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Bridgerton Sunday roast was wrapping up, and each of the siblings and their respective spouses were helping Violet pick up, whilst simultaneously trying to dodge dish duty. Anthony said he would, but Kate’s ankles had swollen – she was seven months pregnant after all – and she needed him to rub them on the couch. Benedict and Sophie had promised to help Gregory with his French homework. Colin had promised to help Hyacinth with her solo for the upcoming Christmas musical. Daphne and Simon needed to dash off to relieve the babysitter. And Francesca had promised to Facetime with John before it got too late. Which left Eloise and Penelope.
“Sorry, El, but I’ve got to run! Agatha needs that copy in her mailbox by 11 or we won’t make deadline.” Penelope looked truly sorry she wasn’t able to stick around any later.
Violet looked smug, although she was sorry to see the young woman she considered her fifth – Kate and Sophie came later – daughter leave so early. “That settles it. Eloise, you’re helping me with these dishes! One of your brothers can drop you off later.”
Eloise rolled her eyes lightly, then embraced Penelope. “Drive safe babes. And text me when you get in. Love you!”
“I will. Love you, too.” Penelope returned the embrace, each kissing the other on the cheek. Penelope sang her goodbyes to the rest of the family, earning a lift and a twirl from Colin, then retreated into the night. No one noticed that Colin watched her from the window until he was sure she was safe in her car.
As each of her siblings scattered to the winds, Eloise smiled warmly at Violet, resigned to the fact that she was stuck doing dishes but happy to spend the extra time with her mother.
Or so she thought.
It took approximately twenty seconds before Violet began interrogating her about settling down and getting married.
“I just want to see each of my children happy and settled before I’m not around anymore Eloise. And I don’t want you to think you have to hide anything from me.” Violet’s tone and expression turned suddenly soft, a far cry from the needling and insistent one she’d worn for the past fifteen minutes of lecturing and interrogation.
“What are you talking about mum? I’m not hiding anything!” Eloise replied incredulously.
“I may be more open-minded than you give me credit for dear. And I’ll always love you, you know that.” Violet paused drying a plate to cover one of Eloise’s hands with her own. “And her too.” She smiled warmly at her daughter.
Eloise’s brow furrowed sharply. “What are you on about?” she practically yelled.
“Darling, you two have been together for ages. Don’t you think it’s time you asked her to marry you?”
“WHAT?” The word tore out of Eloise’s throat in utter confusion. She wiped her hands on the towel by the sink and turned to face her mother more fully. “Who in the… PEN?” she spat.
“Yes, darling. We all love Penelope. There’s no reason to keep pretending you’re just friends. We love you for who you are dear.”
Violet reached for Eloise’s hand, but was stopped short when Eloise bent over in a burst of riotous laughter. “You – you think – that I – and Pen - are t – and that we’re – and that I should –”
Eloise was laughing so hard she had to hold her sides for the soreness in her muscles. Violet stood watching, utterly dumbfounded. “You’re… Not..?”
Eloise fought to take a deep breath and steady her voice, though she was still gulping hard to keep from breaking back into the giggles. “No, mama. Pen and I are truly just friends. I mean, if I were into girls. And she was also into girls. Then, yeah. I could see it. But, sorry. I can’t help it. I like dick!” She bent back over, snorting a new round of laughter at the absurdity of the situation.
Her mother truly was the best of parents, and if she was gay, this would have been a touching conversation. Although she felt it would have been entirely unnecessary because she would have trusted her mother to come out ages ago. If she was gay. But the assumption that she and Pen were dating? In secret? To the point that her mother was goading her into popping the question? It was all too much for a Sunday evening!
~~~
Violet scoffed at her fifth eldest, shoving the dish towel she’d been holding into her hands. “Fine! You finish these. I’m going to put my feet up!” Violet huffed as she left the room, a bit embarrassed over how the conversation had gone. She knew she wasn’t the only one in the family who believed the two to have been an item since at least secondary school. She felt bad about leaving her with the last of the dishes, but there weren’t many left, and she just couldn’t continue to face her right now after that massive blunder.
She rounded the corner into the living room, rolling her eyes when she found all three of her eldest sons watching a football match. They each quickly made their excuses. Sophie was better at French than Benedict. Kate’s ankles were already doing better. And Hyacinth kicked Colin out when she realized Kate was free to come chat. All likely stories she thought.
Violet sank down on the couch between Anthony and Benedict – Colin sat across from them in an overstuffed recliner – and let out a deep sigh that caught the attention of all three. When she realized they were staring, she shook her head lightly, looking skyward and laughing softly at herself.
“What is it, mum?” Colin asked first. He always was the most intuitive and sensitive of the lot.
“We all thought it, right?” she asked, forgetting for a moment they weren’t all privy to the conversation she’d just left.
“Thought what, mum?” Anthony asked, growing more concerned than her body language should have allowed.
She sighed again. “That Eloise and Penelope were a couple.” She threw her hands into the air, slouching back into the couch cushions.
Colin took on his eldest brother’s serious expression. “Did they break up?” he implored.
“They were never together!” she half-shrieked in response. “They’re both apparently straight!”
Benedict cackled. “Tell me you did not just make your daughter come out as straight!”
Violet felt like the worst mother in the universe. “I was just trying to be loving and accepting… and I thought that maybe I would give her a little push towards the altar…”
“You did not!” Anthony gasped.
“I did.” she wailed, burying her face in her hands.
Benedict rubbed her back gently, trying not laugh at his mother’s expense. “We all thought it. I mean, they’re always holding hands and telling each other they love them.”
“And Eloise is always going off about how gorgeous Penelope is.” Anthony offered.
Benedict nodded. “Don’t forget the time they went on that couples cruise together a few years back!”
Violet finally lowered her hands, smiling at the memory. It really wasn’t so far fetched for her to have made the assumption. She noticed her third eldest staring at her, wearing a twisted face of confusion. “Colin, dear? You’re closest with Penelope. Did you know?”
Colin continued to stare, his jaw sagging. “Colin?”
Colin’s furrowed brow gave way to a slow shaking of his head, as if trying to clear a fog. “Pen’s… Pen and El aren’t… You’re saying she’s… They’re not…” He rose from his chair as he spoke, until he was standing in middle of the living room, having rendered himself speechless once again.
“I take it he didn’t know.” Benedict teased.
Something about his brother’s barb seemed to have cleared the haze, jolting him back to the present. “I have to go!” he blurted out, turning on his heels and practically running towards the door.
~~~
Colin made it to his sister’s apartment in record time. Penelope had been his best friend – even if he was her second best friend – for over a decade. Since they were kids. But she was always Eloise’s, not his.
He’d considered himself a good ally for not dwelling on his feelings for her. For never wishing she was straight. For never telling her how much he wanted her to choose him, not his sister. It had always seemed like there was something more between him and Penelope, but he’d known better than to push the issue. Or at least, he thought he did.
Colin found parking, paid the meter, and sprinted to her building. He took the stairs two at a time until he was outside the apartment door. Allowing himself a moment to catch his breath first, he rapped his knuckles and waited.
Just as he was getting antsy, starting to consider knocking a second time, the door opened, revealing a bright smile and shining copper spirals. “Colin?” she asked. “Did I forget something?”
“Pen, I –” he thought better of declaring himself right there in the hallway. “May I come in?”
Penelope cocked her head to the side, searching behind him for a non-existent Eloise he was sure, but then stepped aside to allow his entry.
Colin entered the apartment, pacing a few times before taking a seat on the couch, noticing a rather disturbed and confused Penelope staring back at him. He hadn’t rehearsed what he was going to say on the way over, his mind singularly focused on getting here as quickly as possible. He was shooting from the hip, and he was nervous. This may be the most important conversation he would ever have, and he was definitely feeling the pressure.
“Pen. Something happened tonight, and I need to talk to you about it.” he started, his tone deeply serious and filled with anxiety.
Penelope’s eyes flew wide as she came to sit in the chair opposite the couch. “Oh my god – is it El? What’s happened? Is she going to be okay?”
Colin hadn’t realized what this must look like. “No! Everything’s fine! El’s fine. She was still doing dishes when I left.”
Penelope relaxed, letting out a deep sigh and leaning back into her chair for a moment before sitting up again. Looking even more confused than ever she asked, “Then what could it be? What brought you all the way here?”
Colin wrung his hands together. You. he thought. “So, this is going to get a little weird for a bit, and just know that I’m sorry, but you deserve the whole explanation.”
“Okay…”
“So, my mum apparently encouraged El to propose to you while they were doing dishes.”
Penelope’s initial reaction wasn’t quite what he’d expected. “Yeah, El texted me about that.” She shrugged, seemingly unaffected by the news.
“We all thought that you and El were a couple.”
“Yeah, I gathered as much.”
“Pen, I thought you were a couple.”
“You are a part of ‘we’ – are you not?”
“It’s just that… I’ve always assumed you were… Unavailable.”
That gave Penelope pause. She looked up from her lap, meeting his eyes. Before she could reply, he continued.
“You never talked about guys. You never dated anyone. You only ever wanted to hang out with El. Or m… Pen, I’m here because. Well, I wanted to tell you. We’ve been best friends since we were kids. But you’ve always been so much more than that to me. I care about you. I always want to be around you. I can’t wait to hear your take whenever something new happens. I love your stories. But I could sit and just watch you smile for hours too. Or scowl. As long as I’m with you. Because, Pen? I love you.”
Penelope’s jaw hit the floor. She sat there, staring back at him, speechless.
“Pen? Say something.”
Finally, the expression on Penelope’s face changed into one of bemused mirth. “Do you know what they say happens when you assume?”
Colin didn’t know what to make out of her cryptic answer, and instead waited for her to go on.
“It makes an ass out of ‘u’ and ‘me’.” Penelope’s cheeky grin gave way, and Colin felt in his bones that everything was going to be okay. “I love you, too. I’ve loved you for years.”
That was all Colin needed to hear. Every smile. Every laugh. Every fleeting touch that he’d wished meant more. It all did. She hadn’t shown interest in other men because she was only interested in him. She’d shone like he was the center of her universe because he was. She’d acted like she loved him because she did.
“Why didn’t you ever say anything, Pen? I had no idea.”
“Because you’re… you, and I’m me. I never thought that someone like you could want…” She trailed off, gesturing generally to herself.
“Someone so beautiful? Brilliant? Witty? Kind? Sweet? Lovely? Drop dead gorgeous?” Colin tried his best to fill in the blank.
Penelope giggled at his enthusiastic responses, which only turned Colin more serious. “You’re everything, Pen. I want you. You have to know how badly I’ve wanted you. And if you don’t, I’ll tell you. And I’ll keep telling you until you finally believe it. I love you.”
Colin stepped closer, taking her hands in his, pulling her close.
And when her lips crashed into his, he knew he was home.