Page 32 of In For a Penny
“I just had a lot of things to do yesterday. School, work, laundry,” he says, avoiding my eyes.
I stop and stare at him. “You’re acting suspicious.”
“Am not! I swear. I’m a busy man, Penny. You know this. I’m in high demand.” He smiles, trying to joke, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. He’s hiding something.
“Hmm,” I say, unconvinced. Oliver usually does not have a filter, and he’s never really tried to hide something, but he looks mighty cagey now. “Let’s go. I can’t afford anything in here, and I’m hungry.”
We walk out of the small store, waving to the bored salesperson on our way out. I’m sure he could tell as soon as I had walked in that nothing in his store was in my budget.
I chew on the inside of my cheek. I have this gnawing feeling that I’m not getting the whole truth about why he nor anyone else had shown up to our group trip. We had planned this over a week in advance. We had a group chat going. Chloe had volunteered to bring snacks. What happened?
We continue climbing the road up toward Notting Hill Gate while I lose myself in my thoughts. Oliver and I text several times a day, and he never once thought to warn me or let me know that he wouldn’t be going? I had been so focused on breaking down and analyzing the events from yesterday that I hadn’t even begun to think about why everyone else had conveniently canceled.
I smell a rat.
“It’s so weird that everyone else canceled as well, right?” I say as casually as possible, looking at him from the corner of my eye. “I mean, no one even texted in the group chat to say they weren’t going. Apparently, they all just reached out to Josh individually.”
Did Josh set this whole thing up?
Oliver looks nervously at me. He takes a pamphlet from someone passing them around and tries to look riveted by the information in his hand. The flyer is a guide to find Jesus, something I’d bet my life on Oliver has no interest in doing.
“Actually,” he says, scratching his head.
He’s about to crack. He’s a horrible liar.
“I might have told Michael not to go. You know, since I wasn’t going. So, I just, uh, you know… I just told Josh myself that Michael and his friend from uni weren’t up for it.”
I stop dead in my tracks to look up at him. Someone crashes right into me from behind, but I ignore their complaints.
“What do youmeanyoutoldthem not to go?” I narrow my eyes at him.
“Listen, can we talk about this properly once you’ve had some food in you?” Oliver looks anxious. He’s not cracking jokes or looking me in the eye. He can sense my ire. “I’ll deny I ever said this, but you scare me when you’re hungry.” He looks around anxiously.
“I don’t understand. What is there to talk about?” My voice is cold.
He groans, closing his eyes and shaking his head.
“I just want to preface this by saying that it was done from a place of love. Because your friends care about you. And they want to see you and Josh happy. And it wasn’t meant to make things uncomfortable or anything, okay?”
I narrow my eyes at him. “Okay…what was done from a place of love?” I raise an eyebrow at him.
He takes a deep breath before speaking. “Jane and I may have…slightlysabotaged the trip to Stonehenge.”
“What do you meanslightlysabotaged the trip, Oliver? What the fuck are you talking about?”
I’m angry,seething.
He looks scared now. “Okay, look. Don’t get mad, okay? It wasn’t meant to hurt you.” His words come out desperate, fast. “We just…saw how you two were interacting the other day at the library and that night we playedRisk—and honestly just any time you two are together—and we thought everyone could see this thing unfolding except for the two of you, so…Jane may havemisledChloe into thinking the trip was canceled, and I may have told Michael the same thing.” He winces. “We just wanted to push you guys in the right direction. See what was there.”
I am going to murder them.
I’m stunned. Shocked.
“Are youkidding me, Oliver?” I grab him by his quilted jacket, not caring that we’re in public and people are starting to stare. I want to scream in frustration. “What you guys did is so manipulative—even for you. Do you have any idea how weird the trip was yesterday? There were times where I swear you could cut the tension with a knife! You could have ruined my relationship with Josh. There were some unquestionably awkward moments in there during our trip. It’s none of your business whether we’re together or not. That’s a decisionwewould have to make—Josh and me!”
“But see, that’s what I’m saying!” he says excitedly. “Thereisa ‘Josh and me’—or a Josh and Penny, I mean. He’s clearly into you, and you seem to like him as well.”
I put my hands on my hips and look down at the ground. I take a deep breath, trying to calm my breathing, and shake my head before replying to him, gathering my thoughts.
