Penelope lived on the ninth floor of her apartment building and hated doing laundry so she'd procrastinate, as long as possible, which meant she usually had three large, full, bags. The laundry room was in the basement so whenever she'd, finally, decide it was time to do laundry, she sure as hell wasn't going to make two trips! So, she'd load her small frame with all three bags and take them all down at once.
She loved the fact there was also a bicycle room, a small gym and a recycling room in the basement and close to the laundry room. A one-time fee of fifty dollars, compared to seventy-five dollars per month at a downtown gym, gave her the use of the gym as much as, and whenever, she liked. She tried to make a routine out of it but wasn't the most organized person.
Monday nights, from seven-thirty to eight-thirty, was a good time because it was pretty quiet. On Wednesday nights, at six o'clock, a woman in the building led a Spinning Class. Penelope liked going to that class because she felt as though being part of a group motivated her more to go. She also realized she had to hold herself more accountable compared to as if she went alone.
She'd gone, a few times on Friday nights, to do a weight-lifting routine a friend had shown her. However, it made her self-conscious to be seen, down there, with nothing better to do on a Friday night so she usually skipped. She couldn't help but wonder what people thought of a pretty girl, in her early thirties, being alone on a Friday night and with nothing better to do. Penelope hadn't been out on a Friday night in a long while. She'd lost track, actually. Months ago, maybe a year, she went out on a blind date with a guy she'd met during a coffee break one day.
Instead, she opted to snuggle up on the couch, in her PJs, with her cat, Carlton, a good book or movie and snacks. Good snacks were important!
************
She met Eric at the Starbucks around the corner from her workplace. Eric had commented she had a very pretty name after the Barista had called it out. They briefly chatted while she stirred cream and Stevia into her coffee. She ended up giving Eric her number and he texted her the following week, asking if she'd like to go out for dinner with him Friday night.
During dinner, Eric drank four glasses of wine, to Penelope's one, and couldn't stop talking about the girls he worked with and how beautiful they were. After the mediocre meal was over, and he drunkenly hailed her a cab, one of his feet slipped off of the curb and rolled his ankle.
When the cab arrived, he asked the driver to take him to a walk-in clinic, leaving Penelope to bus home. It was the worst date she'd ever had and, needless to say, she never saw Eric, again. All the more reason to stay home with Carlton, as he worshipped only Penelope.
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Later, on a Friday morning, while getting ready for work, Penelope was so low on clean clothes to wear, she had to do the sniff test on a blouse she'd found, under the covers and at the foot of her bed...it passed. Looking through her drawer, she'd realized the only clean underwear she had were two thongs she forgotten she'd owned.
Those were date underwear and she hadn't been on a date since the disastrous date from hell with Eric. Out of options, she slipped into a black-lace thong, Tuesday's bra, yesterday's socks, the skirt she wore Monday, the blouse from the bed and she was ready for work. It was inevitable, she'd have to do laundry that night.
When she arrived home, Friday night, she put the bottle of wine she'd picked up, during her lunch break, in the fridge to chill. After paying Carlton the attention he desperately needed, she loaded up the three large IKEA bags she used for laundry.
She was tired! She didn't want to be washing clothes on a Friday night and...she didn't have anything to wear while doing laundry! Irritated and desperate, she looked around until she found something. She, literally, had two pieces of clothing left in her drawers...a white tank top and very short, skimpy, pajama shorts.
She'd bought the PJ shorts during the previous summer for something to wear around the house during a particularly hot July. It'd have to do, besides, no one was likely to see her. Who else would be in the basement, at seven o'clock, on a Friday night?
She carried her laundry into the elevator, hit the basement button and dropped the heavy bags onto the floor. A minute later, the elevator stopped and Josh got on. Penelope had run into him a number of times since she'd moved into the building, a little over a year ago.
Josh was a cute guy who lived on the fourth floor. He was often in the gym, Wednesday nights, while she was attending her Spinning Class. He'd lift weights at the other end of the room and Penelope would often watch him from her stationary bike.
He had big, thick legs covered in hardened ropes of muscle that tightened and stretched as he did squats. She'd never seen him with a woman whenever she'd run into him in the lobby or elevator. He'd always smiled and said hello and asked how she was doing.
He had great teeth and a big smile that was a little crooked on one side, which Penelope thought was adorable. As he pressed the button for the basement and turned to face her, she noticed he was dressed for the gym.
"Hi, how're you doing? How has your week been?" he asked.
"It was good," she lied to get the topic out of the way.
"Are you going to the gym?" she asked.
"Yeah. I like going on Fridays because it's quiet. I usually have the place to myself which means I can listen to music and do my thing."
"That's cool. I should be going more often."
"I see you, on Wednesdays, in the Spinning Class. It looks fun. I've thought of joining."
"It's pretty cool."
"You're doing laundry. That reminds me, I have a ton to do, too."
Josh couldn't help but notice her thin tank top was taught against her soft, pink nipples and see through, while under the overhead lighting of the elevator. Her gaze froze, on Josh's great calves, for a moment. The elevator stopped and dinged, breaking both of them out of their dazes at the same time.
"Oh! You, ah, dropped something," Josh smiled while looking down at her feet.
Penelope looked down and saw the black thong she'd worn during the day was laying on the floor. It must've fallen out when she dropped the bags.
"Oh, great!" she said.
She would've been more embarrassed if it'd been a pair of the type of underwear she normally wore, the type her sister referred to as, 'bloomers'. As she bent over to pick up the thong, Josh had a good view of her nipple, for only a second, down the front of her shirt.
"Thanks," she said with the thong hanging from her hand.
Josh smiled his big crooked smile and gestured for her to get off of the elevator first. She smiled and, unintentionally, flicked her eyes to the bulge in the front of his loose fitting gym shorts but she didn't think he'd noticed. Penelope struggled, briefly, to pick up her three heavy bags.
