12. The First Move

"Someone got lucky this weekend."

Sage turned to see Ivy walk into her office when she was standing against the shelving unit looking for a binder.

"Huh?" she asked.

Ivy almost glided into her small office space and shut the door. "You got lucky. Finally. I know. I can tell."

Ivy was doing one of Poppy's little dances. Not really booty popping, but her arms in the air and her hips swirling around. With the loose dress that Ivy had on that had hit her knees it was now floating up like a hula hoop barely covering her.

It just made her laugh. "You did that move on purpose with that dress on."

"Oh yeah," she said. "I was really whipping my hips around this morning in front of Brooks trying to flash him, but it wouldn't work. I had him laughing though. Almost got him to drag me into the bedroom, but he chose work instead. Bummer."

She smiled. "You're cute."

"Thank you," Ivy said, curtseying. "It's hard work loosening up my man." Ivy put her hand up and showed off her engagement ring playfully. "If it was up to me he'd be mine sooner, but you know, got two knocked-up sisters so the least I can do is wait for them. Plus my parents are going to come for my wedding so by me waiting a few extra months they will be here to meet the two newest grandkids."

"Which is sweet of you to hold off," she said. She'd only found out last week about Dahlia's pregnancy.

She'd met Dahlia's boyfriend at Heather's wedding over a week ago but had no clue that Dahlia was pregnant. The two of them hadn't been dating long, but she wasn't going to judge either. They seemed very happy together.

"I can be sweet," Ivy said. "And we are getting off-topic. We need to talk about you."

Sage knew there was a massive grin on her face. "What about me?"

"That you got lucky this weekend."

There was no use denying it. Everyone knew she'd been dating Knox for a few weeks.

"Do you have some superpower like Poppy and it's rubbing off or something?"

"Nope," Ivy said. "You had your back to the door and were moving your hips side to side as if you had some song or something exciting going through your head."

"I was?" she asked.

"Yes, you were," Ivy said. "Tell me, am I right?"

"You are," she said. Sage wasn't used to talking about this with anyone. Maybe when she was younger, but not recently.

Her relationship with Henry she'd kept quiet for a long time.

It's not like he was her boss, but he was a manager and she didn't want to be talked about. They'd agreed on that together.

Her family knew though. She'd let them meet him after a few months. Kate knew because Kate was like a sister, but she knew Kate wouldn't tell anyone and hadn't.

No one found out until a few weeks after she finally got her long-awaited promotion.

Then one month later everything in her life just exploded and she still had no understanding of it.

How she got wrapped up in it or why she deserved to be made into such a fool over it.

"Tell me about it," Ivy said.

"Or not," she said.

"Come on," Ivy said. "Just a little. I know some of how you guys reconnected which I've got to say is the sweetest thing ever. You know I never had any high school sweethearts. I've never been to a school dance or hung out with friends at lunch."

She knew the three girls had lived all over the world, moving with their father's assignments as a doctor with Doctors Without Borders.

They didn't have any of the normal average American teenage experiences.

She wasn't sure she'd give up what she'd gone through even if some of it was embarrassing.

But wasn't that just a part and a fact of life?

She'd always thought so.

"Okay," she said. "There isn't much to say. It's been a few weeks. We are trying to get to know each other more. Maybe you can understand this next part more than anyone else."

"What?" Ivy asked. "I love when people say that. It makes me feel as if I fit in more."

She tried to keep the sympathy out of her eyes when the younger woman said that. She liked Ivy a lot.

When she started here, Ivy was doing a lot of the work that came to Sage and she didn't want to step on toes or come in and make enemies.

That hadn't happened because Ivy was just so much fun and sweet and funny to be around.

Ivy confessed to her that she didn't always feel as if she deserved this job and worked twice as hard but knew there were things she didn't understand. She wanted to learn and was thrilled to hand them off to Sage and hopefully learn from her.

Ivy was a good backup for her at times and vice versa. She felt they got along well too.

"Knox was the nerdy kid in school that many made fun of."

"I heard," Ivy said. "But you were nice to him."

"I was. But I didn't look at him as someone I'd date. I was wrong, let me tell you."

"I can't wait to meet this guy," Ivy said, giggling. "When do we get to do that?"

Sage shrugged. "Not sure. Maybe the Christmas party?"

"That's a few months off," Ivy said. "But I get it. We all have so much going on."

"We are both busy. All of us," she said. "But he never felt like he could ask me out. One of my friends said something mean to me about Knox. When I turned, I'd seen he'd heard it. I apologized back then and did again over a month ago."

"That is nice of you," Ivy said. "I would have too. No one likes to have mean things said about them."

"No," she said softly. "Which is why I think you can understand and relate to this. Trust me, I know. I think we all do. But what I realized was that he wasn't going to make the first move with me on anything. Thinking back, I asked him for the first date."

"Because Poppy pushed you," Ivy said. "I heard. That part made the rounds. Poppy is the best."

"She is great," she said. "She gave me a little nudge that I needed. Then I made the first move with a kiss. I've been giving out hints about, you know..."

"Getting down and dirty," Ivy said, wiggling her hips again.

Sage laughed. "Yeah. But my hints didn't seem to get through and I finally decided it was time. Knox met Trace and Violet yesterday."

"And meeting family made it feel right," Ivy said. "I know that."

"It did," she said. "We went back to my place and, well, the rest is history."

"History enough to make you walk funny," Ivy said. "I think that is why you were wiggling your hips around."

"There might be a tad bit of soreness. It'd been almost a year and we did it a few times."

Once when they got in the door. Another after they'd had a snack and then right before he was going to leave, she pulled him to the couch one more time. Good thing she had condoms in her place because he'd only had the one on him.

She'd told him she was always prepared.

"I went almost two years without sex before Brooks. I know what it's like to feel sore after but not want the night to end either."

"There you go," she said. "Just like that."

"I'm happy for you," Ivy said.

"Thanks. I'm happy for me too," she said.

"I did come in here for a work reason," Ivy said. "You know that the Holly Bloom Foundation pieces are going live on the first."

"I do," Sage said. "All the promos are set up to go. I'm finishing up the newsletter to blast out that day. I'm excited about it. I know it's a big thing and the biggest thing I've tackled since I was hired."

From October through the end of the year, only limited edition pieces were sold with a hundred percent of the profits going into a foundation used to help young girls with anything from college scholarships to everyday essentials and counseling that might not be afforded to them.

This year they were spending more on advertising, and since it would be the fourth year they'd done it, Sage had a standard to meet and hopefully blast it out of the water.

"I love this time of year. Poppy told me that you were going to talk to Kate at some point. I won't say anything."

"I know you won't," she said.

As an assistant to all three of the sisters, Ivy was privy to a lot of the decisions being made, but with Lily out on maternity leave still, Ivy was kind of the go-between for anyone who needed something to bring to Lily once a week that the sisters or Ivy couldn't deal with.

"I had a thought. Not trying to crowd you in your job or anything."

"I want to hear it," she said.

"Social media influencers are things you said you wanted to try to tackle, right? And then it got shifted to Kate?"

"Yes," she said. "Once I talk to Kate, which hopefully will be this week, then I'll start doing my research on influencers and what I can send out and how I think it might help. I'd like to do a few testers if I could. It's best to start there before I start hitting up agents too."

"I figured as much. Well, Daisy's future sister-in-law might be someone you could contact. Daisy could give you the information. But Harmony is great. I can send you all her links. She works in New York City doing digital content for some firm. Her job is pretty much teaching businesses how to maximize their social networking reach and while she was starting there, she's built this huge following. She has the most of anyone in her company."

"Really?" she asked. Sage was surprised she was just hearing about this.

"Yes. Harmony is so pretty and realistic. Theo, Daisy's fiancé, has always said Harmony is like her name. She is this ray of sunshine. She just pushes happiness into the world when she posts and doesn't even try. This is one of her posts that got her going viral. She says she was only doing her job."

Ivy pulled up a video from a few years ago of a stunning young blonde woman at an animal shelter. How a scared stray dog was cowering in the corner with everyone that went near it, but Harmony got the dog to approach her and had the place cheering.

"That's such a good story and it was just a video clip," she said. It was focused on the right things to get the maximum effect.

"I know. That is Harmony. She is all about happy posts. Nothing negative. Nothing picking on anyone. She wants to spread goodness but not be over the top. I just think what the Holly Bloom Foundation stands for is exactly what would be perfect for Harmony. She already has a lot of Daisy's pieces and she's bought other things in the store when she comes."

"But if she had one of every piece and could wear them or talk about it in some posts, it'd go a long way," Sage said. "I should talk to Rose and Poppy about it first."

"They knew I was going to talk to you about it," Ivy said. "Since I thought of it the other day, they said I should be the one to let you know." Ivy had her iPad on her that she walked around with and turned her emails over. "Just so you don't think I'm making it up. Here is an email from all three of them saying they loved the idea and to have you talk to Daisy."

"You didn't need to show me that," she said. "I would have taken your word for it."

Though she did appreciate that Ivy was respectful that way. Not that she thought anyone was setting her up here, but she still felt enough of the burns from her last job.

"I know," Ivy said. "But now you've got the proof anyway. Daisy will love the idea. Harmony will too. She's really great."

"Then I'll talk to Daisy today about it and try to figure out the best way to see what Harmony has in mind and if she'd be willing to do it."

"She'll do it," Ivy said. "Trust me."

"Thanks," she said rubbing Ivy's arm. "I appreciate it and you. And all the help you've given me since I've been here. It's nice to work with other women who want you to succeed and not hold you back and watch you fall on your face."

"Since I've fallen on my face and my butt enough in my life, I'd never want anyone else to have to go through that. Together we all succeed even more."

"We do," she said.

Ivy left after that and Sage went to her computer to pull up Harmony's social media accounts that Ivy had sent her. She was going to check the young influencer out and see if she could get some ideas before they made contact.

She was feeling an excitement she'd been missing for years with her job and loved it.