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“Excuse me, can I ask you guys something?”
Penelope looks at the source of the question, a man in his mid twenties with a camera that points directly towards her and Colin. She frowns slightly, unclear on why there is someone filming them in the middle of the street and mildly annoyed about being interrupted when Colin was recounting an embarrassing story about Eloise that she was certainly going to enjoy.
She has half a mind of ignoring the man completely, but Colin –people pleaser that he is– answers before she can say anything. “Sure.”
“Are you two a couple?” The man asks and Penelope feels the colour drain from her face.
She supposes she must definitely look like she’s in love with Colin –because she is in love with him– and it must be so obvious that now, a stranger on the street is asking about it. A tiny part of her revels in the fact that someone has looked at them together and thought they could be a couple. A bigger part, the one that’s in charge of all her rational thoughts, knows that it’s only because she was looking at Colin and giggling as she grabbed his arm like her life depended on it. “Oh, no,” she says as she pulls her hand away from the crook of Colin’s arm where it had been.
“No, no,” Colin confirms.
“How do you know each other?” The guy asks next.
“We grew up together, actually. She’s my best friend.”
“You’re just friends then?” He insists.
He looks nice enough, but Penelope is getting tired of the impromptu interview. She’s painfully aware of her relationship status with Colin, has been since she was around 16 and her childhood crush became so much more than a simple infatuation. She doesn’t need a stranger reminding her that Colin will never want to change it. “Yes,” she answers with determination, hoping he’ll leave them alone.
“Okay. Sorry to bother you. Have a great day,” the guy finally says and moves to take the camera from the tripod where it’s placed.
“Wait, why did you ask?” Penelope would groan if she didn’t think the camera might still be recording them. She should have known Colin wouldn’t be capable of letting a mystery go unsolved.
“I run a Tik Tok and Instagram account: londonmeetcutes,” he says as he takes out his phone and taps on the screen to show them. “I interview couples on how they met and their relationship.” Colin takes the offered phone and scrolls a little, showing the screen to Penelope so she can see too. She’s seen similar profiles and their stories are cute, but sadly, theirs doesn’t belong in there. “I’m Kevin, sorry for not introducing myself sooner. I usually start recording first so the reactions are more genuine.”
Colin returns the phone to Kevin and then turns to Penelope, sporting that disarming smile that she has never been able to resist despite the amount of years that have passed since she saw it for the first time. “We did have a meet-cute, though,” he tells Kevin, still looking at Penelope and this time she does groan.
“Oh, God…”
Kevin squints as he looks at them. When his eyes land on her, Penelope is sure he’s reading her like an open book. The girl with the unattainable crush , it’s probably titled. “Do you mind if I record this?” he asks and Colin eagerly shakes his head, smiling widely.
“Not at all, I love this story.”
Despite how uncomfortable she feels, Penelope can’t help but smile too. Colin’s enthusiasm is contagious. It’s one of the things she loves the most about him, and she can’t really help but feel her heart speeding up a little seeing how excited Colin is to talk about how they met. She can neither fault Colin for not feeling the same, nor regret the form their relationship has taken over the years. His friendship is vital to her, and she knows it’s important to him too. And, honestly, that’s just another thing she loves about him. “He really does, I don’t get it.”
“Pen and her family had just moved to the house beside ours and our backyards were connected, separated by a fence. She was playing with a frisbee when she threw it and landed on a tree in our backyard, and it was my luck that I had just climbed that tree to retrieve a football–”
“–God,” she covers her face in embarrassment.
“She hit me square on the forehead and I fell from the tree,” he finishes, laughing.
“I was terrified so I just ran to his backyard to see if he was okay, and if you can believe it, he was laughing. Just like he is doing now.” Penelope adds.
Colin puts an arm around her shoulders and looks at her with a fondness that the story doesn’t justify. Penelope melts. “Once she saw I was okay, she started laughing too, only it was directed at me.”
“I didn’t laugh at you! It was a nervous laughter!” She protests.
“You laughed at me a little,” Colin insists, making her roll her eyes. For a moment, she looks up at him and she’s a kid again, feeling her stomach swirl with a feeling unknown to 7-year-old-Penelope when confronted by Colin Bridgerton’s smile.
“How long ago was this?” Kevin asks.
Since they’re talking about such a nice memory, Penelope feels more inclined to participate in the conversation. “18 years. I was 7, he was 10,” she says.
“And you’ve been friends since?”
“Yes. I went to school with his sister, so I used to go to their house a lot.”
Penelope knows her feelings must be perfectly showcased on her face, because the interviewer is looking at her as if he doesn’t believe friendship is all she feels for Colin. For a moment, she wishes Colin’s arm wasn't still wrapped around her, that she could act more nonchalant about the whole situation and stop displaying her love inadvertently. “18 years in, what is your favourite thing about her?” he asks Colin.
“She’s just a ball of warmth,” Colin replies easily and Penelope feels herself flush. “She’s funny and clever, the smartest person I know. I could listen to her talking for hours. I’m just comfortable when she’s around. She’s– the best,” he finishes, softer, looking directly at her.
Penelope swallows around the lump that has suddenly formed on her throat. Those are the things Colin does: putting his arms around her, smiling as if he means it, talking about her as if she’s important. He has always been affectionate with her, she knows he cares for her. But it’s something else to hear the words coming so easily from his lips when he says them for the whole world to see. If the interview is ever published, surely no one will blame her for being so obviously smitten.
“And what’s your favourite thing about him?”
“Well, obviously he’s very kind, as you’ve seen,” her answer comes as easily as Colin’s did. “Right from the beginning, his kindness has always been what I love the most about him. And he’s a very good person, he makes me feel… safe.”
Kevin studies her, probably aware that she just said the word love, looking thoughtful for a moment before fixing his gaze on Colin again. “What do you look for in a partner?”
“Oh, um…” the question seems to take him by surprise. He drops his arm from Penelope’s shoulders and rubs his hands together, then crosses his arms around his chest, then scratches his chin. All telltale signs that he’s nervous. “I think just being seen for who I am. Being understood.”
“And you?”
“Same, actually. Acceptance, companionship. Laughter too.”
Kevin nods. “Okay, maybe this is prying too much and I'll absolutely cut it out of the video if you want, but– have you ever considered dating each other?”
Fuck.
Colin briefly glances at her, she just looks at the ground. “Um–”
“Forget I asked,” Kevin breaks the obviously uncomfortable moment, “I’ll cut that part out. What are your names?”
“Colin and Penelope,” he says.
“Okay, great. Thanks so much. I’m going to give you my card, anything you want to say, anything you want to ask for, you can contact me there. If you give me your contact information, I’ll send you guys the video before posting it.”
“Thank you,” Colin reaches out to take Kevin’s card and proceeds to give him his phone number and Instagram handle.
Once he’s gone, they keep walking towards their original destination, but a silence settles over them and it’s not comfortable, as it usually is. There’s a tension behind it. The plan for today was to run some errands and get coffee, maybe even dinner depending on how late they finished their shopping. They’ve done similar things hundreds of times, but now, under the shadow of a very personal questioning, it feels weird. Penelope desperately wants to return to normalcy, so she sticks to their plans, “I want to go to that record store,” she points and Colin just nods and follows her.
–
“Have you ever considered it?” Colin asks later.
The awkwardness from the interview thankfully didn’t last long, and they’re now sitting at a little cafe, enjoying the second part of their plan. Penelope hasn’t spent an embarrassing number of years pinning after one of her best friends without her fair share of awkward moments, so she’s a pro in the art of deflection. She just teased Colin mercilessly for a while and before they knew it, they were back to joking as usual. But now…
“Consider what?” she asks, slightly confused by how serious Colin looks all of the sudden.
“Dating me.”
Again: fuck.
“Colin… I think it’s best if we just move past this,” she tries.
“That’s not an answer.”
It’s a slippery slope, Penelope knows. On the one hand, she’s terrified of how the conversation might turn. On the other, she really wants to know why he seems so keen on knowing the answer. “Why do you care?”
“I– I don’t know,” he says, vanishing the tiny flicker of hope that had sparked with his first question. “I guess I had never thought about it and after he asked… well, I’m wondering why.”
“Because we’re friends, that’s why.”
“Yes, but–”
“But what?” Penelope can’t help it, the flicker becomes a spark.
“Mum always says that friendship is the best base for a relationship. It’s how she fell in love with dad, and– I don’t know. You and I get along great, maybe it’s not such a crazy idea.”
Fuck, fuck. Fuck.
Never in a million years would Penelope have imagined herself trying to convince Colin what a bad idea it would be to date her. But she knows that’s what she needs to do: extinguish the spark before it becomes a flame and burns down everything she’s fought so hard to keep intact since they met.
“Friendship might be a good base for a relationship, but there has to be something more,” she answers cautiously. “Attraction, for starters.”
“And you don’t–?”
Penelope scoffs. “Colin, that’s not–”
“You dropped my arm as if you’d been burned the moment he asked about us being a couple, Pen. I noticed,” he says, and he actually sounds hurt. “And it’s okay, obviously, but–”
She swallows, her mouth is suddenly very dry. “Colin, what are you doing?” She interrupts, her voice barely louder than a whisper. He looks down.
Penelope doesn’t know what is happening but the spark is now definitely a flame. There was a time when she thought she was going to confess her feelings. She prepared a speech, she chose the right moment to say it. She started talking about it when he gave her the perfect opening when he told her he’d been a fool about a failed relationship. And then, he interrupted her to say he was leaving to backpack through Europe for three months.
Her hopes felt crushed then, and she didn’t see the point in confessing something that would clearly get her nowhere. As the years passed and her feelings stayed the same, she never fully discarded the idea of one day letting go of her fear and telling him everything. Just– liberate herself from the weight she’s been carrying. If one thing is sure, is that she’ll never truly know if she doesn’t try. So she takes a deep breath and finally lets go. “It’s not about me, Colin. I’ve had feelings for you for as long as I can remember–”
His head shoots up, and he looks at her with wide eyes. “Really?” She shrugs her shoulders, feeling too vulnerable to repeat herself. “Pen, I didn’t know. I swear I didn’t know.”
She swallows and forces a smile, “it’s okay. It’s not like it would have changed anything.”
Colin doesn’t reply but his gaze is unwavering and something flickers in his eyes. After what feels like an hour of uninterrupted eye contact, he stands up and moves to sit beside her on the booth. The first thing he does is turn to face her and take her hand in his. For a gesture they’ve shared thousands of times, it suddenly feels different, Penelope can’t understand why until he delicately runs his thumb over her knuckles before intertwining their fingers. It feels different because it is different: there’s intention behind it.
There’s also a fucking wildfire raging through Penelope’s body and soul, and not a drop of water in sight.
Her heart starts beating wildly in her chest, she can feel her breath quickening. Surely the way he’s looking at her, how he’s holding her hand, the fact that he got closer… it all has to mean something, right?”
“Pen,” he starts, voice gravelly. “Do you want to get dinner later?”
What the hell?
Penelope knows how high up in Colin’s scale of priorities food is, but still… “what?”
“As a date,” he clarifies, sensing her confusion. “I want to go on a date with you.”
“Are you sure?” She asks, hating how vulnerable she sounds. He lifts her hand and carefully kisses its back, then he turns it, and kisses the inside of her wrist. Like a cliché, Penelope feels about to faint like a Victorian woman.
“Kevin asked what I was looking for in a partner and as I was mulling over my answer I could only think that what I want is this. You. Us.” He says, like it’s that simple. Like they can choose right now, sitting in a booth at a little café in Candem Town, to change their whole relationship and try to be something else that fits the versions of themselves that didn’t know there was something more when they met three hours ago. “We’re already great together, not that much has to change, just– maybe, I’ll hold your hand later, as we walk home,” he says and as he does, he runs a finger from her hand to her shoulder, leaving a trail of goosebumps in its wake. “Maybe I’ll kiss you goodnight.” His gaze drops to her lips.
“You want that?” Penelope asks because she needs to be sure she’s not dreaming, that she hasn’t somehow managed to create an alternative reality out of sheer will and imagined scenarios.
To answer the question, Colin cups Penelope’s face gently and leans down to capture her lips in a kiss, swallowing her surprised gasp. It’s a simple press of lips at the beginning, a question acted instead of spoken. But then, Penelope realises that it is really happening, Colin Bridgerton is kissing her, and she wastes no time in meeting him halfway. Her hands cup his neck and jaw and she eagerly opens her mouth when she feels Colin’s tongue touch her lower lip.
Of all the times she’s imagined this moment over the years, Penelope had never managed to picture it being so perfect, like it’s the most natural thing for them to do, like it’s what they should keep doing for the rest of their lives.
Unfortunately, they’re in a very public setting and the crash of a plate in the distance makes their little bubble burst. With a chuckle, and wearing her new favourite smile, Colin presses their foreheads together and plays with her hair. “You’re very beautiful, Pen. Of course I want that,” he says and Penelope closes the gap between them once more, allowing herself to simply be for a moment. “I want more than that if we’re honest,” he tells her after breaking their kiss once more. "So much more."
“Me too,” Penelope says, biting her lower lip to keep herself from smiling too widely. “So let’s go get dinner. I’d like to have our first date tonight.”
–
Three weeks later, Kevin contacts Colin to let them know he’s not going to post the video but sends it to them anyway. When he says he likes it but it doesn’t fit his usual kind of content, Colin replies with “it’s a shame that it will never see the light, given that your interview was the push we needed to reevaluate our friendship and start dating.”
His phone immediately starts ringing and Colin puts the call on speaker.
“Really?” Kevin asks right away, and Penelope can almost hear the smile in his voice.
“Yeah, thanks for that,” Colin tells him and Kevin laughs.
“I take it it’s going well?”
“It’s going really well,” Penelope says, and when she looks at Colin, who is smiling that disarming smile of his, she can’t believe that they got here, but they did.
They kept it quiet for as long as they could, which, with the Bridgerton family involved, was barely a week. By the fifth day, every sibling was questioning why Colin seemed so happy all of the sudden, even the ones that hadn’t seen him in those five days. And by the seven day mark, he was so tired of deflecting questions that he simply sent a text to the family group chat to inform them and turned off his phone for the next twelve hours.
“You knew, didn’t you?” Penelope asks Kevin and he laughs again.
“I had an inkling. I’m glad to see I was right.”
–
“We met you two when you were just friends, but now, you’ve been dating ever since. So, what changed?” Kevin asks them, in the same exact spot they met the first time, six months later.
“You asked us what we were looking for in a partner and as I was thinking over it I honestly considered simply pointing at her,” Colin says. His arm is once again wrapped over Penelope’s shoulders, but this time, he kisses the top of her head and it’s impossible to mistake the feeling radiating from his gaze for anything other than love.
“What advice would you give to a pair of friends that want to be more than that but are scared of making a move?”
“To be brave,” Penelope answers. “It’s difficult to put yourself out there and risk losing a friend, but sometimes that risk is worth it.” When she looks at Colin now, she doesn’t care that she looks completely besotted. She is, and she’s very damn lucky that the whole world can see it too.
“18 years of friendship in, plus 6 months dating, what’s the thing you like the most about your girlfriend?”
“Well, for starters that she’s not my girlfriend,” Colin says, lifting the hand where he proudly put an engagement ring just two weeks before for the camera to see. “None of the important things that we shared before has changed, but now I get to marry my best friend and call her my wife, and be her husband, and build a home together.”
“Wow, congratulations!”
“Thank you,” they say in unison.
“What about you?”
“He’s still the same boy I fell in love with a very long time ago, but he’s so much more now. He’s my safe haven. Nothing has ever felt as right as being with him does.”
They’re probably being too sappy, Penelope knows, but she doesn’t care. The world needs to see love, all kinds of it. By the way he’s smiling at them, Kevin agrees. “And what are your names?” He asks his customary last question.
A bright smile slowly spreads on Colin’s face and Penelope knows what he’s going to say before he does. This wonderful human being that she’ll get to call husband in a few months time. “Colin and Penelope Bridgerton.”