My Cup of Tea (snowbaz)

Chapter Three

"What's got you smiling so hard?"

Simon snapped back to reality. He had been spending the last minute or so staring into space with a stupid grin on his face. He blushed and cleared his throat.

"Nothing," he said.

His flatmate and best friend, Penny, saw through his little disguise. She hadn't seen Simon this happy in a long time and she needed to know what got him feeling so light. She knew him better than anyone and wanted to be the first one to know why he was beaming from ear to ear. It was rare to see him so gleeful. He had a tough life and she had done everything she could do to try and make life easier for him but he looked different than he ever had before. The only time he had looked remotely this happy was when...

"Simon, have you met a girl?"

Simon rolled his eyes but his smile still remained. "Something like that."

Penny sat down in front of him. He had been on the couch since he had gotten home and had been mostly unresponsive until now.

"You have to tell me everything!"

"There's not much to tell."

"Come on," Penny begged. "I want details and I want them now! What's her name? How did you two meet? What does she look like?"

Simon thought for a moment before responding. "We met at The Daily Grind."

Penny couldn't contain her joy. Simon hadn't been with anyone since his high school girlfriend. When that went to hell, Penny didn't know if he'd ever meet someone who would make him feel that happy ever again.

"Name?"

"Ba— Brianna."

"Brianna?" She raised an eyebrow at him. His answer seemed a little forced like maybe he was hiding this girl's true identity. She said nothing. She didn't want to spoil his mood.

"Yeah."

"What does she look like? How did it happen?"

Simon laughed at her enthusiasm. "I don't know, Penny. Pale, dark hair. Beautiful eyes and the most amazing cheek bones."

"Oh, she sounds so pretty! So like did you give her a receipt with her number on it?"

Simon took a deep breath. He looked kind of upset now but Penny didn't know why. He was weird like that sometimes so she just let it slide.

"Other way around, actually."

"So she definitely thinks you're cute. That's great, Si! You have to call her."

"You think?"

She nodded. "I haven't seen you smile this hard since Agatha. You have to at least give it a try, you know? Maybe she's the next love of your life. Wouldn't you at least like to see where it goes?"

Simon nodded. "Yeah, yeah that sounds nice. I really would like to see where it goes."

He got up and planted a kiss on Penny's forehead. "Thanks, Penny. You're the best. I'm going to go see if this will work out."

He left the sitting room, leaving Penny alone. She smiled to herself. She felt almost proud of herself for getting him back on the dating horse. She knew that he probably would have called this girl on his own at some point but she knew that he needed the nudge to move things along.

She hoped, more than anything, that it would work out for him. He couldn't take anymore heartbreak in his life.