Chapter 28
Matt
“What do you think?” I ask Penny as we walk toward my mom’s building. “Are they ready?”
It’s officially one week until Christmas, and we just had our final rehearsal for the kids’ holiday show.
“Hell yeah, they are! Those kids are going to kill it on Sunday!” She pauses. “Wait. They’re gonna slay it. That’s their favorite word these days, right?”
“One of them. That and skibidi.”
“Ooh, I don’t like that one.” Her nose scrunches.
I laugh. “No one likes that one. No one over the age of ten, that is.”
“Seriously, Matt.” She interlaces her fingers with mine. “The run-through was awesome. It’s funny, it’s sweet. It’s weird as hell… It’s very you.”
“It’s us,” I correct and kiss her softly on the lips.
She smiles and deepens the kiss, pulling me off to the side so we don’t piss off any more pedestrians.
I think I can safely say the past three days have been the best three days of my life.
We’ve spent the past three nights together, alternating between her apartment and mine.
During the days, whenever I haven’t been teaching or coaching, I’ve popped into Herald’s to see her so we can make out in the storage closets.
I’m thinking about this woman nonstop. I’m operating on barely any sleep, but I’ve never felt more alive.
Now here we are, kissing and cozying up to each other on the street. Like a real couple.
Are we a couple?
I know I want us to be.
“Can I say something?” I ask when she breaks the kiss and smiles up at me.
I hear the nervousness in my voice, so I know she must too.
“Of course,” she says. “What’s up?”
Tell her you love her.
Tell her you want to be with her.
For real.
And maybe forever.
“Vibe check, bruh. On a scale of one to ten, ten being fire and one being taking an L, how much would you say the salty peach dance slaps?”
Or… say something ridiculous like that.
Come on, Barbera.
Get it together.
Unsurprisingly, I do not get it together. I keep on babbling in cool fifth grader speak.
“Personally, I think it’s bussin,’ and it’s all thanks to our snack of a choreographer. I mean, that lady understood the assignment! Do you know her? She’s high-key chill. Penny is her name, I think?”
“Oh yeahhhh,” she jokes. “I’ve heard of her. She’s super attractive, right?”
“Bet.” I beckon her closer and lower my voice. “TBH, I’m boutta crash out right now.”
“Really? Why?”
I wrap my arms around her waist and bend my knees so our foreheads touch. I breathe in the scent of her shampoo.
“Because this Penny girl is living rent-free in my head. We’ve had a few really special nights together this week. Now I’m shook trying to get a sense of her POV on the situation.”
“You’re shook, huh?”
“No cap, lady. You have me totally shook.”
She giggles, but then her expression turns more serious, possibly mirroring whatever is happening on my face.
We lock eyes.
“All joking aside, Penny…” I brush a hair out of her face. “It’s safe to say that I am officially out of my mind in love with you.”
Her jaw drops slightly, but she doesn’t say anything, so I continue.
“I want to be with you. For real. Preferably forever, but– Shit! I shouldn’t have said it that way. I don’t want to freak you out, and—”
“Shhh. Matt,” she says. “You’re not freaking me out.”
“No?” I say hopefully.
She shakes her head sweetly. “No.”
I don’t want to pressure her, but something tells me if I don’t keep gently pressing forward, we might never make it to the finish line.
I clear my throat. “So. Um. Is it crazy to think that maybe you could maybe, possibly feel the same way about me?”
She takes a deep breath and lets it out. “Matt, I—”
“Hold that thought.”
I put a hand up as my eyes catch on a couple breezing past us and down the street.
They’re holding hands.
He leans over and kisses her neck while they walk.
She laughs and places a hand on his ass.
That woman looks very familiar.
He, however, does not.
What. The. Fuck.
“Matt?” Penny whips around to see what I’m staring at, but they’ve disappeared inside a bodega. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m not sure,” I say. “Maybe nothing, but– Hey, are you hungry?”
“No,” she says, stretching out the word. “We just had lunch.”
“Yeah, well, I’m hungry. Can we stop inside that bodega for a granola bar or something?”
I don’t wait for her response. I just grab her hand and make a beeline for the small store.
Penny’s feet hustle to keep up with me. “You’re being weird. What just happened? We were in the middle of a pretty important conversation, weren’t we?”
“Yeah. We were.” My words are stilted as we reach the door. “And we’ll return to it. I just need to check something.”
I fling open the door of the bodega.
And there they are.
Right in the middle of the store.
Elinor and a man who is definitely not my best friend are making out in the candy aisle like they don’t have a care in the world.
“Elinor?” I say loudly enough for the whole store to hear.
She pulls back from the guy she’s kissing and turns to me.
In general, I try not to look directly at Eugene’s fiancée—I treat her like a solar eclipse of sorts—but that is one hundred percent her. And she is one hundred percent screwed.
“Matt! Hi!” she squeaks.
“Yeah,” I practically growl. “Hi.”
“This, um, this is not what it looks like,” she says.
“Oh, good!” I say in a faux cheery tone. “Because it looks like you had your tongue down some other guy’s throat when you’re set to marry my best friend in two weeks.”
“How about you calm down?” the dude huffs, which was the absolute wrong thing to say to me right now.
“How about you get the fuck out of here before I—”
“Before you what?”
The dude gets all up in my face.
Another mistake.
As I go to shove him away from me, Penny steps between us and shouts, “Matt? Tagg? Stop.”
“Tagg?” I say. “What do you mean Tagg?”
“That’s his name.” Penny gestures to the guy standing in front of me, who’s wearing a tailored suit that probably costs more than I make all year. “His name is Tagg.”
“And you know this how?” I ask.
“He’s Keira’s husband,” she says matter-of-factly, then backtracks. “Ex-husband? Estranged husband. Yeah, he’s her estranged husband.”
“Okay…” I say, trying to understand what the hell is happening here. “Is there a reason you don’t seem surprised to see this piece of shit all over my best friend’s fiancée in a tiny bodega on a Wednesday afternoon?”
Penny takes a deep breath, lets it out, then looks deeply in my eyes.
“Because I already knew.”