Page 49 of Loved

I stared at the screen. Penny had grabbed a bottle of vodka that I’d hidden from Ellen in the back of the freezer. What was she doing?

Chapter 14

Thursday

“She’s going to be the death of me,” I said.

Ian laughed.

“I’m sure you’ll have lots of fun watching this conversation.” I watched Penny down a shot.

“Absolutely.”

I ended the call and hurried out into the hall. There’d just been detectives in here and Penny was drinking underage? Serving alcohol to minors didn’t exactly paint me as the good guy she claimed I was. And yes, I’d let her drink in front of me before. But I hadn’t known her age back then.

She downed a second shot as I walked into the kitchen.

"I see you've found the liquor,” I said.

She looked up at me.

I was pretty sure she was waiting for me to reprimand her. But no one was coming into this apartment without my knowledge after the security updates. And it wasn’t like I’d been sober when I was 20, so I wasn’t one to talk. If she was going to drink, I preferred if she did it around me. And I needed a drink too. I hadn’t had a sip of alcohol since we’d gotten back together. Because I didn’t need it. I also knew I wouldn’t lose control if I had some. All I truly needed was her. And right now, she needed us to be on the same page. So I grabbed a shot glass for myself and slid it toward her.

She poured some vodka into the glass.

"You know, I could get in trouble for this," I said and held up the glass.

"Is that the only thing you're worried about getting in trouble for?"

I lowered my eyebrows. "What, did they tell you what supposedly came up during their investigation?” I already knew. But Penny was upset about the allegations from these two girls. The last thing she needed right now was to know I was lying about cameras all around the apartment. I could hear Ellen yelling at me in the back of my head. But I was right about this.One hiccup at a time.

Penny shrugged. "They knew you lured me into your office so you could seduce me."

"That's not exactly how I'd put that." I downed my shot.

"Then how would you put it?"

"That I was mad at you. And I wanted to see you." I ran my hand through my hair. "I didn't want to have to share you with Tyler. I wanted more. I wanted you to want more too." I hesitated for a second. "And at the same time I didn't. I wanted to get over you. I wasn't really thinking clearly. I couldn't get you out of my head."

"But how did they know that? How did they know about the fake grade? And me going into your office?"

I have no idea.No one had seen us. I was sure about that. I’d locked the door. And yet…the detectives knew. "I'm sure there's a logical explanation for that."

"Right. I'm waiting for the explanation. What is it?"

"I don't know. That's their job. They're the investigators. They must have pieced something together."

She looked down at her empty shot glass. "They didn't actually know if that had happened. They just inferred it."

"Inferred it? From what?" I poured myself another shot and downed it. Because I already knew what they’d inferred it from.

"From what two other girls said during their interviews. Apparently both of them said that you lured them into your office to seduce them under that pretense of a poor grade."

"Penny, you know I didn't do that. That's ridiculous." I stared at her. She’d told the detectives off. But…I saw the doubt in her eyes.

"Is it that ridiculous? You kind of did that to me."

"And I just told you that was different. I've said it a million times, Penny. It's only ever been you. You know that. You know how I feel about you."

---