, like Ivy often said to defend herself.
"We could help you and relief some stress," he suggested. It was obvious she was overworking herself. It meant only one thing, it wasn't going as planned. She hit a wall big enough to stop her.
"Thanks but no. This," she gestured to the papers on her desk, " I'm going to deal with it on my own. With no help, especially from you guys or my father," she stated what she already told them multiple times.
"It doesn't stop you from telling us what the deal is. Maybe we could find a way to help you without it tainting your reputation," Liam said. They perfectly understood her struggle and didn't push their help on her.
It was already difficult for her as a woman to create a name for herself in a field full of men. More difficult to be respected for your achievements when you were someone life gifted with influential father and friends. No one would take her seriously if they put their nose in, they would simply say she had it easy, no respect would be obtained. At least, true respect.
But in life, no one climbs up the latter of society alone, no matter how good and hardworking he was. Connection, most of times was the key to success. They knew that, everyone knew that, even Ivy understood that.
"Fine," she dropped down the papers and ran her hand through her hair, breathing out. She wanted to do it herself, and she would but with their persistence eyes on her, full of worries, she decided it won't hurt to let them know a part of the problem.
"Since you insist. I'm in dear need of models. I have no famous model for my fashion show. It's suppose to be in less than a month, yet I have no model to close the show and attract look on my company, no models at all for the rest. The ones we used to work with almost all declined due to the change of location. No well known model of this country want to work with us because we are a small company, would gain them nothing. Models we have in hands are novice, not the type I want for our debut here. Our modeling school can't offer us enough of experienced models and those here lack in everything I need," she said in a breathe.
She stood up arms folded, "and this is just the surface of the iceberg. More problems lay deep down and in a minute or two my vice President would walk in this room for us to go at a business lunch to try to find a solution to this mess that has become my life so excuse me if I don't have time to good spending with you when three years of sleepless nights is going to fall apart," she finished furious. Her calm and distance voice she began with slowly started to be filled with emotions. Her frustration letting itself out.
At the sight of her distraught face, and the sound of her shaking voice, gone was their doubts. Only thing left was concern. Their friends wasn't ok. It wasn't her style to get fit up merely by work. She went through more than that. One thing was clear for them at the moment. Even if it was true she was facing difficulty at work, she was hiding something from them. Something big enough to get her emotional. No doubt was left, she was avoiding them on purpose.
"Sorry, we didn't know about that," Liam still apologized. They wasn't with her when needed and allowed her to distance herself from them. They should have never allowed it.
"Of course, how would you know what I'm going through when your life's are perfect. Perfect career, perfect life, got everything why I'm here miserable and –" she paused, seeing she was mixing up things. The look of hurt on their face was all she needed to have her brain and mouth back in track.
"- and I'm sorry for what I said," she apologized, covering her face in shame with her hands. She was throwing her anger and frustration of the lost of her desire on them. It wasn't fair, it wasn't their fault if they had all she ever wanted.
"I'm overwhelm with all this, I'm sorry," regrets. She shouldn't be jealous of them. Rather, she should be happy about the fact at least them, they would have a happy ending. Once her unwilling feel calmed down and got out of way, her brain thought straight again.
At first, when the problem was brought up to her, She first thought it wasn't a big deal, and tried not to stress but it turned out to be big deal when she was informed the day after the gala about their offer rejection. No contract was signed. Worse came afterwards, when the scouts couldn't make the other models change their mind.
"You know me, I'm not the type to stress like this but I think I may lose everything," she ran her hand through her hair, trying her best not to shed a tear. Every aspect of her life was falling apart. At least work, she thought she could manage, have control over it but the universe seems to play a dirty game with her, and brought doubt on the only thing she was certain of.
Andy was fast to her, seeing her nothing like herself. The frustrated and stressed Ivy wasn't the one he knew. Work could never have her so overwhelm. If earlier he had doubt, now he was sure. Something else happened.
He was right. True, she felt like she may loss her company but it wasn't why she wanted to cry. A failure, it who she felt like. Unable to do anything, to have anything. Life took everything away from her, and at the thought she might lost her company as well, she felt completely useless. She hated the feeling but could do nothing about. She was a failure. She even hurt her friends, how much lower was she going to fall?