Blooming Penelope Featherington

Best Friends.

"I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature" – Jane Austen.

The day was going well. She had managed to avoid Colin for most of the day. He gave her a few glances, and they brushed by each other a few times during lunch. But other than that, they hadn't breathed a word to each other. She couldn't decide if it was awkwardness, or just plain weird.

But she was grateful, nonetheless.

They had all decided to just relax in the summer sun today, Penelope hid for most of it. The sun rays would normally just turn her into a beetroot. The joys of being a natural redhead.

A trusty parasol was her saviour.

Kate had brought large hampers filled with face masks, foot packs and everything spa related for the afternoon. It was so good being able to get to know her a little better, Penelope could see why her, and Anthony got along so well, Kate was confident, strong, and had a wicked sense of humour. Penelope couldn't remember a time when she had laughed as much that afternoon.

They even ended up swimming for a while outside in the Bridgerton pool, the summer sun was pretty intense. Penelope had even managed to get through most of a book, without any interruptions from Eloise, which was strange...

She picked up Memoirs of a Geisha, by Arthur Golden. It was a book she could sink into, one quote stuck with her -

'He was like a song I'd heard once in fragments but had been singing in my mind ever since.'

She loved a quote that made her heart melt.

She knew that Eloise was just allowing Penelope some time to herself, as she needed some time to escape. Lose herself in an alternate reality. They had some sort of mind reading thing going on today. Eloise knew exactly what Penelope needed to recharge her batteries.

It was a best friend type of thing.

After they had finished dinner, they all headed up the stairs to get ready. Everyone was eager to head out to the new cocktail place that Daphne had arranged, 'the local will not suffice' Daphne stated earlier that day. She told everyone to dress up, as it was more on the fancier side, so... jeans and trainers would not be accepted. It was more a dig at her brothers (well Colin and Benedict), as Anthony, Simon and Michael were always dressed very dapper.

Penelope got to her room and phoned Gen instantly, they sat on FaceTime while Penelope told her everything. There were no tears, just explanations. Just before Gen left, she hit out with one statement, "Revenge dress."

Penelope couldn't help but remember the dress that Gen had implicitly instructed to save for revenge, it was placed in the case to be used against 'Colin' from her years of pining. Gen knew the whole story with Colin, so Gen explained this dress was to, 'bring him to his knees or his senses, whatever one comes first.' But at the time it was packed, Penelope was happy with Jake, but now, she wanted to feel good about herself, so the dress wasn't to extract 'revenge' it was for Penelope, and for Penelope alone.

Penelope rummaged through her suitcases to see if she had brought it, and she finally found it after the second case. She pulled it out and showed it to Gen, "This one, right?"

"YES! Get that on, now," Penelope hadn't even tried it on yet. It still had the tags, as she glanced down, she saw the price, and she ran straight over to the phone.

"Gen you are fucking kidding. Why the hell did you spend this amount on a dress!" Gen broke into hysterics, while avoiding eye contact. "Shut up Featherington, have fun, get laid, whatever," And just like that, she hung up.

Penelope couldn't believe her; I mean it was beautiful but how could she justify going out in something so expensive!

She was snapped out of her daydreaming while her phone vibrated on the bed.