Playing at Forever (22 page)

“Probably not as pretty as you look.”
  She thought about it for a moment.  “Maybe pretty isn’t the right word.” 

Whatever the word was, Tommy was it.  Tommy had
always
been it. 

The round of shots came and they poured them back, neither feeling a thing anymore.  “I’ll be right back, Tommy,”
  she
told him, suddenly needing to find a ladies room.  It was on her way back that she was approached by a man she didn’t know. 

“You look like a girl who wants to dance.” 

“Well, my—”
  But
she stopped, not really sure what to call him.  Taking this as an acceptance, the man led her toward the dance floor, holding Penny’s body close to his.  She didn’t like the way his hands felt on her, or the way he stared at her.  But her reactions were much slower than she thought they should be.  She began to feel trapped, a panic rising up inside her.

And then, out of nowhere, Tommy took her by the hand, pulling her away from the man she didn’t know.  Penny wrapped her arms around his neck, her body instantly reacting to the closeness of his. 
This
she didn’t mind.  Her heart pounded excitedly in her chest.

His eyes held hers as their bodies moved, the heat between them suddenly feeling as if it might overpower the room. 

Seeking release, they came together, neither sure who started the kiss and neither caring.  Tommy took control, pressing her back against a nearby wall. 

This was nice, she thought.  For some reason, it seemed like she wasn’t supposed to be doing this.

But the only thing she cared about was the way her skin responded wherever he touched her. 

“Let’s go somewhere,”
  he
breathed, pulling away. 

Penny would go wherever he wanted her to.

Penny was very groggy when she woke, her head pounding.  She risked opening one of her eyes, finding several miniature bottles of alcohol on the nightstand. 

She had
definitely
had too much to drink last night. 

Her stomach churned angrily and Penny rolled over, her arm bumping into something.  Her body filled with dread as she turned to see Tommy lying, shirtless, in bed beside her. 

Oh no
, she thought, covering her mouth with her hand.  No, she would know if something had happened last night—wouldn’t she? 

Penny had never been the type of girl to drink to the point of oblivion.  She had never really seen the point. 

Now, she sat still, trying to remember how they had gotten here.

She remembered going out to eat, and then to the nightclub.  She remembered kissing him, remembered leaving in a limo. 

Her cheeks reddened as she remembered bits and pieces of the limo ride.  They had kissed some more, and then laughed, and then kissed even more. 

For some reason, she got the impression that they had stopped somewhere else afterward. 

She glanced toward the side of the bed and saw two very tall plastic cups that had once been filled with some sort of daiquiri. 

Things grew even foggier from there. 
Another ride in the limo.
  She vaguely recalled hanging out of the moon roof with Tommy, the two of them yelling something into the night. 

And that was it. 

The rest was blank. 

Penny sat up slowly, trying to ignore the pounding in her head. 

She needed to get up. 

She needed Tommy to wake up. 

It wasn’t until she reached up to rub one of her temples that she noticed it.  Something on her finger—something oddly familiar. 

She closed her eyes as she lowered her hand, pleading with the fates for some sort of mistake.

“Oh my god,”
  she
mumbled, jumping up from the bed.  Tommy stirred slightly and Penny reached out, shaking him almost violently.  “What the hell did we do, Tommy?” 

He reached out, waving her away. 

“What the
hell
did we do?”  She repeated, shaking him again. 

Because there, on his ring finger, was a plain silver-colored band.
 

A band identical to the one on her own finger.
 

Tommy woke up to the sound of Penny yelling at him.  His head ached, but it wasn’t the worst hangover he’d ever experienced. 

Except for the yelling.
 

“What are you talking about?”  He asked, opening his eyes and looking around.

He noticed two things right off the bat.  First, he was shirtless.  Second, he was not in his bedroom. 

He immediately tried to recover any memory he might have of the night before.

“Look at your hand, Tommy.”  Had he gotten a crazy tattoo or something?  That was easy enough to take care of. 
“No, your
left
hand.”

Oh.  That. 

He stared at the ring for a very long moment, his mind, for once, utterly and completely blank.  “What happened?”  She asked him—even though he thought that much was obvious. 

“If we went through with it, there has to be a certificate somewhere.”  Penny held a frame in the air. 

Well, that…wasn’t what he’d had planned for last night. 

He struggled with his memory, trying to bring any of it back.  They’d left Chaste with the idea of going back to the hotel—but they’d made several stops along the way.  He remembered Penny requesting a yard-long daiquiri, and so they’d stopped for that. 

He remembered passing by a wedding chapel.

He remembered Penny suddenly growing sad. 
Something about not being married anymore.
 

Vaguely, he recalled giving the driver the order to take them to wherever it was they needed to go in order to get a marriage license. 

“I want to make you happy, Pen.”
 

“We didn’t…?”  Tommy asked suddenly, trying to bring back any fragment he might have retained of their apparent wedding night. 

“I don’t think so.”

“Oh, good.”
  He realized how his tone might have sounded to Penny and he looked up quickly.  “No—I just mean—that’s something I’d hope at least one of us would find memorable.”

He felt like a jerk. 

“I need coffee.”  Penny announced, leaving the room abruptly.  A few minutes later, the scent of very strong coffee was filling the room. 

What now?
  He asked himself. 

It was the very same question Penny asked when he finally met her in the living area. 

“I don’t know.”  He answered, pouring himself a cup of coffee.  “I
mean,
maybe we can make it disappear before anyone finds out.”  There was a very slim chance of that happening, though.

And as if to prove his point, Tommy heard his phone ringing.  He dug it out of his pocket, trying to decide whether or not he should take Graham’s call. 

“You and I both know that isn’t going to happen.  There’re probably already copies of the license floating around the internet.”

“Then I don’t know, Penny.”  He ran his fingers through his hair, his head pounding even harder now than it had been upon first waking up.  His phone rang again and he knew without even looking that it was Graham.  “What do you want me to do?” 

“I want you to fix it!”  She cried, her eyes pleading with him.  “I want you to take it all back.”

“Right, because I’m an expert at time-travel, aren’t I?”  He shook his head.  “You’re equally as responsible for this as I am.  Hey, you might even be more responsible.  As I seem to recall,
you
were the one who brought it up.” 

“Oh, don’t flatter yourself, Tommy.  You are, without a doubt, the last person I would want to spend the rest of my life with.” 

Her words stung.  Tommy sat there, a million cruel words ripping through his mind like a tornado.  But he said none of them.  “I have to get out of here.” 

“That’s probably a good idea.”  He told her. 

She disappeared behind her bedroom door, emerging several moments later and leaving without so much as a single word in his direction.  Tommy stared down at the empty mug in his hand, the urge to throw it almost too much to deny. 

His phone rang again and, this time, Tommy left it on the countertop, walking toward Penny’s bedroom.  The blankets were slightly ruffled up, a few shoes scattered along the floor. 

It wasn’t such a mess.

Not like his life was, anyway. 

The framed copy of their marriage license sat on the desk and he picked it up, staring down at their names. 
Penelope Davidson
, she had signed it.  It didn’t even look all that sloppy.

How could this have happened? 

Something caught his attention on the floor and he set the frame down, bending over to pick up the DVD case.  He stared at the cover, vague images of the chapel crossing his mind.  

He was already walking to the living area and putting the DVD into the player before he was even aware he wanted to watch it.  He fast-forwarded until he came to the menu, finding three options waiting for him.  ‘Why are we getting married?’, ‘The ceremony.’, and ‘Our promise to each
other.’.
 

He selected the first option, he and Penny immediately filling the screen.  They looked happy, both of them smiling their brightest possible smile. 

“Do you want to go first, or should I?”  Penny was asking him.  She giggled, nodding her head.  “Okay, I’ll go first.  I am marrying you, Tommy Davidson, because you are the only boy who has ever made me feel like I’m beautiful.  And because it was so hard for you to promise that you wouldn’t leave me again.  And because…”  He watched as she shifted her gaze to the floor. 
“Because I missed you.”

“I missed you too,”
  he
told her, touching his lips to her hand.  “So now it’s my turn?”  Tommy was afraid of what he might have said.  He was afraid to even watch it. 

“I am marrying you, Penny Lane, because you are the only girl I have ever
really
loved.  And because, from the moment I saw you, I knew that I would never find someone better.”

The video faded out with Tommy staring down at Penny while she grinned happily. 

The ceremony was exactly what he had expected—quick and painless.  It ended with a kiss and Tommy announcing that he was officially the happiest he had ever been. 

He groaned now, shaking his head. 

The last section was short and sweet, much like the first. 

“I promise to tell you the truth, from now until forever.”  She told him.

“And I promise to do everything in my power to make you happy.” 

Well, what a bang-up job he’d done so far. 

He turned the power off and ejected the DVD, deciding he would hide it away forever. 

He could never let anyone see it, least of all Penny. 

If it hadn’t already been released, that was. 

He sighed, shoving the DVD in his bag. 

He would lock it away, just like he was going to try to do with his feelings. 

It was for the best for everyone, he thought. 

But first, he wanted a chance to make it up to her.  He wanted a chance to enjoy the dream, because he knew that it wouldn’t be long now before it all came crashing down around him. 

It had been several hours since she had left the room and Tommy had gone through a great deal, trying to arrange a special evening for the two of them. 

He was just about to go in search of her—although he would have no idea where to begin—when he heard the door open and close, followed quickly by her bedroom door doing the same. 

After a few minutes, he rose to his feet and crossed the room so that he could press his ear to her door.  He heard the shower running and allowed himself to hope that—maybe—she had calmed down by now. 

His hopes were dashed the moment she emerged from the bedroom several minutes
later,
doing everything she could to avoid him. 

“Penny,”
  he
appealed to her as she opened the small refrigerator.  She appeared to be looking for something, but he couldn’t think of what—there was nothing in there except a few remaining bottles of alcohol, and he was certain she wouldn’t be touching those.  “Penny, you can’t stay mad at me forever.”

“No, but I
can
stay mad at you until you apologize.”

“What do you want me to apologize for?”

“You were blaming me for all of this.” 

“You were blaming me.”  He sighed, reaching out to take her hand as he gave in.  “Look, Pen, I’m sorry.  I’m sorry for whatever I may have said or done that hurt you.  And I’m sorry that I handled things badly this morning.  But this was all a surprise to me, too.”

“I know it was.  And I’m sorry too.  I shouldn’t have been so angry with you.”  She sighed, walking around him to sit down on a chair near the desk.  “Have you spoken with Graham?”  Tommy shook his head.  No, that was a call he was going to put off for as long as he possibly could.  “I’ve been avoiding calls all day too.”

“I saw something about a shot-gun wedding on the news earlier.  So it’s safe to assume they all know.” 

“How do we play this out?”  He had spent a good deal of time thinking about that very question throughout the day. 

“That depends on you, Pen.  We have a few options.”  He turned a chair backward so that he could rest his head on the back of it as he sat there. 

“What are they?”

“We can ride it out.  Pretend—”
  His
voice caught in his throat.  There was that word again.  “We can pretend that we’re actually giving it a try.  That this was something, while spur of the moment, that we planned.”

“Or?”

“Or we can have it annulled.  We can go our separate ways and move on with our lives.” 

“And if we go the first route? 
How long?”
  Tommy shrugged. 

“It’s all up to you.”  Penny nodded, covering her face with her hands for a moment.  “Hey, you don’t have to make a decision right this minute.  In fact, I’d prefer it if you didn’t.  I have something else on the agenda for this evening.”

“I don’t know if I’m really—”

“Please, Pen?”  He wanted to share this with her—especially if it might be the last time he was able to enjoy something with her.  He wanted to give her this experience.