Page 29 of Enemies with my Bestie’s Brother
Cake and decorations? I can handle that, easily.
“Why don’t you let me take on the birthday party, Penny?”
She gives me a sweet smile that is tinged with sadness.
“Oh, you are so sweet, but I can’t let you do that. It wouldn’t be fair, since you already have so much work to do on Grayson’s apartment. It would be too much.”
“Come on. You are so overloaded with work. Just let me help you. I know that you’re determined to do everything yourself, Pen, but it’s okay to accept some help. Yes, I have the apartment, but it doesn’t take up nearly as much of my time as a baby and the charity gala takes up of yours.”
“But—” she starts, but I shake my head, unwilling to let her finish.
“Nope, I’m not listening to your buts, Penelope Gould. You are letting me take care of the birthday party, and I’m not taking no for an answer.” I nod sternly to let her know that I mean business.
“You really are the best, you know that?” she relents.
“Trust me, I know,” I respond with false confidence.
I’ve never thought I am the best at everything, but I am at least the best at being Penny’s best friend. Except for the teeny tiny little lie about sleeping with her brother, of course. But who’s counting that?
Penny abruptly stops bouncing Baby J and gives him a small cuddle before lifting him into the air. Baby J immediately spits up all over Penny’s clothes with a burp. He giggles, satisfied to have let everything out of his system. Penny starts blinking quickly, which I know means that she’s trying not to cry. I go over and grab Baby J from her.
“Penny, why don’t you go take a nice long bath? With bubbles. And maybe have a bottle of wine? I’ll watch Baby J. We’ll be in the nursery playing peek-a-boo.”
I give Penny a reassuring smile. She sighs before standing up and heading down the hallway to the bathroom. I scrunch my nose and stick my tongue out at Baby J, making him giggle.
“I can’t believe you spit up all over Mommy! That wasn’t nice, silly boy,” I coo at him in a baby voice.
There’s no guilt evident amongst his sweet button nose or big blue eyes. I hoist him up and take him to the nursery so that we can shake rattles together while Penny has her relaxation time.
“Hey,youtwo!How’sit going?” I ask as I enter Grayson’s apartment a couple of hours later.
Penny had come out of the bathroom looking refreshed, with a serene smile on her face. I’m crediting the bubbles, even though others might say it was the wine. She only had one glass, though, not wanting to drink too much if she was going to be handling Baby J again. Really, she’s a great mother, and one day, I hope that I’m half as good of a mother as she is.
“Hey, Whitney! Great to see you!” Preston says from his place on the couch.
Some people might find it difficult to tell them apart, but I just look at the expressions on their faces.
Preston looks sunny, like he’s having a good day. Grayson, on the other hand, is scrunching his nose as if he just smelled something bad. Maybe it’s his attitude.
“Guess what?” I say as I sit on the couch between them.
Grayson turns away from me slightly. Preston gives him a strange look, but I think I know why Grayson is being cold to me. It probably has to do with me leaving him to wake up alone without so much as a note the other day.
Doesn’t feel good, does it?
I thought that I would feel better, more triumphant about the situation, but actually, I just kind of feel like a jerk. Maybe I wasn’t meant to be a cold, heartless asshole like him.
“What’s up, Whitney?” Preston asks, the only one of the twins apparently interested in knowing what the answer is to my question.
“Penny is letting me plan your birthday party! She said that decorations still need to be done. Do you guys have any ideas on what theme you want it to be, so I can send out invitations pretty soon?”
“Really? Penny let you take over that?” Grayson suddenly turns to me in shock.
Ah, so now he wants to talk to me, does he? Figures that he would only want to on his terms. He’s so spoiled.
“Yeah, that actually is surprising. How did you manage to convince her to do that?” Preston asks.
It’s strange to have two sets of the exact same eyes on me, but with both of them showing two different emotions. Preston’s are very much filled with curiosity, while Grayson’s read disbelief, with a small undercurrent of annoyance. Not that that’s surprising — Grayson probably wakes up annoyed every day.
