the book shop > j.l < MID EDIT

thirty seven

penelope

john came back with their food and they all ate around the table, laughing at anecdotes john told about his childhood. penelope and john could tell that carly wasn't used to sitting around a table eating a meal like this. at one point she accidentally spilt her drink and was quick to clear it up with a cloth repeating sorry, this caused penelopes heart to break as she knew it was her fathers strict influence on her that made her so paranoid and worried about upsetting people.

penelope made sure to reassure carly that it's alright and accidents happen and nobody was angry at her in which carly responded by saying sorry for being sorry.

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after eating they all went into the living room as it was coming up to six o'clock and they all played board games together and bonded over tubs of ice cream.

after around two hours penelope asked john to run a bath for carly and carly pulled out a few dolls from her rucksack to take in the bathtub with her.

penelope and john let her get in and play for a while whilst they pulled the mattress from the spare bedroom into the main bedroom and then went and stood in the kitchen to smoke cigarettes.

they shared the cigarettes between them in order to not waste packets and cut down on how much they had.

after stubbing out a cigarette she'd finished off of john the phone began to ring and penelope walked over to the wall and answered it.

it was anne.

"penelope lovely! so nice to hear your voice, how are you?"

"i'm great actually thank you, how are you?" penelope smiled into the phone at her grandmother figure.

"i'm well, and i'm glad you're doing good penny, you deserve it. anyway, i'm calling because you know my daughter melanie? well she's getting married in the week and i forgot to tell you that she's invited you, if your not busy that is?" penelope wasn't to keen on melanie, she took advantage of anne and it upset her. but nonetheless she agreed to go and got all the details off her and anne informed her she could bring a plus one if she wanted too.

they shared small talk and then penelope hung up the phone and turned round to john.

"fancy going to a wedding with me wednesday?" she asked.

"who's wedding?" he questioned back.

"anne, you know from the book shop, her daughter melanie's."

john thought about it skeptically, "i don't know pen, me and smart clothing don't really go together."

"oh please johnny, pleaseee," she whined wrapping her arms around him and staring up to him.

he rolled his eyes playfully, "fine but you'll have to help me choose something to wear," penelope nodded her head eagerly replying,

"let you catwalk it out for me in different suits, yes please," she teased winking at him, "but you have to come shopping with me for a new dress."

"let you catwalk it out for me in different dresses, yes please," he mocked her voice. penelope rolled her eyes laughing at him. she kissed the bottom of his jaw until carly called from the bathtub saying she was ready to get out.