Ivy was a little surprised—she knew Roberta was strapped for cash, yet the girl hadn’t touched the money.
Roberta noticed Ivy hesitating and pushed the envelope forward again. “Take it back, please. I really don’t need it. I’ve already found an internship, and after I graduate next year, I’ll be able to support myself.”
Ivy slid the envelope right back. “No. I don’t like owing favors. You helped me out the other day, and this is just my way of saying thank you.”
“But it’s way too much!” Roberta protested, her voice firm. After a pause, she added, “How about this—just let that ten grand I borrowed from you go? We’ll call it even, as a thank you?”
Before Ivy could respond, Roberta hurried on, “Honestly, I haven’t had to spend a dime on medication this past month, and even my full checkup was covered. I didn’t lose anything. But a hundred thousand is just too much for me—it’s overwhelming. I really can’t accept it.”
“If you really don’t want it, then donate it,” Ivy said simply.
She truly didn’t care about the money. Taking it back after giving it away wasn’t how she operated.
If Roberta wouldn’t accept it, then the only reasonable thing was to do charity.
Roberta stared at her in disbelief. “A hundred thousand dollars, just like that?”
Ivy nodded. “Sometimes you just have to do good.”
Roberta was speechless, genuinely stunned for the first time by what it meant when people said, “To the rich, money is just a number.”
A hundred grand for them was probably like a dollar to anyone else.
Ivy noticed Roberta’s wide-eyed silence and couldn’t help but smile. This girl was so guileless, no wonder she’d been fooled by a jerk.
The thought of that jerk made Ivy sigh and offer a warning. “By the way, your ex is looking for you. He doesn’t seem to have good intentions, so you should be careful.”
Roberta’s face changed instantly. “Exactly, that’s the other thing I needed to tell you—he cornered me at school. I know he’s harassed you too, and I wanted to apologize. You helped me when I was at rock bottom, and now I’ve dragged you into this mess. I’m really sorry.”
Ivy was taken aback. “He found you? Did he give you any trouble?”
“He harassed me for two days, kept demanding money—said I owed him for ‘emotional distress.’ I called the police yesterday, and right in front of the officers he apologized and promised not to bother me again. He seemed sincere, so maybe he really is sorry.”
Ivy couldn’t help but laugh. “You’re too naive. Most men apologize only when they have no other choice. Don’t count on him actually changing.”
Roberta, maybe desperate to defend her own judgment, insisted, “We were together for years. We really did love each other. Maybe he just lost his way for a bit, tried to take a shortcut.”
Ivy felt a wave of helpless frustration. Some people just couldn’t see the truth, no matter how hard you tried.
“We’re not that close, so I probably shouldn’t say too much,” Ivy said gently. “But I’ll give you one piece of advice: before you love anyone else, learn to love yourself. Before you chase after love, make sure you can stand on your own two feet. That’s the most important thing.”
That was as much as she could say. If Roberta got fooled by that jerk again, well, that was just fate.
A famous novelist once wrote about men’s promises: a man will beg, even get on his knees; he might even slap himself just to prove a point. But don’t let your heart soften. He’ll swear to you, over and over. Men love to make promises, but their vows are worth no more than a dog’s bark. Don’t believe a word.
No one understands men better than men themselves; they can see right through each other.
Those words cut to the bone, true to the core.
That’s why Ivy hadn’t asked Jamison to make any promises in the past few days. If he was ever going to cheat or fall out of love, what good would a promise do anyway?
After returning to campus, Ivy moved back into her faculty apartment.
She figured as long as this “cooling-off period” lasted, it was better for them to live separately. That way, they could avoid temptation—and spare themselves a lot of trouble.