Chapter Text
April 9, Friday, 3:47 pm: Pick up @ Gare du Nord Station
Penelope Featherington blindly reached for the buzzing cellphone on her bedside table.
“Hello?” she mumbled groggily.
“Were you asleep?!”
Penelope glanced at her watch. 3:55 pm!
“Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit." Suddenly wide awake, Penelope bolted out of bed. She put Eloise on speaker. "Sorry, El, I dozed off! Thought I'd give the apartment a quick clean but fell asleep right after. I'm on my way though...." Penelope attempted to put on her jacket and sneakers simultaneously. If she managed to catch the next RER B, it would take her to the Gare du Nord train station in 8 minutes which - okay, she would still be late, but not unforgiveably so.
“Pen, please don’t kill me,” her best friend said instead, letting out a weak cough.
“El? Wait, you sound awful!”
“Well, I feel awful! Yesterday I came down with what I thought was just a 24-hour bug so I took a couple of paracetamol and slept early. But today I woke up feeling even worse than before.”
“Oh no,” Penelope stopped short, instantly feeling sorry for her best friend. “Is there anything I can do?”
“From Paris? Hardly,” Eloise croaked out. “Mum’s arriving at any moment and she is staying with me all weekend, if necessary, to nurse me back to health.”
“That’s a relief! If anyone can help you feel better, it’s Violet,” Penelope assured her, less anxious after knowing that the Bridgerton matriarch would be taking care of Eloise. It was the only part about relocating to Paris that Penelope hated, being so far away from her best friend, especially in times like this.
“But I’m going to miss our Girly Weekend,” Eloise whined.
Penelope almost forgot about that in her worry over her best friend.
When Penelope had decided to move to Paris a little over a year ago, she and Eloise resolved to make up for the inevitable loss of quantity of time spent together with quality. They had taken to plotting elaborate weekends together whenever a bank holiday weekend came up, alternating between London or Paris. Eloise had christened the first weekend Penelope and Eloise's Girly Weekend and the name stuck. This particular Girly Weekend was supposed to be extra special as it was the weekend of Penelope's 28th birthday.
“Don’t be silly!” Penelope said dismissively. “Your health is more important obviously. There will be other weekends.”
“You’ve made reservations and bought tickets and everything,” Eloise sounded guilty.
“Nothing that a quick phone call can’t fix,” Penelope said, her mind already going over their itinerary. Surely some of the tickets and reservations can be refunded or moved?
“I’m going to make it up to you,” Eloise promised.
Before Penelope could protest that there was no need for that, she heard an insistent loud banging on her door. Grabbing her cell phone, she padded over to her apartment door and flung it open.
Standing outside her door, a duffle bag hanging off one arm and an extra-long baguette clutched in the other, was a grinning Colin Bridgerton.
“Colin? What are you doing here?” Penelope's jaw dropped in shock.
Wordlessly, Colin reached inside his jacket pocket. He pulled out a folded piece of paper and waved it in front of Penelope's face.
She grabbed it from his hand and unfolded it. To her horror, she realized that it was the printed itinerary for Penelope and Eloise's Girly Weekend, except that Colin had crossed out Eloise's name and replaced it with his own in big blocky letters.
"Oh no, she didn't," Penelope said with dread.
“Surprise!” Eloise’s voice wafted from the cellphone.
*****
Colin Bridgerton tried his best to smother his laughter. He was going for complete nonchalance but Penelope's shocked expression - cornflower blue eyes round as saucers and full lips forming the perfect O - was making it hard for him to stay in character.
"I come bearing gifts from the Bridgertons."
"Oh? Where?"
"You're looking at it," Colin smirked.
Penelope squinted up at him. "Hmm. They ran out of Sephora gift cards?"
"Damn, Pen! You cut me deep," Colin clutched his chest in mock pain.
Green eyes met blue ones.
"Penelope."
"Colin."
Suddenly, they burst out laughing.
"What? No hug?" Colin teased.
Smiling shyly, Penelope stepped into his outstretched arms. Colin pulled her close and buried his nose in her hair, "Hmm, you always smell good."
"Pen? Hello?" They could both hear Eloise's frantic voice calling out from the cellphone. Penelope stepped aside, waving Colin into her apartment, and brought the cellphone back to her ear to resume talking to his sister.
Colin strode over to the kitchen to deposit his precious baguette and duffel bag on top of the kitchen table. Then he proceeded to check out Penelope's apartment.
To say that Colin was wildly curious about his friend's new life was an understatement. When he first heard from Eloise that Penelope had accepted an offer to work in Paris, no one had been more surprised than Colin. He was accustomed to being the one doing the leaving. Penelope Featherington, on the other hand, was just always...there. Sweet and smart, the ever dependable Penelope. One of his constants, same as his family. He had to admit he worried about her when she first moved away. She didn't have any family or friends in Paris. She didn't even know how to speak French! But from the look of things, Penelope seemed to be doing well for herself.
He wandered over to her overflowing bookcase and picked up a framed photograph of her with his family at one of their infamous Bridgerton dinners and Colin had to smile. Whatever apprehension he may have felt about how the weekend would go faded away. She was still their little Penelope and he couldn't wait to get reacquainted with her.
He looked up when he heard Penelope clear her throat.
Penelope stood, arms crossed, "So what did you do?"
"Pardon?"
"You must owe Eloise big-time for you to agree to come here in her place," Penelope said knowingly. "El said rather cryptically and I quote 'a favor was owed', all Godfather-like."
Colin snickered at the idea of his sister as a stereotypical mob boss because he could totally see it.
"That's crazy talk, Pen. I wanted to come, no arm-twisting required," he crossed his heart. "Besides, I really do come bearing gifts from the family. And I'm not about to let you spend your birthday weekend all alone, am I?"
"That's really sweet of you, Col, but - "
"Come to think of it, I'm a bit peeved at you. How come you guys never invited me to these weekends?"
"Manipedis, shopping, trawling through bookstores, champagne brunch? It's not exactly your scene, Mr. 'Colin To The Extreme'," Penelope explained a bit defensively, referring to his popular Youtube travel adventure channel. "You're used to traveling in some manner of style. And while my weekend plans are delightful, if I do say so myself, there is nothing extreme about them."
"Did you just 'air quotes' me, Pen?" Colin asked, pretending to look offended. "And also, I'm a man of the world. I've had manipedis before."
Penelope sent him a skeptical look.
“Will you relax?” Colin grabbed both Penelope's small hands in his. He looked deeply into her eyes and said soothingly, "I’m really looking forward to seeing Paris through your eyes."
Finally, Colin saw the anxiety in her eyes ease somewhat.
"Fine," she sighed. "You mind sleeping on the couch?"
"Is that where El was supposed to sleep?" Colin murmured, glancing over at the couch in question.
"Well, no. El sleeps beside me when she stays over..."
He wiggled his eyebrows at her suggestively.
Penelope scoffed, "It's not YOUR birthday. You get the couch, mister."
"Have it your way," Colin grumbled. "But never let it be said that Colin Bridgerton wasn't fully committed to subbing for his sister in every capacity, even for those late night pillow fights and tickle wars."
"Thank you for your service," Penelope rolled her eyes.
But Colin didn't miss the corners of her lips tugging up into a smile.
He's missed this. He's missed their banter. He's missed her mind.
"Ok then," he said, throwing an arm over her shoulders companionably. "Let Penelope and Colin's Girly Weekend begin!"