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One of Penelope’s favourite parts of the week, aside from the time she spent with Colin, was girls' night.
They’d been doing it for years now, once a week, all the Bridgerton women (plus Penelope, Edwina and Posy when she was available- the honorary Bridgertons) would meet up. Sometimes they went out for brunch, sometimes they went to pubs, and one time they went to an axe-throwing bar (an exhilarating and truly terrifying experience). Today, they weren’t doing anything particularly extravagant; they were just hanging out at Penelope’s flat, sitting around the living room, snacking and chatting. As far as ways to spend the day went, this was a pretty great one.
It was something Penelope marvelled at sometimes, this wonderful group of women that she got to be a part of. When she looked back, she couldn’t pinpoint when this tradition started. She’d always been best friends with El, and she’d loved spending time with Daphne, Frannie and Hyacinth too, though Eloise was so possessive over her when they were kids that didn’t happen all that often. They started hanging out as they got older, and then as new women joined the family, they sort of just became ingratiated into the hangouts too. There were very few people in this world that Penelope felt comfortable being 100% herself with, and most of them were currently in the room with her. Penelope knew, without a doubt, that if anybody hurt her, these women would go to war. They’d stood up for her, stood by her, and had been a better support system for her than her entire family put together. She wasn’t sure what she’d done to deserve such incredible friends, but she thanked her lucky stars every night.
“So yesterday, I heard yelling in the kitchen. And I mean proper yelling,” Kate explained to the group, holding back a laugh. “Anthony gets annoyed pretty easily, but nothing like what was happening yesterday. Obviously, I went to the kitchen to see what the hell was going on and guess what I saw.”
“I want to know,” Sophie said on behalf of the whole group. “But I’m a little scared to find out.”
“Oh, it wasn’t that bad,” Kate laughed. “What it was, however, was completely ridiculous. When I got to the kitchen, Anthony genuinely looked like he was about to destroy his phone. I thought maybe he’d had a bad phone call with a client and he was venting, but no, no client. He was on Duolingo.”
“Duolingo?” Asked Michaela. “Isn’t that the app with the super unhinged owl?”
“Yup,” she responded. “Turns out he was trying to learn Hindi. He wanted to learn to surprise me.”
“Awww, that’s really sweet,” Daphne gushed. “So is he any good at Hindi then?”
“Oh no, not at all,” Kate let out another chuckle coated with fondness and adoration. “That’s why he was yelling at his phone, because he couldn’t get past one of the pronunciation questions.”
“Well… The thought was still there, at least,” Francesca offered as the group burst into laughter.
“It’s honestly one of the nicest things anybody’s ever done for me,” Kate admitted.
“Oi!” Edwina’s protest was immediate and indignant.
The older Sharma sister rolled her eyes playfully. “Alright, fine, one of the nicest things any guy I’ve ever been with has done for me.”
“Much better,” Eddie declared proudly.
Kate shook her head at her sister, a small smile on her face, before she continued, “Honestly, it’s always one of two extremes with Anthony. Either he’s being the most annoying man on the planet or the most romantic, and there’s no in between.”
“Bridgerton men definitely know how to be romantic,” Sophie said. “The other day Benedict showed me a series he was working on, he was painting out all of his favourite memories of us, everything from our first meeting to our wedding. I swear I almost burst into tears right then and there.”
“And when you say he was painting everything…?” Daphne asked with a note of reluctance.
“Oh yeah, everything,” she confirmed, an intense blush painting her cheeks.
“I’m not sure if I find that sweet or deeply disturbing,” Francesca admitted.
“Definitely both,” Hyacinth chimed in, proving her point with an exaggerated shudder.
Sophie’s blush only intensified, and though there was a vague hint of embarrassment on her face, love for her husband practically radiated off her in waves. Same with Kate. Even when she complained about Anthony and called him annoying, it was impossible not to hear the sheer adoration in her voice. One of her favourite parts of the weekly hangouts was hearing everyone talk about their boyfriends and husbands. It always warmed Penelope’s heart to hear their stories, to know she was hearing about true love. She used to dream about what it would be like to one day join in with her own stories; in her imagination, it was always Colin that she talked about.
It still blew her mind slightly that now she could.
She and Colin hadn’t been together very long, only 3 months, but Penelope was the happiest she’d ever been. She’d always had stories to tell about Colin, about all the kind and thoughtful things he did for her, but she used to refrain from telling them. It was partly because she wanted to avoid the teasing– not because it was mean, but because it gave her false hope. She’d spent so long assuming Colin could never, would never, love her the way she did him. It never occurred to her that she could be wrong, so when her friends teased her and said Colin was so obviously in love with her, she dismissed it without a second thought.
Then, three months ago, they’d been hanging out when he suddenly confessed that he had feelings for her, that he was in love with her and had been for longer than he even knew, and the rest was history.
Honestly, even now, Penelope was still getting used to talking about him in a boyfriend capacity, but whenever she did, she loved every second of it. “Colin’s a romantic too. The other day, I was feeling a bit bad about myself, and I told him that. An hour later, he gave me this letter he’d written where he talked about all the different reasons he loved me. I always read it when my confidence is low.”
“Oh my god, that’s the sweetest!” Hyacinth exclaimed, a bright smile gracing her features. “I have to admit, I kind of love how obsessed my brothers are with you guys. It’s adorable.”
“Colin’s not obsessed with me,” Penelope dismissed immediately. The group stared at her before bursting into laughter; it didn’t quite make Pen feel defensive exactly, but her opinion still didn’t budge. “What? He’s not.”
“Of course he is, Pen,” Hyacinth insisted as her giggles died down. “That man is the definition of down bad. He’s been obsessed with you since before you got together.”
“I’m sure that’s not-”
“Hy is right,” Edwina spoke up. “Every time I’ve seen you and Colin in the same room, he’s either been at your side or staring at you and clearly wishing that was where he was.”
“The man has no concept of personal space,” Michaela snorted.
“Not when it comes to Penelope, no,” Daphne said with a little gleam in her eyes.
“I remember one time, back when Anthony and I still thought we hated each other, we actually bickered because of the two of you,” Kate recalled. “I was at the Bridgerton Christmas party and saw the two of you together, and I asked Anthony how long you’d been dating. He told me you weren’t a couple, and I thought he was having me on. He insisted that you guys were just friends and that Colin probably thought of you as a little sister the same way he did. I still like to bring up that he said that to me. I’m never letting him live it down.”
“You really thought we were together back then?” Penelope asked, barely able to contain her own surprise.
“Oh, absolutely,” Kate replied immediately. “He was always looking at you, following you around like a lost puppy-”
“No way, it was the other way around,” Penelope objected. “If one of us was following the other around like a puppy, it was definitely me.”
“Not from where I was standing,” Kate smirked.
“Or me,” Sophie agreed.
“Me either,” Michaela said as all the other women nodded in agreement.
“Huh,” Penelope said, trying to process this new viewpoint. She’d always been desperately in love with Colin, always looking for and jumping at any opportunity she got to be with him, to talk to him. She’d never really thought about the fact that he might have been doing the same thing.
“I hate to say it, Pen, but they’re right,” Eloise admitted begrudgingly. “My brother is obsessed with you, which still grosses me out for the record.”
“You really think so?”
“You really don’t?” Hyacinth cut in.
Penelope hesitated. It wasn’t that she didn’t want Colin to be obsessed with her the way Anthony and Benedict were with Kate and Sophie, it was the opposite, actually, but still… That just didn’t feel like the kind of thing that happened to her. Penelope could hardly believe that Colin had feelings for her at all, let alone this ridiculous idea that he was obsessed with her. She could understand why Ant and Ben were so obsessed with their wives; they were two incredible women with wit and kindness and compassion, not to mention drop dead gorgeous. They were pretty remarkable people, and even though Penelope did share one or two of those traits, she still felt fairly plain all things considered. Plain people didn’t get obsessed over. It wasn’t like there was anything wrong with her, but the truth was that he was just her, nothing special. Somewhere deep in her heart, no matter how much she wanted to deny it, she knew that she wasn’t the kind of girl a guy would be obsessed with, especially not someone as amazing as Colin. She was already lucky enough to have her love be requited; she didn’t want to get greedy by hoping he would feel more than he really did.
“Colin’s an amazing boyfriend. He shows me how much I mean to him every day,” Penelope told the group. “I just think saying that he’s obsessed with me is a bit of an exaggeration, that’s all.”
For a rare, peaceful moment, Hyacinth said nothing, but then her eyes lit up, and Penelope felt a jolt of dread in her stomach. “Well, I for one think it’s the perfect way to describe him, and I know how we’re going to prove it.”
Penelope knew she was going to regret asking this, but still she questioned anyway, “How?”
“With a TikTok trend!” Hyacinth said, practically vibrating with excitement.
“A… TikTok trend?” Penelope repeated, not even bothering to hide her scepticism. “Wha-”
“It’s going to work, I swear,” the youngest Bridgerton sister cut her off, a conspiratorial sparkle in her eye. “My guess is my brother is a huge sap who ends every phone call by saying he loves you?”
Reluctantly, Pen admitted, “Maybe.”
“I knew it,” she smirked. “So, here’s what you’re going to do: you’re going to call him, and when he says he loves you, you’re not going to say it back.”
“Wait, what?” Penelope raised an eyebrow. “What am I going to say instead?”
“Nothing, you hang up. Maybe say bye if you want, but don’t say ‘I love you.’ I saw a girl pull this exact prank on her boyfriend the other day, and it drove him mad.”
“I don’t want to drive Colin mad,” she objected lightly. “And, even if I did, that wouldn’t work. I doubt he’d even notice something like that.”
“Oh, trust me, he would,” Hyacinth insisted as some of her sisters nodded in agreement. “And when he does, it’ll prove exactly how obsessed with you he is.”
Penelope sighed. This was probably going to be a mistake, but she would do it if it meant putting this issue to rest. “I still don’t think this will work, but fine, I’ll do it.”
“Yes!” Hy cheered. “I am so filming this.”
“Hyacinth,” Penelope warned lightly. She knew perfectly well of Hyacinth’s influencer status; she followed her on all platforms and always hyped her up when she posted, but that didn’t mean she wanted to be part of any of her videos.
“Oh no, not for content,” the brunette clarified. “I’m just filming so you can have the video in the future, in case you ever doubt my brother’s obsession with you again.”
She laughed, despite herself, and picked up her phone, but before she could even find his contact, it started buzzing in her hand.
‘Colin❣️ is calling’
Penelope picked up immediately. “Hey, Col.”
“Hi, love,” his warm voice brought butterflies to her stomach, the same way it had done since they were kids; the only difference was that now it was a tad more intense. “Sorry for calling, I know you’re hanging out with my sisters, I don’t mean to disturb.”
“You’re all good, don’t worry,” she reassured him. “So, what’s up?”
“Well, I know we normally spend Friday nights at your flat, but I found a really nice Italian restaurant that would be the perfect place for a date. The only thing is that it’s a little closer to my flat, so could we stay at mine tonight and then maybe spend tomorrow night at yours?”
“Uh, yeah, sounds good. Pick me up at six?”
“Six?” Colin groaned. “That’s so far from now.”
Penelope checked the time, a small laugh dropping from her lips as she saw what it was. “It’s three hours from now.”
“Still too far away,” her boyfriend insisted with some of his signature stubbornness. “I miss you.”
“You saw me yesterday and this morning,” Pen pointed out with an amused snort.
“And I still miss you,” Colin said with all the sincerity in the world.
Penelope softened at that. “I miss you too, but we can survive a few hours. See you at six?”
“Six works,” he agreed, with the smallest note of sulking in his voice. “Okay, I’ll see you then. I love you.”
Penelope nearly said she loved him too out of instinct, but then she caught the looks from the other women in the room, their faces ranging from deeply intrigued to wildly amused.
She bit her lip, “Alright, bye.” She hung up and looked at Hyacinth, “I’m telling you, he’s not going to-”
Ring! Ring!
Penelope startled, staring down at her phone.
‘Colin❣️ is calling’
Hyacinth burst into proper laughter. “I thought it would take him a minute or two to notice, not ten seconds!”
She answered the phone, “hello?”
“Hi, uh- I think you might have forgotten to say something just now.”
Feigning innocence, she asked, “I did? What was it?”
“You forgot to say I love you.”
“Oh, I thought I did.”
“Um- no, don’t think so.”
“Sorry, Col, my bad. It’s all so busy over here, it must have slipped my mind.”
“No need to apologise darling,” he said warmly in a way that made her heart glow. “I love you.”
“Okay, I’ll see you soon, bye.”
“Hey wai-”
But she hung up before he could finish his sentence. “I wonder how long-”
Ring! Ring!
‘Colin❣️ is calling’
All the women laughed this time as she picked up yet again. “You okay, Colin?”
“Are you okay?” Colin’s voice came back instantly, painted with a concern that made her heart melt. “You’re not saying I love you, is everything alright?”
“Yeah, of course. I thought I said it that time.”
“Nope. I said it, you hung up,” her boyfriend replied. “Was that an accident or…?”
“Must have been an accident.”
“Yeah- yeah, I thought so, just wanted to make sure you were okay,” he said, though his voice remained a tad sceptical. “I love you, Pen.”
“Bye, Col, talk later,” Penelope replied, quickly hanging up. She went to say something to the group, but before she could get a word out.
Ring! Ring!
‘Colin❣️ is calling’
Almost hesitantly, she accepted the call. “Coli-”
“Okay, I know you didn’t say it on purpose that time,” came his voice immediately, sounding more suspicious than concerned now. “Seriously, Pen, what’s going on?”
“N-nothing,” Penelope said, silently cursing herself, that stutter was definitely going to give it away. The other women’s giggles rang throughout the room. “Everything’s good, I promise.”
“Wait, I can hear my sisters laughing,” Colin said. “Oh god, they’re behind this, aren’t they?”
“Behind what?” Pen questioned, not really sure why she was playing dumb at this point. Her friends seemed to find the fact that she was even funnier, judging by the size of their grins and the volume of their chuckles.
“You not telling me you love me,” Colin explained a tad petulantly. “Right, what have they done?”
“They’ve not done anything, Hyacinth is just showing them a video, that’s why they’re laughing.”
Kate threw her an impressed look and mouthed, ‘nice cover.’
As bad as it sounded, Penelope was a little impressed with herself too. She’d forgotten how quick she could be on her feet, and while it wasn’t a skill she was planning on using in the future, especially not with Colin, she couldn’t deny that it was definitely a handy talent to have under her belt.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, absolutely.”
There was a silence, and then his suspicious voice came through the phone. “So my sisters really haven’t put you up to anything?”
“Nope, I’m just being a bit forgetful, that’s all,” Penelope said smoothly.
“Hmmm,” Colin hummed, not even trying to hide his scepticism. “It’s not like you to be forgetful, Pen.”
“Yeah, well, I’m a bit tired today, didn’t get much sleep last night.”
“Oh, is that right?” Colin asked, she could practically hear the smirk she knew he was wearing.
Penelope paused. That wasn’t what she meant, but actually yeah. “You know exactly how little sleep I got last night.”
“Damn right I do,” her boyfriend stated proudly, making her cheeks burn bright red. Penelope watched as the Bridgerton sisters’ faces all morphed into disgusted understanding. Penelope stifled a laugh. They were the ones who encouraged her to do this prank; this felt like an appropriate karma. Hyacinth shuddered silently as Eloise pretended to gag.
“Right, I should go, I think the others want to show me the video.”
“I’m still not convinced that this whole thing isn’t their fault,” he insisted. “But fine, I’ll let you go. I love you.”
Penelope glanced at her friends as a fresh wave of laughter began, they were all shaking their heads at her. She sighed internally. “Okay, see you tonight!.”
“Hang on, I can still hear my sisters la-!”
She hung up. He called again. Penelope honestly wondered if he’d broken some sort of record for fastest call after hanging up. She wasn’t even sure if that was a thing, but if it weren’t, she would have sworn her boyfriend just made it one. “H-”
“I love you!”
Penelope’s eyes screwed shut as his frantic, confused tone rang in her ears. She felt a bit guilty for doing this, but even guiltier for finding it a bit funny. “Okay, bye.”
“Penelo-!”
She ended the call, letting her face flop into her hands. “God, I feel mean.”
“I don’t, that whole thing was brilliant,” Hyacinth cackles. “But fine, it’s probably time to put him out of his misery.”
Penelope shook her head with exasperation as she went to text him, but before she could type out a single word, a notification caught her eye.
Colin❣️: im coming over right now
Oh shit.
“Pen? You okay?” Michaela asked, coming to stand behind her and looking at her phone over my shoulder. Her grin followed instantly. “Oh my god, he can’t be serious.”
“What is it?” Kate questioned.
“Colin’s on his way over,” Mich told the group.
“Is he actually?” Daphne asked.
“No way,” Edwina joined in. “Surely Colin can’t be that ridiculous.”
“It’s Colin, of course, he’s that ridiculous,” El responded with a scoff.
“You’re joking,” Francesca said.
“Nope,” Penelope finally found her voice. She showed her screen to the room, watching as sparks of glee glowed and burned in their eyes.
“Okay, this is kind of amazing,” Sophie beamed.
“This is the best thing ever,” Hyacinth exclaimed, tears in her eyes from laughing so hard. “God, I love being right.”
“How far away is he?” Daphne asked.
“I have no idea,” Penelope replied, looking at the text once more.
The answer ended up being that he was twenty minutes away, and in that time, Penelope couldn’t help but worry. What if the prank was too mean? What if she’d messed with his head too much and now he was worrying about their relationship? She hated the idea of Colin worrying about something like that, and she hated the idea of her being the direct cause of it even more. She would just have to explain everything the second he got here and beg for his forgiveness. Guilt bubbled and bubbled, threatening to spill over right as Colin started knocking on the door.
“Pen! Let me in!”
Penelope went to get up to open the door but Hyacinth was on it like a shot, “please, let me.”
Pen didn’t particularly see the point in fighting Hy on that one, so she sat back with a small sigh, mentally preparing herself for the shitstorm that was about to take place. “Be my guest.”
The youngest Bridgerton bounded to the door, her face the picture of glee as she opened it. “Hey, Col.”
“I need to talk to Pen,” Colin said, immediately coming into her flat.
Before Penelope could even say anything, Colin was standing in front of her and holding a huge mixed bouquet. When she said that, she was not exaggerating. Pen genuinely had no idea if she even had a vase big enough for it. There were roses and baby’s breaths amongst a variety of other flowers too. Her jaw dropped as her boyfriend spoke. “I love you, and I have no idea how many of my devil sisters are stopping you from saying it back, or what they’re doing to stop you, but I kind of need to hear you say it. So I’m gonna stand here until you tell me you love me.”
Penelope stared at him. “You can’t be serious.”
“Deadly.”
In the background, Eloise questioned, “all of this because she didn’t say ‘I love you’? Really, Col?”
His head turned to his sister, but still had the flowers held out towards her. “Absolutely. This is the love of my life we’re talking about here, it’s like I said, I need her to say it, I don’t care what I have to do. I’ll get a hundred more bouquets if I have to. A thousand. A mill-”
“Right, none of that is necessary,” Penelope smiled before his words caught up to her. “Wait, love of your life?”
“Yeah, obviously,” Colin said as if it really was the most obvious thing in the world. All Penelope could do was blink at him.
Hyacinth squealed. “This. Is. Incredible.”
“Still haven’t heard that I love you yet, Pen,” Colin said, ignoring his sister and turning his attention back to her. “Do you need me to say it again? I love you. I love you so much, you’re the love of my life and one day I’m going to marry you we’re going to have a bunch of little redheaded babies-”
“Okay!” Penelope interrupted, unsure of giggles were ones of nerves of pure giddiness at hearing the man she’d loved for so long describe the exact future she’d imagined for them (though, in her vision, it was brunette babies). He could have been saying it to get her to say I love you, but Penelope just knew that he wasn’t. He wasn’t a disingenuous person, especially not with her, he would never say something like that unless he meant it. Finally, with a little grin, she said the words she’d been wanting to say since that first phone call. “I love you, Colin.”
“YES!” Colin whooped, throwing his free fist in the air in victory before he swooped down and pressed his lips to hers. Penelope had a feeling he would have deepened the kiss if she let him, but unlike her boyfriend, she remembered that they had an audience and pulled away quickly. He pouted momentarily before a grin stretched across his face. “God, I love hearing that.”
“Oh my god,” Hyacinth spluttered from behind them. “This is officially the best prank ever.”
“Wait, what?” Colin turned to his youngest sister and then back to her. “Prank?”
Penelope giggled nervously, “yeah, so um… The whole me not saying I love you thing might have come from a TikTok trend.”
“It was my idea,” Hy stated with a proud smile. “I said that you were obsessed with Penelope, and she said you weren’t so-”
“You said that?” her boyfriend questioned, looking at her a little incredulously. “Pen, of course I’m obsessed with you. I thought you knew that.”
Penelope stared at Colin, and then at the massive bouquet of flowers that was still in his hands. “... Well, I definitely know it now.”
“We were all saying that you were obsessed with her, she kept saying that you weren’t, and then I remembered a video I saw where this woman practically drove her boyfriend up the wall by not saying she loved him, and I just knew it would be the perfect thing to prove that we were right and that you are definitely obsessed with her,” Hyacinth laughed. “God, I should have bet money on this.”
“Well, it did drive me mad,” Colin admitted with a small smile, “but if it proved to you how much I love you, then I would say it was for a good cause.”
“It wasn’t about- I didn’t need you to-” Penelope attempted to explain before cutting herself off with a sigh. That was probably a conversation they could have later. “I’m sorry about the prank. Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?”
“Oh, I know exactly how you can make it up to me, but first,” Colin smirked before turning to address everyone else in the room. “All of you. Out. Now.”
Various cries of protest sounded out from the women. Eloise groaned. “You hog Penelope all the time, you can’t even go one afternoon without stealing her?”
“I absolutely can, you know I would never normally want to interrupt your weekly hangouts,” Colin told his sister and, to be fair, he was right. He had been a bit pouty, but he had never intentionally made her end her time with her friends early to spend time with him. “But you guys made Pen pull a pretty mean prank on me so I would say kicking you out this time is more than deserved.”
Eloise went to argue but Kate held up a hand to stop her, “no, you know what, he has a point. Let’s get going.”
El clearly wasn’t happy about it, grumbling as she got her stuff together, but she complied nonetheless. As they all said their goodbyes and started leaving, Colin called out with glee, “thanks guys! Sorry about this, but you wouldn’t want to see how we make up anyways!”
“Colin!” Penelope yelled, mortified.
“Okay, ew!” Eloise practically shrieked as Colin shut the door in her face.
With everyone out of the flat, he turned to her with that same smirk from before. Penelope sighed. “Was that comment necessary?”
“Absolutely,” he replied, unfazed. “They messed with my head, I should be allowed to mess with theirs a bit too.”
“Okay, well when you put it like that…” Penelope trailed off as Colin strode over to her and kissed her, his lips demanding and oh so perfect.
“Say it,” he murmured between kisses.
“Say what?” she murmured right back.
“You know.”
Oh. Right.
“I love you,” she said as he smiled into the kiss.
“Again.”
“I love you, Colin.”
His lips moved to her neck, skimming her pulse point and causing a quiet moan to escape her. “Again.”
“I love you.”
He sucked until he left a mark before moving up to her jaw and then to that spot behind her ear that made her weak in the knees. “Again.”
“I love you.”
Colin hand skated down into her skirt and over her already soaked underwear. “Again.”
“I- I love you. I love you, Col.”
And then his hand slipped inside.
(Needless to say, things went on exactly like this for the next few hours.)
xxx
Quite a few rounds later, once Penelope had told Colin she loved him enough times for him to be satisfied (as for the exact number… she’d lost count a long time ago so she honestly couldn’t tell you), she laid on her bed, wrapped up warmly in his embrace.
“So,” her boyfriend began, tracing little hearts on shoulder. “You really thought I wasn’t obsessed with you?”
She laughed, burying her face in his chest, “yes, and clearly, I was wrong.”
“Well, yeah. Obviously I’m obsessed with you, I thought that me crashing your date with Albert and chasing down your taxi to confess my love for you made it pretty clear.”
“Okay, first of all his name was Alfred,” Penelope corrected, narrowing her eyes at Colin, who feigned innocence. “And second of all… when you say it like that it sounds obvious.”
“Any way that you say it sounds obvious, Pen,” Colin told her fondly, pressing a kiss to her hair. “And, just for the record, I was obsessed with you far before then.”
“Stop it,” she scoffed with a playful eyeroll, “you were not.”
“I absolutely was,” he insisted. “Seriously, ask any of my siblings and they’ll tell you. Ant and Ben used to tease me about it constantly. It was always pissing Eloise off. Greg hated it but that’s because he had that huge crush on you when he was a kid. Daph, Francesca and Hyacinth found it cute. I think they knew how obsessed I was with you before I even knew it.”
“But that can’t… They… You…” Penelope struggled to find her words. “How did they know?”
“I wasn’t exactly subtle,” he remarked with amusement. “I was always trying to find excuses to steal you from Eloise. I used to tell El that mum needed her just to get her away from you for a few minutes so I could talk to you.”
“I always thought that you did that because you wanted to piss off your sister.”
“That was definitely a bonus,” he grinned that same charming grin that he used to use on her right after his lies made Eloise leave. “But no, my main goal was always to talk to you. You’ve always been my favourite person to talk to, Pen, and El would barely let me say two words to you before she dragged you away, I had to find some way to have a conversation with you. I got pretty desperate at times, my brothers used to say that I was trying to be your shadow, and honestly, they weren’t entirely wrong.”
“Oh my god,” Penelope laughed lightly, still struggling to wrap her head around all of that information. “That’s so weird to think about.”
“Really?” Colin asked, tangling their fingers together.
“Yeah, I always thought I was the one obsessing over you,” Penelope admitted, letting her gaze drop to their intertwined hands. “I used to stare at you all the time, and I would get so excited when you came and talked to me, I just assumed you were being friendly. I used to think about our conversations all the time, I never realised you were trying to talk to me on purpose.”
“And I never realised you were staring at me,” her boyfriend chuckled, pressing a kiss to her knuckles. “It’s kind of funny isn’t it? We were both so obsessed with each other and yet so oblivious to each other at the same time.”
“I feel like that’s pretty on brand for us, honestly,” she grinned, leaning up and kissing him briefly. “You know, when I agreed to do Hyacinth’s TikTok trend idea, I never thought you would actually come to the flat.”
“Well, I had to get you to say I love you somehow, Pen,” Colin told her. “I was dying.”
“Dying?” She repeated with a raised eyebrow.
“Dying,” he emphasised, pecking her lips.
Penelope laughed, cupping his cheek in her hand and stroking it with her thumb gently. “You know that I’m sorry about that prank, right? If I’d realised how much it would get to you, I never would have done it.”
“It’s alright, Pen, I’m not mad, I promise,” he reassured her. “Although, I have to admit, I am a little curious about why it took that prank for you to realise how much I love you.”
“I knew that you loved me, Colin, it was never about that. That prank was never supposed to be about you proving your love to me or anything like that,” Penelope clarified quickly, desperately needing her boyfriend to know that. She would never be someone that he needed to prove himself to. “I guess, it’s just- Love is one thing, but saying that you’re obsessed with me? That felt like something a lot more intense, it didn’t feel right to assume that you felt that way when I didn’t know for sure. And, if I’m being honest, I…”
Colin squeezed her hand. “You can tell me whenever you’re ready, darling.”
Penelope smiled at her boyfriend before taking a breath. “There are times where I can hardly believe that you’re actually in love with me, so you being obsessed with me was just something I never even thought about. I’m just… Me, Colin.”
“What the hell does that mean? Just you?” Colin questioned with a scowl. “Just you is pretty damn amazing.”
She felt her heart racing in her chest, trust her boyfriend to defend her from herself. “I don’t mean anything bad by it, Col. I just mean… I was always the quiet one, the one stayed in the corners, my own family barely even noticed me- I never really thought I would be the kind of person someone would obsess over because I never really thought I was special enough for that sort of thing. People don’t exactly obsess over wallflowers.”
Colin simply stared at her for a moment, before he gently pushed to lie down on the bed properly and shifted to hover above her. He pressed a kiss to her collarbone. “You’ve always been special to me, Pen. Always.”
Penelope sighed, his words sparkling against her skin in the most wonderful way. “Colin…”
“I’ve always loved you,” he moved his kisses to her neck. “Even when I was too oblivious to realise it, when I couldn’t see what was right in front of me, I loved you. I always have, always will.”
She tugged at his curls, encouraging him to meet her lips in a kiss that she poured all of her love into. Well, she tried, but there was simply too much for one kiss. Luckily, she had a lifetime ahead of her to keep trying. “I feel the same way, Colin. I can’t imagine not loving you.”
Colin beamed at her, kissing from her cheek to her jaw, his hands roaming her body. A moan escaped from her lips. “God, Pen, how could I not be so obsessed with you? Who wouldn’t be obsessed with a woman that’s so smart, so kind, so funny, so damn sexy…”
There was a self-deprecating joke waiting on the tip of Penelope’s tongue, but she stopped herself, she wasn’t about to ruin the moment. “I love you, Colin.”
“I love you too, my darling,” he responded before sucking on that spot behind her ear, taking her breath away. “And right now, I’d really like to show you just how much I love you.”
She smiled to herself. “You really are insatiable, Bridgerton.”
“When it comes to you? Always,” Colin grinned and Penelope wasn’t sure if she’d ever felt as loved as she did in that moment. “What can I say, Pen? I’m simply too obsessed with you.”