"Right," she said, noticing his rubbing. She cleared her throat and tried to change the subject. "What about you? What's your family like?"
"My family? Oh, well... They're interesting, I suppose. My dad is the owner of some big electric utility corporation, and my mom is just some pageant winner from a long time ago."
He nodded. "I do. His name is Miles. He's... He followed my dad into the company, but has his own problems. He's been divorced four times."
"Wow," Poppy said slowly. "Can you imagine that? Thinking that you've found the right person four separate times and then realizing that you were wrong?"
"Hm," she murmured, frowning as they entered the library. "I think it's more sad than anything. It must be a pretty limited life he leads in that regard."
"It's his choice. We've tried to tell him that he should actually start pursuing a real wife to start a family, but he just ignores us. It's his loss."
"I suppose," she said hesitantly as they walked towards a table in the back. She pulled over a couple chairs and sat down, drumming her fingers on the hardwood. "Anyway. How should we write this letter to play on their sympathies?"
He took a pen from a different table, and sat down. "Hmm. Well, I think we should just ask if we can take a few days off to visit your parents on a set date. I haven't asked for many days off, before."
She thought about it, and then grinned at him cheekily. "Alright," she said. "How does this sound?" She cleared her throat and then proceeded to speak in an overly dramatic tone. "To whom it may concern; Due to recent traumatic near-death experiences, Mr. Craw and Miss Abernathy would like to request a formal leave of absence so that they can reconcile with her absolutely distressed family." She paused and grinned at him. "Does that guilt trip them enough?"
He clicked the pen, his eyebrows raised. "Okay, I think you need to calm yourself. Let's try to sound less dramatic, right?"
She laughed, ducking her head. "I'm joking, Francis," she said wryly, resting her head on her hand. "Although I truly have no idea how to do this." She bit her lip in thought. "When would be a good time to go, do you think?"
"Maybe a couple days? I have no idea." He started writing things down. His handwriting was a neat, and written in cursive. "Hmm. Let's just start with 'To whom it may concern' and build on from there."
"Alright," she said, drumming her fingers on the table. "How about something as simple as 'Mr. Craw and Miss Abernathy would like to request May 18-19th off so that they can visit Miss Abernathy's family'? Or is that too direct?" (Is it okay if it's May 16th in the RP?)
(Yeah, that's good!) "Yeah, that's a good base. I'll make it a bit longer and more formal sounding," he said, quickly printing things down.
She closed her eyes as he wrote, content. "I'll warn you," she said after a moment. "George likes to tease about my romantic relationships."
She grinned across the table at him, her fingers tracing circles in the wood of the table. "He has a very good heart," she amended. "He's just... mischievous."
He looked up from the paper at her, tapping the pen. "Oh, I'm sure it's not as bad as I think. I've never had to deal with mischievous siblings before. It's not bad, right?"
