Poppy/H.S

Chapter 14

The rest of Friday passed quickly, and so did the Saturday. Harry has been texting me regularly to make sure Poppy's okay. His messages reeked of homesickness, and honestly, I felt sorry for him. I couldn't help but notice that the two of them were almost inseparable, since Poppy has been missing him a lot, too. They haven't been separated in a long time, the two of them not being used to being apart from each other, being the proof. Poppy has been trying to hide it, but I've come to distinguish all her moods.

She was relatively fine on Friday, almost as if she didn't realise that her daddy would be away for the entire weekend. I've been trying to take her mind off it by watching movies, playing games or reading together. On Friday, we watched Frozen while eating sliced apples in the living room, which we agreed to consider as her afternoon snack. She warmed up to me really quickly, the two of us ended up cuddling on the couch. However, the real deal was putting her into bed. Since I heated up the chicken wraps Harry had cooked earlier, it reminded her of him. She told me how the two of them would sit at the kitchen table every day and have dinner together.

Dinner is the most important meal for Poppy, as it has more sentimental value than the rest of the meals of the day. Whereas Harry would eat his lunch in the studio, Poppy would have her lunch with her kindergarten friends. It was important that the two of them would sit at the kitchen table and have at least one meal a day together. Therefore, eating a meal prepared by Harry, especially for dinner, made her really emotional. She was trying to hide it, though.

She does these little things, signaling how much she wishes her father would be here. She comes to the kitchen, for example, even though she's not hungry, just to look at a family photo of her and Harry on the fridge. She would run up the stairs a few times, claiming she wanted to play in her room by herself, but when I went pass her room, I could hear her silent cries. Hearing her little sobs hurt me so much, I simply couldn't accept her plea to be in the room by herself.

"What's wrong, bunny?"

"I miss my daddy."

"I'm sure he misses you even more. He'll be back before you know it."

At the end of the day, the two of us had a nice talk together in her room. I told her she shouldn't feel ashamed of missing her daddy, since I missed mine, too. Hearing my story about moving to the UK all by myself, while my parents stayed in Slovakia, helped her understand the situation from another perspective. Missing her daddy was only temporary, since he should be back by Sunday. I, on the other hand, will be missing my parents for a much longer time, since I will be seeing my parents on Christmas at last.

"When are you going to see your parents next?"

"I've booked a flight home for Christmas. In December, it usually snows a lot in Slovakia. It always feels like a winter wonderland."

"December is 3 months away!"

"You did your counting well, bunny. I miss my parents a lot, it's terrible knowing they're miles away from me now."

"I'm glad my daddy is coming back on Sunday. I could never stay that long without him."

After doing her evening hygiene, I tucked her in and read a passage from one of her favourite magazines with Harry on the cover. She listened to me reading a relatively old interview, not blinking an eye. Hearing the words her daddy said one day made her feel closer to him, and gladly, no more tears have been shed ever since.

"People often ask me, why don't you have a girlfriend. Then I smile and say: I have thousands, some just haven't met me yet."

"Valentine?"