Honestly, I never knew I would end up liking you this much

 

"For the love of God! It doesn't bother me who you go to lunch with," Alfie was practically breathless as he was doing his best to get through to Poppy over his Andriod. "Just come home!" He wailed. Oh, he didn't mean to be harsh, but she was like talking to a brick wall.

Yes, he missed her and yes, he'd skipped doing the dishes altogether since she'd been gone. He looked around at the beer bottles and cans on the coffee table. He was even at an eyeshot of the unmade bed in their room along with mountains of dirty clothes. Nothing had been the same since she'd been gone. 

Of course, she was talking about Gage now and how she had plans, real plans evidently. "He wants me to meet his son."

"Are you sure?" He sighed. "That's not what I heard."

"What are you talking about?" She suddenly sounded stumped.

"Gage has been talking to me," He swore he wasn't making up shit because Gage was just here yesterday.

Granted, he felt kind of bad letting anyone see the mess he'd made, but Gage was really understanding.

"He just might be my new best friend," Alfie found himself saying as wide-eyed as he could to be ready to negotiate. "He says you talk about me all the time. What are you going to talk about now..if..if I'm not in the picture?" He squinted then thinking he was being absurd, but at this point, he'd just go with it. "It's not like you're going to meet a puppy, you know." He then said about Gage's son. "He's been through a lot with an off-and-on kind of mom. I never liked meeting my mom's new boyfriend. By then it was always a done deal. But this Gage, well..I can tell he's more concerned about his son's feelings than his own."

Poppy wasn't saying anything.

"Hello? Poppy where are you?" Oh, he found himself grinning. Yet, he didn't want to win this round just to be set up for the next. 

"Can't you please come home? It's not the same without you. We can both be Gage's friend. I think he wants us to get back together. And maybe..maybe all this has nothing to do with me, at all. You need to have a heart-to-heart with that dad of yours. At least talk." Alfie said as calm as he could be as he paced barefooted across the livingroom back to the kitchen, thinking where could he start in this disaster.

"All right." Poppy blubbered. Instantly, he hoped this didn't mean she'd be right over.

"Can you give me til tomorrow," he then said. "I have a lot of housework to do."