Crash

Proposals

"So, I have a surprise for you," Charles told Penelope as she led sprawled out across the couch, her phone balanced on the arm. It was late, maybe 1 or 2am, but it was what she'd grown used to. With her living in L.A. and him currently in Jeddah, trying to balance the time zones took a lot of effort. Over the last few days, they'd fallen into a pattern where Charles would call her during his lunch break, and they'd talk before she went to sleep. Then, when she woke up in the morning, she'd call him to hear about his day on her drive to work. Since she couldn't dance for another few days, and work at the studio was still in shambles following Logan's leave of absence, talking to him had become the only stable part of her routine.

"A surprise?" Penelope asked as she tried to stifle her yawn. "I love surprises."

Charles chuckled on the other end, a car beeping somewhere in the distance. "I know. That's why I was thinking, since I have the week off between Jeddah and Melbourne and you can't come to Monaco, why don't I fly out to L.A.?"

The exhaustion that Penelope once felt vanished almost instantly. She clasped a hand over her mouth, trying not to wake Jane by gasping too loudly. "What about training? Mattia-"

"Has already cleared it. Can't take the company plane this time though. He wasn't too happy about that as it turns out."

"Did he tell you off?" she smiled, pulling up the sleeve on the shirt she was wearing. It was red, some Ferrari kit she'd stolen from Charles the last time he was here. It still smelt of his cologne, and right now that was a comfort to her.

"Let's just say it's a good thing I won this weekend. I told it was your fault, but he didn't believe me."

Penelope laughed, raising her eyebrows in offense. "You're such a dick."

"Hey, you can't insult me for at least a few more hours. Careful, or you'll be leaving Jeddah alone."

"You wouldn't dare."

"True," he said as Penelope began to close her eyes. Little did she know, the conversation wasn't over yet.

"Listen...there was something else I wanted to talk to you about."

Penelope's eyes shot open. She didn't like sentences that started like that. Most of the time, Charles was the most laid back person she'd ever met, but they'd had a rough week. Part of her worried that maybe he'd changed his mind about everything that had happened with Logan, and he'd been trying to find a way to tell her. Maybe he'd lured her into a false sense of security by getting her hopes up about the trip before getting ready to drop the 'I don't believe you when you say you're not in love with your best friend' bomb. 

"Okay," she replied nervously, chewing on her lip.

"How would you feel about doing an interview?"

Instantly, Penelope's walls grew taller. She had always been careful about the details she shared with her fans, and interviews were a brilliant way of giving people too much insight. She'd been doing them since she was first cast as Annabeth, and it had taken her time to learn how to protect herself from being exploited into giving away more than she wanted to. She'd learned pretty quickly that quotes about her love life or her past sold a lot more than a discussion about skating. 

"What interview?"

"With Ferrari, just on the channel or something. Mattia makes us do them all the time, we do little challenges and things. Could be fun?"

Penelope's expression was still stony. "Or we could end up with a stalker."

"I take that as a no, then."

Before answering, Penelope considered her options. In her heart, she didn't want to do the interview. She liked their relationship the way it was. As soon as they gave a part of them to the public, people develop opinions. No matter what anyone says, words have a lot of power. If enough fans started to plant seeds of doubt in their minds...