Page 17 of Loved

“Are you filming Penny without her consent?” Ellen raised her eyebrow at me.

“It’s not like that.” But honestly…it was a little like that. Because I’d saved some of the footage and watched it. I’d watched it a whole lot while Penny and I were on a break. It was some seriously hot footage.

“It’s kind of like that,” Ian said.

I glared at him.

“You made me save…”

“Enough,” I said. “I’m going to fix this. You two have nothing to worry about.”

Ellen just stared at me. “You still haven’t told me when.”

“At lunch…”

“No, not lunch. She’s in your class without you. Can you imagine what people are whispering or saying to her face? The women are always the ones to blame. You need to go to her. Right now. And talk all of this out before you do irreparable damage.”

I glanced down at my watch.

“Now, James.”

“Okay, okay. She’s in class right now, but…I’ll catch her when she’s leaving.”

“Good. Go.”

“But class doesn’t end until…”

“Now,” she said again more firmly. “You’re acting like you’ve never been in a relationship before. Pull it together.”

Well, I’d never been in a healthy relationship before. “You know, I planned out this morning perfectly. I came appropriately prepared. And Penny should have let me handle it.”

“Get out of here with that,” Ellen said.

I glanced at Ian.

“I’m siding with Ellen,” he said.

Of course you are.“Okay. But just for the record, Ellen, the cameras aren’t any worse than you eavesdropping.”

She opened her mouth and closed it again. “I beg to differ.”

I smiled. She knew it was the same. “Okay, I’m going.”

“Don’t bulldoze Penny again. She’s soft spoken. Take a deep breath and hear her out.”

That was where I knew for sure I could handle this situation without the help of Ellen’s meddling. Yes, Penny was soft spoken. But not around me. She was feisty and passionate. And had no problem speaking her mind. Hopefully she’d be easier on me than Ellen had been.

“And now I’m actually going,” I said. Even though I’d told Joe I’d lay low on campus, I did need to go to Penny. She had no idea what she was walking into. But she’d know now. After facing Comm, the worst was probably over. But I needed to be there for her.

Chapter 6

Wednesday

I kept my head down as I walked up the stairs to my old Comm class. The campus was pretty empty right now since 8 a.m. classes weren’t over for a few more minutes. But I still didn’t want to draw attention to myself.

I wasn’t exactly sure what my plan was. I just needed to be alone with Penny to talk all this out. To figure out what our next steps were. To make sure she was okay. To make surewewere okay.

The back door to my Comm class opened.Shit.I couldn’t let any of them see me. Joe would have a field day. I grabbed the doorknob of an empty classroom, but it was locked. I tried another door and breathed a sigh of relief when it opened. I ducked inside and hit my foot against a bucket. It was dark, but the bucket and the lemon scent told me I was in a custodial closet. I opened the door a crack to peer down the hall.

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