His Royal Badness and the Mistress of Muscle -Vol. 2

Chapter 40: Being Honest

Prince narrates:

Penelope waltzes into the living room holding some photos and smiling. Nothing unusual. "what do you have there, Sweetie?" I ask, expecting to see pictures of a man in a dress or something else weird.

"Look Sugar, my billboard in New York!" she exclaims, showing me a picture of it.

I grin,"That's my girl." I pull her close and kiss her.

When we pull away she gushes,"It'll be so cool to show to my future children!"

"Yeah...cool." I mutter. I get up and head to the studio. She could've said our future children. But she didn't. Does this mean I'm the last man on Earth she'd marry and have a family with? What line will she use to end things? "I can't handle the traveling"? "Going on tour with you has cost me a lot of jobs"? I'm sure it has and I feel guilty about that. Will she simply look at me with those beautiful blue green eyes and softly say,"It's not going to work out."? Or worse of all,"I've found someone else"

Other than Margaret, I've never wanted to marry someone this bad. But at least back then I was a little young to actually plan on going through with it! Thankfully I grew up in time to realize that Margaret was too independent to have a husband in her early twenties. But now I'm older and want to settle down. I thought Penelope was the one I'd do it with. I'm pissed! Out of rage, I kick the wastebasket which scares Amethyst, who runs out of the room screeching!

"Pretty Kitty, what's wrong?" Penelope asks. She scoops her up in her arms and comes up to me. "Did something scare Amethyst?"

"Accidently knocked over the garbage." I reply.

"oh"

"Do you ever fantasize about other men?" It's the closest I can come to tell her I don't want her to be with someone else.

"What? "

"Just asking. If you care about me at all you'll be honest."

"Sugar...I don't dream of any man but you. That's because I'm incapable of it." She gives me a big kiss. "Who's being insecure now?" She says with a cocky smile.

If I had a ring in my pocket, I'd get down on my knees and say I'd have nothing to be insecure about if you'd marry me.

"So, you changed your mind about having a family?" I ask.

She looks away "Yeah. It'd be wonderful to have a couple offspring to love and share my life with." Penelope says.

"Worried about your self esteem though?"

" I want to change anyway. Last night, I couldn't sleep and thought,'what am I doing? Wasting my energy? It not going to change anything. '"

"True "

"Logically I know I'm not the ugliest lady in the room. But I see so many beautiful people including Sabrina and I know I don't measure up. Actually Annette makes me nervous."

"Why? She's not a bad person."

"She the total package. I'd love to be able to sing and have figure like that."

"It's not all sunshine and rainbows for her. Annette has to watch her weight as much as you do-maybe more. She always needs to be aware of falling into a relapse with her anorexia. "

Penelope looks stunned,"I didn't know that was a concern for her still. It's probably hard for you to be sympathetic towards me or her because you've never had a weight problem and it's not something you have ever had think about."

She's got me there. Yeah, I'm lucky that way. But I have more understanding than Penelope believes. I've watched her struggle with a "fucked up" metabolism, witnessed Annette having to worry about her anorexia and saw Margaret give up eating what she wanted in moderation for a slightly more strict diet after becoming a Bunny because she got weighed daily at her job. Margaret told me stories of girls who went on diet pills and used other extreme measures. It's so sad to think that three of the women I've cared about the most have all struggled with weight, in some way or another.

"Remember those fabulous white knee high boots you ordered for me? I told you to send them back because they weren't comfortable?" Penelope recalls.

"Yeah, what about that?" I ask.

"I lied to you. They had to go because they wouldn't zip over my damn calves"

In spite of myself I laugh,"why would you lie about that?"

"Thought you'd view me as unfeminine."

"Because a manufacturer made a narrow boot?" I hug her I assure her she's overreacting and it's okay.

"Thanks for telling me about Annette, I feel sort of like I'm not alone." Penelope admits. "really, I want to be more confident."

"You can do it."

She kisses me before getting ready for a photo shoot. "I love you."

"I love you too. You know not everything fits me off the rack either. Part of the reason I have things custom made."

Penelope smiles, waves goodbye and I watch the hopefully one day matriarch of the Nelson family go to the job she excels at.