Page 66 of Make The Cut

“How do you know something’s wrong?” My guard crumbles around her. The mask of constant flirtation and charm dialled up to eleven melts. I can’t bring myself to put anything else between us, not even myself.

“I guess I just know you. Plus, I saw Rose storming out of the dressing room area, looking furious, so I…” She sighs and I hear heels clicking in the background. “Naoya, I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry?” I frown. “Why are you sorry?”

“I…” She sounds hurried, wind rushing past the speaker and crackling. “I’m gonna explain. I’ll be there in a minute. Where are you?”

“In the hallway, outside the dressing rooms.” I should get up. Pretend to be okay. But I can’t keep putting up a guard between us.

Even if it kills me, I want to show her who I really am.

What I really feel.

She hangs up and moments later, the hallway door swings open. Poppy nudges a box toward the exit to hold it in place, and her gaze darts around the narrow space for a moment, her brows furrowed in confusion before she sees me on the floor.

Defeated. Broken.

“Hey, Petal.” I drop my knees from my chest, and my feet brush the other end of the hallway. “Come here.”

She sits next to me, her face fitting into the hollow of my neck as she leans against my shoulder, draping one leg over mine. “Naoya, I’ve done something terrible to you.”

“What do you mean?” My heart pounds at her words.

I don’t know if I trust anyone the way I do Poppy. Foolishly, recklessly, a bond born of favours and requests and mutual benefit until it became something far more than the sum of its transactional parts.

“I’m the reason Rose is quitting the show.” A sob slips from her mouth.

“You’re giving yourself a lot of credit.” I smooth a hand over her hair. My pulse refuses to slow down and be relieved by her answer. Refuses to believe that she might be saying something entirely other than her confession. “I’m sure she’s not quitting because of you.”

“Naoya, she offered me a job at Rose Inc. after the show was over. And I turned her down.” Her voice is tear-soaked. “Do you want to know why?”

“Why?” I tilt her chin up, trying to find the answers in her tear-filled eyes, trying to understand what she’s saying before she has to say it. Before I have to hear it, and it becomes real.

Before I realize that the woman I love might have sabotaged my career.

“She said that if I worked with her, I’d have to stay away from you. And I was ready to do it for a moment. I was ready to say yes. I was going to tell you that I couldn’t do it, that we’re better off as friends, that you’re too much of a player for me to trust you. But I couldn’t.”

My heart drops into the pit of my stomach, turning from beating flesh to a lump of lead. “Poppy.”

“I said I was sorry.” Tears stream down her cheeks. “But I did the right thing.”

My chest is hollow. My hands shake, and I drop them to my lap, twisting my fingers together until my knuckles go white.

“Lucky,” she whispers. “Tell me I did the right thing.”

I take a deep breath.

“You did the right thing for yourself.”

“But not for you?” Her voice shakes. From anger or sorrow, I can’t tell.

She chose me. She chose me over the job with Rose. She chose me over furthering her career, what she’s wanted this whole time.

“You are…” I disentangle my fingers from each other and intertwine them with hers instead. “You’re a very expensive choice, Poppy Calliope Black, but I’d choose you. I’d choose you over the show, I’d choose you over a billion dollars, and I’d choose you over a Grammy.”

“An expensive choice?” she echoes. “What do you mean?”

“TJ, the producer, he’s financially backing the show. But he’ll only do it as long as Rose is the costar. She just told me she’s only staying on for the first season. The next season will be in limbo until I find someone to replace her, Poppy.”

---