It's Only Temporary

Chapter 30: Only In Romance Novels

"You would have left?" Penny asked from the other side of the coffee table. "If you'd been in my place, you would've just gone to medical school? Even if it was someone you care about? Even if it was someone you--"

"Penny, I don't know," David interrupted, leaning forward in his chair. He rubbed his eyes wearily and then scrubbed his palms down the length of his face. "It's so late. I haven't slept at all. I want to talk to you about this. I really do. But can we just... Can we both sleep for a couple hours first? You can just lie down right there on the couch and--"

"No!" Penny stood up abruptly.

"For God's sake! What is it with you and the couch?" He looked up at her, his expression hovering somewhere between exhaustion, irritation, and complete bafflement. "Why can't you sleep there? Because I somehow made you drop out of medical school?"

"No." She shook her head. Her mind was still reeling, and her tongue stumbled clumsily over her words. "That wasn't...it's not because of that. I made a rule. That's all. Because of something else. It wasn't you. It was someone else."

"Who?"

"No one."

"What do you mean, no one?"

"My ex. OK? It was my ex-boyfriend. He was letting me crash on his futon, and..." She waved away the rest of her sentence with a little flick of her fingers.

"And he thought you were doing more than just crashing on his futon?"

"Something like that."

"Let me guess," David said, casting her a knowing look. "Were you wearing a bikini at the time?"

She scowled at him. "I should be able to wear whatever I want without getting manhandled-"

"He manhandled you? Did he actually try to, like-"

"It's fine. I left. I learned my lesson. I made a rule. End of story."

David raised his eyebrows, studying her face. His voice sounded thoughtful when he finally spoke again. "So, basically, this whole thing has nothing to do with me. This is all about your ex."

Penny shrugged and looked down, studying the crochet pattern of the blanket wrapped around her shoulders. She wished she hadn't said anything. It felt wrong somehow - talking to David about Greg. Maybe because it gave Greg far more significance than he deserved. "Whatever," she mumbled. "It wasn't a big deal."

"You want me to go over there and rough him up?"

Penny smiled in spite of herself at the thought. "He would snap you in half."

David didn't smile back. She could see him clenching his hands into fists. "I can handle myself," he said.

"He played offensive line. He could bench press you."

"Football player?" David narrowed his eyes. " Is that what you go for? All those muscle-bound meathead types?"

She looked away again. If you only knew, she thought. She wasn't even attracted to Greg anymore. She had been once, but that was ancient history. No, the type Penny went for had undergone an abrupt shift two years ago, the day she showed up for her first day of her summer job and laid eyes on her new boss....

But of course, she couldn't tell David that.

He was still talking anyway. She could see one of his long tangents coming on. Here it came now. David waxing eloquent, with much waving of the hands. "You know it all turns to fat, right? All that muscle mass. What does he weigh, this guy? Two fifty? Two seventy-five? It's only muscle until they gets off the steroids. By the time they get to be my age, it's 250 pounds of solid lard-"