It's Only Temporary

Chapter 6: Onward And Upward

Penny woke with a start and looked around the darkened room. It was mostly bare at this point, except for the futon that had served as her bed for the past two years, and the few remaining moving boxes stacked neatly beside it.

Last night, before settling in to sleep, she'd dragged the futon across the floor and put it back in its original position, pushed up against a wall beneath the only window in the room. On the opposite wall, a ribbon of white paint stood out starkly bright. Penny followed it with her eyes now - up the wall, across the ceiling, and down the other side - the last remaining vestige of the partition that had demarcated her bedroom. The men from the temporary wall company had come by yesterday to take it down.

"Penny, you know you don't have to do this," Lauren had said, as the four roommates stood by and watched the workmen folding the wall into sections, back and forth like a paper fan.

"At least stay to the end of the month," Kristen had chimed in.

Penny could tell their protests were half-hearted. She knew she'd overstayed her welcome. "It's OK," she'd reassured them, imbuing her voice with greater confidence than she really felt. "Onward and upward, right?"

The truth was, Penny couldn't bear the thought of spending one more minute here in this apartment. She couldn't take the awkwardness. Ever since that night, one week ago today, when the four of them had met for drinks at Purgatory, her relationship with her roommates had gone from strained to unendurable.

Penny had all but ignored them when they came back from the bar that night, but she'd given in the next morning to their insistent knocking on her bedroom door. The look of sympathetic concern on Lauren's face had made Penny want to gouge her own eyes out. Or gouge somebody's eyes out, at any rate.

Kristen had spoken for all of them. "Penny, is everything OK?"

"I'm fine. Everything's fine."

"It sounded like a herd of buffalo in here last night," Lauren said. Her eyes had widened in surprise as she looked around the room and saw the half-full moving boxes. "What's with all the-"

"Here," Penny had interrupted, holding out a check. "This should cover the rest of the month's rent. I'll be out of your hair by the end of the week."

"But what-"

"Why-"

Penny had held up a hand to silence them both. "Really guys. I'm fine. It's just time."

There had been a moment's pause as her two roommates exchanged a look. Then Kristen had spoken again. "You're not moving in with him, are you?"

Him? Penny had stared at Kristen in bafflement. "Who?"

"David?"

Moving in with-- Did they think she was sleeping with her boss, too? The fact that they even had to ask....  If anything could have further steeled her resolve, that question from Kristen had done it.

"Of course not!" Penny had exclaimed.

"OK! Sorry. We're just not totally in the loop, so-"

Penny had covered her face with her hands. "For the last time, there's nothing going on with David. He's just my boss. My former boss."

"You quit?" Lauren had looked at skeptically.

Penny hadn't responded. She'd merely picked up an oversized manila envelope and held it out for them to see, pointing to the address printed on the front in block letters:

Human Resources Department
c/o David Powers
Dewitt Hathaway Worldwide, Inc.
60 Wall Street, 16th floor
New York, NY 10005