First Time: Penny's Story (First Time (Penny) Book 1) (15 page)

She went on, “And Neil has this major thing
for redheads, so about a year later, we got together, had dinner,
and one thing lead to another. Do you want other details?”

Did I? Sick curiosity drove me to say,
“Yes.”

“
Well, we were all in the
same room. There was nothing romantic between us. It was actually
more about having the experience with your partner than…well,
cheating on them, for lack of a better word.” She shrugged. “Neil
fucked Gena, I fucked Ian, then Gena and I had sex while Neil and
Ian watched.”

“
Holy…” My jaw dropped. Now
that I knew the exact details, I was way more fascinated with
Sophie’s spirit of adventure than I was concerned about her and
Ian.

But then, I wondered if Ian appreciated that
spirit of adventure more than he would appreciate boring, cautious
me. It was this never-ending cycle of self-doubt that was messing
me up, big time.

“
I’m worried,” I blurted,
tears rising to humiliate me at the moment I most wanted to be the
strong, confident one in the conversation. “I’m worried that Ian
isn’t going to be interested in me when I’m not as ‘yay, fucking
other couples!’ as you were and Gena was. I’m afraid I’m not going
to be as good as you—”

“
Penny, don’t do that to
yourself. Besides, Ian isn’t like that.” Sophie’s brows drew
together in a remorseful frown.

“
Can you at least tell me
why you thought we’d be good together? I mean, we are. I know it’s
ridiculously soon to say that, but I was instantly attracted to
him. His personality and mine mesh so well. And there was this
fortune cookie—”

Sophie raised an eyebrow. I didn’t know if
she had any superstitions of her own, but I know she thought mine
were extremely silly.

I was going to tell her anyway. “Ian got a
fortune cookie that said he would meet the love of his life this
summer. And Labor Day is next Monday. Oh, and it was so awkward
when he got that, but I got a fortune that said humor would help
get through a moment of awkwardness. That’s not coincidence,
Sophie. There’s no such thing as coincidence.”

“
Well, it definitely sounds
like you believe you’re the love of Ian’s life,” she said, stopping
just short of “I told you so”.

The waiter returned with a seltzer water with
two slices of lime for Sophie, a Coke for me. Sophie toyed with her
glass as she spoke. “I know you had a really difficult time after
you and Brad broke up. So I thought, well, her heart is wounded.
Whoever she dates next is going to have to be someone who
understands that. Ian and Gena split up… Really, she left him. And
I realized that he was going to need someone who understood the
need to go slow, too. Plus, you both said similar things about
wanting a family. It seemed like the timing was…”

“
Fate?” I
suggested.

She nodded with a resigned smile. She hated
being wrong. “Okay. You got me. I do believe in fate. Because I
have to. It’s the reason why Neil and I are together. We met six
years before we actually started dating. He didn’t even give me his
real name at the time. We should have never seen each other again,
but everything fell into place, and now, here we are.”

How was I supposed to argue with her, when
she was saying basically the same thing I’d been saying for years?
That fate brings people together, that there is someone out there,
my true love, just waiting for me.

All the signs were pointing to Ian. And I was
okay with that.

Still, what she’d done wasn’t right, and I
wasn’t going to let her slide past that. “Maybe in the future,
don’t set other people up with people you’ve slept with.”

“
Fair enough.” She shook her
head. “I am really sorry. But I’m not sorry you guys are getting
along so well, even if it’s super fast.”

“
I keep feeling like I
should pump the brakes, but then, I really don’t want to.” I’d
already heard some of Sophie’s embarrassing sex stories when I’d
tagged along on her bachelorette weekend, so I didn’t feel too
weird adding, “And I’m kind of thinking that maybe the whole
virginity thing…”

Sophie tilted her head. “Are you thinking
about having sex with Ian?”

My face got so hot they
could have cooked our meal on it. “Am I considering it? Maybe. Am
I
thinking
about
it? All the time. But you don’t go for years and years being afraid
of something, then suddenly go, oh, hey, I’ve been on two dates
with you, let’s bone.”

“
Lots of people think, oh
hey, I’ve been on two dates with you, let’s bone,” she pointed out.
“Look, if my impression of Ian is right—and having discussed this
whole setting-you-up situation with Neil, I’m ninety-nine percent
sure that it is—then he’ll be fine with waiting for you. On the
other hand, he would probably be fine with having sex with you if
you drove over to his place right now and got on him.”

“
When you put it that way,
it sounds so romantic,” I deadpanned.

Sophie pressed her hand over her heart. “My
baby snarked me. You’re growing up so fast.”

* * * *

“
Wow, someone’s jeans are tight,” Rosa said with a
low whistle. “I would definitely hit on you, if you weren’t… You
know. You.”

“
Thanks, that really works
wonders for my confidence.” I leaned closer to the mirror in our
tiny bathroom to carefully draw on a wing of eyeliner. I had to
leave the door open to do my hair and makeup, otherwise the
leftover steam from my shower and the heat from my blow dryer would
have made the room unbearable. It was so hot I skipped my curling
iron in favor of just straightening everything with a round
brush.

“
Your middle-aged boyfriend
is taking you bowling, huh?” she teased. “So, is he on a
league?”

“
Shut up.” I blinked and
examined my handiwork. Both sides were nearly symmetrical in
appearance. Nerves upped my makeup game like crazy. “I’ll have you
know that the place we’re going looks very hip.”

“
Of course it’s hip. It’s in
a gentrified neighborhood. Hipsters live to force low-income
residents out of the city and ironically appropriate their working
class interests.” She shook her head.

She had a point there. “I really wish you
would reserve judgment of Ian until you actually meet him.”

“
Sorry,” she said, though I
knew she wasn’t actually sorry about her gentrification comment,
and she shouldn’t have been, anyway. “But I’m worried about you.
Older guys go after younger women all the time, and it never works
out.”

“
He isn’t ‘going after’ me.
We were set up on a blind date. And besides, sometimes, it works
out. Look at Neil and Sophie.” I shouldn’t have brought them up as
an example; I knew it the moment it came out of my mouth. Rosa had
never met either of them, but she knew of them from the occasional
mention in a magazine and had formed a pretty definite opinion of
what made their marriage work. It involved dollar signs and the
faint suggestion of midlife crises.

“
I’m just saying, you’re
planning on deciding on Monday if this guy is the love of your
life. Doesn’t that strike you as kind of scary?”

“
I’m not deciding anything.
On Monday, I’m going to find out if
I’m
the love of
Ian’s
life. And yes, it’s very scary.
Everything that I’m feeling about him is scary.” I shrugged. “It
just makes it seem more…real.”

“
Okay. It’s your life. I’m
not going to interfere anymore,” she said, holding up her
hands.

“
Yes, you are.” I stepped
back from the mirror and smoothed down my T-shirt. V-neck with a
push-up bra, and I planned to do a lot of leaning over. Rosa was
right. My jeans were really tight. With Ian, I felt comfortable
looking sexy. Maybe because with Brad, anything I wore got
criticized. I’d either been too hot and a “tease”, or too buttoned
up and “frigid-looking”.

It’s amazing the kind of personal baggage you
shed when you let go of someone super toxic.

“
Okay, how do I look?” I
asked, turning around and holding my breath.

Rosa considered. “Like Amanda.”

Amanda’s penchant for tight, low-cut apparel
affected Rosa the way the light on a pilot fish attracts other
fish. So I took it as a compliment.

I took the subway to Ian’s place, but I would
lie and tell him I took a cab, because for some reason, men always
seem think a woman is destined for rape and murder on the subway.
When we’d met for lunch earlier in the week, he’d been appalled I’d
braved the same line I took to and from work every day. I
understood he cared about me not dying, but I did not like the
overprotective vibe.

I rang the buzzer at his place, which, unlike
the one at my building didn’t not give me a shock, and he met me
downstairs. He wore jeans and a black button down with the sleeves
rolled up, and I stared at his forearms the way he stared at my
chest, so I guess we were even on the objectification front.

He put his arm around my waist briefly to
lean in and kiss my cheek. “You look lovely, as ever.”

“
Thanks. I’m digging this
scruffy thing you’ve got going on,” I said, pointing to his hair.
Most of the times I’d seen him, with the exception of after our
impromptu pool date, his hairstyle had been a very controlled, Cary
Grant side part. Now he looked more fourth-date casual, and less
like a guy you’d buy a casket from.

He reached up self-consciously and combed his
fingers through his hair. “Scruffy?”

“
Not in a bad way,” I
hurried to assure him. “In a perfect-for-bowling way.”

“
Ah, yes, bowling. About
that,” he said with a grin. “There’s been a change of
plans.”

I’m always on the fence about whether or not
I like surprises, but if Ian had plans to whisk me off somewhere
exciting, I was in. “I’m listening.”

As we walked to the small parking lot beside
his building, he asked, “How do you feel about aquariums?”

“
Um. Like they’re awesome.”
I paused. “But also like they’re not open at eight o’clock on a
Saturday night.”

“
You’re right. They usually
aren’t. But interestingly enough, I know someone who is a major
donor to the New York Aquarium. And they have recently acquired a
new Pacific octopus.” He let that just hang there, tantalizing me
with the suspense.

“
And?”

“
And I thought you might
like to meet him,” Ian said with a shrug. “I mean we could always
go bowling—”

“
No!” I shrieked. This could
not be happening to me. I hadn’t had any time to prepare. How could
I just go and meet an octopus? “I can’t… I mean, do I look all
right?”

“
Do you think an octopus is
going to care what you’re wearing?” He laughed. Then he put both
hands on my upper arms and leaned down to look me in the eye. “If
octopods are attracted to people, and who knows, they very well
might be, I’m sure he’ll find you just as sexy as I do.”

Ian thought I was sexy. Not that I hadn’t
guessed before, after our make-out at the pool. But now my octopus
feelings and my Ian feelings were getting all mixed up and
combining into one giant ball of endorphins.

“
Okay.” I rubbed my sweaty
palms on my thighs. “Let’s do it. Let’s go meet the
octopus.”

On the ride to Coney Island, I managed to
maintain an actual conversation with Ian, somehow. I have no memory
of what we talked about, so I hoped very much it wasn’t important.
All I could see in my head was a line of octopus emoticons,
stretching into eternity. When we arrived, we didn’t go through the
front entrance, but a man with a wiry white mustache and a nylon
windbreaker emblazoned with the aquarium logo met us at an
employees-only door.

“
You must be Burt’s friend,”
the man said, thrusting his hand out to Ian. “And this is
your—”

“
Date,” Ian said quickly,
probably to avoid the man guessing “daughter”. Ian cleared his
throat. “Penny Parker. Octopod enthusiast.”

“
Hi!” I grabbed the man’s
hand between both of mine and shook it way too vigorously. “It is
an honor to meet you.”

“
I don’t actually work with
the octopus,” he told me, looking as worried as I would have
expected someone whose hand was being squeezed to a pulp by a
stranger would be.

“
This is Jim Bronner,” Ian
explained to me. “He works on the money side.”

“
Your friend here knows one
of our extremely valued donors,” Jim explained. “Why don’t you guys
come on in.”

One time, Rosa had described for me what it
had felt like going backstage at an N’Sync concert. This felt
exactly how she’d described it.

“
He’s not in his exhibit,
yet. You’ll be able to get up close,” Jim told us as he led us down
a hallway that looked like it could have belonged in a hospital, a
far cry from the decorated and themed visitor areas.

“
Up close?” I looked
nervously to Ian. He just smirked back at me, clearly pleased with
himself. As he should have been; this was going to be in my top ten
lifelong memories.

“
She’s a wee bit nervous,”
he said as we paused for Jim to slide his badge through a card
reader.

“
Why nervous?” he asked, as
though it was just every day someone could wander up and meet
an
enteroctopus dofleini
.