Page 55 of Loved

"You'll be the first person I call," I said. I had her number written down somewhere. But I hadn’t added it to my phone. Because I didn’t particularly like her. I’d thought she was a bad influence on Penny and honestly not a great friend. But…I could admit when I was wrong. She clearly did have Penny’s back even if she was rather abrasive about it.

"I'd better be. And her parents. Have you talked to them yet, by the way?"

"We did,” Penny said and lifted her head off my shoulder. "It went pretty well actually. My dad was not thrilled about me losing my scholarship, but other than that...it was good."

"Oh crap, Penny. I didn't realize you lost your scholarship. What are you going to do?"

"I don't know why everyone is making such a big deal out of this,” I said. “You know I have the money to pay for it.”

"The perks of having a loaded boyfriend." Melissa smiled. "Speaking of which, I'd love a tour."

Melissa was finally smiling. Which meant this was probably a good time for me to bow out and let the two of them talk. Besides, I needed to get to the bottom of what the hell was going on with those detectives. And the girls that were lying about me. "I will let you handle the tour, Penny. I need to get some work done." I stood up.

"But you're not a professor anymore," Melissa said.

"I'm working on some other stuff." I kissed Penny’s cheek. "I'll be in my office." I walked out of the room and into the hall.

Behind me I heard Melissa say: "Oh my God, this place is so cool! Show me everything!"

I smiled. She’d come around eventually. If I stopped fucking things up with Penny. And I was definitely done doing that. I was all in here. I walked into my office and closed the door behind me.

I hit Ian’s name in my phone. He answered in one ring.

“I can’t wait to listen in on this,” Ian said.

“We’re not listening to their conversation.” I sat down at my desk.

“Wait, what? Why?”

“Because it’s an invasion of their privacy.”

Ian laughed. “Thisis but watching Penny with those detectives earlier wasn’t?”

I pressed my lips together.I don’t know. Apparently my morals are all messed up.But that situation was different. I was trying to protect her. I didn’t need to protect her from Melissa.I think.Unless Melissa was whispering poison about me to Penny…Stop.“We have something else we need to do. We need to get the bottom of who the two girls lying about me are. And why they’re doing it.”

“I’m already on it,” Ian said. “I’ll figure it out soon enough. But I want to take a break and see what Penny and Melissa are saying.”

“No.”

“But they’re obviously talking about you. Don’t you want to know what they’re saying?”

“Of course I want to know,” I said and eyed the black screen on my computer. I could easily just…switch it on. And see what Penny was saying about me in private with her best friend. But that was the whole problem. It was supposed to be private. And as inappropriate as me filming Penny with me was, it was a shared moment between us. For some reason I could rationalize that better.

“So we can watch?” Ian asked.

“Ian, when did you become such a voyeur?”

“I don’t know,” he said very seriously.

“I was kidding, Ian.”

He laughed. “I know. Me too.”

Was he though? When was the last time Ian had mentioned going on a date? I pressed my lips together. Wait, had I ever heard him talk about a date before? I didn’tthink so. The only girl I ever heard him talk about was my sister. And I didn’t think that was sexual. At least, I really hoped it wasn’t. Because that would fucking suck if he moved to California with Jen and left me without a security detail. Also…I’d miss him. He’d somehow become my best friend since he moved into the building.

I cleared my throat. “We’re not watching.”

Ian groaned. “Fine. Whatever. I’ll turn it off.”

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