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Colin was about to vom. Why did he think this was a good idea?! Oh that's right, his pushy brothers. At least they offered to help. At least they were by his side.
As the quietest Bridgerton, he struggled with being seen. His wallflower status was well fitting and engrained. There was only one thing on Earth that could ever motivate him to overcome such a monumental fear of people, really just one person . . . Penelope Featherington. Pen *sigh*. Pen, his sister Eloise's best friend. His best friend.
She lit up his whole world with her beautiful sea-blue eyes, her smiles, her everything. He’d been in love since the moment he accidentally crashed into her running around a corner at the age of 16 and instead of crying she giggled and said “well that wasn’t very well done of me, was it?”. She hadn’t chided or berated him for his clumsiness.
The difficult part of the equation was that he had never told her of his love. He didn’t even know if she felt the same way, but after almost a decade of loving her in secret, he was ready to put his heart on the line, in the most outrageous way possible.
Tonight the Bridgertons were throwing a joint birthday/university graduation party for Penelope. She’d been an honorary Bridgerton for most of her life and with the rest of the Featheringtons moving to Ireland, the joy of celebration was happily taken on the shoulders of Violet and company.
The local pub had been rented out for the occasion. Daphne and Kate had worked together to get it catered and decorated in a palette of greens, Pen’s favorite color. Colin’s only request was that there be a stage when it came to the venue.
“Colin? They’re about to deliver out the cake. Are you ready to do this?” Ben says while pulling him out of his trip down memory lane.
A gulp and a head nod confirms his intentions. Benedict hands him the microphone as he takes the stage.
Colin looks out at the crowd of friends and family, scanning for the lady of the day, and immediately finds her incomparable red hair, their eyes meet.
Clearing his throat and bringing the microphone to his lips “Excuse me.” The microphone squeaks and he pulls away blushing. Penelope smiles and nods encouragingly.
“Hi, I’m Colin. As you all know we’re here to celebrate Penelope and instead of getting her a gift, I decided (with some prodding from my brothers) to do something outside my comfort zone. Penelope, you are my best friend. Everyday that you are in my life, it is better for it. But there is something I’ve been keeping from you for a very long time. Something that I thought I could share in the form of a song, since words always seem to escape me when we’re together. Brothers?”
Anthony, Greg, and Benedict join Colin on stage as the first chords of “Cake by the Ocean” by DNCE start to play. Taking a deep breath he lets his inner boy band member fly.
He makes his way to Penelope and sings
“You're a real-life fantasy, you're a real-life fantasy
But you're moving so carefully, let's start living dangerously”
He takes her hand in his mic-less one.
“You should be rolling with me, you should be rolling with me, ah”
He continues to sing and twirls her into his arms.
“You're fucking delicious
Talk to me, girl”
As the final notes play Colin leans in to whisper in Pen’s ear, “May I kiss you?”
She nods and their lips meet in a sweet, long-over due kiss. The crowd roars! The remaining Bridgertons yell some form of “finally”.
They pull back smiling.
“I can't believe you sang for me.”
“I’d do anything for you.” As he ghosts his lips over her cheek.
“Interesting choice in song.” Penelope chuckles.
“Well, I had to get your attention and share my intention. I’d like to share some cake with you . . . and my life . . . I mean romantically, if that wasn’t obvious.” Colin stumbles out.
“I would hope that’s what you were going for with that performance, because I want to know more about how those hips move.”
Colin leans in to kiss her again as Eloise shouts “Come on! That’s enough! Gross!”