Many people thought Poppy and James's relationship platonic. This wasn't true. Poppy had known for years that she was going to marry him. It was one of her two great ambitions, the other being to see the world. She just hadn't gotten around to informing James yet. Right now he still thought he liked long-legged girls with salon fingernails and Italian pumps.
"Is that a new CD?" she said, to distract him from his stare out with his future brother-in-law.
James hefted it. "It's the new Ethnotechno release. "
Poppy cheered. "More Tuva throat singers-I can't wait. Let's go listen to it. But just then her mother walked in. Poppy's mother was cool, blond, and perfect, like an Alfred Hitchcock heroine. She normally wore an expression of effortless efficiency. Poppy, heading out of the kitchen, nearly ran into her.
"Sorry-morning!"
"Hold on a minute, " Poppy's mother said, getting hold of Poppy by the back of her T-shirt. "Good morning, Phil; good morning, James, " she added. Phil said good morning and James nodded, ironically polite.
"Has everybody had breakfast?" Poppy's mother asked, and when the boys said they had, she looked at her daughter. "And what about you?" she asked, gazing into Poppy's face.
Poppy rattled the Frosted Flakes box and her mother winced. "Why don't you at least put milk on them?"
"Better this way, " Poppy said firmly, but when her mother gave her a little push toward the refrigerator, she went and got a quart carton of lowfat milk.
"What are you planning to do with your first day of freedom?" her mother said, glancing from James to Poppy.
"Oh, I don't know. " Poppy looked at James. "Listen to some music; maybe go up to the hills? Or drive to the beach?"
"Whatever you want, " James said. "We've got all summer. "
The summer stretched out in front of Poppy, hot and golden and resplendent. It smelled like pool chlorine and sea salt; it felt like warm grass under her back. Three whole months, she thought. That's forever. Three months is forever.
It was strange that she was actually thinking this when it happened.
"We could check out the new shops at the Village--- was beginning, when suddenly the pain struck and her breath caught in her throat.