Page 22 of Midnight & Memories

She let out another sigh.

Don’t be stupid about this, Poppy. You fell, and that’s why you care so much. But he got his fill of you and doesn’t want you anymore, so you need to pull yourself together.

A ding sounded from her computer, and it was a Facebook notification from her Titanic II group. Someone had asked to join. She quickly got onto the page to look because she hadn’t been on there since the day she met Ridge. When she clicked on the group page, she noticed that Ridge’s profile was gone from the group member section. She accepted the new member and quickly hopped off to avoid a flood of tears raining down her cheeks, but it was too late. She closed her office door and reached for a box of tissues. This was the fifth box she had opened over him, and oh, how she wanted it to be her last.

This is nuts! He shouldn’t have this much of an effect on me—past life or not—I need to get over it. I need to forget him.

She sucked in a deep breath and worked through lunch. When she looked at the clock on her computer again, it was already past dinner. Poppy shut her laptop, grabbed her coat and purse, and headed for the elevators.

The doors opened, and she pushed for the ground floor. She glanced at her phone and realized it was too late to make dinner at home. This was her new norm all week since she had no desire to go out. She mindlessly headed to the nearest Irish pub next to the office and walked straight to the bar.

After she ordered her Guinness draft and a burger, she sank into her seat and started mindlessly staring at the flat screens above her head. Each had a replay of one of the sporting events during the week. She blinked once and turned to her phone to help ease her absolute boredom and loneliness.

Poppy always hated going out to eat by herself because the only thing to do was to eat, drink, and be alone with her thoughts. The latter was what she was trying to avoid since she’d definitely harp on Ridge. The bartender placed the Guinness in front of her. She took a long sip before putting it back down on the coaster.

A loud cheer came from behind her, and she looked out of habit to see which team had scored. Her gaze fell on Ridge, sitting with two other gentlemen at a hightop in the bar area.

Fuck!

She got up from her seat, took another long sip from her Guinness, and was about to ask the bartender to place her order as a “to go” when a hand brushed her arm.

“Poppy, please don’t leave.”

She turned to the voice and met Ridge’s bewildered gaze.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!

Poppy looked over at the hightop Ridge was previously at and saw the men he was with leaving.

Great! Fuck times six!

“Why should I stay?”

She found herself asking him in an all too sharp retort. It was mainly from him ghosting her, but she was also annoyed that his friends were leaving. That meant she had to engage him. And how would she keep this conversation civil after everything? Because right now? She wanted to start the convo in her sailor lingo with a trucker dialect. Tons of sentence enhancers rushed to the forefront of her mind as she bit down on her bottom lip. She had to stop anything more from leaving her mouth because she was a professional. And no one, not even Ridge, was going to take that away from her.

Things would be different if she didn’t have a substantial account with Ridge. She would have splashed her beer in his face and told him to fuck off, but she couldn’t, no, scratch that! She wouldn’t lose a client over sleeping with the guy. She intended to remain professional about the whole situation.

“Because I want to apologize for being such an ass to you.”

Poppy swallowed hard and blinked once.

“Go on.”

“I’m not like most guys, Poppy, and I wanted to spare you from the monster that I can be.”

She held her palm in front of him.

“Wait! First, you convinced me you had feelings for me and got me to face my feelings for you. And then you broke things off with me because you wanted to spare me your baggage? Dude! You don’t get to decide what’s best for me! I’m not a toddler!” She said as she tapped her index finger onto his shoulder forcefully.

“You’re right. I don’t.”

Poppy’s eyes widened, and she swallowed hard again.

“So why did you hurt me like that?”

Her breath hitched as she squelched a sob forming deep in her throat.

“The dream you had about the Titanic? Have you had any others?”

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