Chapter 25 Lovesick Gremlin #2
“I was an innovator.” Penn laughs. “And I’ve actually been looking around for my old business brainstorming notebook. There were some real gems in there.”
I raise my eyebrow, making sure he knows I’m teasing. Then I nod toward the store. “Let’s go inside. I’ve been thinking about getting a pet. Some fish, maybe.” He stares back, his lips pressed together. “Fish count as pets, okay?”
“You are not a pet person.”
“Penn, that’s like saying I have no heart.” He doesn’t disagree. “Come on,” I say, taking the excuse to grab his wrist, delighting in how his gaze drops to my hand as I drag him toward the door. “It’ll be good for me, taking care of something that isn’t my adult brother.”
His eyebrows lift. “Wow. How healthy of you. That’s growth.”
“Thank you,” I chirp, swinging open the door. “I’m trying.”
As I hoped, Katie stands behind the counter, wearing that same blue apron. This time, I have the wherewithal not to blurt out her name, since I’m not supposed to know her.
Except she looks at me like she’s trying to place me. Briefly, she clocks Penn, whose eyes have become saucers, and then she faces me again, her stare so intent, I wonder if she recognizes me. Maybe the veil between worlds is thinner than I thought.
Maybe this was a mistake.
“Well, hello,” Katie trills. She gives me another look before she fixes Penn with a smile. “So. She was my competition, huh?”
Penn eyes me sideways and starts to blush.
My stomach drops into my toes.
When I woke up in Penn’s bed and overheard him talking about Katie, I assumed it was this Katie. I hoped that maybe he’d connected with her about Earl, and that today I could convince him to hire her.
But they obviously have a history, and I’ve just planted myself in the middle of a messy situation. This is what I get for acting like I’m three steps ahead.
“No,” I stammer, gesturing between Penn and me. “We’re not…”
Katie’s brow arches. “You don’t work for him?”
I turn to Penn, confused.
“This is Ruby,” Penn tells Katie. “And no, she doesn’t work for me. She’s just doing me a few friendly favors.”
Friendly. A quick twist of a dull knife.
Katie laughs and brings a hand to her face, embarrassed.
“Sorry. You’ve had me worried about my résumé for weeks.
” To me, she explains, “I gave Penn my information more than a month ago, and when he finally responded, he said he already has plenty of help, but I thought he was just letting me down easy.”
Interesting, because I’ve told Penn for weeks that he needs to line up another hire. And yet he’s kept PennPals for just us.
I face him, awaiting an explanation, and he goes crimson.
Clearing his throat, he tells Katie, “Ruby here would like some emotional support fish. Could you please point us to the aquatic section?”
—
I’m taking the four-o’clock train back to the city, and Penn waits with me outside the station. We sit on a bench facing the train tracks, the brick rooftops of downtown Lakeville poking out above the trees in front of us.
“Katie seems nice,” I tell him.
His face is close as he slants me a look. “Very nice,” he agrees.
“Do you think you’ll hire her?”
He rubs his hand down his thigh, and I have to tuck my hands beneath my legs to keep from grabbing it. “I don’t know.” He shrugs. “Maybe.”
“Do you think you’ll…date her?”
Penn’s quiet, so I sneak a look at him. He’s smirking. He’s onto me. Catching my eye, he says, “No. You were right before. I like brunettes.”
I tuck that tiny victory into my chest for safekeeping.
I hope I’m not blushing.
“I must say,” Penn continues, “I didn’t know there were so many types of fish. Or that you planned to buy seven of them.”
Technically, I put the fish on hold, telling Katie I’d pick them up after I move into my new place. “Fish need friends, too,” I insist.
Penn snorts. “One time in a pet store, and she’s concerned with the socialization of marine life.”
“Very,” I say with a solemn nod.
A smile lingers on his face. “You know those fish will die in, like, a day.”
“Hopefully not all at once.”
“Damn,” he says. “Bleak.”
“Maybe I should’ve gotten thirteen, just to be sure,” I consider aloud. “Like in that old MASH game that Bridget pulled out on my birthday.”
It feels bold, almost illicit, to bring it up. Like I might crack the universe in two.
“Will you tie-dye your Nissan, too?” Penn asks. “Whip out those old roller skates?”
I adore him.
“Definitely. I’ll need a charm full of colorful beads hanging from my rearview mirror, too,” I joke. “And, of course, two pools.”
Penn nods. “Of course.” He waits a beat, then adds, “You’d need me, too.”
I stare back at him, and my chest fills up like a balloon, making me almost dizzy with delight. The signs are all there: eye contact plus teasing. He’s flirting with me, openly.
I want to push past the subtext, say what I’m thinking, but Penn’s already rejected me once—the recoil that lives rent-free in my brain—and these days, it’s my real heart on the line.
So, instead, I face forward and joke, “Like you could ever put up with me.”
“True,” he says. “Your stance on condiments presents a real problem.”
“One of many,” I agree. Then I shift gears, tiptoeing toward the truth. “I can just picture it. You and me, having to share the same air for more than an hour.”
“Miserable.”
“You, wearing your dumb gray sweatpants—”
“What?”
“Me, in my purple lace nightie.”
“Oh, is that your sleepwear of choice?” He laughs like it’s a joke, but when I turn, the loaded look in his eyes tells me he’s having just as much fun as I am imagining it.
I arch an eyebrow, letting Penn’s imagination do the work. “There we are, bickering over a trip to Costco. Fighting over cans of SpaghettiOs while you eat grapes in the aisle like some kind of criminal.”
“Why would we ever argue about a trip to Costco?”
“Because it’s hell.”
“Excuse me?”
“Don’t get me started,” I warn him. “It won’t end well.”
Penn laughs. Softly, he says, “You’ve thought about this before. Me and you.”
I nudge my arm against his. Sliding him a look, I tease, “Haven’t you?”
“Of course,” he says without hesitation, and my heart stammers.
We both look at our hands lying inches apart, and when his fingers drift toward mine, our knuckles barely grazing, I can’t move, feeling like somewhere between ten and one hundred thousand bees are buzzing around my body. I’m worried they’ll sting if I say the wrong thing or shift too quickly.
Penn registers my shock and smirks, his tongue pressed to his teeth as he moves his arm to his thigh, gripping the spot above his knee. “I’ll take that obvious dodge as my confirmation.”
“Confirmation of what?” I ask, breathy and obvious.
He looks at me. “You. Pining. All along.”
Wynne Diesel
Dad: planning out our trips for next year where should we go
Ryan: Does this mean you’re finally taking us with you?
Dad: no
Ryan: Yep, figured. Just checking.
Mom: I voted for Paris, but your father wants someplace new.
Ruby: Go to Alaska!
Ryan: Ruby, was your phone hacked?
Dad: ooh that’s a thought
Ruby: I have a feeling you guys would love it.
Ryan: Yeah, right. Dad hates the snow.
Ruby: But he’d love an excuse to wear a fur hat.
Ryan: Touché.