Separated ways

31.What's true remains

Sam came home late after he took a walk on the beach and watched sun setting. He didn't know if he should be happy he had a day off or that he didn't have a day off. But that pain didn't compare to what he was feeling inside. He didn't know anymore what he should believe in. At first he wanted to talk with Charlie, then meet with Elvis, but in this whole chaos in his head he hadn't took notice of a message Penny sent him. Unfortunately it was almost midnight when he came back home, so he didn't answer back, not to wake her up. 

Had Sam known how wrong he was? Becasue while he waited for a morning to write an answer, Penny couldn't sleep, waiting whole night not to miss an answer from Sam. She was therefore really relieved when it was calm on the morning shift, because she managed to take a short nap before Ellie exchanged Elvis few hours later. 

Her sleep was restless and she easily was waken up when Ellie turned on the kettle. 

"You want some tea too, Penny?" her colleague asked her when she came to the kitchen, rubbing her eyes. 

"No, thank you" Penny replied politely. "It would be better if I'd take Radar for a walk".

"Come on" Ellie sighed desperately. "Have you already used all your excuses to avoid me?" She asked annoyedly. 

"No, I'm not avoiding you, I'm just not interested..." Penny tried to explain it somehow, but surely she had been withdrewing for too long. 

"In talking?" Ellie teased her. "Penny, please, I can't stand it anymore" Ellie apologized beggingly. 

"To be honest me neither" Penny smiled weakly. "But what you did, I can't stand more" she added more stubbornly. 

"How many times I have to apologise to you over and over again" Ellie mumbled grumpily. "I swear you're as stubborn as a donkey".

"That wasn't nice" Penny joked mischeviously, as she crossed her arms on her chest. 

"And wasn't suppost to be" Ellie snapped back. "Listen, I was sending Sam to talk with you, because I knew you wouldn't listen" she started, but Penny quickly ran away and fixed her gaze on the wall in front of her. "I don't want it to stay like that. I know I did wrong with the newspaper, but I thought it was the only idea to bring you home in time to clear... this mess" she explained. 

"But had you thought how we would react?" Penny turned away her head so suddenly that it made Ellie jump. 

"No, I hadn't" Ellie lowered her shoulders. "And that's my bad and I want to make up for it" Ellie smiled brightly when Penny looked at her with a smile. 

"And what do you want to do?"

"The question is more. What I have already done?" Ellie whispered. "I gave Sam a sale tickets from Bella's". 

"What?" Penny looked at her stunned. 

"What what? He was supposted to share it with you" Ellie explained. 

"Well, he might actually did, but..." Penny cut the long story short and explained what happened between her and Sam, but left unspoken what happened between her and Ryan. "I thought he accepted it with a smile" Penny hesitated. 

"Smile was fake" Ellie raised her hands to the sky in the begging gesture. "Do you believe, for real, that he would feel happy about being rejected?" 

"Wait, what?" Penny looked at Ellie stunned. "I never thought" she didn't want to hurt him like she was hurt. 

"He loves you" Ellie enlightened her. 

"But all this time..." Penny objected. 

"He was sending mixed signals, because all these years he was afraid you didn't live him back" Ellie replied and sighed annoyedly. "But after this exchange got to his head and he himself decided it was time to move on".