Lie Until You Laugh

36- Favors

“How do I look?” I ask Stella on Monday morning.

She laughs. “You look very professional. Why do you look so professional?”

I look in the mirror on the back of the door. I’m wearing a black and crème dress that goes to just below my shins and the top is chiffon and blouse-like. My hair is up in a tight pony tail that screams ‘I have wrinkles that I’m trying to hide’ even though I obviously don’t actually have wrinkles. “I’m going for brunch with Penn’s parents,” I explain.

“Isn’t Penn doing one-on-one all day today though?” She wonders.

I nod in confirmation. “Yeah, he’s not going. He actually doesn’t even know that I’m going. It’s… complicated, but I’m trying to surprise him with something.”

“Oh,” She sighs. “Okay, well when you get back, we can catch a movie or something?”

I nod. “Sure, that sounds good. I won’t be gone for too long hopefully. Are you okay?” I ask her curiously as I notice that she doesn’t seem very Stella-like today.

She nods and forces a smile that isn’t very convincing. “Yeah, I’m totally fine. Just… you know, thinking and stuff.”

“Well, I’m here if you want to talk about anything you know,” I remind her, pushing black earrings into my ears. I’m going to brunch today to try and convince Penn’s parents to get Ana home early. I don’t know if that’s possible or what really is going on with Penn’s little sister, but I know that he really misses her. After what he did with bringing my family here and everything, I feel like I need to do something special for him and this is the only thing I can think of that seems big enough. Even though his parents terrify me, I know that they like me due to my status as Chase Vaughn’s niece, so I’m hoping that gets me some points.

“Yeah, I know,” She assures me. “Now, go and have a fancy brunch with fancy people. Please don’t come back with an English accent.”

“Penn’s parents don’t have English accents,” I laugh, grabbing my car keys after slipping on my shiny black heels.

“You don’t understand my humor,” She informs me with a sad sigh.

I sing her a goodbye as I leave the dorm room and go downstairs, walking through campus to get to the parking lot where my car is parked. My mom used it to visit Chase on Saturday, but I have it back now and she’s spending the day job hunting and Jo is with Chace or maybe with a babysitter that he’s hired.

I’m meeting Mr. and Mrs. Shaw at some fancy brunch place that I’ve never heard of but after speaking to Mr. Shaw on the phone, I looked it up and got the address. It’s in the heart of LA, so I’m thinking that maybe I’ll see some celebrities, which would be really cool and an added bonus to doing this for Penn. It’s easy to find even though traffic in LA is terrible, I get through it with a minimal amount of road rage and I’m right on time showing up at the restaurant.

Even though I’m right on time, the old rich couple that I came to meet are already there in a table near the center of the room. I spot them and walk in their direction as I look around- no celebrities. It’s a cute, calm little place but I’ve never had brunch before so I’m not so sure what’s socially acceptable to order at all.

I smile at them both and hope that they can’t smell fear. I’d spent a lot of yesterday practicing my handshakes and smiles and everything, so I’m sure that I’m ready as long as Mrs. Shaw doesn’t say anything too terrible, I should be good to go hopefully.

“How have you been, dear?” Mrs. Shaw asks me as I approach them with one of my rehearsed polite smiles.

“I’m okay, thank you. Yourself?” I wonder, hoping that I sound sophisticated. I feel sophisticated in my dress and heels but I have to act the part as well and it’s kind of hard considering I’ve only met these people once before and from what I remember, they’re not the most tolerable people out there.