AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Esther paused. “Although—”
“No! Don’t although. I liked everything you said before the although. Don’t ruin it.”
“I was just going to say that as a reformed nonbeliever in romance, when you find the right guy, it’s totally worth it.”
“Well sure. But how do you find the right one? How many frogs am I expected to kiss before one of them turns into a prince?”
Esther brushed her long hair off her shoulder. “Maybe you should stop kissing frogs and start kissing—I don’t know—chipmunks or raccoons or something. Maybe the frogs are the problem.”
Penny made a face as she sipped her wine. “Raccoons are vermin.”
“Okay, then otters or sloths or whatever you want. I’m just saying, maybe try casting your net a little wider instead of shutting yourself off to the possibility of love, is all.”
“Is that a ladder over there?” Jinny whispered, coming up to them.
Esther shrugged. “I don’t know, man. Art.”
Jinny looked skeptical. “Is it, though?”
“Penny’s sworn off men,” Esther said.
Jinny’s eyes widened. “For good?”
“No,” Penny said. “Just for a while.”
“Feeling gun-shy,” Jinny said with a knowing nod.
“A little,” Penny admitted. “This just keeps happening to me, you know? I feel like it must have something to do with me.”
Jinny punched her in the arm. It was shockingly painful, given her diminutive size. “Shut up! That’s not true! You’re beautiful and lovely!”
Penny rubbed her arm. “Thank you, but…I think part of the problem is that I’m the kind of girl guys think they’re supposed to marry. They look at me and see their mothers.”
Esther’s lip curled. “Ew.”
“I can see it though.” Jinny nodded over the top of her wineglass. “You are really into taking care of people and organizing things.”
“Right? They look at me and see someone who’s going to take care of them and cook for them and iron their shirts.”
Esther looked horrified. “You don’t iron their shirts, do you?”
“No!” Only the once. And only because they’d been running late for a wedding. It wasn’t like she made a habit of it. “But they look at me and see someone who might. I’m a nice girl. The kind you can take home to your parents. And that’s what they think they want—but what they actually want is a not nice girl.”
Jinny pursed her lips, nodding. “A dirty girl.”
“Exactly!” In her vehemence, Penny sloshed some of the wine out of her glass and onto her chest.
Jinny used the sleeve of her cardigan to blot Penny’s boobs dry. “Most men want a little of both.”
Esther shook her head. “Most men don’t know what they want.”
“I think that’s why they end up cheating on me,” Penny said, trying to fan her chest dry. “After a while they start to resent the same qualities that drew them to me in the first place. And then they get restless and start to feel trapped, so they go looking for something more exciting. That’s my latest theory, anyway.”
“Hey,” Olivia said, coming up to them. “Is that a fucking ladder?” With her pale skin, thick black eyeliner, and dark lipstick, she fit in perfectly with the art crowd.
Jinny lifted her wineglass. “That’s exactly what I said.”
“Where’s Yemi and Jonathan?” Olivia asked.
