Page 84 of Special Delivery
James’s eyes widened slowly. ‘You broughthimback here?’
How was this happening? The convergence of these worlds, at this moment, in this fucking freezing weather with these fucking uncomfortable shoes. What afuckingjoke. A sudden pulsing in her temple told her the hangover tomorrow would be abnormally horrendous. She closed her eyes and whimpered.
‘That’s it,’ James hissed. ‘I’m going. I don’t know why I came.’ His words cut the freezing air like a knife. Disgust was etched across his face. She had never seen him look so terrifying.
‘James, wait,’ cried Poppy helplessly. A million words careened through her head.It’s not what it looks like! He kissed me!But there was too much to explain and not enough time, so nothing came out.
‘You think you know someone,’ said James bitterly.
He stormed off down the dark street. Within seconds, he had been absorbed into the chilling blackness of the night.
She turned back to see Henry looking pissed. ‘What’s his problem?’ Henry asked, putting his arm around her shoulder again.
‘Henry!’ cried Poppy, disentangling herself. ‘Stop it. Just stop it!’ Her drunkenness was morphing into a hazy hangover and the infinitesimal increase in clarity was making the searing pain in her gut even worse. ‘What are you doing?! You’re engaged! What about Willa? What about your model-slash-doctor fiancée? Are you coming back here to slum it with your ex before you marry the unicorn? Is this some kind of weird kink for you? Youknowme, Henry! I don’t want to be that girl!’
‘I … I … Pops, I thought we were having fun?’
‘Wewerehaving fun, Henry, but then you tried to kiss me!’
Henry’s eyes suddenly filled with tears and he turned away from her and kicked her garage door with an uncharacteristic ferocity.
‘She’s left me, Poppy. The love of my life has left me.’ He was sobbing. ‘I’m a mess. I’m a fucking mess. I thought coming back here might help me but now I only feel worse.’
‘Youfeel worse?!’ Poppy shouted. ‘You come back here to my house, fuck with my head, piss off James and now have the audacity to play the pity card? You were going to sleep with me for your own selfish ego boost! Jesus, Henry!’
‘Don’t pretend you’re innocent here, Poppy,’ said Henry venomously. ‘You’ve been playing with me formonths. Coincidentally bumping into me formonths, avoiding mentioningmy fiancée formonths. You’ve been pretending formonthsthat I was single. Don’t think I didn’t notice.’
Poppy felt as if she’d had the wind kicked out of her.
‘Fuck off, Henry.’
‘Fuck off yourself, Poppy.’
They glared at each other and then, with a look of pure revulsion, the first boy she’d ever loved turned and stormed off down the street, following the same path James had taken moments before.
CHAPTER 35
‘How did I not wake up for this?’ muttered Dani, plucking the cashews out of a bowl of trail mix. Her hair was sticking out at strange angles, indicating a deep and motionless sleep.
Poppy grunted. The question had been rhetorical.
As she’d predicted, her hangover was immense. Her head was pounding, her skin was beaded with sweat, and, to make things worse, her glutes were abnormally sore, which suggested she was way too old for those dance moves.
She heaped a teaspoon of instant coffee into a mug and poured boiling water over it.I’M A COOL MOM, read the mug. The slogan seemed especially cringe-worthy this morning. Poppy reached for the milk and poured in a glug. Desperate times called for desperate measures and this coffee was the sign of a desperate woman.
‘Can wepleasego out for breakfast?’ asked Dani. This question was not rhetorical.
‘No, we cannot. This town is too small. I cannot risk showing my face after last night.’
‘What about Uber Eats?’
‘This is Orange, Dani. There’s only one Uber driver in town and it’s a guy called Mal who plays the piano at church on Sundays, so he’s not available. We can have Cornflakes and instant coffee and you will survive.’
‘Who over the age of twelve eats Cornflakes?’ The questions were back to being rhetorical.
Poppy grimaced inwardly. The Cornflakes had been a sentimental purchase, after the Easter getaway. Now they were a crunchily painful reminder of James and whatever had happened last night. She couldn’t stop replaying—or trying to replay—the confrontation on her driveway. Why had he been there? What would have happened if Henry wasn’t there?
And Henry—ugh, it made her shudder to think of his sloppy rum-soaked lips on hers. Every other kiss they’d shared had been so perfect, but last night had tainted the memory of them all. The thought of his presumptuousness made her blood boil. He’d just expected her to have sex with him, like she had no say in the matter. And he had a fiancée! Or ex-fiancée now, she supposed.
