Page 80 of The Wedding Pact
‘I’m not surprised, you only had eyes for the one you walked in with,’ Poppy replied. ‘And before you grow the biggest head, I don’t remember you because you’re the most attractive man in the world or anything. I remember you because the two of you looked like such a perfect couple. The dream tenants for that horrible old landlady.’
‘She’s okay,’ Flynn said, surprised at himself for defending Mrs Haverley. A bit of deflection, perhaps. ‘If you thought we were such a happy couple, what did you hope to gain by chatting me up by the bar?’
‘Nothing, quite honestly. The hen party dared me to come on to you, this handsome stranger waiting at the bar, and when I looked over, I recognised you. Thinking you were a safe bet to not become creepy and clingy, because I knew you were with someone, I went along with it. And then imagine my surprise when it turns out you actually didn’t have a partner.’
Flynn’s mind was a muddle, he couldn’t separate the reality of what happened from the events she’d manufactured yet. ‘But you didn’t know where I lived at that point, you didn’t know I’d got the apartment.’
‘No, I didn’t, I just thought, Hey, this guy is actually single, and he’s pretty nice. It was the second time we met that you mentioned where you lived.’ She paused to sip her coffee, her eyes never leaving him.
‘Why didn’t you say anything? Why didn’t you just ask me how I got the apartment if that’s what you were wondering. I probably would have told you.’
Poppy shrugged. ‘I was curious and intrigued, and to be honest, I wanted to find out myself because I didn’t know if you would have told me the truth. Besides, I was still getting to know you, and I liked you, and I wanted to see the house myself to make sure I wasn’t jumping to conclusions. Because at the time it felt a little far-fetched to assume the two of you were faking being a married couple in order to beat off the competition for a rental apartment.’
‘It’s not as simple as that,’ Flynn started. ‘It wasn’t just any old flat—’
‘But I was right, wasn’t I? That landlady only wanted to rent to a married couple. Not the likes of me, not the likes of a lot of the other hopefuls. But you two must have fit the bill when you lied your way in.’
Flynn was silent for a time, turning the facts over in his head, asking her questions that he didn’t say out loud about why she hadn’t confronted him, why she’d carried on the façade, but maybe it didn’t matter. They’d both held things back. They’d both made this an unhealthy relationship, and him more so.
Instead, he asked – or rather stated – after a while, ‘You left a bra in my apartment.’
Poppy smiled a little at that, a twinkle in her eye, just for a second. ‘All right, you caught me, I wanted to be a little territorial. Can you blame me? You made me feel like the other woman, like the mistress, and you didn’t even have the courtesy to tell me why.’
‘When did I make you feel like that?’ he asked the question but he knew it was true. From his jumpiness at sneaking her in and out of the flat, to the ease and warmth he couldn’t help give off towards August, even when Poppy was around.
‘Well, for one thing I’d just seen the photo of you and her on the beach, looking like happy newlyweds, and I wondered what else you two got up to there alone.’
‘Nothing,’ Flynn said, softening, understanding her point of view.
‘Nothing?’ she pressed, however. ‘You’ve never slept together, or even kissed?’
Flynn hesitated, and that was all the confirmation she needed. Poppy picked up her bag, and the remainder of her coffee.
‘We have kissed, but not since you and I started seeing each other,’ Flynn said, wanting to be as honest with her as he could, now. ‘Are you … ’ he started, and then stopped himself.
Poppy turned, her eyes narrowed. ‘Am I what?’
He needed to ask, and he loathed himself for it because it was what he’d accused August of only caring about. ‘Are you going to do anything with the information?’
‘Am I going to do anything with the information?’ Poppy repeated back at him, her voice full of scorn. ‘What do you think, Inspector Morse? Do you think I’m going to tell on you to your landlady? Flynn, we’ve seen each other a handful of times over the space of two months, let’s just leave it as something that was over before it started, okay?’
‘Sure,’ he answered. Flynn hung his head, ashamed under her gaze. He didn’t want to ask the next question, but he knew he had to. ‘When did you stop liking me? Was it after that time you came to the flat, when we first kissed?’When August had been in her recording booth the whole time?
‘I didn’t stop liking you,’ Poppy explained, her eyes flicking down, refusing to let him see the hurt in them. ‘I was genuinely into you; I always have been. But that doesn’t mean that I’m not annoyed by this other side of you. It felt deceitful, to me, and to other people.’ Poppy went to walk away and then turned, saying, ‘Not everything I did was a lie, Flynn, in fact, hardly any of it was. But importantly tous, as much as I liked you, I could see you liked her.’
He looked up at her with surprise and was about to protest but the words caught in his throat.
She held her hands up, stopping him from trying. ‘You and her, and that fake life you’ve created – I saw the wedding photo you’d turned to face the wall, I saw the anxious looks you’d cast up and down the street in case of any neighbours watching – that’s a lie you two need to figure out what the hell you’re doing with. Are you just going to pretend to be married for life, and never live your actual lives?’
Flynn left the cafe a good half an hour after Poppy had. He’d stared into his empty coffee cup, whirling her words around his head. It was over before it started, that was certainly true. Was he sad about that? Of course. Was he Yui-level sad? Of course not.
The thought of Yui, in fact, had him pining for their life together, to be back in Japan, back near his family, back where he didn’t have to lie and pretend, when he wasn’t completely shattered from his job all the time. Because he really was completely shattered, from everything.
He walked home, slowly, allowing the drizzle to fall on him.
Poppy’s words whirled about in his mind. She wasn’t wrong. He could keep trying, denying, lying, and acting. But the truth was that everything came down to August, and it was time he faced that fact with his eyes open. He’d fallen for her, and he needed to see her, because he was sinking.
Chapter 56
