Married to a firefly • Completed

(19) Got me hooked

Levi

As soon as Poppy got the paperwork done, I ushered her out of the examination room and down the hall. The ER waiting area was busy so I put my hand on the small of her back to guide her towards the exit.

"Come on, Gorgeous."

I had so many questions after all I've heard in there, but I knew she would shut down immediately if I dropped all of my questions on her right away. That's why I decided to keep my mouth shut for now.

But one thing I was sure of. I had married a girl with the heart of a lion and the strength of a thousand men. I still hadn't figured out why she hadn't told nurse Andrea at school that she was being harassed and that her injuries where a result of it.

And I couldn't believe my own eyes, when I had seen her clenching her jaw with nothing more than a deep groan escaping her lips, when the nurse had cleaned out the spots. Erika had looked at her with pure amazement when Poppy just willed herself to not shed a single tear. She really was a warrior. Having lost almost her whole family she had still found the strength to go on for little Rosie.

When we reached my truck, I opened the passenger door and waited patiently for her to climb in. I was about to shut the door when she held her arm out to stop me. But she didn't look up at me and kept quiet instead.

"What is it, Mrs. Lawson?" I asked slowly, my voice rougher than I had intended.

She flinched. I wasn't sure if she did because of the title or my rough voice.

"I...Thank you for making up that proposal story. I actually liked it."

I cleared my throat and suppressed a smile. "Sure you did. It matches your personality."

"It does?"

"Yeah. You probably don't know, but I went to your room one day to ask you for our maths summer homework. You weren't there but your laptop was open and I saw a list of books you've read this year."

She blushed. "Oh my..."

I chuckled. "I had no idea what kind of books they were. But when I googled some of the titles later that night, I realized you were a sucker for anything romantic."

"I don't even know what to say..."

"And I haven't even told you that I went to read one of your most recent additions. Took me a while to find it on Wattpad." I smiled at her.

And holy crap, there was a lot of smut involved. I had gotten really bothered, thinking of her lying in bed in the room right next to mine reading steamy novels like the one I had picked.

"Oh Jeez."

I smiled to myself as I made my way around to get into the drivers seat.
"I understand your fondness of historical romances and stories involving deaf people. And I can even see how girls are turned on by werewolf fanfiction. But what the heck are you doing with all those boyxboy stories?"

She stared at me in horror. "What did you do? Google the whole list?
"
I smiled sheepishly. "Sure did."

She groaned. "Why would you do that?"

"I had to know what I got myself into, I guess."

She let her head fall into her hands, so I couldn't see her face. "I'll never be able to meet your eyes again", she mumbled through herx fingers.

"If this is the worst I'm gonna learn about you, our marriage is gonna be a breeze."

She huffed, but didn't say a word. I couldn't care less what kind of books she read. Well, that's a poor choice of words. It's more like it didn't matter what kind of books she read.  I just felt the need to get to know her and talking about her reading list seemed like a good way to start. I wasn't thinking anything less of her because of her choice of literature.

"It was a rather long list though."

"That's true. I had nothing much to do until..." She cleared her throat. "Until recently. I had all the time in the world to catch up on my numerous to-read-lists."

I chuckled softly. "Yeah, I know what you mean. But now tell me: What's up with your boyxboy passion?"

"Ugh. I have a feeling, that you're never gonna let me forget that one, are you?"

Damn right. I would use it to my advantage. But first I wanted to know everything about it.
"Never. Now spill it, Aphrodite."

She just rolled her eyes at me.

"I'm not leaving here until I know the truth."

"This is embarrassing. I just kind of stumbled into that genre."

I started the car and pulled out of the parking lot.

"How does one stumble into gay romance?" I asked, genuinely interested.

"There was a poll on social media about the genres people liked to read. As I read through the answers I was wondering why so many women liked gay romances. First I was intimidated, almost appalled, but when I read my first boyxboy story it got me hooked."

"But what is it, that got you hooked? The sex between two guys?"

She cleared her throat. "No. It's a new dimension of drama. For straight couples there are only so many problems you can face."

"Him liking her, but her hating him. The other way around. One of them being old, one being young. That kind of stuff?"

"Yes. Having kids, being married or divorced, having met the one and lost them, falling in love with a friend/roommate/neighbor. Arranged marriages. Sometimes a combination of those. It gets old."

"Okay. But what's different in gay romances?"

"There's this whole new set of problem. They could have all of the problems we just mentioned. But most likely one of them or both don't know they are gay yet. Or they are scared of coming out. They have to acknowledge their own sexual preferences and get comfortable with them. Following their journey is an emotional rollercoaster and downright impressive."

I pulled into our driveway, put the car in the garage and turned off the ignition. I truly admired her passion towards her interests.
"Sounds consequential" I said, facing Poppy.

"Not that I need your approval or anything", she retorted sarcastically.

I swallowed hard, knowing she didn't mean it like that. But it hit too close to home. She was right. She didn't need anything from me except my signature on our marriage license. An unfamiliar pain burned in my chest.
"Right."

"Sorry." She took my hand. "I didn't mean to be rude."

"You're right though. You don't need my approval for anything and you don't owe me any explanation whatsoever. I just wanted to get to know you. Sorry for being inquisitive when it's none of my business."

As much as I enjoyed the warmth of her touch, I let go of her hand, jumped out of the car and went into the house.