Author's note: If you enjoy this chapter, I recommend heading to my profile and reading from the beginning.
If you've been along for the journey from chapter one, I thank you for continuing to read. Please feel free to message me if you have any questions, as I'm personally responding to each e-mail I receive.
Things
are
escalating, and I hope that you will continue to enjoy what I've worked on. Because I don't want to lose people who have made it this far, I want to again assure you that there will be a shift in power. Thank you sincerely for sticking with me.
***
By three in the afternoon, Alex's patio held a hundred people at the least. He hadn't meant for it to get this large when he'd told Jessica to make her list, but he'd assumed with the late notice that most would be busy. But he'd underestimated himself, the crowd he could draw, and with his 2pm start time, they'd just kept filing in.
The morning had been busy for Penelope. Alex's alarm rang early; he'd forgotten to turn it off the night before. It had been too hard to fall back asleep with her excitement over the party, so she'd sat up, but before she could get far, Alex had pulled her back, then made love to her. And really made love; not the fucking she'd received the night before. Slow and soft, with gentle kisses and whispers of adoration. Penelope had thought her heart would burst from her chest.
Once downstairs, Beverly had a pot of coffee waiting. It wasn't long before omelets were fried and Penelope was eating at the kitchen bar. Alex was down just as she finished, freshly showered, to tell her she needed to get a move on. Tell her Jessica had made an appointment for her at the spa to get her nails done and anything else she liked. She rushed up to shower and threw on clothes, then was out the door within a half hour.
Ben was happy to be taking her downtown; it meant a good fifteen minutes with her. He'd been really pissed that Andy had actually received an invitation to the party, but Andy had said he'd been hanging out with Penelope while he worked. Ben hadn't had a chance to spend much time with her, but that would change when he was driving her every day to the U, which was a good thirty minutes away. He was really looking forward to it.
Penelope had never had a manicure before. It had always seemed like an unnecessary expense; why pay when she could do it home for free. But once her nails were finished in a French manicure with gloss, she admired her hands wondering why she'd never done it before. A clay masque was applied to her face and her feet were dipped in hot, bubbling water that smelled like lavender. Once her toenails were painted a rosey pink, a hairstylist sat her down and trimmed her ends, then asked what she wanted. Penelope told her a style seemed silly since it was a pool party, but the woman disagreed, said that;
All the women will have their hair done because first impressions are everything.
So Penelope shrugged and said,
whatever you think
, and the woman got to work.
When Penelope left the salon, her blond hair was pinned up above her ear at the side, the rest falling over her shoulders in wide relaxed curls. At the car, Ben told her she looked "really pretty", which had made her beam.
Penelope still had a bunch of bikinis that hadn't seen the light of the sun. She still laughed that Alex had bought that entire rack of clothes at the second store they'd gone to; the rack had been half bikinis! She found a set she hadn't worn yet; black with dime sized white polka-dots. The cups were padded and in a circular shape, while an inch thick strap wrapped behind her neck. The bottoms had a thick ruched hem at the top that was perfectly straight across—no curve—and found it made the slight curve to her hips look a little wider. The back wasn't exactly full coverage, maybe three-quarters, which made her wonder if they looked a little
too
sexy, but she decided she was thinking that just because she
felt
sexy after her morning with Alex.
As the guests arrived, there were so many that she'd forget their names a minute later. She tried very hard to remember the names of the guests that were close to her age so she wouldn't feel like an idiot talking to them later. There were no children; it seemed the ages ranged from hers to fifty or so, and they were all smiles.
A large bar had been set up on the patio with two bartenders, and that was where the guests hit first after they'd met her. There were maybe half a dozen waiters walking around with trays of food and a table with even more. Someone was grilling meats. People claimed their territory on lounge chairs and at various tables. Alex's pool had always reminded her of a public pool with how many tables and chairs he had surrounding it, though the pool itself had been like no pool she'd ever laid eyes on.
By three, most of the guests had stripped off their outerwear. Men walked around shirtless and in swim trunks, boxer brief cuts, and even a rare few in speedos. Women wore bikinis in various cuts and styles, and Penelope was relieved to find some were far skimpier than even her skimpiest, usually on women with the biggest breasts of all. One woman, who had been introduced as a stepmother to a son and daughter who could very well be her age, had thick red hair, crazy curves and boobs the size of cantaloupes. Penelope may not know much, but she could spot fake pretty easily, and it seemed at least a quarter of the women here had implants.
She looked down at her own breasts and felt out of place, though she'd never have surgery.
Alex stayed close to Penelope, directing all subjects of conversation to her with the people they talked to. He tried to steer her around to those in their twenties, avoiding the wives that
were
in their twenties. The last thing he needed was Claire's friends around Penelope, and there were plenty here. She'd gone to Fiji with her three best friends, and two of them had husbands here today because they had adult children.
And Alex was immensely pleased he seemed to be making progress. He and Penelope had been talking to two girls and a guy for a long time. Clinton Patel was probably twenty-three by now and a nice guy, despite his parents. Kathleen Hanson and Britney Pierce had been best friends for years, both twenty-one now, and were very friendly. It wasn't long before he realized he could leave Penelope to get to know them by herself, so he excused himself by saying he needed to check on things, and left.
Penelope really liked the three already. They were far from her friends at home, but excitable and fun, and seemed to like her.
"You really should come out for drinks and dancing with us this week," Kathleen cried, grabbing Penelope's arm. She had brown hair, stick straight. She was an average build, which looked wonderful on her. It made Penelope feel like Kathleen was normal, like her friends back home who weren't having some sort of plastic surgery for their sixteenth birthdays.
"Oh yes!" Britney agreed, bouncing with her drink. She took a sip of the martini. "There's a club downtown; hottest guys you'll ever see because they totally let people in based on how they look."
"Yeah, but I'm not twenty-one," Penelope said, blushing.
"That
soo
