After holding in her tears until Angel fell asleep and finding the bathroom occupied, Poppy felt she had nowhere to cry in peace. It was late so she pulled his plain gray T-shirt over her head and tiptoed down to the kitchen. The house was quiet but stunk like there were multiple single men living there and had she not been so emotionally overwhelmed she would have begun to freshen up the place. Instead, she was crying quietly into her palms and too distracted to hear someone coming down the stairs.
"Shit. Are you okay?" The voice asked her, causing Poppy to jump up from the table. "It's all good."
"Oh," Poppy slapped her hand to her chest and consciously worked to slow her panicked breathing. "Gilly. Hi."
"Hi," he chuckled a bit. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," she sniffled, hurrying to wipe her tears.
Gilly shook his head and grabbed two beers from the fridge. "Guess you heard about Jimmie?"
"What? The fire?" She asked, taking the bottle with a smile. "Yeah."
"No," Gilly pulled a chair out for her then sat down. "He uhh, he died in the fire."
"Holy shit," she gasped, her grip on the bottle tightening. "I...I didn't know."
"Sorry," he grimaced.
"No, I'm kind of relieved, actually," she surprised even herself. "Just didn't expect Luca to kill him."
After what he'd heard from Angel, Gilly wasn't shocked by the news but he didn't share that with Poppy.
"Hopefully Luca will kill himself next," Gilly grumbled.
Poppy chuckled a bit thinking she had dodged a bullet but Gilly was right back on her about the tears.
"Really, you good? I don't find girls crying in my kitchen and I'm not gonna start now."
"Jesus," Poppy huffed. "I just like Angel and things got kind of intense, stupid girl shit."
"So I don't have to tell him?" Gilly eyed her. "If somethings goin' on I gotta tell him. You get that right? Angel's my boy, my brother," he added by way of explanation.
Poppy smiled at that and nodded. "I'm not used to liking men," she explained in a bit more detail to keep Angel from finding out. "So now that I like him sometimes it feels really intense because I'm forced to spend time with men I hate."
"It's a very intense time," Gilly nodded, "I get it."
The way he looked at her made Poppy uncomfortable. Did he know she was talking about sex? Did he realize she meant the intensity of the emotions she felt while with Angel, the only man she truly longed to sleep with, were stronger than she'd ever felt? Her face turned red and Poppy knew even if he didn't before he figured it out now.
"Okay," she laughed nervously. "I'm going to try to go to sleep."
Gilly nodded, "Good idea. If Angel wakes up and finds you gone he's probably gonna be confused and a little upset."
After tiptoeing back into the bedroom, Poppy slipped into bed and was welcomed by Angel. He sleepily rolled over and wrapped his arms around her. "You good?" He asked, his voice scratchy.
"I'm good," she whispered.
"I was gonna ask you to make me a sandwich as a joke but I think you'd actually do it," he laughed.
"You want one?" She asked, peering at him through the darkness.
"No," he chuckled, "I don't."
"Jimmie's dead," she announced suddenly.
