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“You can say that again,” Josh muttered under his breath as they both trudged back down to reception.
Penny had the feeling that she was in a rerun of a bad sitcom ten minutes later as familiar words fell from the young receptionist’s mouth, just in a slightly different order.
“I’m afraid we don’t have any other rooms available, Ma’am. It’s Christmas, we’re fully booked. Are you sure the room’s that bad?”
From behind her Josh slid his phone across the desk. “I’m sorry, Leon, but I don’t think housekeeping is going to be able to deal with this,” he said, showing him a couple of photographs that Penny hadn’t even realized he’d taken.
Penny actually felt sorry for Leon as she watched his mouth open and close and nothing coming out. “I’m sorry, Ma’am, we’ll have to provide you with a refund, of course. I apologize that your anticipated break has been cut short.”
She might also have been overjoyed if she didn’t already know she wouldn’t be able to get a taxi home. That meant the only alternative was her mum. She wasn’t looking forward to that phone call. “You do that,” she agreed. “I’m going to ring my mother and ask her to come and collect me.”
CHAPTER THREE
Usually placid, Josh was annoyed on several levels right now. Having finally caught up with Penny after all these years, the opportunity to reignite their high school friendship was rapidly disappearing. He was as annoyed about that as he was about the appalling way she’d been treated this afternoon. The young receptionist was doing his best, but he was clearly out of his depth.
He sat down in a deep, luxurious chair in the foyer while Penny paced in front of him, animatedly speaking on her phone. He tried not to eavesdrop, but it didn’t sound like it was going well.
“Mum, I swear, I am not making this up!…what do you mean, you don’t believe me?…Look, you’ll get the refund in a moment, it’s being done as we speak, then you’ll see…you haven’t got it?…look it’ll be there, I guarantee. This is no joke…alright, you win. When you get that refund, you’ll see I’m not making this up. I can’t believe you think I’m lying.”
Penny stomped back to the receptionist. “Look, I can’t get a ride home,” she told him.
“Would you like me to call you a taxi, Ma’am?”
Josh tried not to laugh at the look on Penny’s face. He’d heard her tell him earlier that they were all fully booked. This time she paused, smiled sweetly and said, “That’s a great idea. Thank you. Also, my mother says the refund isn’t showing in her bank.”
“Oh, well, I have to get authorization from the manager before the transaction can be completed,” he told her. “And…”
Penny lifted her palms towards him. “Don’t tell me,” she said sarcastically. “Brad’s still at dinner and this still isn’t enough of an emergency to interrupt him.”
“Umm…”
Penny shook her head and waved him off. “Forget it, just let me know when you’ve arranged a taxi for me.”
She came and sat down next to Josh and he felt his chest tighten at the familiar smell of her shampoo. Some things never changed.
And some things did. But he’d been given a stay of execution, and he was damn well going to make the most of it!
Standing, grabbing her suitcase and holding out his hand, he said, “Come on, let’s go up to my suite and you can relax and maybe get that bubble bath you were looking forward to, after all.”
She went to take the proffered hand, then stopped and looked at him. “Oh, I’m not so sure about that, Josh. This really isn’t your problem.”
“Come on, Penny. What else are you going to do? You already know he won’t be able to find any transport. Besides, I really would like to catch up.”
She frowned and looked uncomfortable, dipping her head and jabbing the end of her thumb nail into her cuticles. “It just feels weird, Josh,” she finally admitted. “You were my best friend in the whole world, and then you were gone. It took me a long time to get used to not having you around and I’m not sure I want to go through all that again.”
She looked genuinely miserable, but also…torn. Damn it all, it had killed him to be away from her, too. It worked both ways, after all; she had been his best friend as well. His only friend. It was his fault they’d grown apart, he knew that, but he’d really thought he was doing the best thing for her.
And it was over ten years ago. As much as he’d hated pulling away, as much as the loneliness and regret had gnawed at his insides until he thought he might go mad, as much as he’d had to draw on more self-control than a seventeen boy should have, he’d done it for her.
Because he knew, no matter how much he’d hated it, that she was better off without him.
He’d truly thought it would be water under the bridge by now. They’d been high school teens after all. Kids who often made stupid decisions, even though he’d made the biggest sacrifice of his life.
They hadn’t been involved. They weren’t a couple. They’d just been friends. But maybe it was time to come clean and tell her the truth. Even if it did mean he’d be laying himself out there and making himself vulnerable. But he’d do that if it meant they could move forward; despite that they hadn’t seen each other for more than a decade.
Squatting down in front of her he prepared to do just that. “Penny,” he crooked his finger under her chin and forced her to look at him. “The biggest mistake I ever made was letting you go, but I’ll explain, if you give me the chance.”
She looked at him, her chocolate brown eyes as big as saucers, staring back at him with an aching vulnerability of her own. Her bottom lip quivered, and Josh knew in that moment, that the decision he’d made as a mixed up seventeen-year-old boy, whose heart had ached for the red-haired girl he walked to school with, had been the wrong one.
