Archive of Our Own

Why did she agree to come here? Why?

She could have just stayed in with her Gelupo chocolate chip ice cream tub and Notting Hill’s 56th rewatch. She could have used her velvet sofa to lounge in until she passed out from a full stomach and tired eyes.

But Penelope just had to cave in to Edwina’s requests to join her at this rooftop singles’ event on bloody Valentine’s Day; one of Edwina’s clients from her marketing firm just had to invite her to it as a gesture of ‘Job Well Done’; and Edwina, refusing to go alone to a romantic evening, just had to choose Penelope as her companion.

Well, Penelope was boyfriend-less with no plans for a romantic evening. Not to mention, Eloise, who could have been an excellent option for this event, had extinguished that viability by finding her match in her boyfriend Phillip six months ago. So, she could not really begrudge her friend. And how could she say no to Edwina more than twice when that girl was not above pulling those doe eyes out of her arsenal whenever needed?

She was also aware of just how concerned her friends were about her and her lack of romantic endeavours. She had realised how bad her situation had become when Eloise, of all people, had sent her a GQ article on Best Dating Apps to Find Your Match. She had tried to pass it off as if the variety in the list just amused her, but Penelope knew her friend well enough to know that she had been pushed to this by her worry. Even her mother had tried to get her to meet some of her friends' sons at dinners, and her sisters had tried to introduce her to their coworkers.

Penelope understood them. It was really sweet. But it was also so embarrassing. Because she could not find it in herself to care about these perfectly good men. That dating app that Eloise had tried to not-so-discretely single out as “decent enough” was rotting away on her phone and that friend of Albie’s with that deep laugh just did not do anything for her. The Colin of it all had been hindering the… amorous part of her brain.

But no more of that. Mr Grown Man could take care of himself. All on his own. Without her.

Penelope could take care of herself as well. All on her own. Without him.

So, she had tagged Edwina along with the hope of a promising evening.

How the fuck was she supposed to know Colin would also end up here?

She had tried to act as if they had not made eye contact from two opposite corners of the roof. That she had not noticed him slouched at the bar, gulping down punch at an alarming rate.

But of course, he would not give her that grace. He just had to shout her name out like a banshee, dragging his poor friend along to her and Edwina’s nook.

He has never really been able to leave her alone. Well, except for those three months he had been dating her cousin. He had been completely content and grown during that time.

He looked a little crazy, to be honest. That's the only reason she had stayed quiet when Edwina had readily agreed to Colin’s suggestion to share a few friendly drinks.

So now she was stuck here, in this metal chair that was a little too high, surrounded by the cool evening air and all these to-be lovebirds, while a 6-foot, brown-haired, puppy-looking man was trying to get her to look at him. This was going to kill her.

It was when their friends had walked off to get a refill on their drinks that Penelope finally said her first words of the evening to Colin.

“I see you are ready to enter the dating field again.”

Colin’s eyebrows furrowed before he replied.

“What? Why would you think that?”

She felt another spark of annoyance erupt from her stomach, spreading up and up and up, until it zapped through her tongue.

“What am I supposed to think, seeing you here?” she bit out. “Do you think this is some kiddie playdate?”

Colin flushed red, turning his gaze to the drink he was swirling in his hand. God, even the clinking of ice was ticking her off.

“I am not… here for that,” he had sighed out heavily.

Penelope scoured his face like she always did but had been doing so more intensely ever since he had started dating that woman. A sense of misery took over her.

“Are you still sad about Marina?” Penelope asked, refusing to meet his eyes.

“Pen, no,” she looked up to see him leaning forward, watching her with rapt attention. “I am not anything about Marina. She hasn’t even crossed my mind ever since we broke up.”

“Well, it’s understandable. You’ve more than made up for it in those two months when you were thinking all about her.”

He snapped his mouth closed. Good. He should know how to shut the fuck up sometimes. But he was talking again.

“Seriously, Pen,” Colin spoke, a hot desperation lacing his voice. “I don’t care about her. I am not thinking about her. At all. Trust me.”

“There is no need to try to convince me of these things. If you say so, you must mean it,” Penelope said, acting as if she wasn’t feeling like popping open a bottle of champagne over Colin addressing his ex-girlfriend nonchalantly. “Though you could try your luck here, no matter what reason you are here for. You’ll do well.”

Colin shuffled in his seat, licking his lips and running his right hand through his hair. He really did look a little crazy. She had to look away to the view of the lit-up city to calm herself.

“The reason I am here is you.”

It took a moment for Penelope to register Colin’s words. The view was alluring enough to have engrossed her for a little while.

But when she did, her head turned slowly towards him, taking every moment to comprehend his words multiple times.

“What?”

“I came here to see you.”

“Why?”

“You’re not talking to me and I want to talk to you.”

“With your friend?”

“He was worried about me. Also, Michaela made me promise I would not go further than two kilometres without supervision.”

“I don’t get it. How did you even know I was going to be here?”

“Phillip told me.”

“Which he was informed of by Eloise. Of course.”

Penelope pursed her lips, nodding her head to herself. Why was she even surprised? If this man could call Phillipa, pretending to know anything about the kind of Brie she had bought from the local cheese tasting tour to find out whether Penelope had also accompanied her there, what was stopping him from using this information? Why wouldn’t he do this?

“Colin,” she said into the cool evening air. He just looked back at her, his scrunched-up brows and blue eyes demanding her attention. She opted to take a sip of her drink, hoping it would settle down the butterflies in her stomach enough to think of something to say.

However, before she could, their attention was called away by their friends.

“Sorry it took us so long,” Frederick apologised, passing them their new drinks.

Oh, thank god.

“Don’t worry about it,” Penelope replied, offering him a warm smile to somehow hide the fact that her voice had cracked while speaking that short sentence.

Edwina slid next to her, squeezing her arm. “Yeah, I guess a lot of people are enjoying the bar.” Penelope could see her friend trying to gauge any signs of discomfort on her face. So, she had squeezed Edwina’s arm back to let her know she was fine. No matter how much of a lie it was. Penelope was not going to let her pride and Colin’s stalker tendencies stop their friends from finding romance.

The remaining hour of the group’s evening went pleasantly well. Edwina was the enthusiastic conversationalist she always was, Frederick was an insanely sweet guy with great quips to offer in between, and they were able to carry the conversation for all four of them because Penelope was too distracted to offer any substantial responses except gracious ones and Colin had clearly not approached the table with any intention of focusing on anyone other than Penelope in the first place.

Penelope was lucky that Edwina and Frederick were so clearly infatuated with each other. Even with the Colinness of the situation, she could not help but smile at how much fun the two of them seemed to be having just by themselves.

Colin had chimed in on the conversation properly only when his friend had brought up how the author Penelope had been trying to set up a meeting with for weeks had been at a party he had been to too. They had hit it off, and maybe Colin could help her.

Colin had looked at her with a sickening eagerness, telling her he would be more than happy to talk to the man if she wanted him to.

Idiot. He looked crazy. She wanted to kiss him so badly.

But god, she was so fucking mad at him. She was so destroyed for him.

Colin wanted to love and be in love. He was filled with the desire to be devoted to someone. Penelope knew that someone was never going to be her. No matter how much she wanted it to be. But she had made her peace with that. She could live with the reality of Colin not loving her the way she did. She could love him all on her own. She could tell him she loved him as many times as she wanted in her heart. What could he do about it?

But what she could not live with was someone walking all over that spirit she adored.

Honestly, she had never been worried about Marina and Colin going far. She knew Colin was smart enough that he would find out how bad a match the two of them were at some point in that joke of a relationship. But she also knew that he would still bring the same deep-diving, sensitive-hearted spirit to that joke the way he did with everything. He would still give his all to that relationship until he realised the path he was on was a dead end.

And he could have avoided all this heartache over fucking Marina Thompson of all people had he just treated Penelope like the friend she had always been to him and listened to her. But no. Her two-timing, gaslighting, poison-spitting cousin was the person for whom he had wanted to gamble their friendship away. Well, it had been just fine with her (it had not been fine and it still was not).

When the group realised that they were done with the Valentine’s Day celebration, Penelope knew what her friend wanted to do to conclude that evening. Or who, to be more precise, Penelope had thought as she had eyed her. And then promptly cringed internally at her own crudeness.

“Edwina, I am more than willing to leave you two alone,” she told her friend when they had excused themselves to the restroom before leaving.

“What? No! I don’t-”

“Edwina!” Penelope could not help the giggles erupting from her mouth. It was so obvious how much her friend was smitten by Frederick. And going by the way he had not taken his eyes off of Edwina the whole evening, it was just as obvious how much that interest was reciprocated. “Go have some fun. You deserve it. I will be fine.”

Edwina bit her lip, looking at Penelope and then looking at the time on her phone screen.

“How about this: I will leave with Frederick if you promise to leave with Colin.”

Penelope opened her mouth to retort, but Edwina beat her to it.

“Penelope, you know you need to resolve whatever you two have going on. And he looks so miserable. All evening, he has been staring at you, trying to get you to talk to him the same way you two used to. And it’s not just him. I, and everyone around you, can tell how much you miss him. You have been missing him for three months. And you clearly want this to be over too. Don’t think I didn’t catch you smiling like an idiot when he was scarfing down rolls.”

“That is because I was worried he had not been eating properly!” Penelope cried out. “He had not looked well the last time I saw him. It was just… nice to know that he was still eating the way he usually does.”

Penelope had heard herself. She could not blame her friend for looking at her with those deadpan eyes.

“Alright. Fine. You are right. I will talk to him.”

“Talk with him. Really talk with him.”

“Yes, yes!” Penelope agreed, pushing Edwina out of the restroom. “Now go, he must be waiting.”

/

The last time Penelope had seen Colin before this strange Valentine’s Day had been at the monthly Bridgerton family dinner, and that dinner had been a shitshow.

Eloise has dragged her to the Bridgerton house, telling her again and again that her mother wanted her there that night. It was the first family get-together since Colin had broken up with Marina. She knew exactly why Violet had wanted her there so much.

Penelope had made a mental pact with herself to attend the dinner in at least a cordial-enough version of herself. She loved the Bridgertons. She loved Violet. She loved Eloise. And as much as her blood boiled and heart broke when thinking of him, she loved Colin. She needed to keep herself in check.

Well, turns out Penelope’s grasp on self-regulation was completely fucked.

When Benedict had exclaimed her name in a warm welcome, Colin, who had been in conversation with his older brother, had swivelled his head so fast and hard that she had almost blurted out at him to relax. He had waited till she had spoken with all his siblings and mother before approaching her. His pupils had trembled as he had greeted her.

“Hey, Pen.”

One proper look at his face and she had wanted to hug him and cry and tell him that everything would be fine and that she missed him and that she regretted not unblocking him after the fourth round of calls he had made to her sisters.

But no, he did not need to know all of that.

He did not need to know that she had threatened Prudence with her absence at her wedding if Marina was invited.

He did not need to know that she had been rewatching Notting Hill every day since their fight, just because it is his favourite movie.

He did not need to know that she had been pestering Eloise daily about how he was doing.

No need for him to know useless stuff like this.

And apparently, even Penelope had not been aware of how stubborn she was in her anger. It had taken her a few moments before all those things he had said at that tainted coffee shop had come back to her and renewed her anger (and sadness).

“Hey.”

He had deflated at her subdued response. Hyacinth had saved her then from any further conversation with him (or disappointment from him) by pulling Penelope away to talk about her internship at Danbury Publishing House.

That had not stopped Colin from making eyes at her for the rest of the dinner, looking like a kicked puppy.

As if she were the one who had done the kicking.

If he had wanted to talk to her that badly, why had he said all those things?

The dinner had been harder to get through when it had been so apparent that the whole family knew about the fallout between Penelope and Colin. Everyone was acting the way they usually did for the most part. But she could feel the glances they kept throwing towards the two of them when they thought she was not noticing.

Well, Penelope had tried her best. She had answered all of Anthony’s questions about the new author she was working with and Hyacinth’s enquiries about her (non-existent) dating life rather well. All while suppressing the desire to fire a round of verbal ammo at their brother. She really had been doing well.

And then Colin had followed Penelope to the back gardens to talk. And instead of comforting him about being cheated on as her heart had wanted, she had thrown the words he had used to distance her right at his face as her pride had.

“I am sorry about what happened, Colin. Really. But you are a grown man. And who could have predicted that a sweet young girl like me would have been right about a girlfriend you had known for a month, but I had known for some… What? 18 years? It was a surprise to me too. But you will get better. All on your own.”

The embarrassed and crestfallen look on his face right after had made her want to strangle her own neck right then and there. She really could not shut the fuck up. But when had she ever been in control of her emotions when it came to Colin? Everything about him was a big deal to her. And how could he have made light of her words regarding Marina to the point of putting them on such different mental planes? It hurt.

She had run off without dessert, claiming there was a work emergency at a publishing house requiring an editor. But not before apologising to Violet and getting a glimpse of everyone’s pitiful faces, confirming to her that they had been nosy enough to eavesdrop on the entire disaster that had taken place in the gardens.

She had cried herself to sleep that night.

/

Colin was standing right at the exit to the roof when Penelope walked out to look for him. She marched over to him, ready to get this over with.

As hesitant as Penelope was being, she knew she wanted an explanation from Colin. She had avoided it every time she could have before now. She had been too furious to listen to anything from him. And even after the inevitable had happened and taken away the reason of the conflict altogether, she had still chosen to be cruel to him. But he was still here, still willing to give her an explanation he had been ready to give for a long time.

“Do you… Do you want to come over?”

Her heart stuttered at how hopeful he looked as soon as the words left her mouth.

“Yes!” he exclaimed. “Please.”

Penelope nodded.

“Let’s go then.”

/

The walk to Penelope’s apartment was awkward but surprisingly not tense. Colin kept giving her these excited looks in between asking about her family. As if he had not been pestering them weekly for the past month.

This was good. Maybe they could have a calmer talk about what had happened and put this Marina stuff behind them. And then they could have some form of their friendship back.

When Penelope turned around from locking her door, she saw Colin by the kitchen island, flipping through the pages of her copy of Kokoro.

The rare 1914 copy he had brought back for her from his work assignment in Japan three years ago.

“Is it still good?”

“Yeah. Still scarily honest.”

Colin looked at her for a beat too long before putting down the book to where she had left it that afternoon.

“Oh,” he exclaimed, pointing to the inside of her open kitchen, “and you’ve got that espresso machine you were looking at in that Christmas display…” he seemed somewhat disappointed.

“Is that a problem?” Penelope asked, a confused huff of laughter accompanying her words.

“No, not at all. How could it be a problem?” Colin said, glancing at her, and then back at the machine. “Well, its built-in grinders are amazing. No overheating at all.”

Penelope paused in her task of turning on the living room lights.

“...you got one of these too?”

Colin looked as if he had been caught red-handed. At what, Penelope did not know.

“Yeah, a couple of months ago.”

“The sale?”

“Huh?”

“I bought it at the Valentine’s sale, you know. No way I was going to pay the full price.”

‘Oh. Yeah, yeah. Me too…” he answered, though his voice had a dejected tint to it.

Penelope hummed in reply. He really wanted to talk about the fucking espresso machine. As if this is just a casual meetup at her house the way they were having them before he said all that bullshit.

She needed to be calm.

She was going to ask him what they should order when he spoke again.

“It has been so long since I’ve been here.”

It really had been. Well, a month. But it had felt long. Insanely long. The start of his relationship with that woman had been fine. He still used to come over, albeit less frequently. But after that confrontation, where she had tried to be a caring friend and he had acted like an all-knowing idiot, and which had ended with her telling him not to contact her again, he had never been inside her apartment until now. He had been on the other side of the door, but not in the apartment itself.

Earlier, even when he had been away due to his writing assignments, his voice had constantly filled her home through their calls. She hadn’t even had that for the past month. Now, he was here, right in front of her, in her apartment.

It felt right to see him here. She never wanted him to leave. He should stay here with her forever.

But it seemed like her tongue really did not care about what her heart wanted.

“Whose fault is that?”

Colin’s head snapped to look at her. He stared at Penelope, who was waiting for his answer. His eyes were tender, and it made her restless. He finally replied.

“It is mine. It is my fault, Pen. I am sorry.”

What now? What does she say now?

Penelope exhaled loudly, her teeth clenched, and walked towards the kitchen.

“Whatever. It’s fine. Go sit down and order something to eat.”

Colin did not sit down or take out his phone to call the pizzeria down the street. Instead, he stalked over to her.

“Is it fine, Pen? Really?”

“I said it is fine already. You want beer?”

“I don’t think you mean that,” he said desperately. “Please, be honest. What do you want to say? To me, right now.”

“I don’t want to hurt you anymore, Colin. So can you please-”

“Nothing is hurting me more than this. I can take it, Pen. I want it. Please, talk to me. Like you really want to.”

She straightened up, closing the refrigerator door she had just opened, and turned fully to look him in the eyes.

“You really want to be shouted at, don’t you?”

“I will take anything from you, Pen. I just want us to talk.”

She just looked at him and his pleading expression, not speaking. He sighed harshly then, shaking his head.

“I really did not mean what I said back then, Pen. Believe me,” he said, his voice coming out ragged and trembling.

“Then why did you say it?”

“I was being an idiot. A stupid fucking idiot.”

“Or did you mean it back then and are backtracking now because you regret that being truthful made you lose a friend?”

Colin looked as if he had been punched right in the face.

“Pen, that is not it. I was wrong about everything I said back then,” he rasped out. “I had just wanted to believe it.”

Penelope leaned forward with a questioning look on her face.

“You wanted to believe that I was-”

“Not that part! No!” Colin blurted out, panicked. He stuttered for a little while before he let out a heavy breath, readying himself for something.

“I mean,” he spoke, his voice struggling to be steady, “I just wanted to do something right. I wanted to do something right for once.”

“What?” Penelope’s heart clenched hearing those words. What was he saying? Something right for once? “Colin….”

“Pen,” he sighed, holding his head in his hands, “you know how much I have messed up in my life. You were there when it took me a whole year into my digital marketing degree to realise I wanted to pursue literature. When I took up that job all the way in Italy - only to come back in less than a year. When I drove all the way to Bristol to ask that girl to be my girlfriend. God, I only knew her for a week. I don’t even remember her name anymore. I feel as if I have never known what I was doing with my life.

“And when I met Marina, I thought that maybe she could be the one. She could be my Big Non-Mistake. But what makes me mad is that I knew I was wrong a week into that godforsaken relationship and still went with the whole farce. Nothing felt the way I thought it should have. But I thought that maybe if I tried we would fall in love. That I was supposed to try and make it work.

“And then you said all those things I already knew but did not want to believe. And it scared me. I was going to make another mistake right in front of you and everyone else. You were so certain, and I so desperately wanted not to mess up, even though I knew! I knew that relationship was worth nothing way before you said anything. But I wanted to prove myself. To Anthony, to my mother, to you. And I chose the wrong person to do that with.

“And I- God, when Marina cheated, I did not even care that she did! It was humiliating and it hurt a bit that she chose to do that, yes, but I was relieved. Relieved that the whole thing was over and that I would not have to put up an act for another day. I could not even hold it against her that much. I wasn’t a good boyfriend for the last month of our relationship.

“I used to constantly ask her whether she had heard anything from you. I knew it wasn’t possible but I just kept wishing that she had by some miracle. She used to get so angry whenever I asked about you, and what’s worse is that I never stopped. I just could not bring myself to care that much. Not having you in my life really messed me up, Pen. I did not care about anything other than getting you back.”

Penelope felt her whole body heat up at the last sentence. Why did he have to say it like that? And who asks their girlfriend repeatedly about her cousin who has been cursing out their relationship?

She was so in love with this man.

“I did not even care that what I was scared of actually happened. I just wish I had ended it earlier without having her cheat on me. I hate myself for not listening to you. I hate that I tried to be someone I am not in front of you. I regretted those words as soon as I uttered them.”

He came closer, taking hold of both her hands in his.

“You are everything that is good in this world, Pen. You are so bright and brilliant and so…” he gulped, tears threatening to spill from his eyes and his lips trembling. “You inspire me, and you make me see the world in ways I did not know were possible. I am so sorry for what I did.”

Penelope looked down at their hands, trying to tether her floating self. She relished the feel of his skin, which she hadn’t felt for so long. When she was sure she had swallowed enough of her tears, she spoke up.

“Colin, I remember the day you told your family about changing your major. When we were all vacationing at your country estate. You are right. Anthony had been mad. But all I had thought was how brave it was of you to do that. At that point in my life, I could not even imagine doing something like that. I thought you were so cool. To do something even though you knew it would disappoint some people. And I knew how much you hated and still hate disappointing people.

“What I remember from that vacation is how you took all of it so well. You still spent that vacation drinking fake tea with Hyacinth while sitting on those little sparkly chairs. You took Eloise and me to that late-night party that Anthony forbade us from going to alone. Even though you had been tired from spending the entire day playing football with Gregory. You did all that with the sweetest smile and without a complaint. Even though I could tell you were hurting. You were so cool.

“That Italy job made you realise how much you did not want to stay in one place. It was what made you apply for the job you love now. And that girl…”

Penelope walked close enough to Colin so that she was looking up at him, and grasped his hand. He was looking down at her, resembling a fish out of the water. It made Penelope want to squeeze his cheeks and bite his nose.

“The only reason you went after her was that you had recently developed that obsession with It Happened One Night.”

He flushed red in such an instant, making her purse her lips to contain her laughter.

“But you were so willing to feel and to experience. You were always so open to new things. And even though it did not work out then or this time, Colin, I know it will happen one day. I know that. You are smart and brave and willing to take risks. Sometimes, they don’t work out. But they have so many other times! When you hounded the editor of that magazine for that internship during the second year of your uni. Or when you entered that poetry competition in sixth form, just because you wanted to try your hand at it, even though you had a History paper the next day. Or when you chose to take up that assignment in Croatia on a whim and the article you wrote got you a promotion.

“So, will you please stop thinking about yourself that way? Because the next time this line of thinking leads to you saying anything like you did at that cafe, I will rip your head off.”

He opened and closed his mouth a couple of times, unable to say anything. It was when Penelope let out an airy laughter that he smiled back, his eyes refusing to leave hers.

“You remember that poetry competition?” he asked. Penelope huffed.

“Of course, I do. You recited your poem all day to me before the competition.”

“You were the only one who did not mind hearing it so many times.”

“Well, I liked it.”

It was silent again, both of them just looking at each other. But Penelope had one more thing to clear.

“Colin, I am sorry for what I said. At your mother’s house.”

He just kept smiling.

“I don’t blame you. I deserved it.”

“No, you did not. I am sorry.”

“I don’t blame you at all, Pen.”

“Still. I want you to know I regret acting the way I did about the whole thing. And that I did not enjoy any of it. I’m sorry.”

His eyes flashed with an unusual tenderness, leaning down to speak softly.

“Well, all is forgiven. At least from my side. Am I forgiven?”

She loved him so much. She was going to go crazy from the force of the feeling one day. Well, whatever. She did not care as long as she could have him near her.

“Yeah. It’s all good,” she beamed.

“You mean it this time?”

“Yeah, I mean it.”

“You really mean it?”

“I really, really mean it.”

He smiled at her, toothy and so bright. His eyes were shining with unshed tears, but they were full of joy now. Her heart was beating hard and fast enough to jump out of her chest from looking at him. She went to extract herself from his hold to avoid doing something stupid like kissing his face all over. But he gripped her wrist, peering into her eyes with a strange intensity for a moment, before he tugged her forward, hugging her tightly. She was frozen for a moment, and then she relaxed completely within his arms.

He was so big and warm. Sturdy and muscled. She loved hugging him, being surrounded by him.

Penelope realised her arms were trapped under his to her sides, and pulled them out to rearrange them around his neck. Her face now resting over his shoulder, his head buried in her tresses at the right side of her neck. She thought, for a second, she felt him sniffing her. But no - even though he was crazy at times, he wasn’t the kind of crazy she was.

“I missed you”, he gasped, as if he had just run a marathon. “I missed you so much, Pen. You have no idea.”

“Me too,” Penelope tightened her grip. “I missed you so much too.”

They parted only after a moment or two too long, still holding each other’s arms loosely. “Well, I hope you are more careful with your heart in the future,” Penelope sniffled out. She had not even realised she had some tears rolling down her face.

“Marina never had that,” he replied, his voice still croaky, too. “And to be honest with you I think I just might turn more reckless.”

Penelope quirked an eyebrow. “Really, now? You have turned into some kind of daredevil now, is that it?”

He ran his hands up and down her arms, a delicate sweetness obvious in his expression.

“Just realised some things.”

“Some new prospect?”

“No. No new prospects,” he looked up then, his eyes roaming all over her face. He brought a hand up to tuck back some annoying strands of her hair behind her ear. “I am being serious, Pen. I have no intention of finding someone new now.”

Penelope was too happy to think about what that meant. So she just lightly swatted Colin’s arm. “Go order a pizza. And some garlic bread. And pick something to watch. I will get the beer and the snacks.”

Colin nodded but didn’t turn towards the couch, continuing to grin at her. He really was just going to stand there, looking like a puppy who didn’t have a tail to wag.

Penelope made the decision to walk back to the refrigerator, rolling her eyes at him fondly. “Go, now!” she giggled. She heard him chuckle back at her, and then the sound of his softening footsteps.

“You want Emma?” he called out a few minutes later.

“We are good now, Colin. You can pick something you actually want to see.”

“I have actually grown quite fond of the movie,”

When did that happen? mused Penelope.

“Well, it’s fine. Pick something else.”

“What? You want to watch Notting Hill?”

“God, no. I have been watching it practically every day for the past mon-”

She caught herself too late, and now she did not know what to say.

“Alright. I will pick something else."

Maybe he hadn’t figured it out? Penelope definitely hoped so. Whatever. He probably has not even given it a second thought. She could have started liking Notting Hill for a variety of non-Colin-related reasons over the past month!

She stalked over to the couch with their drinks and snacks a few moments later.

It is not a big deal, Penelope! She kept telling herself and her rapidly beating heart as she sat down next to him.

And if she noticed his red-tinged ears and ill-suppressed grin, she decided to ignore it to protect her own sanity.