Lovely Sad

Poppy scrunched up her nose in displeasure as she scrolled down the Twitter feed open on her phone. Skimming over the posts before her she finally let out an annoyed sigh to let her best friend know she was not a fan of what was being presented to her.

“This is all too cryptic and such fake philosophical bullshit.” Poppy finally voiced, hitting the lock button on her iPhone and pushing the gold phone away and across the cafe tabletop towards Bridget to emphasize her point.

“Ashley says he’s really gotten his shit together over this last year and he’s looking for something serious. Plus he’s cute. You have to give him a chance!” Bridget demanded, taking a sip from her iced coffee.

The two had agreed to meet for afternoon coffee to catch up, soaking up the ample sunshine Phoenix still offered in early February. While it may have been the middle of winter, a heat wave had made its way through the desert and resulted in perfect patio weather on this Saturday. Bridget, a primary school teacher, had finally managed to pull her workaholic best friend out of the office and was trying to introduce her to the concept of a work-free weekend. She had also proposed the idea of a blind date for Poppy.

“According to Instagram his middle name is Cornelius. No thank you.”

Bridget rolled her dark eyes from behind her sunglasses. “But you’re not supposed to know that, Pop.”

“I. Don’t. Care.” Poppy protested, snatching her phone back from across the table where she had shoved it. Quickly typing in her passcode she opened up Google and began to type in her potential date’s name.

“What are you doing now?” Bridget questioned, leaning over the small cafe table in an effort to catch a glance of Poppy’s phone screen.

“Google search.” Came her simple answer before Bridget abruptly grabbed the phone from her hands.

“No! It’s not a blind date if you perform an FBI level background check before you even meet him.” Bridget swated away Poppy’s hands as she attempted to get her phone back. “Just trust me on this one, please?”

“Do you even know him?” Poppy demanded.

Bridget just shrugged in response.

She had met him once in passing at a Christmas party, but nothing about him really stuck out in her memory. He just seemed average, if not a little bit shy and reserved. The party had been hosted by the twin sister of one of Bridget’s co-workers she had grown really close with. Apparently he lived with her, her boyfriend, and a few of their other friends. When Melissa, her co-worker, had explained that they were trying to set him up with someone, Bridget had suggested Poppy immediately. Not necessarily because she thought the pair would be a good match, but more out of selfishness as she had been secretly wishing Poppy would meet someone so the pair could finally double date with Bridget and her own boyfriend.

Poppy reached for her phone once more, Bridget swatting her hands away again. “You’ll get your phone back when you agree to stop pre-date stalking him.”

“That’s ridiculous. He’s probably at home doing the exact same thing.” Poppy reasoned.

He was.

“That’s not the point.” Bridget warned, dropping the phone into the front pocket of the oversized flannel shirt she was wearing. “Move on, you’ll get that back later. Alright?”

Poppy leaned back in her chair as she crossed her arms across her chest, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. “Fine.”

“We can move on to your favourite subject, Pop. How’s work?”

Poppy did roll her eyes that time. “Fine.”

“Poppy, stop being childish. I get enough of that Monday through Friday.”

Cracking the smallest smile, Poppy reached for her own coffee to take a sip before replying, “It’s actually really good, I just booked a new client.”

Poppy was working as an interior decorator, recently making the move to leave the organization she had been working with since she had graduated college, and starting her own firm. She had gathered a pretty large client list in the year and a half since launching the company and was constantly at the office working ridiculous hours.

“Good, so you’ll be in the office even more now!”

“Actually, maybe not.”

Bridget raised a suspicious eyebrow at the blonde seated across from her. “Care to elaborate, Miss Workaholic?”

“We’ve got a whole new crop of interns starting up, and I finally finalized the contracts for a couple assistants. So basically I won’t be as swamped with business as usual and I can fully focus on this new client. I meet them on Monday to discuss ideas and all those fun legal formalities.”

“Who are these clients?”

“A doctor and his socialite of a fiancee. They’re moving back down to the Phoenix area after being in Flagstaff for a few years so they’re custom building a house up in Paradise Valley.”

“Poppy, that’s huge!” Bridget squealed, clapping her hands together.

“It gets better. Apparently the fiancee has booked a deal to have the house featured in some magazine spread. That would be huge for the business. This house is essentially going to make or break my career.”

“Then what are we doing here drinking coffee, Poppy?” Bridget retrieved the iPhone from out of her shirt pocket and slid it back across the table. “Grab your stuff. We need some stronger drinks to celebrate this.”

****

Poppy had listened to Bridget’s warning and resisted doing anymore online research about her potential blind date the remainder of the weekend, but she was currently alone in her office early Monday morning awaiting the arrival of her new clients for a meeting before the office formally opened. A few interns began filtering into the office as the clock approached 9:00, signalling to Poppy that this couple were nearly an hour late for the 8am meeting they had insisted on having. With nothing on her schedule, Poppy stared at the open Google web page opened on her laptop in front of her. She had gone as far as to type in John O’Callaghan into the Google search bar, but was hesitating about pressing enter. She had already agreed to the date, so maybe she should just relax and stop worrying about what he was like. Bridget would surely help her hatch out an emergency exit plan if he turned out awful.

She was about to click to close the window, abandoning the idea of a Google search when her phone began to buzz. Catching her off guard, Poppy scooped the iPhone up off her desk and unlocked it to see a new text message from an unsaved number.

“Speak of the devil.” She mumbled, shutting her laptop that still had John’s name typed out and ready for a full search.

‘Hey it’s John. Ashley gave me your number so we could get together for a drink or something this week if you’re free. Let me know!’

Immediately taking a screenshot of the text she sent it off to Bridget.

‘Say yes?????’ Came Bridget’s reply, prompting Poppy to roll her eyes.

Typing out a basic reply agreeing, Poppy pressed send and placed her phone face down on her desk. She then proceeded to stare at the back of the gold phone for the next few minutes before giving her head a shake to break her out of this fixation.

“Get you shit together, Pops.” She whispered to herself, roughly running her hands over her face. “We’ve got a big day ahead of us.”

Her phone buzzed once more, at the same moment a commotion in the main part of the office caught her attention. The phone was completely forgotten as she looked up through the large glass window of her office that looked out into the main room, and she noticed a couple frantically heading towards her. This must be the new clients. She rose from her desk, heading towards the door to greet them as they arrived, but she faltered when she made eye contact with the male trailing behind the copper haired girl.

“Oh no.” Poppy whispered as she watched the couple approaching her office through the glass door. She immediately recognized the dark brown eyes staring back at her, and knew that there was no way this was going to end well.