AllFreeNovel
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“You sure about that?”
“Not anymore.” She laughed. “I’m just wondering how well I really know you.”
“No, you’re not.” I plopped down on the floor. “You’re regurgitating dialogue from that ridiculous show.”
“Okay, fine. I am,” she said. “In the spirit of Elsa and Tyler’s storyline, who’s the best guy you’ve ever fucked?”
Your brother.“Um…”
“Tell me.”
“The muse I envisioned whenever I was skating.” I set down my glass before I slipped up and said his real name. “Mr. Perfectly Complicated.”
As always, she lit up like a kid at Christmas, and guilt gnawed at my chest.
Penelope could recite some of my best memories with Travis by heart, and I never forgave myself for revealing them on drunken nights.
I thought our stories would be discarded and forgotten—like random tales about strangers on subways—but Penelope hoarded them like sentimental sweaters. She had favorites she begged me to unravel on bad days, likening them to “reading a romance novel in the rain.”
“Have you given up on finding that guy?” she asked. “You don’t talk about him anymore.”
“Yeah, I…” I needed to change the subject. “I think it’s best to leave the past in the past, you know? Anyway—”
“I think you two belong together,” she interrupted. “Based on everything you’ve told me, that is. How many guys would drive five hundred miles every other weekend just to kiss you? To let you cry on his shoulder in the car?”
“I’m sure lots of guys do that for their girlfriends. Let’s do some light ballet in your studio upstairs.”
“We can dance right here.” She stood up from the couch, stretching her arms. “Tell me the story about how he surprised you for the best birthday you ever had.”
“It’s been so long that I can’t remember it anymore.”
“I can.” She smiled. “He flew into town after a competition without telling you, and he stood in the parking lot with a huge bouquet of red roses.”
“Penelope…”
“His career was kind of taking off then, so he used his purse money—” She paused, laughing. “I know he didn’t call it ‘purse money,’ I’m just used to hearing Travis and all the fighters use that phrase all the time.”
I swallowed, sensing that she wouldn’t fall for any diversions.
“He used his extra money to treat you to a five-star dinner, a night at the best hotel in town, and the next day he treated you to the VIP experience at an anime convention you’d always wanted to go to. And then he….”
She blinked a few times and pressed a palm against her forehead, staring into space like she sometimes did when her memory lapsed—a byproduct of the tragic injury that ultimately ended her skating career.
I waited in silence as she continued staring. My heart twisted in a mix of sympathy and agony.
“I was remembering something before, but then I…” She looked at me. “I’m so sorry, Tati. What were we talking about?”
“Mr. Perfectly Complicated.”
“Oh, right.” She smiled. “He did so many over-the-top, sweet things for you, and to have that fall apart is utterly tragic.” She fell back onto the couch. “Speaking of which, guess what?”
“You know I hate guessing.”
“I asked Hayden to add a ‘Find My Lost Love’ feature to his dating app. Then I made him promise to make you the first beta tester.”
“You didwhat?”
“It’s a super early birthday gift!” She squealed like a teenager. “I don’t think it’s fair to go another year without at least finding out where Mr. Perfectly Complicated is. What if he’s single and wondering about what happened to you, too?”
