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Chapter 5: Couples Icebreaker
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2025-11-06 04:59:36Ivy
The next morning started with cinnamon tea, a plate of organic muffins, and my complete inability to look Ivy in the eye.
We hadn’t talked about the kiss.
Correction: the makeout session that left us both panting like teenagers. She’d woken up, shoved her glasses on, and mumbled something about a morning walk. I didn’t stop her.
Which brought us to the mid-morning “Couples Connection Circle,” where Willow and her ever-enthusiastic team of therapy elves had us sitting on oversized pillows in a circle of truth.
“Today,” Willow said with her signature sparkle, “we’re going to open up by sharing a secret. One you’ve never told your partner.”
Ivy tensed beside me. I could practically feel her calculating the lowest-impact confession possible.
“And remember,” Willow continued, “vulnerability is the soil where love grows.”
The circle of couples went clockwise. One man admitted he’d once cried during a commercial about baby goats. Another confessed he hated his wife’s gluten-free muffins. Some secrets were sweet. Some were ridiculous.
Then it got to us.
Ivy’s turn.
She straightened her spine. “I talk to my plants. I name them and talk to them. Out loud. Like, conversations.”
The group aww’d. I just smirked. “Do the plants talk back?”
“Only when I’ve had wine.”
Laughter rippled around the circle.
Then all eyes turned to me.
I should’ve played it safe. Should’ve said I used to steal candy bars as a kid or that I’m afraid of clowns. Something harmless.
But Ivy was still laughing beside me, relaxed and radiant in a way I hadn’t seen before. And something in me wanted her to know… me. The real me. Not just the cocky smile and teasing.
So I said, “I don’t believe in love.”
The laughter stopped.
“I used to,” I added, keeping my eyes on the floor. “But someone I loved once… she left. Crushed me. Haven’t really believed in forever since.”
Silence. A soft kind of silence.
I risked a glance at Ivy.
She wasn’t smiling anymore.
She was watching me like she was seeing something new. Something raw.
“Thank you for sharing, Lake,” Willow said gently. “Sometimes the deepest wounds are the ones that shape our walls.”
I wanted to punch a wall just for that sentence.
After the session, Ivy didn’t say anything. Not right away.
We walked through the woods, the sun high above us and birds chirping like we were in a Disney film.
Finally, she said, “You really don’t believe in love?”
“Not the kind that stays.”
She was quiet for a long moment. “I did. Once.”
“What happened?”
“He married someone else.”
We walked in silence again, two people who had been burned. Scarred in different places.
“I guess we’re both pretending harder than we thought,” I said.
She looked at me, eyes softer now. “Maybe. Or maybe pretending is peeling things back we didn’t expect.”
I didn’t answer.
Because maybe she was right.
And that scared the hell out of me.
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