Page 19 of Love and the Laws of Motion
“Exactly.But I have to fight to get you to look up from your bloody computer screen.”
“Because I love my work.”
“And I love mine.It would be nice if you’d take an interest in it now and then.”
“It’s not like you’re desperate to hear me talk coding over dinner, Poppy.”
“See, that’s exactly it.”
“Exactly what?”
“What do we really have in common, Nick?”
Livie heard him scoff in disbelief.“You can’t be serious.”
“I am.Tell me one thing you like about me.Besides the way I look.”
“That’s not fair.”
“Maybe not, but I’m not sure I can answer it either.”
There was a loaded moment of silence.This wasdefinitelysomething she shouldn’t be hearing.Livie spun around, desperate to escape, but the elevator had already gone back down.She was trapped in the vestibule until it returned.She stabbed the button repeatedly, like somehow that would make the elevator understand it was an emergency.
Inside the apartment, Nick spoke again.“What are you saying, Poppy?”
“Look, Nick, I don’t think we’re all that compatible.Not in any of the ways that matter.”
“Fashion industry parties?That’swhat matters?”
“Thatis a huge part of my life.The way yours is your computer.We’re just too different.”
“Youlikedthat I was different.”
“But our lives don’t mesh.”
“We’ve beenmeshingfor a year.”
“And now I can see the truth.We don’t work.Not in the long term.”
“Are you breaking up with me?”Nick’s voice rang hollowly through the apartment.
No no no no, she didn’t want to hear this.She shouldn’t be here, but there was no escape.The elevator was coming back up, but stopping at nearly every floor.
Poppy’s sigh was so heavy, Livie could hear it out in the vestibule.
“I don’t know what we were thinking, getting engaged.This isn’t going to work.”
“Poppy, you don’t mean that—”
“I do.We’re finished, Nick.I think it’s for the best.Here.”
There was a pregnant silence from inside the apartment.Then Nick muttered an oath and something metal pinged off something hard.The ring, she realized.Poppy had given Nick back her engagement ring.Then there was a metallic ping—like a ring being thrown across the room, maybe.
“Go ahead and keep it,” Nick snapped.“I know how much you wanted it.”
Livie looked up frantically at the lighted floor numbers.It was on twelve.Two more floors to go.Oh, please hurry!
“I think you should go, Nick.”
