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Penelope Featherington was surprised to see Anthony Bridgerton leaning against the wall next to the main entrance of Bridgerton Law.
Apparently he’d been tracking the car he’d sent to pick her up because as it approached he looked up, smiled, and moved to help her and Kate Sharma out of the vehicle.
As he takes her hand for her to step up on the curb, Penelope asks, "Why are you outside?"
"I needed to get away from the conference room for a few minutes," Anthony replies. "You’ll understand when you get up there."
"Lord Bridgerton," Kate says.
"Please call me Anthony today," he smiles. "It’s Saturday, we don’t need to be so formal. And I was hoping our working together would have smoothed over our initial contretemps.”
Kate nods with a sly smile. “Ok Anthony! Edwina sends her greetings. She still finds it funny you confused us. She thinks we are dramatically unique.”
”You are,” he replies, staring at her for a second before he notices Penelope smirking at him. “Yes?”
As Penelope tips her head and appraises him, she realizes he is wearing a Navy polo over khaki pants. "You look casual? I thought it was full suits only for members of the Bridgerton family when they visit the office."
"Yes, but it is the weekend,” he retorts. And if Penelope didn’t know better she might have thought he was grumbling at her a bit.
She chuckles, “I’m not even a Bridgerton and I wore pantyhose because I thought we were supposed to get dressed up!”
As she turns to get her box out of the car, she realizes that the driver already handed it to Anthony, who refuses to give it over and gestures with it towards the entrance. She shrugs and starts walking to the building.
The security guard opens the door and holds it for the trio as they enter. Once inside, Anthony strides across the lobby to the elevators, and uses his key card to access the one on the far right. “It’s the express one to the top floor,” he explains.
They ride in silence and Penelope steps to the back of the car. “I want Kate to see the space first, she’s never been here.”
Kate shrugs and steps out first into a gorgeous space. It’s sleek with a curved welcome desk and comfortable blue chairs. A beverage station is set to the left of the secretary’s desk and glass curves towards the conference rooms. Offices appear to go off to the right. The walls are painted grey with blue accents and modern artwork adorns the walls. "Is this newly furnished?" she asks, looking around.
"Yes, I had to redecorate. Benedict and his “friends” held a fundraiser here and then I needed to, um, refresh everything."
Penelope laughs at him. “It wasn’t so dramatic as all that, you allowed them to paint a mural as part of that fundraiser. Then you raised enough money to cover three years of expenses for that refugee charity and then you had a reason to hire Daphne to do a refresh.”
”Stop trying to make me seem like a nice guy. I prefer to be the mean and aloof member of the family,” Anthony retorts. “You cannot let Miss Sharma know that I have weaknesses.” He gestures towards the conference room.
Penelope enters first and is shocked to see Colin Bridgerton already sitting at the table.
He stands as she enters and stammers a greeting. “Pen, um Penelope, it is good to see you.”
She freezes before nodding at him. Outwardly she appears calm but she is freaking out internally. How can he look so good all the time? He’s wearing a dark suit that makes his denim eyes pop, and a tee shirt that lets some of his chest hair peep out. He’s perfectly coiffed except for one curl that she aches to push back into place. And then she remembers he’s only her friend and he doesn’t want her and …
After a very long moment of awkwardness, she says, “Colin, I did not expect to see you today. May I introduce you to Kate Sharma, my insolvency solicitor. Anthony has offered to help us with some paperwork outside her area of expertise.”
Colin looks surprised and seems to want to ask something, but stops himself with a head shake. He moves smoothly towards the door to shake Kate’s hand as Penelope steps around him. She deliberately goes to the other side of the table from where Colin had been seated. Anthony steps in and closes the door.
“Wait, what happened to the suit rule?” Colin asks his brother when he sees him.
”It’s the weekend,” Anthony says calmly.
“I have to side with Colin on this one,” Penelope says, “I mean I put on tights.”
Anthony looks annoyed. “Perhaps if you two stayed in touch more you’d realize people change. Do you want to get your own coffee, tea or chai from the kitchenette? Otherwise we have water in here?”
“Chai?” Kate asks. “Are you trying to pass off a Keurig pod as chai?”
“No, apparently when I asked how to make chai, Humboldt, my office manager, bought a Chime. It’s a gadget like a Keurig but supposedly mimics the traditional process. I don’t know how it works or if it tastes right, but I wanted to be able to offer appropriate beverages to all of our guests. Perhaps you can try one and let me know?”
Kate pauses and looks at him before she nods and moves to an open seat. Anthony sets the box down next to Penelope, and then helps Kate with her chair before moving to the head of the table. Colin and Penelope exchange “there is something going on there” glances and for a second Penelope forgets she is mad at him.
“Penelope, we will get to your case in a moment. I should say that I am sorry I didn’t tell you Colin would be here but I’m not.”
Colin chuckles darkly as Anthony presses on.
“He did not know you were coming either. But, we have a family issue and the two of you have to talk before brunch tomorrow. So, I decided to just grasp the nettle and have a long day. There are three items on my agenda…”
“Really? An agenda?” Colin interrupts.
“Yes, everything I need to tell you is important and I don’t want to miss something. I’ve missed enough apparently, so today is the day when I start to remedy things,” Anthony gives Colin a hard stare and Colin shrinks back into his seat. Penelope sits up straighter.
“We have an issue with Hyacinth, apologies to Miss Featherington, and then edits to the paperwork she needed me to draft. Any questions?”
“I have many questions, but you don’t owe me any apologies, so I guess I start with Hyacinth?” Penelope muses. “What’s going on with her?”
Anthony pushes a button on the console in front of him and looks back at Penelope. “Apparently she decided to download some ‘fun software’ to record ‘things she was going to miss’,” Anthony performs several air quotes as he starts talking and Penelope realizes he is really angry but trying hard to hide it. “It started when she was heading off on her summer service trip and wanted Gregory to collect videos for her from a festival, but it turned out to be a worm and has been making recordings they didn’t expect. Her personal drive on the family network is almost full and when they started to delete content they realized material was recorded they didn’t do, like Colin’s outburst at Penelope’s party. They came to me for two reasons, first to see if I knew what he said at the gathering but also to confess that the recording happened in the first place.”
“What?” Kate exclaims. “How long has she been using that software?”
“Months, which is a huge security risk for the family,” Anthony is focused on Kate and not watching Penelope start to fidget.
“What do you mean, ‘know what happened?” Colin says. “You were at the party, so was Penelope. You both heard me.”
“No, Colin, I did not hear you. I arrived after you shouted something but you were so drunk when I arrived that I simply took you home. I did not hear you that day. But now that I have heard it, we need to discuss it.”
“Anthony, I don’t want to ‘discuss it’…” Penelope starts, slightly horrified that she used air quotes too, but she is interrupted by Hyacinth entering the room followed by a tall, thin man. He is carrying what appears to be a tablet.
Penelope stands up to hug Hyacinth. “What did you do?”
“I didn’t think it was a big deal, but I guess it is. So, now I’m Anthony’s minion. I’m scrubbing files for the rest of the year I think.”
“You are being given an opportunity to learn the family business from the ground up,” Anthony responds swiftly. “I know it was unintended, but we will fix it. Now, everyone, this is Mr. Robert. He’s already checked the phones and computers at home and at Aubrey Hall, so Colin and Penelope, I think you’re the only ones left.”
“I told you, I didn’t mess with their phones. Just Greg’s…” Hyacinth says weakly as Anthony glowers at her.
“And Mr. Robert already told you that the software you used is a virus. And it wasn’t just on your phones. So, the network could be damaged. If Colin and Penelope have it on their phones too we have a different problem.”
Mr. Robert moves towards Colin and asks him to unlock his phone. He takes the device and plugs it into his tablet. A whirring sound is heard and then a beep. “This phone is clean,” Mr. Robert says as he moves around the table to Penelope. “Please unlock your phone, as you saw I’m not looking at anything on it and I’m not leaving the room with it.” Penelope presses her thumb to the screen and hands it over. He begins the second scan.
“What kinds of software can you scan for? Do you need to know what the name of it is or can you check for suspicious items in general?” Kate asks.
“We can check for anything,” Mr. Robert replies as his device beeps. “This phone is also clean.” Hyacinth lets out the breath she was holding.
“I have a client who is dealing with someone moving money around without permission. They are trying to figure out how it is happening. Can you help with audits?” Mr. Robert nods at her and pulls out a sleek black card out of his chest pocket and looks at Anthony. “Is there any reason why I could not help her client?”
Anthony shakes his head. “I think it would be great for you to help Miss Sharma.” Mr. Robert nods, hands his card to Kate and leaves the room.
Anthony looks at his youngest sister. “Run along Hy, you need to keep scanning for hidden files in the server. That scammer knows what they are doing and unfortunately human review is the last step. I’ll be helping Penelope for at least an hour.” Hyacinth stands and sighs. She opens the door and leaves.
Anthony makes a mark on his notepad. Colin looks at Anthony. "Is that all you needed me for?"
“No, just the first item done, thank you both for unlocking your phones without an argument. I am relieved you were not involved. Mr. Robert wasn’t sure how far back he needed to search. We found it on Mother’s phone too. Now, item number two, apologies to Penelope.”
“Anthony, I already said that you have nothing to apologize to me for. You’ve helped me immensely with everything for the estate and my mother and you’re going to help me in court on Monday and…” She stops speaking as he raises his hand.
“Penelope, I mentioned that the reason I discovered the worm on Hyacinth's phone was because of the unfortunate recording. But, I was there that night and I saw that you were upset and so my first apology is that I did not follow you when I saw you crying as you left the yard. I should have gone after you instead of following the noise to Colin. If this was the 1800s, I would have lost my “chivalrous lord” card.”
Kate giggles when he says that and he grins at her before turning seriously back to Penelope. Colin is rigid in his seat.
“I didn’t notice you, so you’re not in trouble with me,” Penelope replies.
“Well, if I acted upon that impulse, then I could have stopped you from leaving and perhaps you would have heard everything that Colin said and not just the part that I believe upset you.”
"Anthony, you do not need to concern yourself with what he said. I am over it," Penelope insists with a slightly panicked tone. “We really don’t need to discuss that afternoon.”
“You’re over it?” Colin retorts. “Seriously…”
Anthony holds up his hand to stop Colin from speaking. He looks back at Penelope. “We do need to discuss it, because neither one of you has the full story. And instead of acting like friends and talking to one another, you’re both sulking and avoiding everyone. Mother misses both of you and tomorrow needs to go well. So, I’m going to tell Miss Sharma a story and when I’m finished we can decide if Colin is done here.”
Anthony looks at Kate. "I heard Mother tell Lady Danbury once that there is only one brain cell among us and Hyacinth usually has it. Since she is currently searching our database for a hacker’s signature app, I am going to pretend that I hold it today.”
Kate gives him an appraising look before responding. “You sell yourself short, but I am willing to listen to you. Penelope won’t discuss that day with me even though it was the start of the whole estate turnover.”
Anthony looks sympathetically at Penelope. “I believe that these two met at ages 12 and 15 due to a bike mishap. Care to correct me?” They both stay silent.
"Penelope was more shaken up than Colin, actually," Anthony continues. "Colin fell off his bike and was unhurt, but she was very upset. He brought Penelope home so he could change his ripped jeans. Eloise promptly adopted her as her best friend and even though Portia was annoyed that Penelope caused the crash, she allowed the friendship. She liked the cachet of being in the Bridgerton orbit. Time went on and I now suspect that Penelope developed a crush on her best friend's older brother."
“Anthony, I have never had a crush on you,” Penelope smiles weakly. “And I’d never date someone like Ben.”
Anthony laughs out loud. “Touché, but after helping you write the restraining order and reading the manuscript, I sincerely apologize that I probably wasn’t as nice to you when we were younger as I should’ve been."
Penelope looks surprised. "Anthony, you really don’t need to apologize for anything. Your family has always been perfectly wonderful to me."
"Yes, well, I was in my jerky university phase when we met, and I did not handle my grief well after Father died. If you wore pantyhose today just so you didn’t upset me, I would suggest that I probably was a bit of a hard-ass over the years, so I apologize for that as well."
Colin looks up. "Am I getting any apologies today?" "No," Anthony says flatly.
"Let us continue, when Colin went to university, he was also struggling and decided a relationship was the solution," Anthony resumes the tale. "He wanted to find someone who was family-oriented and at one of the Featherington gatherings he picked Marina?"
Colin is staring daggers at his brother. "Yes, it was an abject failure."
Kate glances towards Penelope. "I didn’t know that."
"I don’t like to talk about it," Penelope replies. “She isn’t a kind person. I wish I wasn’t related to her.”
"Well, at least it wasn’t one of your sisters," Kate says, elbowing Penelope conspiratorially at the table.
Anthony looks at Kate with a hurt expression. "I already told you I was trying to message you, and I’ve apologized for that. I will do so again if you need."
Kate raises an eyebrow. "We can talk later. I am much more interested in Colin and Penelope's history."
"After Marina, Colin decided to travel. I think Penelope was one of his biggest supporters. I would like to pretend that I was too, but I was annoyed that he got to go play while I had to work."
"Anthony…." Colin starts.
"However, I have since come to realize that what Colin has done around the world is actually a very useful skill," Anthony speaks over Colin's interruption. "He’s very good with languages and people, and he’s going to make a great addition to our international business division when he joins us." Colin says nothing further but avoids looking at Penelope who gave a visible start at the idea he'd be joining the firm.
Anthony looks back to Kate. "While Colin was away Penelope met Dr. Alfred Debling."
"He wasn’t a doctor yet," Penelope corrects. "Just a graduate student."
"He’s completed his PhD and he’s doing his post-doc work," Anthony says. “I don’t like the man, but give him credit where it is due.”
”You don’t like him? My mother thought he was a good match for me, but well, it wasn’t right," Penelope said. “I can’t even say I was sad when he broke up with me."
Colin reacts to that. "He broke up with you? I thought you broke up with him."
"No," she says. "I wasn’t interested in moving to Antarctica and being isolated with only him and penguins for company. He didn’t think I was a serious enough contender to be his girlfriend if I didn’t want to leave my life for him. I wanted to be able to succeed here, in London, and he had other dreams. I’ll be alone after the hearing, but at least I’ll be free."
"You’re not going to be alone," Kate reaches out to take her hand. "Are you okay, Penelope, do you need a break?"
"He’s not going to stop, so we might as well get to the next part," Penelope says, looking at Anthony.
Anthony grins at her sympathetically. "I think you’ll forgive me. Let’s jump to the party. I confess I was horrified when I heard the start of Colin’s speech...”
Penelope goes completely white. "Wait, that’s the recording? How many people have heard what he said? Oh my god, I’m so embarrassed."
“Why are you embarrassed?” Colin is looking very confused. “I’m the one who was left heartbroken.”
“Are you joking again?” Penelope’s sadness is turning to anger. Anger is an emotion that she can wield and hold onto and not burst into tears. “When I heard you, I felt like our friendship was the biggest joke to you or something. It was embarrassing.”
“So you did hear me,” Colin retorts.
“Hold on Colin, based on the audio file I heard and where I was when you were talking, I am convinced Penelope only heard part of it.”
“I heard enough,” Penelope is visibly agitated.
“Hang on a second,” Colin exclaims. “She didn’t hear everything I said?”
“No, she did not,” Anthony replies. ”The next time you decide to make a drunk confession you should confirm that the person you are confessing to is in earshot.”
“Well then, what part did she hear?” Colin replies with a burgeoning note of panic in his voice.
“I believe just the first sentence.”
“Oh my god,” Colin and Penelope respond simultaneously.
“What?” Kate asks. She glances around the room.
Colin looks visibly shaken, but seems less depressed, in a weird way. Penelope looks like a deer caught in headlights and Anthony looks very serious. “I will tell you after another apology to Penelope. I’m so sorry that you didn’t think you could be honest all the time. That you felt our friendship was tenuous in any way.”
“Anthony, don’t be ridiculous. You are a good friend to me,” Penelope responds quickly.
“I am 12 years older than you and supposedly in charge but I’m really not. I mean Hyacinth is looking for hacking software while my other siblings are refusing to grow up, but, you’re also family and I neglected you. That said, since you agree we are friends, and ignoring the part earlier when you said you never had a crush on me, why couldn’t we date?”
“I never wanted you to date me and you’re too old anyway,” Penelope grins at him.
“I’m still pretty fit for an ‘old man’, but fine. So, why wasn’t that your reaction when your best friend Colin said something similar?” Penelope freezes and immediately presses her thumbs to her middle fingers in a calming gesture.
Colin spots her doing this and cuts in, “Anthony, leave her alone. She doesn’t want to be your girlfriend.”
“My goodness, stop speaking in riddles. What was said!?” Kate breaks in.
Colin takes a deep breath. “Well, I arrived at the party I discovered that Pen, Penelope, and Alfred Debling were no longer dating. That put me into a celebratory mood and I started drinking. I mean I didn’t have to drive since I could just walk across the square, and people were having fun. Fife, Lord Reginald Fife, was there and he started making jerky comments about Pen, and I told him to stop. He was like, ‘so you want to fuck her then?’ and I responded crudely instead of walking away.”
“What did you say?” Kate whispers.
“He said ‘I’d never fuck Penelope Featherington’ in front of a huge crowd of people,” Penelope says, staring at her hands. “Everyone started to laugh. I decided to simply back away and leave. I wasn’t prepared to face everyone after my best friend declared me so undesirable. I faked a migraine, called an Uber and left."
“That is not all that I said,” Colin says loudly.
“Oh, really, how much worse did it get after I left?”
“I said ‘I’d never fuck Penelope Featherington but once I marry her I’ll make love to her all the time.’ I thought you heard me say I wanted to marry you and that’s why you left.”
“I. did. not. hear. that.”
Colin continues, "I thought you left because you heard me say I loved you and you didn’t want to change our relationship.”
Penelope is saved from having to immediately respond by Anthony jumping back into the conversation. “I figured your reply to my proposition would be close to what you just said to me, and so I started to wonder why you didn’t react that way to Colin. And then I read the manuscript. And realized that your book was expressing feelings that you’ve been suppressing because you never had a safe place to share them? And if yes, then another apology for not giving you that safe space.”
Penelope says nothing, she is just staring at Anthony trying not to cry.
“Listen, I am not going to put words into your mouth. Or Colin’s. You two need to talk or scream at one another so that brunch tomorrow can be focused on the business we need to do with the family.“ Anthony put his hands on the table and pushes himself to a standing position signaling for Kate to join him. “We have to go review the files, and Kate needs to try the chai gadget. You two have fifteen minutes alone."
He touches Colin on the shoulder before stepping out of the side door with Kate. Penelope hears Anthony say “We should start with the chai first because it’s closer. I have the files on my desk…” and then the door closes.
She looks over at Colin who has a strange expression on his face. “Did you really only hear the first part?” She nods at him.
“Damn.”
“I didn’t know I was a joke to you.”
“You’re not. I thought you thought I was unlovable.”
“We’re a mess huh?” Penelope whispers.
“I’d like to be a mess together,” he replies. "Can I come over and sit next to you? I hate being across the table right now. I’ve missed you and you seem really far away.”
"You can come over here, but I don’t believe that you missed me," she says. "You never contacted me once."
"I thought you heard me say that I loved you and then you ran away," Colin said. "I didn’t know how to reach out after that. It was convenient that I had a business trip to go on anyway, but I’ve spent the last several months being completely miserable."
"Well, I haven’t been doing very much except working with Kate on the bankruptcy, my book proposals and saving the barony. Anthony’s been quite helpful with the last bit because he can do things that Kate and I could not manage on our own. I knew neither of them knew what you said and so I could hide my feelings..."
"How long were you gonna hide? It feels like forever! I never wanted to lose you, I've just been trying to figure out how to just stay friends," Colin replies. “Listen, I want to hear about everything that you’ve been doing, but we only have a few minutes before either Anthony or Kate bursts back in here. I need to know. Do I have a chance? Or did my chance get destroyed by my foolishness? I’ve been miserable without you. I started sleeping a lot, but then sleeping was okay because you were in my dreams. Waking up was horrible."
Penelope reaches out to take his hand. “I’m so confused, Colin. You not wanting me is more believable than you loving me. You have never once suggested that you liked me more than as your best friend."
"Well, it wasn’t like a thunderbolt from the sky or anything like that," Colin explains. "But on my last trip through Asia, every morning I woke up and wanted you to see the sunrise with me. Every place I went, I wanted you on the tour.I wanted you to taste all of the food. You were the last person I thought of every night before I fell asleep. It occurred to me that you might be more important than just my best friend, which is already very important. I wanted to tell you that, but you seemed happy with the vegetarian."
"Alfred was perfectly fine," Penelope says. "But he wasn't you. If he hadn’t walked away when he did, I probably would have broken it off while he was gone."
"I was planning to see if you might want to go on a date with me," Colin said. "But like an idiot I started drinking celebratory shots. And what I said to Fife, that’s not true. I absolutely want you."
Penelope giggles. "Well, if you really think that your feelings for me are valid... I have always wanted something more." She turns her chair so she is fully facing him and says, “Would you kiss me?”
Colin laughs. "Um yeah, I would like to. I think we were always meant to be together, just us, Colin and Penelope. But I've been an idiot for a long time."
He leans forward and touches her cheek to tip her face up so their lips can meet. The air grows hot and heavy. Penelope is trembling, he could feel that under his fingers, and he thought he was trembling too. When their lips meet, it is perfect. It is glorious. Penelope wants nothing more than to keep kissing Colin and to get out of the office chairs and maybe see how sturdy the conference room table is and as she was musing what the next steps could be they are interrupted.
There is a knock on the door just before Anthony and Kate open it. They spot Colin and Penelope leaning against each other with their foreheads touching. As they break apart, Penelope whispers, "thank you."
Kate laughs. "Does this mean that you and Colin have started talking again?"
Penelope blushes as Colin replies “We started something.”
Anthony grins, “Am I forgiven?”
“You never were in trouble,” Penelope replies as Colin says “never” at the same time.
“Can we leave?” Colin looks at Penelope.
“You can, but I can’t. I still need to do the actual work I booked with these two.”
Colin nods and settles into his chair. Anthony raises an eyebrow. "I’m never leaving Penelope’s side again unless she tells me to go."
“I don’t want you to go far, but I would like a cup of tea.” She smiles at him. "I really do need to talk to them."
“Fine, I will procure tea and then I will find snacks and check on Hy. You do your work and then I will take you home. Kate, I am sorry that you’ll be stuck with Anthony after we leave, but Penelope and I have a ‘conversation’ to finish and I’m not letting her out of my sight until that happens.”
It takes more than an hour but by the end of the afternoon Penelope drafts a restraining order against her mother, finishes a copyright application for her first book and creates notes to request releases from the Bridgertons since they inspired parts of her book series.
“Done.” Anthony signs the last form with a flourish and hands it to Kate to notarize.
“Thank you both so much,” Penelope says. “I can never repay you.”
Colin's stomach grumbles very loudly before anyone can respond. “On that note, it is time to leave and eat something more than tea and biscuits. I’ve called an Uber Black to pick us up.”
Kate looks at Colin and then at Penelope. “Are you sure you want to leave with him? Tomorrow’s brunch is a big deal.”
“Yeah, I’d like to be with him,” Penelope says quietly. “It’s all I’ve ever wanted.”
Colin grins at her and packs all the papers into her box. He shakes Kate’s hand, punches his brother in the shoulder and opens the main door to shout for Hyacinth. She comes running to hug him.
“I was hoping you’d come over to watch a movie tonight.”
“I gotta take Penelope home, but I’ll be over there tomorrow OK?
He pushes the elevator button and looks down at Penelope as she joins him. As they get into the lift Anthony hears him ask what the name of her book is.
“The Wallflower,” she replies.
“Happy ending?”
“Yeah, writing a happy ending was all I could do. I didn’t know I could have one too.”
The doors close. Anthony looks at Kate and at his sister. “May I offer you ladies a ride home?” Both nod and he pushes the button to call the elevator back up to them.
When Colin and Penelope get into their car, he asks what take away she wants. They order from Nandos and ask the driver to take the long way there. Colin slides the privacy screen into place and…..
[Narrator: Colin and Pen are in a modern carriage. You know what to do.]