Page 67 of Here and Now
“And what about you?” I ask, reaching around her for a slice of cheese, not minding that I brush her bare legs.
She clears her throat. “What about me?”
“Tell me some story about you in high school.”
“Hmm.” Penelope looks around before grinning. “Okay, so this one time, my best friend, Teresa, convinced me that there was this group of cannibals who lived on this road in our town. The legend had it that if we went there before midnight, we’d see them sacrifice their next person. Of course, the smart people didn’t go because if this was true, you didn’t want tobethe sacrifice, right?”
“I’m guessing you were not the smart people.”
She laughs once. “We were not.”
“Of course, proceed.”
“So we go at eleven thirty and park on a different street, because why would you want your escape vehicle close? Much better to have to traipse through the woods when running from the cannibals who kill people.”
“Yes, much better,” I say with a chuckle.
“So, Teresa and I are out there, on this dark-ass road where I’m pretty sure we had a better chance of being killed by a driver than these people, and we wait there, standing in someone’s yard, hoping to see—I don’t even know what, because if we actually saw what we were there for, I’m pretty sure we would’ve shit our pants. However, we waited, and the only thing we saw was the police car when he rolled up because the person’s lawn we were on called them.”
I laugh, shaking my head. “Kids.”
“We were all stupid.”
“Agreed.”
Penelope hops off the counter and stands next to me, bumping me with her hip. “Okay, now you go.”
“Go where?”
She rolls her eyes. “I heard your students’ dumb stories, but now I want one of yours.”
I raise my brows. “Me? I don’t have any.”
“Yeah, right.”
“I was a saintly teenager.”
“Saintly?” the disbelief is clear in her voice. “If I called Eloise right now, what would she say?”
“You can’t believe a word that comes out of her mouth. She was the second twin, and we think she had a lack of oxygen. Messes with the memories.”
Penelope bursts out laughing. “I think you did some really dumb shit.”
“I’m pretty sure you would think that.”
She turns, moving so quickly she almost falls, but I catch her arms and steady her. There’s an instant shift in the atmosphere. A charge that fills the room as I have her in my hands.
Her lips part and she stares at me for a beat.
The urge to kiss her is stronger than ever. Being around her, just talking like this as we made dinner, is everything I’ve wanted.
I know I don’t really know her.
I know this is just chemistry at this point.
But I’m really fucking good at science.
Penelope lifts her hands, resting them on my chest. “Sorry,” she says softly.
