Penny walked home, her steps getting slower and slower the closer she got. Her friends, the few she had, all told her that moving in with Frederick was a mistake. Actually, the words they used had ranged from "stupid" to out and out "deranged."
"It will be the beginning of the end of your life," her old college roommate Yoko had said to her earnestly. "You'll see. First, you won't be able to watch what you want on TV because he won't like the noise. Then, you won't be able to cook what you like because he doesn't like the smell. Then, your friends won't be able to come over because we won't be highbrow enough for him." Her voice became sepulchral. "Then you'll be all alone, Penelope Patrick. Just you wait and see."
Penny had just laughed. "Well, I don't watch TV, I don't really like to cook much, and I can just go to your house, so what's the big deal?" She'd grasped Yoko's hands imploringly. "My lease is up, I can't afford to live alone and he has a gorgeous view of the East River. Come on, Yoko, I need you to get on board with this, please? Please?"
Yoko had finally caved, swishing her beautiful black hair as she shrugged. "Okay, but don't make me say I told you so when you're eating steamed potatoes because he won't let you make your favorite Japanese Cup-a-Noodles because they're too stinky, or blast your boyband playlist because he has a headache, you hear me?"
"Okay, I promise. And thanks for trying to like him, even though you think he's Jabba the Hut incarnate." Penny had hugged her friend, right in the middle of the Blue Bottle coffee shop on Park Avenue South, nearly spilling their drinks in her enthusiasm.
Now, as she headed toward 1st Avenue and the apartment she shared with him, she wondered if Frederick had put her things down in the lobby, or worse, out on the sidewalk, for the lack of support she'd shown him that afternoon at the producers' offices.
The thing about Frederick was that he was just so serious. He was a real Actor, with a capital "A," and he expected to be taken seriously all the time. Yoko didn't understand that about him, that was all. She was always goofing around, looking for new material for her standup routine. She, too, had been a film major in LA, but had dropped out midway through her junior year to join the Groundlings in Chicago. Since then, she'd been doing the standup circuit on the east coast, settling the last two years in New York City, slowly building a reputation as a "hell of a funny comedienne."
Penny wondered if she should just skip going home and go to Yoko's instead, but no, she had to check on Carol Channing, her cat, so she kept walking, hoping against hope that everything would be okay when she got there.
She wondered if she still loved Frederick. He was an amazing person, an amazing actor, and the fact that he'd even asked her out was incredible to her. Out of the entire cast of the play they were in together two years ago, he'd singled her out as promising, as pretty, and asked her to run lines with him. Penny had been completely in awe and star struck that the Frederick Berenson had chosen her out of the hordes of adoring actresses in the show, and she'd assumed that when the show was over, their little fling or whatever it was would be over as well. But no, he'd continued to call her, to seek her out to talk drama and plays and philosophy and whatever.
The first time they'd made love was like a dream come true for Penny. He'd invited her back to his apartment (just his back then), and she'd been floored by his view.
"Wow," she said. "This is gorgeous. Mine has a view of an alley, and the kitchen of the apartment across the way."
"Yeah," he answered as he hung up their coats. "I really like it here. It's so high that it cuts out a lot of the noise of the city, you know? It really gives me the quiet I need to think, to work on notes or whatever."
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Penny Takes the Stage
RomancePenelope Patrick is a talented stage actress with a masters degree from Yale drama. She wanted to be in films, but was told she didn't have the face or body for it. Now she's set to star in a new dramatic play starring opposite her boyfriend, acclai...