And They Were Roommates

My Heart Explodes

Penelope was uncomfortable. Deeply uncomfortable. But then again, when wasn't she? She lived in a flat with three grown men, all brothers, Anthony, Benedict, and Colin Bridgerton, whom she had met when she was sixteen through her best friend Eloise. Eloise, the traitor, decided she wanted to live with her longtime partner, Pippa when they finished college.

So, with little options besides moving back with her cheating ex boyfriend, Penelope settled for sharing a four bedroom with the boys. It had been the weirdest, most exciting, best times of her life. But now, Anthony and Kate were married and moving out. Ben and Colin were getting more serious in their relationships, and with her recent breakup with Sam Debling, she couldn't help but feel like it was all coming to an end.

God, Penelope wished Eloise were here right now. Did she mention she was uncomfortable? That would be because Colin Bridgerton, the man she had been slowing falling in love with for ten years, had started dating a woman named Marina. Marina was tall, thin, gorgeous, and poised. Everything Penelope wasn't. Still, she couldn't even hate Marina. She actually liked her. The three of them had a very strange, very uncomfortable friendship, and Penelope wanted out.

That's why it was all the more difficult when, at Colin's first reading of his newly published novel, Marina came up to Penelope and asked for advice on how to calm her boyfriend down.

Penelope bit her tongue. She did that a lot lately. It was the only thing that kept her from blurting out her feelings for Colin. "Marina, Colin loves you," she felt the need to reassure her. "Just be there for him," she said simply. "That's all he needs."

Marina groaned, throwing her hands in the air in frustration. As poised as the woman was, downright machine-like at times, Colin seemed to bring out a sense of humanness in Marina. He did that for everybody. "I'm not...I'm not good at this stuff. That's why I need you, Pen. You know Colin so well. You're his best friend. Tell me what to do. Tell me what to say," she begged.

Penelope tensed as Marina took her hands in hers. "I really shouldn't, Marina. I told myself I wouldn't get involved in your relationship anymore."

"But this is different!" Marina insisted. "This is just you helping a friend comfort your other friend who she happens to be in a relationship with," she explained, hoping to persuade her.

"Marina..." She said hesitantly.

"Please, Penelope. You know how important this is to him." She over to Colin pacing and muttering to himself in the back of the bookstore. He was so adorable when he was he was nervous. Penelope shook herself from her thoughts. She shouldn't be thinking such things. He was with Marina. He loved Marina. Not her. Never her.

Penelope sighed, resigned to push these two people closer to happiness once more, even if it tore her in two. "When Colin starts to panic, which he inevitably will, just remind him of why he started this. Remind him that there is absolutely no one else like him and that all these people are here to read his brilliant work. Leave no room for doubt. He creates enough of that for himself. He needs to know that he's enough, especially when that little voice in his head tells him he isn't."

"Wow," Marina huffed, and Penelope wondered if she'd said too much. "You writers are something else," she said. Penelope laughed nervously, ignoring the pain in her gut as she watched Marina join Colin, reciting every word to him. It was like a stab to her heart when he pulled his girlfriend into his arms and kissed her.

She had to get out. She had to get away.

Twenty minutes later, Penelope made it over to Colin's side at the podium. A line of a dozen or so people formed, and Penelope grinned, truly happy for her friend's success.