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“Night class,” Esther said.
“Yemi’s over there.” Jinny pointed to the other side of the gallery, where her Nigerian boyfriend was deep in conversation with Vilma’s pot-bellied husband. “Talking to Emilio about tabletop war games. He’s such a dork. I love him.”
Jinny was also in a perfect relationship with a perfect boyfriend. Penny was surrounded by nauseatingly happy couples. On the one hand, it gave her hope that maybe one day she’d find her perfect match too. But on the other, it highlighted how much of a failure she was in the relationship department.
“Can you guys keep a secret?” Jinny asked, leaning in close and lowering her voice.
“Of course.” Penny loved secrets.
“Yemi’s going to propose.”
Olivia’s mouth fell open. “What?”
“Shut the front door!” Penny said, spilling her wine again. “Are you serious?”
They’d only been dating for six months, which seemed a little fast. Jinny and Yemi both came from conservative Catholic families, so they might be feeling added pressure to hurry up and tie the knot. Or maybe they just knew they were ready.
Sometimes it happened that way, right? Two people met and fell in love, and they were so confident in each other they didn’t need to wait to start the rest of their lives together. Not that Penny would know anything about that.
Esther smirked as Olivia handed Penny a tissue. “He asked me for ring advice at work today.” Esther and Jinny and Jinny’s boyfriend all worked for the same company, but Jinny worked in a different department than Esther and Yemi. “He tried to be sly and couch it like a hypothetical question, but it was definitely not hypothetical. And then he swore me to secrecy. Obviously, I told Jinny immediately.”
“Obviously,” Olivia said.
Jinny gave Esther a fist bump. “Hos before bros.”
“No idea on the timeframe,” Esther said. “He’s still in the early stages of the process, so it might be a while yet.”
“But it’s happening!” Jinny cast a look in Yemi’s direction to make sure he wasn’t watching them before bouncing and waving her hands excitedly.
“I’m so happy for you!” Penny said. Yemi seemed genuinely wonderful and he treated Jinny much better than any of her previous boyfriends had. They deserved to be happy together.
It was just…hard not to feel even worse about her own disastrous love life when everyone around her was so blissfully coupled up. She was starting to think she was never going to be anyone’s first choice.
That was fine though. Penny was capable of being happy for her friends and feeling sorry for herself at the same time. It was practically her second career at this point.
Chapter Four
“How come you guys didn’t come in last night?” Caleb asked when he rang up Penny’s coffee order on Tuesday.
She looked up, startled. He never initiated conversation with her, and now he’d done it two days in a row. Three, if you counted Friday night in the bathroom.
“My friend Cynthia had an art show,” she said. “That’s why we were here Friday night when…well, you know.” Penny had seen her boyfriend with another woman and fled to the bathroom to cry. Fun times.
Caleb’s mouth pressed into a pained line, like he regretted asking the question, and he retreated to make her nonfat latte without another word.
Penny figured that would be the end of his conversational overtures. He’d attempted small talk, and it had been awkward. He’d probably never bother again.
But when he brought her latte to her, instead of dropping it off and hurrying away like he usually did, he lingered at the counter where she sat. Weird.
She thought he might be looking for validation, so she took a sip of her latte, which had another heart flower in the foam. “It’s good,” she said, nodding at him. “Thank you.”
Instead of accepting this as permission to flee her company, he continued to hover nearby, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. It would be one thing if he were actually doing something, like wiping down the counter, but he was just watching her. Staring, really.
Penny refused to look at him, because she was certain if she did, she’d see pity in his face again. He must think she was still distraught over Kenneth’s infidelity, and that was why he was hovering like she was some kind of wounded bird.
She wasn’t. She was fine. Really fine. She’d moved efficiently through all seven stages of grief over the last few days and was now comfortably sitting pretty in acceptance.
In fact, she was glad it had happened. Jinny was right. Kenneth had done her a favor by getting caught before she’d had time to develop a strong attachment to him. And this time, she was going to learn from her mistake. No more Doormat Penny. From now on, she was putting herself first.
