"You’re welcome to buy it," Morticia replied.
"Maybe your sugar daddy can buy it," Lilith said, turning to stare at me.
"You take that back, Lilith," Penny said. "That's not why I'm with him!"
"If the house comes with the two of you, then no way," I said. "I don’t need you putting hemlock in my coffee."
"I suppose you don’t want any of this then," Morticia said, scooping two mugs full of the liquid out of the pot. She and Lilith went out to the back porch.
"I love my friends," Penny said. "But honestly, I would like for once in my life to have my own space. When I lived in the city, I shared a room, like a literal room, with two other people. Now at least I have my own room, but I have to share the house with an army of ten thousand dolls."
"I feel the same way about my brothers," I admitted. "Love them, would do anything for them, but it would be nice to have some peace and quiet."
"Ah well," Penny said, getting up and bypassing the bubbling pot to grab a tea bag. "It's nice to dream."
I looked at her blankly. "Or we could just leave."
"Leave?" she said as she boiled water.
"I have a condo in the city. We could go there for a few days." She looked at me in shock. "Unless you don’t want to," I said, backtracking.
"Sorry, you lost me at ‘condo in the city,’" she said. "Did you mean a condo of your very own, or do you have a bed in a condo?"
"It’s mine. I don't even share any walls with another condo. I have the whole floor of the building."
"You really should have led with that!" Penny said.
I left her to pack and had Weston pick me up. He looked rough.
"I don’t know what Ida put in that cider," he rasped.
"You’re a lightweight," I said with a smirk.
"Clearly."
When we were back at the estate, I packed a bag then dragged Blade out of bed to drive a new car back to Penny's. Then we were headed to Manhattan.
"OMG, Garrett," she said as she sped down the road. "It’s almost Halloween!"
"You're not tired of it?"
"Never!" she shouted and turned up the music. Jack Skellington was singing about Christmas.
"See," I said, "this isn’t a Halloween soundtrack."
"Picky, picky. Oh, if we’re going to Manhattan, we have to stop by the Halloween Emporium. It's a pop-up holiday shop. They change names and stock based on the season. They have nice, high-end stuff. It's not like the Halloween stores in the mall. I want us to be Jack and Sally for trick-or-treating next week."
"Doesn’t he just wear a suit?" I said, frowning. "Why do I need a costume? I have a pinstripe suit."
"And I’m sure you look very handsome in it," Penny said, "but this store supposedly has a Jack Skellington head, and you need a bat bow tie. Also they have Sally’s dress and tights."
"You already have the red hair, at least," I said, tugging one of her curls.
On the drive over, I did research. If I was taking Penny to Manhattan, I wanted to make a good impression. She was quickly becoming an important part of my life. I wanted to keep her in it, and part of that was making her happy.
67
Penny
