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It was a full thirty minutes later that Norah arrived. She burst in, looking aggravated. ‘Sorry, sorry!’ she yelled at Poppy.

‘No, it’s fine. They were keeping each other occupied,’ she told Norah, which was true.

They were playing some mysterious imagination game together at a corner table that involved a jungle, a train, and penguins.

‘I was at the supermarket; I didn’t see the text!’ Norah looked furious. ‘Freddie, you OK?’

Freddie looked around and saw his mum. ‘Oh, hi. I’ve had cake!’

‘I hope you don’t mind me feeding him sugar?’ Poppy asked nervously.

‘God, no!’ Norah exclaimed. ‘Thank you so much for doing this.’

‘So, I finally met your husband,’ Poppy said.

‘Such as he is,’ Norah muttered bitterly.

That didn’t sound good. But Poppy wasn’t going to pry. They weren’t there.

‘Sit down. Let me make you a drink,’ Poppy said.

Norah was still coming down from her mad dash and seemed surprised to come and find everything was fine.

‘Oh. OK.’

‘It was a latte, wasn’t it?’

‘Yeah. Well remembered.’

For Poppy, remembering was never hard. It was forgetting that she struggled with.

Twenty Years Ago

Poppy was working her way down Norah’s magnificent naked body.

She’d had some idea of Norah’s body through clothing, and without trying to leer, she’d often found herself admiringher generous chest through T-shirts. But getting to run her hands all over her breasts, to kiss them and all the gorgeous parts of Norah’s body, was something else.

Poppy was aware that with every second that passed, she was getting that much closer to a more fixed label on her preferences, and right now, she was extremely good with that. It was all so right. What could be wrong?

Poppy kissed ever downwards toward the epicentre of Norah, and though she’d never dealt with this body part before, she was very excited to explore it. She hoped her enthusiasm would cover her amateurishness.

And it did. Itreallydid. Norah was extremely sensitive and responded to Poppy’s mouth immediately. Her back arched, and Poppy grabbed onto her bottom to hold her still-ish while she worked to a chorus of beautiful moans. Suddenly, Norah let out a sharp cry, and her body collapsed onto the bed.

Poppy looked up. ‘Did you...’

Norah looked down at Poppy, her eyes cloudy. She nodded, apparently not able to speak yet. Poppy took that as a very good review and made her way back up to Norah, to hold her. Norah turned and snuggled into her.

‘Have you done that before?’ Norah eventually asked.

‘No,’ Poppy admitted.

‘Wow,’ Norah smiled, ‘I hope I can—’

That sentence was never able to finish because the downstairs door banged. Mrs Cauldwell was home.

‘Oh shit,’ Norah said, her smile falling away.

‘Will she come in?’ Poppy asked, alarmed.