Christian woke before Ana and untangled himself from her and left her sleeping soundly in the bed. He quickly pulled in jeans and a t-shirt before padding out to the kitchen in bare feet. Gail was cooking something and greeted him warmly with a huge smile 'morning. You've just missed Ivy, she's had breakfast and gone back to her room to shower'. Christian glanced at his watch in surprise 'but it's 9.45 in the morning. I thought teenagers were meant to sleep all day'.
Gail smiled, handing him a cup of coffee 'well she's not exactly a normal teenager is she. The newspaper crossword and suduko were both finished in under five minutes each, and she was talking to me at the same time'. Christian glanced at the newspaper on the breakfast bar beside him. Sure enough they were both completed. 'Wow... Did she eat anything?'. Gail nodded, preparing another coffee pot 'three blueberry muffins from the cafe down the road. I brought them with me to try and get a bit of weight on her'.
Christian couldn't help but feel grateful for Gail's parental tendencies 'thanks. Three muffins, she must have been hungry after barely eating last night'. Gail shrugged and Christian continued 'did Ivy say why she was up so early?'. Gail looked at him warily 'uh, well she didn't say it in as many words but I got the message that she didn't want to see Anastasia particularly'. Christian sighed, his voice dryly sarcastic 'brilliant'.
He knocked awkwardly on Ivy's bedroom door and heard a muttered 'yes?' before opening the door. She was wearing a short black playsuit and her hair was in a messy bun, looking much better than she had the night before. She was sitting cross legged on the floor with her back against her bed and an array of books around her. One was open and he noted that she was nearly halfway through already. He noted also with a start that she was wearing glasses, ones with a thick black frame that were very fashionable.
'I heard you had breakfast'. Ivy blinked in surprise 'is that a problem...?'. He shook his head 'no-no-no- it's a good thing...I'm happy you're eating'. Ivy half rolled her eyes 'look I know you want to do this whole big brother caring thing but you've got Mia for that haven't you. I'm not anorexic or bulimic, I just have a thing about food, alright?'. Christian half nodded 'what did you want to do today?'.
Ivy closed her book, thumb in place to keep the page and looked at him with a condescending expression 'I was going to read...you can do that girl of yours if you want, I'll be fine'. As if on cue Ana arrived by his side in the doorway, smiling warmly and too enthusiastically at Ivy. 'Good morning Ivy, how are you this morning?' her stifled response was something between a grimace and the word 'fine'. Christian was about to speak but got cut off by Ana's verbal ramblings 'oh, I didn't know you wore glasses?'.
Ivy slowly looked over Ana with what could only be described as contempt 'well I need them to read, and clearly I'm reading right now. Or at least I was trying to. By the way' she glanced over Ana again 'top from last night- not a classy look'. Ivy settled back and opened the book again, making it clear the conversation was over. Christian motioned to Ana and she gratefully left, leaving the two siblings alone together.
He sighed 'so...you don't like Ana'. It wasn't a question 'who you're currently screwing is inconsequential to me. I'm only here till the donation, then the Christian Grey's of the world can go back to blissful ignorance'. Christian frowned 'what's that supposed to mean?'. Ivy snorted with laughter, not looking up from the book 'ivory towers, gilded cages and all that'. He narrowed his eyes at her 'Ivy you know full well that I had a ... 'difficult' start in life. What are you trying to say?'. She looked up finally from the pages 'don't try and pretend that you're the only person who's had it hard, alright? Since you were four you've lived a life of insane luxury whilst...' she trailed off, choosing not to continue the sentence.
Christian didn't think before he spoke 'It's not my fault you decided to use drugs is it? So stop playing the poor little me card yeah?'. With that Christian stormed out of her room, slamming the door shut behind him.
At lunch Christian knocked on Ivy's door and heard no response. After another knock he opened the door, seeing her sitting in almost the same position, now at the end of the thick book. 'Ivy I knocked on your door' she nodded as a signal that she had heard but said nothing 'why didn't you respond?'. Ivy chose to say nothing, eyes scanning the pages quickly, turning them fairly quickly too. 'Ivy I asked you why you didn't respond' 'I don't want lunch'. Christian sighed, she hadn't been here a week and he was exhausted already 'you'll at least come and sit at the table'.
Ten minutes more arguing had finally worn Ivy down and she had agreed to sit at the table at least. It was awkward when she finally sat down at the table and it was her, Christian and Ana eating on their own at the long table. Ana had made a quiche and a large chicken Caesar salad, though Ivy didn't get a say on what she chose as Christian filled up her plate and handed it heavily to her, piled with salad and a huge slice of quiche. It was clear that Ivy wasn't going to talk much and she picked over her food, barely listening as Christian spoke. 'Ivy? Ivy? Ivy for gods sake are you listening to me?' 'what?' 'my mother said she can do the check up today or tomorrow if you want?'. If Christian wanted an answer he didn't get one, simply a shrug before she continued with picking over her food.
Ivy hadn't said another word at lunch and disappeared back into her room. Christian was torn between annoyance at her attitude towards Ana and his want to understand her and make her a part of his life.
Christian showered quickly and redressed from the clothes scattered over the floor. In the throes of passion neither he nor Ana had taken much care as to where they flung their clothes. He needed a drink and as he ambled into the kitchen he was surprised to see Ivy sitting at the breakfast bar.
She was sitting with a large glass of water and a half eaten roll. She had some papers in front of her and was scribbling quickly on another sheet of paper. 'Ivy...what are you doing?' she glanced up and put her pen down 'Taylor dropped some papers from your office and I looked over them when I was eating...some of your figures were wrong'. Christian frowned 'the China figures?' she nodded and he moved around to look at them
'they've rounded all the figures way up, and your lot haven't accounted at all for the rate of inflation if these sales are to happen in eighteen months time, and the conversion rate has also been bumped up a bit further than necessary. Christian blinked 'how long have you been out here?'. Ivy shrugged, eating some of the roll 'ten minutes, why?'.
'you did this in ten minutes? I pay someone a lot of money to do this with a calculator'. Ivy shrugged again 'I'm just wired that way. My friends called me Rain Man'. Christian couldn't help but laugh at that 'so you're some type of math genius?'. 'No, I'm just good at it'. She slid off the chair and picked up the roll 'I'm going to go back to my room'.
As she wandered off Christian stood staring over the papers and her long, complicated sums scribbled over the paper. He had done economics as Harvard and this was way above his head. He paused for a moment before ringing Barney at the office.
'Barney, it's Grey. Yeah, I was wondering about the China figures...' Barney cut him off -one of the few who would dare- 'Simon's been running around trying to find you all day. Apprently there's a discrepency in the figures or something. I don't know, I was on the phone and told him to contact you on Monday. Was there a reason you called about them?'
Christian ran a hand through his hair 'my seventeen year old sister worked out the problem in ten minues with just her brain'. Barney sat in impressed silence for a few seconds 'is she coming in to the office at any point?' Christian frowned 'maybe...why?'
Christian could tell Barney was grinning 'I wanted to get her in here and show Simon and all his section. They could do with being shown up by a kid'. Christian laughed despite himself 'I'd like to see that too. Have you got any information for me?'
Barney went a little quiet and Christian knew it wasn't brilliant news 'does your sister know that you're reseaching her mother?'. Christian paused 'no...why?'. 'lets just say that if she was my mum I'd keep it quiet as well'.