Free Shy Town Girls by Katie Leimkuehler

incredible beauty that was Charlie, see him shatter into a
million irreparable parts.
    But what if it wasn’t Charlie at all? What if it
wasn’t really Charlie who aroused the thrill of passion within me?
What if it was all in me, like Barbara said? He was just the
beautiful container of those passions for me. It seemed cold and
callous to reduce a person to a mere vessel for my own inner life.
And yet, that’s what I’d been doing with Charlie since day one.
Back in the beginning I had expected him to hold all my cherished
desires and dreams. Now he was the repository of all my deepest
disappointment and anger.
    I reminded myself that, according to Barbara, my
lesson in love was by no means finished. Maybe I wasn’t supposed to
have it all figured out just yet.
     
     

Chapter
9
    Ella and Ivy had just gotten home. “There she is!”
Ella called when I walked in the door.
    “ Bobbie, do you want to join us for
a nightcap?” Ivy asked, waving a bottle of red wine.
    “ Sure, why not?” I chuckled and went
to sit down on the couch.
    “ No, not here, up, up!” Ella
exclaimed. “To the rooooof!”
    Ivy pointed towards the door, doing a little dance.
She handed the bottle to Ella and then presented me with her back.
“Unzip me, will you? I’m going to change real quick. I’ve been
dreaming about putting on my sweatpants all day.”
    As I unzipped the back of her dress, the price tag
popped out.
    “ Ivy, you still have the price tag
on this,” I informed her.
    “ I know. I left it on in case I
wanted to return it. Turns out I like it. I was complimented nine
times tonight. I kept count. So I’m keeping it—thanks!” She
fluttered into her bedroom to change, and I decided to follow her
example.
    After we’d all changed into warmer clothing, we made
our way up the stairwell. Ella jiggled the handle on the big door
at the top of the stairs, and it creaked open. A rush of cold air
flooded through the crack of the door.
    “ Brrr,” I said.
    “ Ivy, you’ve got the blankets,
right?” Ella asked.
    “ And the wine!” she yelped. “Should
be drinking brandy in this weather.”
    “ Shhhhhhh, be quiet. We don’t want
to wake up Barbara and Meryl!”
    For a moment it was dark, with only the city lights
twinkling in the distance. Then Ella flipped the light switch, and
with a dazzle on came rows of hanging white lights, round bulbs
larger than Christmas lights, instantly warming the surroundings.
My mouth fell open at the luminous beauty. I had never before seen
the roof by night.
    “ This is amazing!” I looked around
at the garden of vines and dried flowers that twinkled like a
fairyland.
    “ It’s our little slice of heaven,”
Ella said. I felt honored, as if they were letting me into their
private world.
    “ More like our little cup of vino,”
Ivy said, handing me a glass. “It gets better. Check this out.” She
turned a knob near the railing and flames came shooting out of a
large cylinder bowl surrounded by chairs.
    “ What? An electric bonfire? Where am
I?” I laughed in shock.
    “ Well, our trust fund baby, Meryl,
decided to upgrade this place when she moved in, with Barbara’s
permission, of course,” Ella said.
    “ Meryl takes pride in fixing
things,” I said, “on so many levels.” I knew this well; she had
helped me out a number of times in college when I was a freshman
and she was finishing her thesis. Meryl got me through that first
year.
    Ella poured a glass of wine, and I admired her grace,
her slender limbs and athletic movement showing her dancer’s
training.
    “ How was your day?” I asked them
both, as I heated my feet by the warmth of the fire.
    “ Just another day in a cubicle in
corporate America,” Ella said.
    “ Same,” Ivy said flatly. “Except the
cubicle. I’ve been running around like a headless chicken. We have
this huge event coming up and my boss is freaking. How about
you?”
    “ I just had an interesting
conversation with Barbara before I came