British Boy

Chapter Twelve

Berkley

I walked back to my apartment with my edits in hand. I was angry with Poppy. Angrier than I have every been before. I couldn't believe that she took my book and didn't think there was anything important about it.

I plopped down on the sofa and threw my hand over my face. I've only been here for a few days and I've already been more stressed than I have in years. The most stress I had before this was which literary agent and publisher I would go with. I wanted my stress to disappear, but I knew as long as I was here and so was she, I would never be able to be stress free.

My phone began ringing incessantly beside me. I grabbed it and saw Nadine's name and answered it slid my finger across the screen to answer it.

"Hey Nadine." I answered with a sigh. "How's school going?"

"It would be better if my brother was living here to make me food while I was studying."

"You're an adult, you've got to learn to be an adult some time." I chuckled as I got off the sofa and walked over to the fridge. "Do tell me how you're surviving now. Is your diet cereal and ramen noodles?"

"No." She snapped, but I could hear the smile in her voice. I knew my sister better than anyone and I knew she can't cook to save her life. "Gus has been feeding me."

"What? The lunch special at the restaurant he works at?" I asked.

"He doesn't work there anymore." She quickly said. "Gus finally found a job." I smiled at the mention of her boyfriend. Gus was a good man and I trusted him to take care of my little sister.

"That's good. Now he can support you." I teased as I looked through my fridge for something to make.

"I take offense for that." She laughed in disbelief.

"Hey, someone's going to have to support you when all of your school bills come in." She began laughing as I began throwing some vegetables on the counter to cook up.

"So how's Poppy doing?" Nadine asked, changing the subject. I let out an annoyed sigh. "That bad, huh?"

"Oh yeah." I groaned as I looked for the pots. "She stole my edits for formatting from Irv himself."

"How—"

"You don't want to know." I answered hastily. Nadine sighed dramatically over the other line. "And that's how my romantic life is going right now."

"I'm sorry, Berk." She sighed. "Your life sucks and I'm glad I'm not you."

"I'm glad, too." I smiled. "Right, I've got to go. I'm busy avoiding my ex-girlfriend, so I will let you go and eat your noodles."

"For the record, Gus is bringing me soup today. His mum's made some sort of veggie soup. It's not the preferred cuisine, but I will deal with it."

"Freeloader." I chuckled. "Bye Nadine. I'll chat with you later."

"Bye-bye big brother."

I hung up the phone and let out a heavy sigh as I set it down on the counter. I knew I needed to talk to Poppy, but I was still angry with her. I don't even know how I'm going to go about this situation. I want to know why Poppy did what she did.

I threw the vegetables in a frying pan with olive oil. As they began to cook, I started cooking the rice in the microwave.

"You know, I took it from you because I was curious about you, right?" Poppy's voice broke through my thoughts. I turned to find her leaning against the doorway of the kitchen.

"Sure, we'll go with that." I said as I turned back to my pan of vegetables. "I believe you." I said with an eye roll.

"Come on! You wouldn't do the same thing?" Poppy asked as she crossed the room towards me. "I've been searching for answers and you happened to be one puzzle piece in the puzzle. Of course I was going to grab something that had your face on it."

"I wouldn't steal something from an editor's personal bag." I told her with narrowed eyes. "You stole from someone's job."

"I wanted to see what you were up to, Berkley."

"No, I know how your brain works, Poppy. You see a name or face you recognize, you have this need to grab whatever it is that caught your attention." I told her with narrowed eyes. "You've got to stop taking what isn't yours to take, Pop. This is my livelihood you put at risk."

"Please, you've earned thousands for being a best seller."

"That's besides the point, Poppy. You could have ruined someone's career."

"There's no ruining your career." She said with a sigh. "You're an incredible writer, Berkley. Is it so bad that I wanted to read something I know you worked hard on?"

I walked past her to the cabinets where the plates were. I grabbed two plates and placed them on the counter top, serving two spoonfuls of vegetables.

"Let's talk."

Hey Everyone!

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! What could they possibly have to talk about?

~Amanda