The Last Line

Part Five

"It's perfect."

"Really?" Penny blinked. "You're joking, right?"

"No, I'm not," Skylar said with a light laugh. "There are a couple of things we might want to move around, but this will be a very light edit. Great work, Penny."

"Thanks," Penny said, still in a state of shock. "I didn't think it would be that good. I mean, I didn't even think about it while I was writing. It was..." she searched for the right descriptor. "Word vomit, as gross as that sounds."

"We often produce our greatest works when we give ourselves the space to say what we want to say without self-censoring. I wanted the articles in this series to come from the heart and that's clearly where you pulled this from, Penny. I should have edits to you later this afternoon and we're well on track to publish it tomorrow morning."

"Sounds good. I have a couple of calls but I can make time to review it this afternoon." Penny paused on her way out of the room. "Thank you again. For giving me this opportunity. And for helping me. With everything." She inhaled sharply, feeling tears prick in her eyes.

"I'm lucky to work with an incredible person like yourself, Penny," Skylar said. "Helping you, guiding you, it's my pleasure."

Penny could feel the eyes of her newsroom on her during the brief walk back to her desk. In the weeks since her meltdown in the conference room, Penny's coworkers had begun to treat with a newfound sense of respect. Darren had been asked to seek other work in its aftermath of the incident and Penny's subsequent relationship with Skylar had the others viewing her as some sort of deity.

"Well?" Chloe asked as Penny slid into her desk chair.

"She loved it."

"As I knew she would."

"She said she thinks it's going to run tomorrow morning."

"So soon! Amazing!"

"Yeah."

"Do you think he'll...?" Chloe didn't need to finish her question.

"I don't know." Penny swirled her straw in her cup, trying to get a sip of the vanilla syrup that had gotten trapped underneath the layers of ice and coffee.

"Has he still been creeping?"

"Yes." They hadn't spoken since that night at her apartment and Harry continued to ignore every text and voicemail she left for him, but he was still lurking in her instagram stories. She'd started testing him, posting random and mundane shit like her morning coffee and the song she was currently listening to on Spotify. Regardless of whatever her story was, he was the first one to view it.

"And do you think he'll take the bait?"

"I hope so! Otherwise I don't know what I'll do. I just –"

"Hey, it's fine," Chloe said, attempting to soothe Penny's distress. "This is going to work. I promise you that."

Hours later, Penny's Slack app chimed with a note from Skylar saying that edits were ready for her to review. As promised, her suggestions were minimal and Penny cleared them all within a half hour. She knew legal and design and all of the other departments involved would need to sign off on their end before it could be official, but by 8am tomorrow, her words would be out in the world.

She didn't know why she felt so nervous. She's been through this hundreds of times before, but never had she shared something so personal with the hundreds (Or was it thousands?) of people who read the site everyday. It felt like she was giving a piece of her soul for public consumption. All in the hopes of winning back a man who never wanted to see her again.