July 2012 (two years earlier)
"Nose to the grindstone. That's what I like to see."
Penny sat bolt upright in her desk chair and minimized the window on her work computer. She'd been so absorbed that she hadn't heard David walk up behind her. He had one hand resting on the back of her chair as he gazed at the screen over her shoulder. With the other hand, he dropped a heavy stack of papers across her keyboard.
"I need six copies," he said, as she twisted in her chair to look up at his face. "You know, if it's not too much of an imposition."
"Sorry." Had he seen what she was looking at before she shut the window? She wasn't sure.
"Keg rentals, huh?"
Penny winced. "Sorry," she said again, picking up the papers he'd set down. "When do you need this by?"
He didn't respond to her question. He released the back of her chair and leaned back against the window sill behind him, bracing his weight on his arms and crossing his legs at the ankles. "When's the party?"
Penny shrugged, feeling her face start to flush. "No party."
"So the keg's just for you? Should I be concerned?"
"Tonight, OK? The party's tonight."
It had been Lauren's suggestion - a little housewarming shindig to celebrate Penny's new single status. Because nothing spelled P-A-R-T-Y like getting dumped on your ass by your boyfriend of four years.
Greg had broken up with her a few weeks ago, and Penny still couldn't quite believe it. They'd been pre-med together - her constant study buddy, all four years of college. She hadn't seen it coming. Not even for a second. Greg had been pissed, of course, when she beat him by four points on the MCAT, but that all blew over once they both had their hard-earned acceptance letters in hand.
Penny had followed him to New York for the summer after graduation. They'd agreed that their relationship would continue long-distance once the summer ended and they both started their first years of medical school: Greg at NYU, and Penny a two-hour train ride away at Yale. She'd been completely blind-sided two weeks later, when he asked for her keys and announced that he met someone else.
The funny thing was, she felt surprisingly okay with the way the summer was shaping up. Not that she enjoyed getting cheated on and dumped. She couldn't deny that it stung. But there was also something exciting about the prospect of a summer in the city - single and free, with no responsibilities beyond a nine-to-five temp job to bring in some cash.
It probably didn't hurt that the position came with a handy built-in distraction from all thoughts of her ex. She'd known the moment she laid eyes on her new boss that the summer wouldn't be a total loss.
She looked up at David's face again hesitantly. Was he mad? He wouldn't fire her over this, would he?
"You realize this is a gross misuse of company resources, Ms. Stewart," David said, nodding toward her computer. "Do I need to have a word with your temp agency?"
She was about to apologize again, but she could see one corner of his mouth quivering - trying to rise upward, and being forced back down into a stern line. He was messing with her. She was 99 percent sure he was messing with her. She'd been working at this job for six weeks now, and she was finally getting a sense for how to read him.
"Don't be a bully, David." She returned her eyes to her computer and pretended to resume typing. All for show, of course. She was watching his reflection in the monitor.
He raised his eyebrows. "I'm your boss. Why shouldn't I be a bully?"
"It gives you wrinkles in your forehead."
Penny glanced at him out of the corner of her eye to see the effect of her retort. He touched his index finger lightly to his forehead for a moment, rolling his eyes upward as if trying to see for himself. She had to bite the inside of her lip to keep herself from smiling.
She was just teasing of course, and he knew it. When it came to his looks, David Powers had nothing to worry about. His thicket of wavy, dark brown hair remained untouched by grey. He had the kind of boyish features and classic, chiseled bone structure that only improved with each passing year.
Penny watched with satisfaction as he raked his fingers upward. His hair was still damp from the shower after his morning workout, and it stood up now in wild dishevelment. Her fingers itched to fix the mess. She felt the smile she'd been fighting win out at last, and he answered it with his own crooked grin, deepening the lines that bracketed his mouth on either side.
Penny shrugged and clicked her mouse to reopen the window for KegsRUs.com. "Anyway, you're just mad you weren't invited."
"That could be rectified," he said.
"You want to come to my party?"
"Why not?"
"Let's see. It would require setting foot in Brooklyn, for one thing." She looked back again. He had screwed up his face into a perplexed expression. He moved away from the window and came back to look over her shoulder at the residential address she was typing into the order form on her screen.
"Brooklyn, huh? Where's that again?"
She pointed toward the window behind him. "See that thing over there?"
He followed the direction of her finger. "Where?"
"That bridge," she said. "Right down there."
He went over to the window and looked down. "The Brooklyn Bridge?"
"Oh, so you've heard of it."
"I have worked in this building for ten years, Penny, and I believe the Brooklyn Bridge has been in exactly that spot the entire time."
"Do you know where it leads?"
"Pretty sure it leads off the edge of the Earth into a black hole."
"OK, David. Party starts at nine. Do you prefer Bud or Bud Light?"
"More of a whiskey man," he replied. "Scotch preferably, but I've been known to bend the rules for a good quality rye--"
She let out a guffaw. "Whiskey makes you gag."
"How the hell do you know that?"
"I know a lightweight when I see one. And I'm guessing you're a sappy drunk?"
He didn't respond. Instead, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. She swiveled in her chair and watched as he extracted an old business card. "Here," he said, handing it to her.
"What's this?"
"Mention my name. This guy will hook you up." He waved his hand at the computer screen. "That thing's a scam. KegsRUs. Where did you find that anyway?"
"Craigslist."
"Never do anything off Craigslist. Trust me. It's one of my unbreakable rules." He pushed himself away from the windows and started walking away from her cubicle, back toward his office door.
"I found this job off Craigslist!" she called after him.
"Job?" he called back. "Oh, that's right." He clapped a hand to his forehead. "This is a job. We actually pay you money in exchange for - what's that called again? Oh yeah! Work!"
She smiled and he smiled back. "I'll get you those copies right away, Mr. Powers."
"Don't knock yourself out," he answered, his voice fading out as he swung the door shut. "Wouldn't want to deprive all those Brooklynites of their beer pong. . . ."
It wasn't until an hour before the party was supposed to start that the delivery man arrived at their apartment door and began unloading the handles of liquor on the shabby kitchen counter. All top shelf labels. Tanqueray. Grey Goose. Dewars.
"Scotch?" Lauren asked, picking up the bottle and wrinkling her nose at it. "You ordered Scotch, Penny? How much is this going to cost us?"
"There must be a mistake." Penny was sitting on the living room futon, but she rose and came toward the kitchen. "I didn't order any of this," she protested. "Just a couple of kegs."
The delivery man held out an invoice to her, listing out the order. Lauren grabbed it and let out a yelp of alarm when she saw the total. "How are we supposed to pay for that?"
"Already paid for," the delivery man replied.
"What?" Penny looked at him in confusion. "It was supposed to be cash on delivery."
"Nope." He reached out and tapped the invoice with a finger. "Paid with a credit card." Penny's eyes drifted down to the bottom of the form, where her own name had been crossed out and replaced with another.
"Who is David Powers?" Lauren's voice asked over her shoulder, but Penny had to cover her mouth with her hand to cover the involuntary smile that had popped onto her face at the sight of his name. Without replying to Lauren, Penny pulled out her phone and began tapping out a text:
"Thanks for the booze. WTF?"
It was past 11 o'clock, and the party was in full swing, before she got any sort of an answer. Penny had spent the evening up to that point trying and failing to relax, willing her phone to vibrate with a new text message and put her out of her suspense. She kept pulling it out of her pocket to check, just in case she'd missed it somehow. He was probably out somewhere, she tried to tell herself. Right? He hadn't been offended, had he? She was just joking around. Why hadn't she just thanked him? Why did she have to add that "WTF?" Had she sounded ungrateful? Was he pissed?
She had just shown one of her guests to the bathroom and pulled out her phone to check once again when she felt a tap on her shoulder. Her breath caught in her chest when she turned and saw who it was.
"David?"
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