Penny Takes the Stage

Chapter 13: Big Changes

AN January 11th, 2020: Just letting you know I'm getting this ready for publication now, and I'm rewriting the section about Claire smiling and being so nice when she tells Cam she thinks something's happening between him and Penny. She's just not that nice, and for the published version that section is going to be completely different 😉

 Penny opened the door cautiously, not sure what she'd find. Regardless of what Cam had said, she wasn't going to just sit around the apartment and listen to the two of them having make up sex. The mere thought of it made her feel ill, for some reason, and she was prepared to shut the door and find a double or even triple feature movie theatre if that was what was going on.

However, she opened the door to one of Mozart's piano concertos, being played very loudly on Cameron's excellent sound system. The lights were on, and the door to the terrace was open to the screen, letting the cold night air into the apartment.

Maybe they were having make up sex? And they liked to do it to W.A. Mozart? Penny had heard of weirder things. She looked over in the direction of Cam's bedroom to see if there was any activity. It looked dark, but so what? People frequently had sex in the dark, right?

But with the rest of the apartment lit up like a Christmas tree?

At that moment Cam emerged from the back of the apartment, wearing his rattiest sweats and a tank top with a rip across the front that exposed part of his six-pack abs. His hair was up in a haphazard man-bun, and he looked pretty magnificent.

The effect was spoiled somewhat by the fact that he was wearing yellow rubber gloves and holding a dripping sponge and bucket.

"Oh, hello," he said, wiping the sweat off his forehead with his arm.

"Hi," Penny answered, keeping her expression normal with an effort. "Um, what are you doing?"

"I'm cleaning the reading room," he explained as if it were the most normal thing in the world. "You know, the library?"

"Right, the library," Penny acknowledged. The back corner of the loft was crammed with bookshelves and rugs and a couple of squashy, comfortable chairs where they both loved to go read.

"Yes. The shelves are terribly covered with dust, as are the tables," Cameron explained.

"I see." Penny nodded. "Where's Claire, Cam?"

Cameron headed for the kitchen. "She left," he called over his shoulder.

"She left?" Penny was shocked. This scenario hadn't occurred to her. She followed Cam into the kitchen, where he was rinsing the water out of the bucket. "But why? She just got here this afternoon. She was supposed to stay for ten days."

Cam looked over at Penny, and she could see the pain in his eyes. "We broke up," he said briefly as he rinsed the sponge under the running water.

"Oh, Cameron, I'm so sorry," Penny said, putting a hand on his shoulder and squeezing.

Cam turned off the water. "It's okay," he said, looking down into the sink. "It's been coming, I've just been ignoring the signs."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Penny asked gently.

Cameron shrugged, and Penny followed him back to the library, where he first turned the Mozart down to a more tolerable level. He spoke as he removed the books, wiped the shelves and put the books back. Penny helped, holding the books, and the work went faster.

"The way she was tonight?" he began. "She didn't used to be like that. I mean, she was always a bit sharp, I suppose, but she used to be so much fun, you know? It seems like after we started spending more time apart she turned into a bit of a shrew, always complaining, always making fun of other people."