She gave him a small smile. "See you soon. I love you." She entered the room, and shut the door behind her with a quiet click.
(Zoooom!) Poppy slipped the dress over her head and reached back to zip it up. She frowned when she couldn't reach it and went over to the mirror to try to fix it.
Francis managed to get ready fairly quick, fixing his appearance in the mirror before leaving. He knocked on her door a few times, then waited patiently.
She walked over to the door and opened it with one hand while the other was behind her back trying to grasp the zipper. She gave him an exasperated look. "Sorry, I'll just be a second. This damn zipper is hard to reach."
"Here," he said, "let me get that for you." He moved behind her and placed one hand on her waist, zipping the back of her dress. "Better?"
Her hand instinctively went to his on her waist, and she turned her head slightly to look over at him. "Much better," she said. "Thank you."
She reached her free hand up to cup his jaw, her thumb tracing the bones beneath his skin. A small blush spread across her cheeks at his words, and her gaze flickered to meet his. "Thank you," she said quietly, her head turning to look at him. A small smile spread across her lips. "I couldn't have done it without you."
"You saved the day," she teased, turning to close the door behind her. "We would have missed the meeting completely otherwise. Ready to go?"
"Yeah, I'm ready. Let's go," he said, looking down the hallway. "I hope this goes by quickly. I'm so ready to get a vacation for a couple of days."
"I'm really excited," she said, intertwining her fingers with his as they started walking towards the main entrance. "I can't wait for you to meet everyone."
"I'm excited, too. I'm sure it will be lovely." He rubbed the side of her hand with his thumb. "Just one more meeting..."
"One more meeting that won't be like the last one," she said as they emerged into the lobby. "And it sounds like this Mrs. Irvine is fairly reasonable."
"It does. Maybe we can peg this one as an easy win." The ship shuddered as it landed, and if they looked out the window they would find a fairly normal-looking town, except it was large and dusty, and large mountains loomed in the distance.
He looked after, raising an eyebrow. "It looks dirty. Dusty. Don't tell Mrs. Irvine I said that, though."
