It's Only Temporary

Chapter 27: Over My Dead Body

He stood there in his robe, blinking at her stupidly from the other side of the doorway. "I don't...Penny, I don't understand."

He didn't understand?

Or he didn't want to understand.

"Here," Penny said, her voice starting to rise. "Take it. Take it back." She unzipped the front of the sweatshirt with a jerk and tore it off from around her shoulders. Then she threw it in a ball at his feet. "I don't want it! Do you understand that? I don't want anything from you!"

She watched his eyes travel down to the sweatshirt and back up the length of her body, not quite making it to her face. A flush of color stained his neck and crept upward as he stared at her chest.

Men, she thought disgustedly. Didn't matter how smart they were or how much money they made. Show them a girl in a bathing suit, and they were all the same. Greg. David. All of them. She couldn't believe she'd been so blind before. She actually thought that David was different. And the whole time, he'd been laughing it up with his friends about her behind her back. And then he had the nerve to give her shit about quitting. As if she owed him something. As if she hadn't already given him so much more than he deserved.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Powers," she said, spitting the words at him. "Was I not supposed to quit? Was that inconvenient for you? Did it make you look bad in front of all your little drinking buddies, when the temp with the nice rack didn't give you two weeks notice?"

"What-here, just come inside. It's the middle of the night." He reached for her arm, but she pulled it away with a jerk.

"Always, David? Always? Did you really think I was never going to figure it out?"

"Figure what out?" he stammered. "What are you-are you drunk?"

"No, I'm not drunk!"

The door of the next apartment slitted open. A middle-aged woman in pajamas peeked out at them. "I'm so sorry, Mrs. Peterson," David said to her over Penny's shoulder. "This is under control."

"Do I need to call the doorman?" the woman responded. Her eyebrows lifted meaningfully as she took in Penny's wardrobe. "Or the police?"

"No-it's not what it looks like. I'm so sorry. We'll be quiet, I promise."

The woman shook her head as she pulled the door closed. Penny couldn't quite make out what she was muttering under her breath. Something about "bachelors" and "a different one every week."

The neighbor's door clicked closed, and David pulled his own apartment door further open. "Get in here!" he ordered. "What the hell is the matter with you?"

Penny only shook her head and spun away, turning toward the elevators.

"Where are you going?" he called after her.

"I'm going," she said. "I'm gone. Wouldn't want to make a scene."

"No!" He lurched behind her and grabbed her by the upper arm. Penny struggled to wrench her arm from his grasp, but he held her firmly and dragged her backward through the doorway of his apartment.

"Ow! Let go of me!"

"You are not going outside like that," he hissed as he yanked her inside. He shut the door behind himself and stood squarely in front of it, blocking her exit.

"Like what?" Penny put her hands on her hips and stuck her chest out to give him a better view. "You don't like what you see? 'Cause those guys from the Chicago desk sure seemed to think so."

He picked the discarded sweatshirt up from the ground and walked a few paces toward her, keeping his eyes averted as he held it out it her. "Put this back on, please."