I can bury whatever feelings I thought I was beginning to have, bury them deep underneath the shame I feel for letting Poppy talk me into doing something so stupid in the first place. I will follow his rules, attend his events, speak when spoken to; hell I'll even eat food off the list he provides me. I won't let him beat me, I will walk out the other side of this experience and I will never speak of it ever again. It will be one of the many blips of my life that will pass me by as I get older, perhaps a funny anecdote to tell my adult children in my nursing home. They'll probably call me an idiot for letting a guy with that much money get away, but I'll know that I'm better off actually finding love, than having to pay for it.

"Thank you, Ambrose," I say to Ambrose as I climb out of the car, him having opened my door after pulling up in front of my building. I hear him tell me to have a good rest of the day so I turn my head and give him a wave before I unlock the door to the lobby, heading towards the stairwell and beginning the climb up to my apartment.

It's only when I unlock the door and enter my apartment do I remember just how much has happened to me today, Rhodes has given me a lot of money and it's all just sitting there waiting to be used. I'll have to be smart about it if I'm going to save up enough to survive on my own once I'm cut off, but that doesn't mean that I can't have a little bit of fun along the way. I place my bag down onto the kitchen counter and take out my phone, calling Poppy.

"Hey, what are you doing right now?" I ask her as I open my fridge, absolutely nothing, will need to do a food shop as soon as possible.

"Terrible; I'm trying to be a good student and start studying a little ahead of time for my exams but it's just not working. Please tell me you can come and hang out with meee?" I grin at her desperate plea.

"I won't come and hang out, but I have just been given my first payment from Daddy Whitlock and I'm in the mood to have a bit of fun. Want to shop for food and furnishings with me"

"I'll be there in 20 minutes, be ready downstairs" Her serious tone makes me laugh, there is nothing that Poppy loves more than a little bit of retail therapy, whatever the kind. If there were things to be bought, she would find a way to make it fun.

"So you guys kissed, then he just brushed you off? Are you a bad kisser?" Poppy asks as she walks beside me through the department store, swinging her shopping bags. I shrug my shoulders softly.

"I don't think so, we seemed to both be enjoying it until his stupid phone started ringing" I mumble, feeling the slight tinge of red appear on my cheeks. I hadn't done too badly myself shopping wise. I had picked out a few things to help make my crummy apartment feel like somewhere that a person actually lived, not just a hobo who got lucky and found an abandoned flat. Most of it was being delivered later on in the week and some of it had already been deposited into Poppy's car.

"Well you know he is a very busy man, maybe he just has a lot on his plate and he's stressed out?" Poppy offers as we walk through a selection of throw pillows.

"Still that's no excuse to basically call me a child for asking him what was wrong"

"I guess, but now when you bring it up to him; make sure you do it gently and really play up that it hurt you" I raise my eyebrow at Poppys suggestion, that seems like the opposite of what I should do.

"Why is that?" I ask.

"So you get a really good 'I'm sorry' present. I mean, I would probably wait for a much bigger issue to come along and trust me there will be bigger shit to deal with. But 'I'm sorry' presents are so great" She grins over at me as she runs her hand along a throw, pursing her lips together as she obviously enjoys how soft it is.

"You think we will have bigger problems than him calling me a child and making me feel like crap?" I ask as I pick up a candle and smell it. Too much orange, I place it back down.

"One hundred percent. Like one time, Adan was supposed to take me on a weekend trip to his place in Paris. But he had to cancel last minute because his wife came home from her work conference. So then..."

"Woah woah woah" I cut Poppy off and she raises her eyes up to me. "Your boyfriend is married?" I'm genuinely shocked, I would have thought married men wouldn't have been allowed to do this kind of thing, I'm surprised that Lory would let them.

She nods her head. "Unhappily of course. Anyway, he had to cancel literally 3 hours before we were supposed to leave. I got super upset with him and he got me an 'I'm sorry' present"

"What did you get?"

I watch as she grins mischievously. "Big hint, we got here in it"

"Your car? Your sugar daddy bought you a fucking car?!" I whisper yell as she joins me in smelling the different varieties of candles. "You told me your dad got you that car"

She grins softly. "I believe I said daddy, not dad" I roll my eyes gently, she knew what she was doing. She knew I would assume she meant her father and didn't correct me on it.

"Still can't believe you kept all this from me" I tell her, wandering away from the candles, the differing smells clouding my senses.

"Oh come on, if you hadn't needed money so badly and I had told you about this whole thing, you would have judged me really harshly"

"No I wouldn't have!" I reply, but even I'm unconvinced. Poppy gives me a reassuring smile.

"It's okay that you would have, come on you are one of the most straight forward conventional people I have ever met. It wouldn't have changed my philosophy on this whole business, it would have just made you uncomfortable" I pause for a moment, her philosophy isn't something that I had ever asked her about.

"And what is that exactly? Your philosophy?" She smiles softly as we walk over to another section of the store filled with lamps and mirrors.