‘No. Obviously, it’s weird,’ she admitted.
Poppy smiled, relieved. ‘Acknowledging the problem. That’s a good start.’
‘To what?’ Norah asked.
Poppy shrugged. ‘I really don’t know.’
They looked at each other for a long moment, and Norah felt the corners of her mouth trying to move in an upward direction. She fought it bravely, but the trouble was, she knew that Poppy knew she was trying not to smile because Poppy was grinning at her. Norah cracked. She started to laugh. Poppy laughed right along with her. It felt good, like getting into a warm bath after a walk in the cold rain.
‘OK, well, I guess you can stop being so weird now,’ Poppy said.
‘Like it was just me?’ Norah shot back.
Poppy flashed her teeth. ‘You got me there, Cauldwell.’
Norah felt a funny little feeling in her tummy when Poppy said her last name. The intimacy of it recalled their younger selves so vividly.
Twenty Years Ago
Norah was lying in her bed, naked under the sheets, staring at the ceiling in sheer amazement. She had officially been devirginated by Poppy. Six months ago, she was the cool girl who lived down the street, a childhood friend, yet a stranger, and now Norah knew the ins and outs of her body. Life was officially nuts.
She wished Poppy hadn’t had to leave. Norah would have loved to have kept her in her bed all night long. If only her bloody mother wasn’t such a killjoy with a pathological aversion to knocking. Heaven forefend Norah have a bit of privacy. That she be allowed to have sex at the grand old age of eighteen.
Her mother should have appreciated that she’d waited for the right one. She’d slept with someone who cared about her and who she cared about. Her mother couldn’t have asked for more of her. Well, Norah supposed her mother might have asked her to do all that with a different gender. But Norah felt in her heart that Poppy was the only person she could have been with. It had to be fated.
Norah was filled with the possibility of Poppy. She was nervous about her, too, but her worries simply couldn’t compete with what had just happened. Her body felt like it still had Poppy’s hands on it, like she’d left an impression of them, indelibly.
Was this, as she suspected, love? Was this what it felt like? Norah didn’t have a point of comparison. She’d liked people. She’d had crushes. She’d even gotten a bit obsessed. But none of that was like this. This goddam pull that Poppy had on her. Norah physically ached to be with her again.
The only thing that could calm the craving was the knowledge that this was just the beginning of things. This happiness was only the first taste. There would be so much more of this. She just knew it.
Sixteen
Now
Poppy hadn’t even known she was going to address the eight-hundred-pound gorilla in the room until the words were coming out of her mouth. But she couldn’t dance around it like this any longer. They had a past, and now they had a present. And if there was one thing Poppy could never do, it was live in the dark.
‘So, can we do normal now, do you think?’ Poppy asked, framing it as a joke. But it wasn’t. She ached to be real with Norah. She didn’t understand how much until she had a true shot at it.
‘Yeah, I guess,’ Norah said, that old, familiar wry smile on her lips.
Poppy hadn’t seen that since they were teenagers. It was such a part of Norah that to separate it from her was to suck out her essential Norah-ness. But here it was. A fuller Norah, a realer Norah, a truer Norah. It was so good to see it.
Norah glanced at the kids. ‘Must be tough working around Luna? Freddie wouldn’t let me do that. He’d be hanging off my leg.’
‘Luna’s the same, which is why I never usually do this,’ Poppy said quickly. ‘My neighbour babysits her on a Saturday, but she had to get a flight to Cape Town at short notice.’
‘Your babysitter had to leave the country? Bloody hell.’
‘Yeah, her mum’s unwell. It’s Cherry. You remember her?’
Norah’s mouth fell open. ‘Oh my god. Cherry? I haven’t seen her in forever.’ She blinked. ‘Wait, her mum?’
‘Don’t. I was shocked, too. But I guess Cherry’s family has the secret of eternal youth.’
‘If she ever gives it to you, share it with me, would you?’ Norah said dryly.
Poppy chuckled. ‘No way. I need every drop for myself.’
‘Yeah, sure you do,’ Norah said.
Was that a compliment? Poppy wasn’t sure. Even if it was, she had to pretend she hadn’t noticed it, or she was gonna get all embarrassed and silly. She needed to make some attempt at seeming vaguely cool.
Norah suddenly pieced something together. ‘Wait, are you back on Orchid Road?’
‘Yeah, my mum’s old place. You didn’t know? I’ve seen your mum around. I thought she might have mentioned it.’
‘She never said a word,’ Norah said.
‘She doesn’t say hello to me,’ Poppy noted.
‘Don’t take that too personally,’ Norah said. ‘Her eyesight is shocking these days. She probably didn’t realise it was you.’
‘She looked in rude health to me,’ Poppy observed.
‘So, umm... Can I ask...’ Norah began, her voice wavering with slight anxiety.
‘Yes?’
