Page 96 of On a Fault Line

“I had no idea.”

Penny stands, handing me a drink. I look at the artificial orange color with the chunky stuff floating around.

“I got you a mango bubble tea with the juicy popping boba pearls.”

I stare at the bottom of the drink, trying to decipher all the things she said about the drink. “Thank you.”

She bounces on her feet with excitement, which only makes me nervous. “Try it.”

I take a hesitant sip.

“Does it taste as good as it looks?” Donna asks, also a bit eager.

“Better.”

Penny looks at her mom. “I told you he would like it.”

“Now I know what hand soap tastes like. Yum.”

Penny slaps me on the arm, causing her mom to laugh and look from me to her daughter and back again.

Taking a step back, I try to detach myself, as I do best. But Penny makes it hard when she is being playful.

“Cheers,” Donna says, raising her bright purple drink.

Now that doesn’t even look drinkable. It looks like grape cough syrup blended with milk.

We bump cups together, and I take a slurp through the straw.

Coughing into my arm, water fills my eyes.

Penny smacks my back. “Did you choke on a boba?”

“I think so,” I say with staggered syllables. “It was slimy.”

She giggles. “You are supposed to chew them and make the juice squirt out.”

Donna examines her cup. “Yeah, these need a warning label for first-timers. It definitely takes a mental adjustment to consume something that looks like a paint cup.”

Penny nudges her mom with her elbow. “Don’t forget to ask him, Momma,” she says, drawing my attention to Donna.

“I’m throwing a Labor Day party, and you must come to it.”

I resist laughing over Donna’s invitation that never turned out to be an actual question. “Of course, I will be there. Thank you for the invite, ma’am.”

Turning to her daughter, she smiles. “Can you bring a dessert?”

“Yeah, sure. I’ll make something fun and festive.”

Carrying our drinks, we make our way out of the building and onto the street. With a glance around, I see all the members of Penny’s hired entourage blending in with the people on the sidewalk.

At least they are being discreet.

Just knowing that Penny has some extra protection when I’m not with her is getting me through these moments where I am biding my time before I can make the ultimate move.

We can’t have a repeat incident of the waterfront fiasco.

But I also can’t be with her twenty-four seven like I have been.

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