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“Good,” she said. “How about you?”
“Come on now,” Poppy said. “This is me you’re talking to.” Poppy looked around the room. “It’s only us. What’s going on with you and Brooks? I know you’ve done the naked dance twice and you said the last time he seemed almost softer at the end. Personality wise, not in body.”
She giggled at the way Poppy wiggled her eyebrows. “Yeah and since then it’s silence. Like he’s vanished, only I know he hasn’t. I emailed him twice about the robberies. His responses are short and professional.”
“Ouch,” Poppy said. “This is new for you. The key is to not let it bother you. When you see him again—”
“If,” she said.
“When,”Poppy stressed. “It’s a small town and it’s going to happen. You just act like he is. Let him know you’re good with the way things are.”
“But I’m not,” she said.
“You have to let him think you are. Remember, you started it. You said you could be okay with it.”
“I lied,” she said. “I’m an idiot.”
“You’re not an idiot. You see someone you like. Really like.”
“Yes,” she said. “I mean I have with other men before, but this is different. Do you think it has more to do with the fact he doesn’t want anything to do with me? Am I that shallow?”
It bothered her to think that, but she didn’t know what else could be happening in her life.
She thought she was maturing and yet this made her feel like that teenager again that everyone told her she had to stop being.
“No,” Poppy said. “You aren’t that shallow. I’m not an expert.”
“Yes, you are,” she said.
“Well, maybe back in the day,” Poppy said, smiling. “But if you ask me, from what you said about the second time, I think you might have scared him.”
“I don’t think Brooks gets scared easily.”
“Or he doesn’t want anyone to know. But it appears as if you’re getting to him and some men struggle. He drew a line in the sand and he’s crossed it. At least in his mind. You don’t know why that line is there, do you?”
“No,” she said. “I know some of his life, but he knows more about mine.”
“You have two choices if you ask me,” Poppy said.
“I’m sure I have more than two, but what are they?”
“Put him from your mind and move on,” Poppy said.
“I don’t want to do that.”
“I know you don’t,” Poppy said. “Your other choice is to reach out to him.”
“And be rejected again?” she asked.
“Third choice, let it play out. Give yourself a timetable to make a decision.”
“That probably is the wiser decision,” she said. “But we know I’ve never been that wise before.”
“And cut yourself some slack while you’re at it,” Poppy said.
“I struggle to do that too, but I’m going to. We need to have fun and party today. Not worry about me and my man troubles.”
“What man troubles?” Heather asked, moving over. “What am I missing? No one told me you had man troubles.”
