the life beautiful: ch 1 (poppy)

Why the fuck does he insist on breaking my balls? She let Pace continue to rant, but turned her attention back to her laptop, and zoomed in on the third bar of the hook.  There was no way she would be able to leave the studio before midnight.  This would be the second time she’d stood him up, but she simply wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight until the track was absolutely flawless.  There was something off about four counts into baseline.  Poppy would need to go in with scalpel-like precision to get it right, and the last thing she needed was some bull—

Poppy wasn’t sure exactly when he hung up on her, just noticed that the line was strangely quiet about two minutes into the call.  And this is exactly why I stopped dating outside of the industry.  Never again—too much maintenance required. But the gravity of the situation was not his hurt feelings.  The true crisis, she soon realized, is that now she was not getting any.  At least that what’s she thought.

When Poppy finally pulled into her driveway two hours later, she was not completely surprised to find August’s car already there.  Maybe this means I’ve been forgiven. She took my heels off before heading upstairs to her bedroom, weighing her options with each step.  Should I go there, or not?  And if I do, what will he expect?  Are the kids still sleep?  I wonder what they had for din– before her mind went into complete overdrive, August embraced her from behind and slowly kissed her neck.  Despite his deliberately slow movements, Poppy could tell he’d been waiting and could literally feel his sense of urgency.

“Hey, Poppy,” he whispered with that raspy voice that always manages to crumble her resolve.   “How was your date with What’s-His-Name?”   He goes straight to that little spot behind her ear and brushes his lips back and forth.  Yes, my husband has definitely forgiven me.