Page 19 of Spotlight on Poppy

Sam walked out of the door and Poppy was left trying to figure out why she had the intense flashback of Josh of all people. She thought back to last night, it was one of many she spent with Damien. There was something there, right? She would make her intentions known with him tonight. It was time.

Poppy walkedinto the final dress rehearsal with her basket of cookies and the decision to talk to Damien after the show and finally figure all this out.

Final dress went great, her scenes with Josh were flawless. Their voices sounded good together, but she couldn't fight the butterflies about the talk she needed to have with Damien tonight.

After the run-through, she changed and washed off all the stage makeup. She was one of the last people there. No Damien, so she decided to head over the inn and talk to him.

Her heart pounded in her chest as she walked the hall to his door. She gave a small knock, and moments later Damien was at the door. He looked at her with those blue eyes, his hair slightly ruffled and looking effortlessly handsome.

"Poppy, what a nice surprise. What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to talk to you about something."

He held open the door and she walked in. Once the door closed behind them, he flashed her a smile, and slowly stepped into her space. He pushed her back against the door and he was there pressing into her and kissing her neck.

"Damien... I wanted to talk to you."

"Talk after." He glided her into his room and pulled her shirt off and then pulled off his own. Talking later sounded okay to Poppy.

But after another unsatisfying tryst with Damien, Poppy laid there thinking. It shouldn’t be like this. If he was her true love, it shouldn’t feel this way. This is just not how she saw her love spell working out. He came back to bed and Poppy headed into the bathroom to clean up and pull herself together. They needed to talk.

She went to wash up and took a good look at herself in the mirror. There she was in her underwear covered in little cherries and her crop top with her Sagittarius constellation. Her long sleek hair was messed up a bit and her lipstick was long gone. Sure, her unsupported breasts hung low, and she could see the faint stretch marks on her belly peeking out, but she still thought she looked good. She looked like Poppy, even if she wasn’t acting like Poppy.

She was going to give this one last attempt. If this didn’t work out, she would just have to find a way to jump start her own life. She would be better off making her way on her own than she would be with him if things didn’t change soon. Her faith in the process was on shaky ground. Maybe the love potion didn’t work for her. She hated this feeling.

She walked out to find him in bed.

"Hey, Damien, can we talk now?"

"Uhhh... yeah, sure. What's up Poppy?"

"I just wanted to talk about where this is going and what we are doing?" she said very matter of factly.

"What do you mean?" His eyes darted quickly away from her.

"I mean, once you go back to the city, what is next for us?" She sat on the bed next to him.

"Poppy..." he sat up and looked at her. "I think that what we have now is so special that we don't need to think about what is next. The world may keep us apart, so let's just live here, in this moment." He brought his hand up and cradled her face.

"What does that mean? Is this just a hookup?"

"Poppy, this is so much more than a hookup, you know that, but let's not worry about tomorrow. Not tonight. Tonight, we both need our beauty sleep to be ready for opening night tomorrow."

"Ok, so we will talk tomorrow?" she asked timidly.

"Of course, tomorrow we will figure out what our place in the universe is," he said as he moved his other hand to her face. "And we will accept what may come. That is the life of an actor, Poppy."

"Okay," she said, trying to parse the meaning of his words.

He stood up and started to help her gather the rest of her clothes. She got dressed and got her purse together. She left his room and headed down the hallway herself. She felt so foolish. The facade that was Damien St. Cloud was cracking and she couldn’t believe she let herself fall into this. She was better than this. While she had let herself feel trapped here, the obligations of a family business were intense, she was never someone to allow herself to be defined by a man. What she was capable of did not depend on someone like Damien St. Cloud.

She got in the car and wasn't quite ready to go home. She felt so stifled at home, but whatever this was with Damien didn't feel right either. If the fulfillment she was looking for wasn’t there and it didn’t seem to be in her love spell and Damien either, where was it? Where was her place in all of this? She was just so lost.

She decided to drive by the theater. When they were leaving rehearsal, they were putting the show on the marquee and the show posters up. She always loved when those went up and decided to drive by and take a look.

As she drove through the quiet town, she noticed the little space by the bookstore was full. She didn't usually come into town this way, and she hadn't seen this before. She pulled over and got out of her car and walked right up to the window to look in. It was a magic store. There were shelves with dried herbs and oils. Bookshelves filled with books and tarot card decks, little baskets of crystals and larger crystals on display. In the middle of the store was a little purple table and chairs she recognized. The sign that hung above the table readBridget’s Love Spells and Fortune Telling. Was it the woman from the Ren Faire? Had she opened a shop in town? Unfortunately, the sign on the door read closed.

She knew what she had to do. She would be back here tomorrow, and she would talk to this woman and find out once and for all about her spell.

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