Poppy shrugged and began to walk over towards a table. "She's very manipulative," she said. "The scary thing about manipulative people is that they can make you like them without you even knowing it. They have intuition, and they can really easily determine all the pressure points they should target to make people feel comfortable enough to befriend them. Her personality was specific to you." She paused, and a light flush came over her cheeks as she realized that she was rambling. "Ah... sorry."
She smiled at him slightly before sitting down too, her fingers encircling the tea. She set her gym bag on the ground by their feet and paused for a moment before sighing and resting her head on her hand. "This is a little weird," she said, "isn't it?"
"Like the fact that we're going on a real date, or something else?" He took a sip of his coffee, then cocked his head.
"Well, that too. But..." She trailed off, and then shook her head. "I don't know. I guess that after six months, I'm not quite sure how to act with you. I think I've forgotten." She paused and then refocused her gaze with a small smile. Her hands were exactly the same as he would remember them; small and thin but strong. Her fingernails clinked lightly against the ceramic mug as she thought, her curls falling in front of her face. "I'm sure I'll remember soon enough. It just might make me a little... well, awkward, I suppose."
"Yeah, I understand," he said smoothly, looking up at her with bright eyes. "I think it'll be interesting."
"I don't really know, honestly. It's kind of like starting over, but also not really. It's complicated."
"That night..." she began, trailing off. She sighed, and shook her head. "I didn't know what to do with myself. It was awful. "
"Yeah," she said quietly. "Vivienne told me to enjoy the last night, and that I had to be gone before morning. I wasn't allowed to tell you, so I had to just sit there. It was..." She paused, and then pressed her fingers to her eyelids as if warding off a bright light. "Ugh. It was awful." She opened one grey eye to study him, her head tilted. "What happened after I left?"
"No," she agreed. "It wasn't." She reached across the table and squeezed his hand, her fingers light. "But I can still feel badly for hurting you."
