Page 33 of Double Trouble
“I don’t know,” I said, even though I did.
“Cool, when do we get to meet her?” he asked.
Owen reached over me to whack Jake. “Ever heard of too much too fast?”
“Nope,” Jake said blithely. “Far as I’m concerned, the sooner people know about us, the better.”
“The sooner people know what, exactly?” Owen shot back.
An awkward silence was the only response his question got. Their words brought up some good points. We were still taking this as it was coming. And while so far it was going well, that was just so far. There were still some big questions hanging over us – ones that I was none too keen to actually look at closely.
“On that happy note” – Owen grabbed the chips and wrapped me in his arms – “Less talk, more action.”
I giggled, my arms wrapping around him too. “I can get into that.”
“Hey,” Jake said, burrowing under the sheets with us. “No fair.”
As he wrapped himself around me too, I grinned. Something told me that tonight was going to be one hell of a cozy night.
—
It turned out I was right. Too right, since the knocking on the door seemed so far-off and unwanted, that it seemed preferable to ignore it entirely. Until it gradually progressed to the door being opened.
I could only gape helplessly as Penelope’s face arranged itself in my consciousness. Quickly, I scrambled out of bed and out of the room, careful to close the door behind me.
“So,” she said, eyeing me oddly.
“So,” I said. “It’s not what it looks like.”
Only her perfectly shaped eyebrow quirking was enough to make me sigh. “There were no threesomes, but Jake and I, yeah.”
“I figured.”
It was then I noticed that Penelope had her purse on her arm and her hair arranged into a high pony. “You leaving?”
“Yeah, I just wanted to peek in to say goodbye, but then you raced out.”
“Here, how about we go to the coffee shop?” I was a good few steps toward the door when I remembered.
I sighed, looking down. “Still in my bathrobe.”
Penelope giggled. “I’ll give you five bucks in you go to Dunkin Donuts like that.”
I shook my head, already heading to the closet, where I luckily had a stash of rarely-worn sweats. “No amount of money would be enough for you to ruin my one minute away coffee run spot, since if I showed up like that, I could never show my face there again.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Penelope said, though she was still smirking. “You might even get a free Timbit or two out of it.”
“Great.” Now out of my bathrobe and in my dust-colored sweats, I threw my purse strap over my arm. “A free fifteen cent Timbit for baring my half-nude self to the world.”
“They’re actually twenty-five cents now,” Penelope replied smoothly as we made for the door.
“Oh, how times have changed.”
It occurred to me, a minute or so later as we walked to Dunkin’ Donuts, that times really had. I’d opened my heart to meeting someone – and not just one, but two someones had fallen in.
Before we got into line, Penelope paused eyeing me.
“Just say it,” I said with a small sigh.
Having Penelope bite back something was not only unheard-of, it was pretty nerve-wracking.
“It’s just… don’t get me wrong, I don’t blame you for falling for the two of them, but do you really think it could work for the long run?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted.
My sullen gaze landed on a couple going into the glass doors beside us. They weren’t holding hands and looked no happier than me on a day when I forgot my coffee.
“Seems like most relationships don’t work out these days, so is it really a risk trying this?”
Penelope’s curly strands waggled as her head turned to regard me. “Is that what you have with them – a relationship?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “It’s still the early stages, ok?”
“Ok. Fine.”
But it wasn’t ‘ok’ or ‘fine’, Penelope’s words had lit up a reserve of uncertainty already inside me.
“This is a bit of a dream world,” I said, biting at my lip. “But that doesn’t mean it can’t work out. Just that, it might be hard.”
“Have you told your family about them?”
All this about the family again.
“You know what?” I said suddenly, getting out my phone. “Screw donuts. I want brunch.”
It was only when I was away from Jake and Owen that I started feeling doubt encroach. Besides Franz’s breakfast special lifted the worst of my moods.
But calling Jake’s cell only left me listening to it ring and ring. Two times I called, and two times I reached his voicemail. Same thing for Owen.
Finally, I had to turn to Penelope with a scowling shrug. “Guess Timmies it is.”
A few minutes later, back at my place, we found the front door unlocked.
Penelope and I exchanged a nervous look. What the hell was going on?
