When I finally escape from Jennifer Biggins and her kiss-ass pitch trying to get me to do an interview for the new online magazine she’s starting and make my way back to the drinks table, I find Penny’s seltzer glass but no Penny. Assuming she’s gone to the bathroom, I wait a few minutes, but after she doesn’t return, I start to get worried, so I go find Carlos.
“Hey, have you seen Penny?”
“Yeah, I saw her heading for the door a few minutes ago,” he replies.
“What?” I reply, stunned. “Where was she going? Why didn’t you stop her?”
“Stop her?” he asks. “I assumed you’d sent her to go do something.”
“Do something?” I sigh. “No, she was supposed to stay here with me and—”
I freeze. My words catch in my throat when I see her. Gretchen is passing through the door heading into the corridor leading to the larger of the two entertaining rooms set up for tonight. She’s dyed her hair and is wearing something inconspicuous, but I’d recognize that walk anywhere. And when I see her, I realize what’s happened. It doesn’t take a genius to figure that out.
I’ll deal with her later, I think as I quickly rush after Penny. I’m out the door and pacing up the sidewalk in seconds, but she’s nowhere to be found.
“Shit,” I curse. I race over to the valet and hand him my ticket, along with a hundred-dollar bill. “Double time, all right?”
His eyes brighten, and he nods. “Yes, sir.”
Then I’m in the car and threading through late-night New York traffic on my way to Penny’s apartment. What the hell did Gretchen say to her? This is a catastrophe. I should have handled this better and made sure those two never came into contact. But I guess I just got sloppy, and now I’m paying the price.
The drive to her apartment only takes fifteen minutes but feels like it takes ten hours. I double park right out front and leave my hazards on. I hop out and race up her front steps just as someone else who lives in the building is coming out. He holds the door for me, and I quickly make my way down the hall. If I remember right, Penny said she lived in apartment 3. I raise my hand to knock, but the door opens before I can, and I find myself staring at the faces of three unfamiliar girls.
“Forget it.”
“You’re not coming in.”
“She’s in her room crying, asshole. You know what you did to her?”
“If you think we’re letting you anywhere near her just because you could buy our entire neighborhood—”
“Then you’re sadly mistaken.”
“Ah, I get it,” I sigh. “You’re Penny’s roommates and friends.”
“Damn straight. And we’re looking out for her tonight. Anything you have to say, you can say to us.”
My blood is pumping so hard and so fast that part of me wants to channel my high school track and field days and just hurdle right over these girls and make a run for Penny’s room. But then I picture the squealing catastrophe that would ensue, as well as all three of them pulling out their phones and filming me like I’m some crazed home invader, and I take a breath.
“Listen, girls. I know you want to protect your friend, but unfortunately, you’re protecting her from the wrong person. Penny’s been lied to tonight by one of my ex-employees, a jealous girl who is trying to split us up. All I want to do is go in there, tell her my side of the story, the truth, so she can understand that I…that I love her.”
Wow, I said it.
I only wish the first time I said it I could have been saying it to her.
One of the girls, the oldest of the bunch, glances at the other two. “You believe him?”
“I don’t know. Billionaires lie. That’s how they get their money.”
“What are you, an actress?” I ask.
She looks at me, surprised. “How’d you know?”
I chuckle. “Actors and actresses always think guys like me are evil pricks who want to take over the world.”
The girl folds her arms across her chest and glares back at me. “Well?”
“All I want is to make things right with Penny,” I say. “And I’ll tell you what. You can stand right outside the door and listen, and if Penny says anything to you, you can call the cops and have me thrown out. Deal?”
The girls don’t reply immediately. They look at each other, doing that commutating-without-talking thing that girls are so good at, then look back at me.
“Fine,” the actress says. “But we’re warning you—”
“Don’t worry,” I say, brushing past them. “You don’t have to.”
I head quickly to the only closed door in the apartment and knock. Penny doesn’t answer right away, and I try not to think about her inside crying. I wait a moment and then knock again. “Penny? Can I come in, Penny?”
There’s a long pause, and then her voice from within, soft and weak. “Okay.”
Without waiting, I twist the knob and step into Penny’s bedroom. All the lights are off. I can only make her out from the orange light of the streetlamp coming in through the window. Behind me, I hear the shuffling sound of her roommates’ footsteps.
“I saw Gretchen at the event,” I say. Even in the darkness, I can see her face is streaked with tears. She’s been crying, and the sight of her pain sinks right into my chest. “She spoke to you, didn’t she?”
I don’t even need an answer. But when Penny nods, a ball of rage forms inside my chest so hot that I could scorch a hole to the center of the earth. I step closer, but slowly.
“What did she tell you, Penny?”
Penny opens her mouth to speak but pauses, as if what she’s about to say is simply too painful – as if she needs a moment to prepare herself.
This is all my fault.
I should never have left her alone at an event like that. I should have been by her side the entire time. I just didn’t want to bore her with the kind of conversations I was having or make her even more nervous than she already clearly was, so I thought it was best to go do my thing and come back to her. If only I’d just had her by my side, none of this ever would have happened.
“She…she said that I was just your…s-side…piece.” The weakness in Penny’s voice nearly breaks my heart, but the words she speaks cause both of my hands to ball into fists at my sides. “That she was your ‘main girl,’ and you have an understanding…”
“That is a lie,” I say with every ounce of conviction in my soul.
“She said that was why you wouldn’t see me at the office or any time other than late at night—”
“Penny, you know why that is—”
“I know, and that’s what I told her!” she says, sitting up, her eyes tearing. “But then she pointed to some woman you were talking to with a white dress and like…these big ol’ boobies and said she was going to be the next me and I just…I started doubting everything!”
“The woman in the white dress!?” I can’t even control it. A laugh escapes my lips, and I brace myself on the corner of her bed.
“Hey!” Penny squeals. “This isn’t funny!”
“I know, sweetheart,” I reply as I compose myself. “It’s just…that woman was Jennifer Biggins—”
“Biggins!?” Penny all but shouts.
Smirking, I hold up a hand. “And she was trying to get me to do an interview. An interview which I really don’t want to do. On top of that, I really did not want to be talking to her. The entire time I was humoring her, all I could think about was getting back to you.”
Going for broke, I reach my hand out and take Penny’s in mine. She allows it – doesn’t back away or pull her hand from mine.
“Nothing Gretchen said to you is true, Penny,” I say softly. “I haven’t seen her since I fired her. She and I are not in some kind of secret, open relationship, and I am not looking to replace you. I promise.”
Christ, I’m so close to her right now, but I feel as though I’m on the verge of losing her. Even though her hand is in mine, and those bright, innocent eyes are staring back at me, I know it’s going to take more than some words to convince her that what she heard tonight was just a bunch of lies from an ex-employee looking to get back at me.
Just go for it. You have to.
I glance over my shoulder and see three sets of eyes peeking in through the cracked door and sigh. I turn back to Penny, who is still looking at me with hopeful eyes, begging to be given more.
“Well, this isn’t how I wanted to do this,” I admit with a smile. “And to tell you the truth, I didn’t even know I was going to do this tonight, but…” Keeping my eyes on hers, I get down on one knee beside her bed. Her jaw drops, and I hear three audible gasps behind me. “But if this is what I need to do to prove I love you, then this is what I need to do. Penny Johnson, will you marry me?”
