I’d known Penny for all of two seconds, and yet I felt pretty certain she was sharing cringe-worthy details about her sex life. It was official—I liked Penny Weiss.
“It’s a little early for wine, but I have tea if you’d like to come in.”
“You sure? I don’t want to interrupt your day.”
“I have a six-year-old to watch in an hour, so I have time.”
Penny didn’t freak-out over Trzy, but she did confess her cat allergy. It was a good test to Trzy’s hypoallergenic trait.
“You look too young to be retired.” I handed Penny a cup of tea and sat in the chair opposite her at my kitchen table.
“I’m forty-five and Rupert is fifty-nine.” She gave me a sheepish grin. “We’re the couple snobby people like to talk about. We were the hottest gossip topic for years. Rupert was a tenured professor of finance at the same college where my father was the dean. Rupert had two kids and was in a miserable marriage. I was eight weeks pregnant with two years of college under my expanding belt, but a master’s degree in disgracing my father.
“Rupert and I saw each other for the first time outside of my father’s office. I’d just told daddy dearest about my pregnancy, and of course I left in tears because my father was a total dick. An hour later there was a tap on my car window. I was bawling my eyes out, couldn’t see to drive home. It was Rupert, a complete stranger to me at the time. He offered me a ride home. And because I was young and stupid, hence theunplanned pregnancy, I accepted his offer.”
“When we got to my apartment, I invited him up for coffee, vomited the details of my tragic life, and drained all my tears into his shirt, using his silk tie like a hanky. Two hours later we were in my bed naked and completely satisfied. Can you believe a guy his age had never had a girl go down on him?”
Penny grinned. I’d lost all facial function as my jaw hung in midair.
“Oh, so to answer your retirement question. Rupert is retired; he made very wise investments over the years. As for me… I don’t need to work, but I’ve always had odd jobs. Just something to keep me busy and sane. I can’t be with Rupert all the damn day. We’d kill each other.”
Penny was such an unexpected part of my day, yet oddly refreshing. She had the power to break my Netflix addiction. I knew her how-I-met-my-husband story was just a morsel of her life.
“So was the father of your child out of the picture?”
“Honey, he was out of the picture before the picture ever came into focus. You know those things in life that really are not representative of your finer moments?”
I nodded, sipping my tea. I loved her southern drawl and the way she called me honey.
“Well, during the sowing-of-my-wild-oats phase, I kinda fell into a slut rut.”
My brow lifted.
“I was stoned out of my mind most of the time and screwed anything with a dick.” She tapped the rim of her cup with her fingernail. “Hell, who am I kiddin’? I’m pretty sure there were a few women in the mix too.” Penny sighed. A faintsmile grew on her face like she was reminiscing about the good ol’ days.
“You’ve lived quite the life so far.”
“I have. Lots of mistakes, but no regrets. What about you?”
“I’m not that exciting. Lost my leg and my boyfriend in a car accident. Moved here a few months ago from San Francisco. I make a living with my ‘disability’ by testing cutting-edge prosthetics and doing occasional photoshoots.”
“What about a significant other? You’re too pretty to not have a boyfriend… or girlfriend. Equal opportunity, right?”
I chuckled, staring down at my tea. “I do have someone. It’s kind of new and kind of old, but mostly kind of hard to explain, but he’s… quite the catch.”
“I like the sound of that.”
A knock at the door brought me back to reality just as memories of the previous night started to heat my skin.
“I’ll get out of your hair.” Penny stood.
“No, you don’t have to go.”
“Nope, I’m going. We’ll chat later, honey.”
I looked through the peephole.
“Aren’t those things addictive? They don’t work so well from the other side.”
