First Time: Penny's Story (First Time (Penny) Book 1) (33 page)

“
Why is everything salted
caramel all of a sudden?” Ian grumbled as he pulled the container
from the freezer. “I just got used to everything being blueberry
pomegranate acai.”

“
Brace yourself, peppermint
is coming,” I warned him grimly. I’d been watching
Game of Thrones
in the
hopes that I would understand his fascination with it. “Every
October, like clockwork, pumpkin comes in. The day after
Thanksgiving, everything is mint. Which is just about the most
disgusting flavor I can think of.”

“
I rather like mint myself.”
He peeled back the lid of the carton.

“
Oh, well, true love totally
called off,” I teased as I went for the spoons. I rounded the end
of the counter so I could face him from the other side.

“
Don’t you want to go sit
down?” he asked, nodding toward the dining area.

I shook my head. He hadn’t come in me, but
there was definitely a moisture situation going on. “Uh, no. I
really don’t feel like leaving a slime spot on your chairs.”

“
It’s not slime,” he said,
almost sounding offended. “It’s proof that you just had an
incredible time, and I’d like to think I have a little something to
do with that.”

“
Oh, you had a lot to do
with that.” I snatched the carton from him and took the first bite
of ice cream. I moaned almost as loudly as I had when we were up on
the roof. “You were so sexy today.”

“
I thought I looked like an
undertaker,” he said, trying to block my spoon as I went for a
second bite.

“
It wasn’t that. It was
seeing you at church, how much you really believe in all of it.
That was sexy.”

“
Why is that
sexy?”

“
I don’t know.” I really
didn’t. I knew a lot of things. But I couldn’t explain romantic
attraction, even if I tried. I took another spoonful of ice cream.
“Having faith in something makes you vulnerable. Vulnerability in a
man is hot.”

“
Why does believing in
something make a person vulnerable?” he asked with a slight
frown.

“
Because if you believe in
something, you can be let down.” Wow, I was a real ray of sunshine.
“Like, okay, look at me and Brad. I thought we were really going to
be together forever. I
believed
that would happen. And when it ended, I was
destroyed. I made myself vulnerable to that hurt through my faith
that everything would turn out all right.”

Ugh, did Brad have to come up all the time?
Still?

“
But you just told me, not a
full two hours ago, that you believe we’ll turn out all right,” he
reminded me.

And he had a point. “Yeah, but we’ve had
signs. The fortune cookies. They never lie.” I paused, my brows and
lips scrunching at the same time. “I supposed believing in
superstitions is a form of faith. Maybe I really am setting myself
up for disappointment down the road.”

“
Never, not with me,” he
reassured me. Like making that promise was so simple, he didn’t
even have to think about it. He scooped up a spoonful of ice cream,
swallowed it, and said, “All humans are vulnerable, emotionally. We
pretend we have control over it, but we truly don’t.”

It was so simple and weirdly defeatist, but
in the most positive way possible. I laughed. “Well, let me
believe, okay?”

Because looking into his eyes, I couldn’t
summon up a single doubt.

* * * *

“
Ian
Pratchett. Leave a message.”

I groaned at Ian’s voicemail message. When
the tone sounded, I forced my voice to be chipper. “Hey there. I
guess we’re fated to keep missing each other. I’m going to bed
early tonight. Just give me a call tomorrow. Love you.”

“
Missed connections day?”
Rosa asked, slipping on her boots. She had a work party tonight.
Everyone had work stuff going on, it seemed.

I sighed. “Yup. How pathetic am I? Be
brutally honest?”

“
Not pathetic,” Rosa said,
with a sympathetic smile and not a trace of sarcasm in her tone.
“You’re totally in love with him.”

“
I am,” I agreed. “I just
wish I could get him on the phone.”

“
You want me to bring you
back anything?” She asked as she pulled on her coat.

I shook my head. “Nah, I won’t be up. I think
I’m going to call it an early night.”

Work had been brutal lately as we rushed to
finish up the New Year special edition. I hadn’t even gotten home
until seven. It was nine now, and I was already yawning.

After Rosa left, I tucked
into bed and turned on the television. I didn’t know why, but I’d
had this weird, lonely feeling all day long. Hearing some voices
would help, I hoped. I was yawning through a rerun of
Archer
when my phone rang.
Even though it wasn’t Ian’s ringtone, I scrambled for it, thinking
he could have been calling from work.

I saw the name on the screen and groaned. It
was Amanda.

“
Hello, Amanda,” I said,
trying to sound polite, but I was already pretty annoyed at her.
This had been a pattern when she and Rosa had been dating before;
if Amanda couldn’t get an answer from Rosa, she started calling me,
demanding to know where she was. She had this totally weird
jealousy vibe about me, even though I’d assured her time and again
that I wasn’t into women, and even if I were, I wouldn’t make a
play for someone else’s girlfriend.

“
Hey, sweetie,” she said,
and I rolled my eyes. She was only that syrupy and nice if she
wanted something. “How are you?”

“
Really tired. About to go
to bed. So, can I call you back another—”

“
Oh, poo. Rosa said you
might be able to do me a favor,” she said, slightly
wheedling.

There was a reason Rosa couldn’t say no to
Amanda. She had the perfect wheedle in her voice when she needed
it.

“
Okay, it really depends on
the favor,” I warned her.

“
I forgot my carpal tunnel
brace at your apartment. I put it on the floor next to the coffee
table—”

I got out of bed and shuffled into the living
room. There was the brace.

“—
when we were eating, and
now I’m at work, and I really, desperately need it. Do you think
you could bring it to me?” she begged.

Amanda worked at a sushi place in midtown. “I
don’t know. That’s kind of far away. What’s in it for me?”

“
A dragon roll?”

I considered.

“
Come on, please, please,
please. You’re my favorite one of Rosa’s friends,” she added to
butter me up.

Buttering was unnecessary; my mouth was
already watering for a taste of eel.

“
I’m the only one of Rosa’s
friends who’ll talk to you,” I reminded her. “Throw in a cup of
miso, and I’m there.”

“
Deal. Thank you so much.
You’re a life saver.”

I got dressed in the nearest available dirty
clothes, grabbed the brace, and headed out. I didn’t even know why
I was helping her out. Amanda had cheated on Rosa, and after what
had happened with Brad, I was starting to really rethink my stance
on whether or not cheaters could be good people. But Rosa trusted
her enough to start things up again romantically. It wasn’t my
business.

What
was
my business was that I missed Ian
like crazy. Which was so stupid, because we spent so much time
together. It wasn’t like not seeing him or hearing from him for a
day should be that unbearable. I was starting to get on my own
nerves. I had to tone it down in a big way.

I reached the restaurant and asked for Amanda
at the hostess station. In just a few minutes, I saw her bright red
hair bopping across the floor. She kind of commanded all of the
attention in a room.

“
Thank you to Jupiter and
back!” she gasped as soon as she was within hearing
distance.

I held up the brace, and when she reached for
it, I snatched it back. “Ah-ah. I believe we have a hostage trade
situation going on here?”

She rolled her eyes. “Come on back.”

I followed her through the crowded
restaurant, to the bar, where she typed in an order for the dragon
roll and miso soup. I handed her the brace, and she slipped it
on.

“
So, how’s your night
going?” I asked.

“
Running off my feet. Had a
lovely white woman suggest I try acupuncture.” She rolled her eyes
“I’m Vietnamese, not Chinese. And if I’m going to stick a needle
anywhere in me to fix this, it better be attached to a syringe of
morphine.”

She buzzed off to grab another table, and I
waited, drumming my fingers on the bar top. I took out my phone and
checked to see if Ian had called. Nothing.

Then I heard him laugh. Okay, I had to be
losing my mind, now, if I was hearing things.

I heard it again. And I spotted him across
the restaurant.

With a gorgeous blond woman. And they were
laughing.

My heart was going to puke.

They both stood, still chatting. Any second,
they were going to start walking my way. The bar stool nearly
toppled in the wake of my hasty exit. There was no way I was going
to be humiliated in front of The Other Woman. I’d already done that
once this year.

Oh god, what if
I
was the other woman? My
tears burned my eyes as I stepped out into the blustery November
night. Maybe that was why his sister didn’t want to meet me,
because I was his mistress. Maybe he wasn’t divorced. He could have
been feeding me a line this whole time.

Maybe I could ignore all this. I could go
home, cry, and eat myself sick.

Dammit!
Eating myself sick would be a lot easier to do with some
actual food. I stood on the sidewalk, torn between wanting to run
away before he saw me and wanting something to eat after the
inevitable confrontation.

Sushi won out over heartache, especially
since postponing the confrontation we were going to have would only
make it worse. Might as well get it over with, like ripping off a
Band-Aid. Then I could deal with the shock of the fact that, once
again, a man who I’d thought was the love of my life was cheating
on me.

It’s you
, a nasty little voice in my head sneered. It sounded a lot
like my mother.
It had nothing to do with
being a virgin. It was just you. You’re not enough.

I lifted my chin and strode confidently
through the restaurant doors.

Ian was nearly to the door with his…whatever
she was to him. God, she was even more perfect-looking up close.
Her highlights were flawless. Her skin was the kind you had to buy
from a dermatologist who had lasers and grinding tools. I was
pretty sure her nails were her actual nails and not gels.

I was in a crumpled T-shirt, with unwashed
hair.

And Ian didn’t say, “Hi, Penny,” or look
happy to see me. Instead, the first words out of his mouth when he
saw me were, “What are you doing here?”

What are you doing
here?
I silently screamed back at him. I
forced myself to smile, as if nothing was amiss. “I dropped off a
wrist brace. Rosa’s girlfriend works here, and she left at the
apartment. In return, I got dinner.”

“
Oh, the carpal tunnel
waitress,” the woman said with a laugh. “What a coincidence. Penny,
was it? I’m Carrie Glynn.”

Carrie… The name rang a bell. An alarm bell.
“Glynn? As in Glynn resorts?” I was so stunned I actually shook her
hand. Carrie Glynn was a hotelier with an empire that spanned
continents. She was routinely listed among the worlds’ richest
women. I made thirty thousand dollars a year. There was no way I
could outclass her.

“
Guilty,” she said with a
smile, and her perfect teeth almost blinded me.

“
This is my girlfriend,
Penny,” Ian said quickly, “whom I was telling you about. Penny,
Carrie is an old friend I worked with in the 80’s.”

“
Ah.” I nodded. I didn’t say
anything else, because I was perilously close to screaming, “I
thought you were going out to do business, not old friends.” And I
didn’t want to lose my cool in front of the woman I was
increasingly suspicious of.

If the pause in our conversation was awkward,
I didn’t care one bit, though.

“
Well,” Carrie said. “I was
just leaving. Ian, it was wonderful to see you again. Please, do
give consideration to my offer. The sooner I have an answer, the
better.”

What the fuck did you offer
my boyfriend?
I seethed as he shook her
hand. Then she was out the door, and he turned to me.

I took a deep breath and started counting to
ten. And when I hit ten, I was absolutely going to let him have
it.

Chapter Sixteen

Ian stared at me as the storm front rolled in
between us. Before he could ask, I ground out, “I’m counting to
ten.”

“
Pardon?”

“
I’m counting to ten,” I
explained, patient with fury, “before I run out of here. So, your
‘old friend’ doesn’t see.”

“
Or, you could come home
with me. I can give you a ride home, and you can tell me why you’re
so angry.” The tone, the awful, patronizing tone…
Ugh!
I wasn’t the one
who’d just been caught lying. I wasn’t the one who’d been on a date
with another woman.

“
You want me to tell you why
I’m angry?” I titled my head, my lips pursing. “What if I canceled
my plans with you for a ‘work dinner’, and it turned out to be with
some hot billionaire I happened to be acquainted with?”