My Baby, She Wrote Me a Letter

Unit #332 - Cornett Apartment

The two bedroom apartment is quite cozy, but by no means small. The walls have been sponged in a light sandy color, the faux hardwood floors a bleached maple to match. The decor is rather simplistic, though a tad modern - a black leather sofa is set against one wall, an ottoman that doubles as a coffee table set between it and the matching recliner. White curtains with tiny red flowers frame the windows, while red, beige and white throw pillows dot the couch. There is no television in this room, the remaining walls taken up with shelves filled with books and a small stereo system with a decent selection of music.
A sliding glass door leads to a balcony that overlooks the pool courtyard. To the right of the main room is the small kitchen and eating nook, and to the left the hallway that leads toward the bedroom.


Mid-day sun filters in through the windows, but despite the time, someone is still asleep. Keeping up with a vampiric schedule is killing her. What's more? It's going to be doubly hard to get this fixed to a regular schedule when she starts working at the mayor's office. She'll have to start taking naps in the early evening, which won't kill her, but won't really afford her much time to sleep.

Somewhere in the apartment there is an alarm going off. It's quieted in the bedroom, but it's still heard. Chloe groans, reaching for it and not finding it. This means she has to get up. So, throwing a robe on over her t-shirt, she goes off in search of the godforsaken noise.

Talk about your perfect timing. Immediately after the alarm goes off, there is a knocking upon the door. Insistent and determined. Behind the door, in the hallway, is a stone-faced Ivan. Cool, cold, there is no warmth left in the man, despite the healthy tan that is coloring his skintone. There's something determined about him here.

Another groan, and Chloe gives up the search for the alarm. Wiping the sleep from her eyes, she calls, "Just a minute." Cinching the robe belt about her waist, she makes her way to the door. She only stumbles over one box before she opens it. "Ivan?" Blinking to make sure she's not still asleep, she moves aside to let him in. "Coffee or beer?" She could do with a coffee, but he can have whatever he wants.

Ivan merely shakes his head, once and in a very emphatic manner. "No, thank you. You said you'd talk to Will, didn't you?" Beat. "You said you could make it so I could forget her. And you're sure there wont be any adverse effects, right? No fuck ups and…ah, who cares. When can you do it?" Slowly, he steps inside of the room, looking around with a sort of disinterested calm.

He may not want anything, but Chloe slips into the kitchen to make some coffee. She needs something to wake her up a little. "I did, and I can." She pours water into the pot and turns to look back at him. Her mind seeking out his. "Ivan are you sure that's what you want? I've never been glamoured, so I don't know the effects, but it can be done, and if there is a payment sought for such I'll gladly take it for you." Since she'll be a vampire soon enough. "We'll have to wait until sundown of course, but I can call and leave a message with Erica now if you want…"

"Absolutely sure." Ivan drawls out, lips thin as he turns to stare at Chloe while she putters around the home. And he is. He spent hours in the plane, just contemplating his current situation. Just realizing how pathetic he has become. Just realizing how incredibly badly he has been toyed around with. And then, when his self-pity was at it's deepest, he decided to start anew. "I called the Ravello. My old apartment is still up for rent. It'll put a dent in my savings, but I put a deposit down on it once again. Now I just need to grab my shit and move back in, but I can do that afterwards, too." Once he's forgotten about her. Which might be awkward, but will no doubt be satisfying for him to be able to brush her aside.

"I don't think… I mean I don't know the situation… I…" While the coffee percolates, Chloe rubs a hand over her face. She's still trying to wake up here. "You're not pathetic, Ivan. Love literally sucks sometimes." And knowing how happy he was at the engagement, she almost doesn't want to know what's happened to change that. "Look, I'm moving to my parent's house in a few weeks, but my lease is paid until the end of August. You can take this apartment if you want, so that you don't have to kill your savings." That way, he's not putting out a lot of cost if things get better again. "I can collect your things if you want too. That's what friends do."

"She ran away with her other boyfriend, Chloe." Ivan drones out, lifelessly, without emotion. He's become numb to it by now. "We were in Cabo, and she ran off with her vampire lover. Whatever. I'm better off. And I am pathetic. I should have left the moment she told me that she loved him. Cut my ties right then and there." Beat. "I get it. That I'm a little slow. That I'm mortal, and I don't have superhuman strnegth or any of that. But I can do better than someone who was settling for me. Better than someone who runs off with fags." Ahem. "Thanks for the offer, Chloe. But you've done too much, already. And I miss my bachelor's pad. But…I might take you up on helping me move."

"Her other…" Chloe stares at the coffee, slowly dripping into the pot. Each drop of liquid making an aromatic plop. "You were in Cabo?" News to her, but since she's not started at the mayor's office yet, that's no surprise. "The night you came over, that's what it was about." She takes a deep breath, and then moves the pot to slip a cup under the drops. Just until it's full and the pot is back. Taking a huge, scalding gulp of the coffee, she blinks at him. "She left you for a gay vampire?" She shakes her head. "Really, it's no trouble. This could easily be a bachelor pad. I thought my mother was going to take it, but apparently she's wanting to stay close to the Pack still, so…" It's his if he wants it, no pressure either way. Just means she can move more slowly.

Ivan nods solemnly to Chloe, though his eyes don't seem capable of fixing themselves on any one point. Anxiously, eagerly, they travel around the room. His hands are thrust into his pockets in order to give him a casual air, although the stiffness with which he stands proves that he is nowhere comfortable. "Yeah. Something like that. And, I don't know. But she left me. That's all you need to know. Thanks again."

Chloe will have the entire story eventually, because she's Chloe and now that she's using her powers? She's a bit snoopy. But, Ivan is a friend now. And it wouldn't be fair to go prying where he doesn't want her to. Finishing the cup of coffee with another scalding gulp, and a bit of a wince, she moves through the room toward him. "Okay, I'm not prying. It's not my business. I am here if you want to talk, and I'm here if you don't want to talk." Because they're friends. "You look like hell. How long have you been awake?"

"Seven, eight in the morning? She left a note." Even Ivan can't help the derision and the bitterness found in that statement. "And thanks for that." Anxiously, he runs his hands through his curls, pursing his lips tightly. "What's there to talk about? I made a couple of dumb choices. I put my future into the hands of a crazy. I got burned. Women fucking suck."

Considering his look, it looks like longer, but Chloe refrains from comment. "Eh. What are friends for, Ivan? You've had my back before when I needed to talk to someone. You let me borrow your shoulder. Least I can do is offer you the same thing." She snorts at him, looking down at herself. "I'd take that as an insult, but I understand where you're coming from. We do suck. People in general suck. I know, I can hear their minds."

"I'd go gay if I didn't already know what dogs men are," Ivan is joking. Honestly. His lips even curl into a humorless smirk, still cold and so out of place on his features. "It took me a while to realize that I wasn't the problem. That there isn't something…inherent about my genetic make-up that made people want to leave me. But I don't know. Maybe it's karma. Maybe there is something fucked up about me. I'm batting 0 for 2 now."

"They are at that," Chloe offers with a grin. Again, she knows what people are thinking, and she doesn't necessarily like what she hears. "Maybe you need a day or two to sit back and deal with it before getting your mind wiped," she offers, trying to be helpful. "Maybe she doesn't want to leave you. Maybe there's another reason she did. You could talk to her first?" There's a bit of a hopeful hint there. As though talking it out might fix things.

"Honestly, Chloe? What could she say to make this better? What?" Ivan inquires, staring at the woman with a solemn moroseness that radiates from him. "Of course she doesn't want to leave me. No one wants to leave me. I should want to leave her after all the shit she's pulled. After everything I've done for her…" His voice lowers, becoming considerably more meek and less sure of himself. "If I talk to her, my resolve might crumble. If I talk to her, I'll be stuck in this hellhole longer. I don't…don't like me right now."

Setting the empty mug down on the counter she moves toward him. Arms outstretched to hug him. Chloe is far from being an overly touchy feely person, except when she's in an utterly depressed mood. But Ivan? Well he looks like he could use a hug, so it's offered. "I don't know. Maybe she could explain it to you? At least you'd know what's going on and why?" Even so, there's no push more than that. "I don't like saying this, but I'll stand behind you no matter what you decide." She did say something similar when she found out about the engagement. That if it's what he wanted, what made him happy then she was happy for him.

"Because she likes getting raped by vampires? I don't know. I don't think I should care what the reasoning is. The end result is always that I'm going to end up hurt, and bitter, and horribly gypped. That my best efforts weren't good enough, and that even though I tried my best, in the end, it doesn't even matter." Callous words that Ivan would never utter if he wasn't so emotionally devastated. But at the moment, he has no sympathy for the woman that broke his heart. But then, she's motioning for the hug. And though he looks wary, he eventually moves into Chloe's arms. "If you feel like it's something I should do, though, I'll do it."

He gets a hug, and a pat on the back. Chloe probably sucks at being comforting, but she's putting forth an effort. "I don— " Beat. "Not all vampires rape people, you know. Some can actually be a little bit human in their relationships." She doesn't say anything more than that. "Maybe it doesn't matter, I don't know. Only you can decide if talking to her, if trying to save anything is worthwhile. I just don't want you to jump into something that you'll regret later on. That you'll, I don't know, hate me for orchestrating for you."

"I wouldn't regret it because I wouldn't remember that it'd happened." Ivan points out rationally, drawing back from Chloe the moment she allows him to. It's not that she's not comforting, or that her efforts aren't appreciated. It's just, the time to be vulnerable and coddled has past. Ivan wants space to rebuild the walls around his person, to fortify himself once more. "I did try to save it. That's what Mexico was. That's what our entire relationship was, me saving her, me holding on to our relationship. Convincing her that I truly wanted her in my life. That all the media-outlets and sisters didn't know shit. I don't have the energy to keep this up anymore. I really don't." Beat. "But I'll give it one last go. For you."

When he's done being comforted, Chloe just steps away. She nods, and sighs. "Okay, granted, I've not always been supportive of things, and you and I haven't always been friends, but I'll talk to Will and see what can be done. When you're sure, absolutely sure that you want to forget, or that you want to at least wipe away the pain and feelings you might have, then we'll go to him, together." Just so Ivan doesn't have to feel as though he's being manipulated. "I just don't want to be hated. I have enough of that on and off with Mischa. I need one good friend."

Ivan nods faintly, and finally, he looks away from Chloe, fixing his cold gaze upon the wall across the room. "I don't know that I should trust you either." He muses, mostly to himself. "Like you pointed out. We haven't always been friends. And I know, I know I can't trust Will. But I guess there's no real reason for me not to. It's not like I have much to lose right now anyway." Beat. "I wont hate you, Chloe. I promise you that. And thanks. For doing this. For going along with me."

"You're right. You don't have reason to trust me, but Ivan, I really don't have reason to hurt you either. You've never outwardly wronged me, you've never hurt me. Sure we argue, but most people do, even the best of friends." On the matter of Will, she doesn't say a word. Difference is, she trusts Will implicitly, as he saved her life multiple times. "Well I solemnly swear that I won't let him harm you, and I'll keep him from putting anything else in the glamour, okay?" She offers a lopsided smile, and sighs. "You're welcome, Ivan. I just wish there was more I could do. If you want to crash here for a bit, or just chill, that's fine. I should probably go grab a shower, and get ready for work. It's my last week at the library and all, so I don't want to be late."

Ivan nods, slowly and calmly, as he thinks over his next course of action. "Thanks, but I should get going too, I think. I've got to pick up my old keys and sign the lease. And I need to grab at least some of my clothes, because I have literally nothing right now. Maybe I can knock off that conversation now, get it done and over with."

There is a pause, and Chloe nods. She moves to the door and grabs a set of keys from the wall. A spare set that she keeps for when she has guests. "Look. Just take these. If you need a place to crash before the apartment is ready, or whatever, feel free to wander in. I'm out most of the night anyhow so you won't be bothering me any." And she'll feel better that he's not going to wind up living out of his car if it comes to it. "No strings, no worries. Plus, you'll have a set of keys in case I wind up out of town or something."

Ivan frowns thoughtfully, but in the end? There is no protesting. The keys are merely snatched up, jingled a bit, and acknowledge with a silent nod before Ivan steps out of the apartment and back into the world.

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