All of Me by Heatherly Bell

posters, beer, stinky socks. But she hadn’t minded because it meant sharing a bed with Jeff, and getting all his attention for a while. He’d taught her how to please him, and she’d become well versed in the art of distracting him from anything else but her. It was that need for him that drove her life back then, but she was not the same dumb girl any more.
    She had goals and a direction. Unfortunately life had taken a left turn again while she’d been ready to turn right. But she’d roll, as she had so many times in the past. On the other hand, Jeff had a penchant to schedule everything down to the last detail, and all this couldn’t be sitting well with him.
    *****
    This could get complicated. He wouldn’t mind complicated if it meant seeing Ivey naked, but that was a pipe dream. This wasn’t part of any plan he could have imagined at any time. Ivey living with him, her bedroom inches away from his.
    A few minutes later, he’d changed and pulled a beer from the fridge when Ivey emerged from the bedroom wearing a tank top and sweatpants that read bootylicious . In case he’d forgotten, which he hadn’t.
    They simply stared at each other for a minute, and then they both spoke at once.
    “Are you going to bed?”
    “I’m going to watch some TV.” Ivey headed towards the set and turned it on to the news.
    Not a good idea. “Maybe not the news.”
    “There’s nothing else on, and I might hear something about what happened tonight.”
    “Do you really want to?”
    “Of course. I want to make sure they got the story straight. My aunt had nothing to do with this.”
    Curious, he waited to hear as well, and when they listened to a story about a boy who had figured out a way to recycle straws, Jeff had convinced himself that they’d skip the story altogether.
    But no such luck.
    “In other local news tonight, a Wall Street financial investor’s home has been seized in an FBI sting.”
    “A sting?” Ivey cried out. “There was no sting.”
    They showed film of the newscaster at the scene, reporting on the few known details. Nothing Jeff and Ivey didn’t already know. Then back to the talking heads, who seemed amused. Slow news day and all.
    “I thought all they had in Starlight Hill were vineyards.” The male anchor preened.
    “Sounds like they’ve got crooks too. But even those are high-class.” A light elbow to her co-anchor, a little chuckle.
    Next, a large photo of Ben Cartwright and Lucy at their wedding. “Here’s a photo of the couple in happier days. You know, Lucy Cartwright is a local who won the California lotto several years ago. It  goes to show you, it’s never enough.” The male anchor shook his head sadly. This, obviously, was the news commentary portion of the show.
    “For some people, it never is. But justice prevails, and tonight maybe a few unlucky investors are a little closer to getting back their life savings. Well, good night and sleep tight, folks.” The female anchor winked.
    Jeff turned toward Ivey, who hadn’t said a word. She stared at the screen, mouth hanging. “Did you hear that? They lumped them together, showed their wedding picture for crying out loud, and made it sound like my aunt was involved.”
    He rubbed his forehead, feeling a headache coming on. “No they didn’t. And no one in town will believe it.”
    “I’m going to call the station. This is irresponsible journalism. They might as well call it the evening rumors.”
    “You might want to let it go. Let it die out. You’ll only call more attention to the situation.”
    “I don’t want people to think badly of Aunt Lucy. I know she’s been married four times, and she probably has more fun than any fifty-eight year old woman should, but she’s been good to me. And she’s been good to the hospital too. That’s something nobody knows. She’s the women’s center’s main benefactor.”
    That got his attention. When he’d pressed, he’d been told that it was one of the benefactors who