Chapter 24

24

Nobody by that name lives here.

I gawk at the old woman. Clearly, she is just old and confused—perhaps an elderly aunt who is visiting Poppy for the week. "What are you talking about? Poppy has lived here for the last five years! She's my best friend!"

The woman twists the cane in her hand thoughtfully. "There was someone by that name who used to live here."

I don't know what she's talking about. Did Poppy suddenly decide to move without telling me? "Where did she go?"

"She died," the old woman tells me. "There was a terrible fire, and the woman named Poppy perished. But… that was thirty years ago."

My mouth is suddenly almost too dry to speak, and I have to force out my next words. "Are… are you sure?"

"Oh yes. I have lived here for years."

My entire universe has gone on tilt. I back away from the door, almost stumbling over the two steps to the front entrance. I don't know what's going on. All I know is I've got to get the hell out of here before my legs give out.

I hurry back to my own home as quickly as I can. I shut the door behind me, and I stand in the foyer, trying to catch my breath.

What just happened over there? Poppy has been my best friend ever since I moved here to live with Grant. And now this woman is telling me she doesn't live there—has never lived there. That the only Poppy who ever lived in that house was killed in a fire thirty years ago.

Did I imagine my best friend? Admittedly, it seems incredibly unlikely that I could somehow imagine an entire friendship with another human being who didn't even exist. It feels like if my brain were capable of doing something like that, I wouldn't be able to function in the real world. I mean, that is really out there.

Yet parts of it fit. Poppy has always been there for me when I needed her, always at exactly the right moment. She always told me the right things at the right time—always exactly what I needed to hear. Perhaps Poppy was my brain's way of coping with Grant tormenting me about that dress. Lord knows I needed it.

Man, I need to change all my emergency contacts to somebody who really exists.

Now that I realize that Poppy was just a figment of my imagination, I feel slightly lost. I had come to depend on her friendship so much in the last few years, but she wasn't even real. I am all alone now. Well, me and the baby growing inside me, but she won't be much comfort for a while.

But at least I have Brant. He is everything my husband was not, and in a few hours, we will share a delicious dinner together, possibly from the dollar menu. I can't wait to see him again. Everything is going to be okay.