Something More? ✔️

14

The following month for Penny could be summed up with one word: blissful.

She spent most of her days cruising between doing makeup for the magazine and hanging out with James. It was basically her perfect vision of what heaven would look like. Most days she would meet him at the cafe or at another one of his part time jobs and they would go to a nearby mall or park. While their two-person paradise was very welcomed by Penny, after a while, she began to feel something was off.

This feeling finally solidified into a coherent thought one Friday afternoon. Penny was at the magazine shoot, packing away her brushes and chatting with Sandra, when James swung by. His hair was still wet from the earlier soccer match and he lounged in one of the chairs by her.

"So where you taking me today?" Penny asked with a smile.

"About that, I'm meeting up with some of my friends for dinner. I don't think we can hang today." he said.

Penny tried hard not to let her disappointment show on her face, "No problem. Have fun!"

He swooped down to give her a peck on the cheek before heading out of the room. Penny could feel Sandra's gaze on her, words on the tip of her tongue. She was looking through possible photos that could debut on the upcoming magazine but her disapproval was obvious.

"Do you have something to say?" Penny mused.

Sandra looked up from the pictures, "Can I? Or will you be super defensive?"

"I won't."

"Okay — I just think it's weird that you don't meet up with his friends."

"Just because we're dating doesn't mean we have to do everything together. We can still have our own lives and our own friends," Penny said pointedly.

"True. But have you even met his friends yet?"

Penny really didn't want to answer that question, "Not yet ...". Sandra raised her eyebrows and pursed her lips. Deep down Penny agreed with Sandra's assessment; she too had begun to feel that something wasn't quite right about their relationship. It started around a week ago. Sure she felt on cloud 9 whenever she was with him, but when they were apart, Penny always wondered who he was with and how he was doing. Penny also had the nagging feeling that she was a secret. Or maybe they were just more private? These thoughts scrambled her brain and left her feeling queasy.

Sandra could see Penny's unease and patted her reassuringly on the shoulder, "How about we get dinner together? It could help get your mind off of things."

Penny nodded, her mind still very much stuck on James.

❋  ❋  ❋

The two sat at the table waiting for their fries to come. Sandra was scrolling through her phone looking for some inspiration for their upcoming photoshoot. Penny still couldn't help but continue spiraling about what to do. The waiter breezed by their table and set their fries and drinks in front of them.

"What do you think about this one?" Sandra asked, flashing her phone screen in front of Penny's face. She looked at the image: it featured an all-denim look with a bold makeup concept.

"Sure. It looks good," she said. Penny had responded this exact way for the past ten minutes, and Sandra could tell she was still stuck on James. Sighing, Sandra continued looking through her feed, when suddenly she paused. She cautiously looked up at Penny and slowly put down the french fry in her hand.

"What?" Penny asked.

"I think — I think you should see this," Sandra handed her phone to Penny. Someone had posted a group photo, and to the side of the clique, she could make out James and Kate sitting side by side. Kate had her hand draped around the back of her chair and she was leaning forward, almost touching him. James had a wide smile plastered on his face as if he was having the best time of his life. In that very instance she felt her heart sink to her stomach. Penny felt like a fool. She felt as if she was on a prank show all along and all their dates and promises were fake. He probably liked Kate. Why wouldn't he? She was beautiful. Although it pained her to see the photo, Penny couldn't look away.

"Penny?" Sandra said gently.

She snapped her head up, "Its fine. I-I shouldn't jump to conclusions. They're not doing anything fishy, it's just a group hang out."

Sandra shook her head, "Yeah, but their not just friends," she paused as if deciding whether or not to say more, "look I know it's none of my business, but you're a bit new to this whole dating game and easily fooled. I really think you should talk to him."

Penny looked down at her knobby hands. There were still some blotches of concealer and a dusting of glittery powder on the side. Sandra had a point; James and Kate weren't just friends. Hadn't he admitted to her that they were friends with benefits? Was he still fooling around with her? She closed her eyes. Penny couldn't bear the thought that she wasn't his one and only.

"I'll talk to him," she said firmly.