He rolled his eyes. ‘Poppy, I need to talk to my wife. Alone.’
Poppy looked at Norah, and she shook her head.
‘No, I’m good where I am, thanks,’ Poppy told him.
Max looked incensed. He pointed at Poppy’s box. ‘Fine. But that bloody lamp stays.’
‘Are you serious? I’m giving you all the big furniture,’ Norah said.
‘Only because it won’t fit at your mum’s,’ he said smugly.
Norah shook her head. ‘Fine, take the lamp, you petty...’ She let the sentence trail off.
Max stepped towards Poppy, a smug smile on his annoying face.
‘No, allow me,’ Poppy said, putting the box down and taking the lamp out. He reached out, and Poppy proffered it towards his greedy little hands. Just before his fingertips made contact, Poppy dropped the lamp. CRACK. It was shattered beyond repair. ‘Oh, god, sorry!’ she said.
‘You did that on purpose!’ Max raged.
‘Who, me?’ Poppy asked, picking up the box and turning to take it out to the van.
She caught Norah’s eye, expecting to see annoyance. Instead, they were twinkling with delight.
She took the box out, and Norah was right behind her with her own box. They loaded them into the back of the white van together.
‘You’re the best,’ Norah said.
Poppy felt something about that compliment but tried to play it cool. ‘I’m a drama queen,’ Poppy said. ‘But he had it coming.’
‘He sure did. This whole thing has been a nightmare, but knowing you have my back is... It’s nice.’ Norah pushed the boxes deeper into the van and went back into the house for the next box.
Poppy realised she was blushing. She never blushed. What the hell?
But it got worse. As they continued to move boxes and furniture, Poppy found herself thinking about how nice Norah looked with sweat on her brow and determination in her eyes. She quickly shrugged off those thoughts, chalking them up to exhaustion and stress from the move.
But deep down, the small flutter of attraction towards Norah was building. Or maybe it was more accurate to say that it was reigniting.
Twenty-Five
When Norah pulled up to her mother’s house in the white rental van, an unconsidered problem smacked her in the face. Poppy was with her. Norah didn’t know if her mother had noticed Poppy was back living on Orchid Street, but she definitely didn’t know Norah and Poppy were friends again. She didn’t know because Norah had made very sure never to tell her.
The whole situation had felt a bit fraught. Despite the length of Poppy’s absence, Norah didn’t know what her mother thought of Poppy now. She’d never liked her, and she was a legendary grudge holder.
But that wasn’t exactly what was worrying Norah at this moment.
‘Just wait in the van for a second. I’m going to get my mother ready for my arrival,’ Norah said carefully.
‘But she knows you're coming?’ Poppy asked, confused.
‘Yeah, but she doesn’t know...’ Norah trailed off.
Poppy’s lips parted in horror. ‘Oh. She doesn’t know I’m coming today?’
Norah licked her lips anxiously. ‘It just might seem a bit odd to her...’ she began. But she didn’t want to end the sentence. Because the end of the sentence was, ‘If you suddenly appear, it’s going to look to my mum like I left Max for an old flame, so maybe hang back?’
But Poppy wasn’t picking up on the subtext. ‘Does she still hate me after all this time?’ she asked.
Well, that was a simpler question to answer. ‘She never hated you.’
Poppy’s brow deepened. ‘Maybe she won’t realise it’s me.’
Norah considered that. ‘Maybe.’
‘So I just... won’t introduce myself. You just say I’m your friend, your very vague friend. I doubt she’ll ask,’ Poppy said.
Norah nodded. ‘OK, let’s try that.’ Honestly, she wasn’t sure it was gonna work, but what else could she do?
They climbed out of the van.
‘Hold on,’ Poppy said, running around to the back of the van and coming back with a large rolled-up rug held in front of her face.
Norah laughed. ‘Jesus. Are you scared of her?’
Poppy looked at her in astonishment. ‘Obviously. Where have you been?’
Norah chuckled her way to the door and rang the bell. Freddie opened the door. He’d been there all morning, under his grandma’s/new roommate’s watch.
‘Hey, look at you answering doors, big kid!’ Norah greeted him and swooped in for a hug.
