Page 18 of Spotlight on Poppy

"I know, we haven't really talked in weeks, how ya doing over there?"

"Good, I'm ready for Graham and Hannah to get back. I am falling behind on the picking schedule. Do you have any time --"

"No!” She cut him off. “I’m not here for the manual labor of it all. I run the store, you do that stuff. That's the deal. The deal we were born into."

Sam paused. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It just means I don’t want to get even more involved. I don't want to be stuck in this orchard for the rest of my life."

Sam rolled his eyes and walked over to the sink to get a drink.

"What?" Poppy asked.

"I'm just tired of this whole thing, Poppy. I love you more than life, you know that, but I am so tired of hearing you bitch and moan about the town and the orchard. I'm sorry we don't live up to your standards."

"Well, I have been talking to Damien, and he thinks I should move to the city."

"Who?" Sam looked at her skeptically.

"Damien. Damien St. Cloud."

Sam looked at her and gave his head a little shake.

"Damien St. Cloud! He is this Broadway star who came to help with the show after Ms. Maple had to leave town. He thinks I should move to the city. I know he would help me get on my feet there and give me a place to stay."

"He said he would?" Sam asked skeptically.

"Well no... not in so many words, but we are together --"

"Woah,” He held up his hands. “You guys are together?"

"I mean, yeah... I think."

"You think?" He looked at her incredulously.

"Yeah, I mean we haven't really talked about it, but I know we are meant to be."

"Poppy --" The look on his face right now was one that drove Poppy absolutely insane. It was half protective big brother, half exasperation, and wholly condescending as fuck. It was the last part that just made her so mad. She wanted to be taken seriously.

She wished she didn't feel like such a child sometimes. Poppy was a grown woman, but the family dynamic was fixed, and she didn't know how to get out of it. She would always be the overprotected little girl as long as she lived here. She knew losing her mother at such a young age made her family put her and her brother in a bubble and protect them at all costs, but she needed to get out of it. Sam did it somehow. He was seen as an adult, and he would eventually take over the running of the orchard entirely. He loved the orchard. Poppy just didn't. She didn't like the physical labor and the outdoors and the bugs of orchard life, the only thing that made it tolerable was baking.

"Don't! Don't talk to me like I’m some flighty girl with my head in the clouds. I know what I'm doing, and I know what I'm risking if I move to the city, but it is my decision. And I know that Damien and I are meant to be because I did a love spell and he showed up the next day."

Poppy hadn't really meant to tell her brother that last part. But there it was, and there was no taking it back, and she wasn't ashamed. Performing a love spell and basing life decisions because of it wasn't exactly something out of character for her, but she knew other people wouldn't understand.

Sam’s face fell. "Poppy, where is all this coming from?"

"I see what you and Jackson have, and I see what Hannah and Graham have, and I want that. I want something big to happen. I want my life to start. I am almost twenty-eight years old and still living at home, in the same room I grew up in. My life feels eternally on pause and I don't know why. Ever since moving home I feel like I am in some weird limbo, and I can’t stand it anymore. I felt something shift the day he came."

The picture of her and Josh sitting together in front of the stage running lines shot to her head like a movie, clear as day. She could see what he was wearing, she could smell his fresh scent mixed with an earthy scent, she could actually feel his hand in hers. She could feel that pull.

"Poppy... where'd ya go?" She snapped her head over to her brother who was waving her hand at him. "Ya kind of zoned out there. Look, all I'm saying is don't base important decisions on some guy you have known less than two weeks."

"You're right. I’ll think about it," she said, still trying to get her head back on straight after that intense flashback of sorts.

"Well, I gotta get back to work. I’ll see you later. Jackson and I have tickets for tomorrow."

"Good! See you later."

---