Page 10 of Spotlight on Poppy

"Hey Poppy, good rehearsal tonight."

"Thanks, you too. Damien is really helping me to perfect my craft. Isn't he amazing?" Poppy asked.

Josh's mind played through the rehearsal. He just kept replaying Damien's hands on Poppy when he was coaching her. Damien telling Josh on multiple occasions to ‘just watch’ as Damien sang through Josh’s part with Poppy. He pushed the anger deep down. He had lots of practice pushing down his emotions, he was a top notch feelings stuffer.

"Yeah... He's great." He wasn't sure if that sounded sincere or not but at this point he was pretty far from caring. "Are you going down to the Elbow Room tonight? I was thinking about heading down there."

"Yeah, let's go. I just need to finish up a few things here."

"Okay, I’ll wait and walk over with you."

Poppy cocked her head to the side and smiled at him. "You're the best. Just give me a sec." She turned and disappeared backstage.

Josh took a deep breath and ran his hand through his hair. He was going to tell her tonight how he felt. The timing for them finally seemed right, with the exception of Damien St. Cloud.

"All set!" Poppy said as she came out and grabbed her purse. "Shall we?"

Josh nodded and held the door open and gathered courage for the talk he was hoping to have.

Walkinginto the Elbow Room always felt like walking back in time. It was this dingy little dive bar with an ancient karaoke machine. They didn't even have any digital selections, just an old school book of cd's and sticky selection books with songs that stopped somewhere around 2005. It was a vibe all its own and people around here loved it.

"What do you want to drink?" Josh asked Poppy.

"I'll take a cranberry and vodka with a splash of club soda and a lime."

Josh headed to the bar while Poppy went and snagged them a book and a table. It was a slow night, just a couple tables filled with regulars. Josh came back with the drinks and joined Poppy while she was flipping through the book.

"What are you going to sing tonight?"

"I'm not sure yet." she said not looking up from the book.

Josh's fingers drummed nervously on the table. He had chickened out on the way over, but it was now or never.

"There was actually something I wanted to talk to you about," he said tentatively. Putting his feelings out there was very vulnerable and being vulnerable was hard for him.

Poppy looked up at him with her normal Poppy smile, but after she looked at him her eyebrows drew together slightly.

"What's up?" she asked.

His heart was pounding in his chest. He rubbed his clammy hands on his jeans. His anxiety was starting to spike. Taking a deep cleansing breath, he tried to center himself for this conversation.

"It's about yesterday..." He paused. He needed the words to come out right, but they were getting all jumbled up in his head. Poppy patiently waited for him to continue.

"When we were running lines together. It felt like we --"

He was cut off by the sound of some of the cast members and Damien St. fucking Cloud loudly entering the bar. Poppy turned around and beamed at them. "Over here guys! I'm sorry, can we talk about this later?"

"Yeah, sure thing." Josh's heart fell to the floor, and he glowered over at Damien who was at the bar getting a round of drinks.

Damien walked over to the table holding some shots in his hand. "I got a round for the table." He set the shots down and passed them around.

"Oh, thank you!" Poppy said. "What are these?"

"It's one of my favorite shots from the city. You're gonna love it." he said with a wink at Poppy. Poppy returned his wink with a smoldering gaze. Josh's friendly smile never left his face, but he was feeling far from friendly right now.

"I just love this little bar. It is so old school. So different from anything in the city. You really have to come out into the world and venture out to find that stuff like this still exists. There are people who still live this way," Damien said.

"And what way is that?" asked Josh.

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