Hang Your Dreams

Rebound?

Penelope's eyes fluttered open as she startled herself, realizing she wasn't asleep at home. She fell asleep with James at the Ritz-Carlton the night before. She looked around but couldn't see James.
"James?" She called out. No response. She did it once more and still nothing. She then opened the door in a panic and looked down the hall. There she spotted a clearly grumpy James Spader in his pajamas and robe stomping back from the ice machine which was broken.

"The amount of money people spend here and we can't even get a working ice machine!" He begins to shout seeing Penny at the doorway. She nervously tries hushing him as he approaches the door. "You wouldn't believe! The desserts, the tea but no ICE!?" He continued. He walked back into the room and closed the door as Penny looks at him bewildered. He sighs and looks back at her.
"I'm sorry Hun, how did you sleep?" He asks as he gently brushed her arm. "I slept okay, thank you." She scrunched her nose up as she responded. "Wonderful, I hope you like jazz because I was able to snatch us two tickets to the Vanguard tonight. So we'll check out in a bit, throw our belongings in my trunk & spend the day out and about?" He asks. "That'll be nice." She smirks, responding. She looked back at her bags which were empty as she put her things away. James slowly approaches her from behind and hugs her waist. He was in mesh shorts as those were his pajamas and they were quite thin. "Although, that is only if you don't wish to spend another night here." His voice lowered as he spoke directly in her ear. The feeling of his breath gave her tingles. "I thought maybe we'd spend at least 2 nights together?" She turned around and wrapped her arms around his neck. He leaned in for a kiss after gazing into her eyes momentarily. She grabbed his glasses off and placed them on the table next to her and went back to kissing him. "If I knew loving you was this easy, I would've started the day I met you." He whispered in between kisses. Penelope pulled back and looked at him in shock. "You love me?" She asked, realizing how absurd yet honoring it sounded. "You're an easy person to love..." he responded slowly. He put both his hands around her head and brought her back in for one last kiss.
"Shall we go for breakfast?" James asked, smiling. "Yeah, let me just get dressed and brush my teeth." "Yes because your morning breath is KICKING!" He laughed jokingly and she gave him a gentle push.
They got ready to go downstairs to grab breakfast walking hand in hand. James wore a flat cap a red and white shirt with a black coat. Penny wore a bright lime top and another pair of leggings.
"Absolutely radiant." He smiled at her as they exited the hotel. Upon exiting they were caught off guard by paparazzi who were waiting by their ride that James had ordered. Their words echoed in Penny's head as she was blinded by the flashes momentarily. "Mr Spader, when can we expect the new Blacklist season to air? Mr Spader is this your mistress? Mr Spader is this a co-star of yours? Do you know where your sons are right now? James, is this a rebound off your closeted separation from Leslie?" James got Penny into the car first as he turned around sharply hearing the last question. He didn't said anything but he did give a gentle "back off" gesture before entering the car himself.
James took his hat off in the car and placed it on his lap. He groaned as he put his seatbelt on. "I'm sorry about that." He said, not making eye contact with her. "It's okay..." she said, doing the same. Deep down she wondered if that was the case. It wasn't even public knowledge that Leslie and James had split very recently and James immediately was in bed with another woman. Her leg began to bounce subtly without her even realizing. Her mind was racing as she looked out the window. Suddenly, everything went quiet. Penny turned to James seeing that he placed his hand on her bouncing leg, he must've known her mind was going because he leaned over and kissed his cheek.
"I'm going to get a frittata." He said softly, then smiled. "Yeah that sounds good. I'm going to take a peek at what they have when we get there." She responded. "Ah, they have an expansive menu for all meals but I truly do love some eggs in the morning and their breakfast selection is to die for." James says as his true animated self. Penny took her hand and grabbed James's as they looked out the window together of the car.