Oswald grabbed one of the jars from the shelf, and he looked back at the one still left on the display. He was confused. They looked the same but one was a dollar more. He put the one in his hand back and picked up the other one. Completely the same. He felt his face contort in confusion. He was just about ready to put it back when a voice came from behind him.

"Are you okay sir?" It was a nice voice belonging to a woman and his lip twitched up a little at the southern accent.

"Yeah I'm fine," he turned to look at her and brought his eyes down fast. She was a pretty girl, and he was not good at talking to pretty girls. "I'm confused about the difference in these two, uh, products." Products? Seriously he said products. What else did he expect though. He was completely lost when it came to talking to pretty girls. With fish it was fine she was just old enough that it didn't matter. This girl however was young and closer to his age, and it rendered him useless.

"Well," she laughed softly, " there really isn't one. You see the one is your hand is name brand it's more expensive by default. The one on the shelf next to it is bargain, or store brand and its exactly the same as the name brand but its cheaper." She gave him a smile.

Oswald put the name brand back and picked up the bargain. "its the same?"

"Yup," she gave a pop on the 'p', " peanut butter is peanut butter is peanut butter." She looked at the tall man. He was a handsome guy. Clear bright blue eyes, dark messy hair, and his nose had just a little point to it. It was adorable. "Don't do this often?"

"Oh, uh, no." He looked at her from the side and gave a small awkward smile. She was really pretty. She had straw blonde hair and hazel eyes. Rosie cheeks and plump pink lips. Her hair was down and fell to her waist. Her skin was lightly tanned. She didn't even reach his shoulder. She was thicker than some but was curvy beyond desire. Wide hips, thick-ish legs and breasts he had to work to ignore.

"I can promise it gets easier." She smiled at him and held out her hand. "My name is Penelope May."

He took her hand cautiously and held it tight. After all a firm handshake was important. "Oswald Cobblepot, nice to meet you" he wanted to smack himself why did he tell her his real name. He was suppose to be dead and he couldn't just give out his name.

"It was a pleasure Oswald. Now that the peanut butter is taken care of are you sure you're okay?" she asked politely.

"You really aren't from around here." He gave an airy chuckle. When he saw her confusion he explained, "People in this city don't just come up to people and ask them if they are okay."

"Well, where I'm from we are kind to strangers and people who seem troubled. Maybe if Gotham was like the south there wouldn't be so much crime." Penelope huffed slightly.

"Maybe." Oswald looked at her, and felt his mouth moving and heard words forming before he thought to stop himself. "How long have you been in Gotham?"

"Oh just two months." She gave small shrug and a sigh. "I knew it would be different from my home but didn't realize how different."

" I can promise it gets easier," he teased gently. She smiled up at him shaking her head. "Why did you move?" He really needed to stop asking questions.

"Well I came up here thinking I would have a better job market for my career." Noticing his questioning gaze she continued, "I, well, I'm a voice and piano teacher."

"Really? I use to take piano lessons." He didn't know why he said that but he saw that smile and thought a joke might be a good thing to make, "I have to say, I'm an expert at playing chopsticks."

Penelope laughed, and looked up at him. He really was handsome. Maybe Gotham wasn't so bad and filled with horrible people. Oswald was such a kind gentleman.

"Uh, maybe, I mean if you wanted to, I, we could go out to lunch sometime?" the words were unsure and wavering.

"I would love too." she smiled and he smiled back. They just stared at each other smiling until Oswald started to look uncertain of what he should do and looking everywhere but at her. "Let me see your arm."

Oswald didn't have time to question it or agree to it before she grabbed his arm. The blonde pushed up his sleeve and pulled a pen from her purse. She clicked the black utensil and wrote on his arm. The feeling was odd and tickled slightly. She released his arm and he looked down at the numbers written there. He looked at her and smiled again.

"I will make sure to call before this washes off."

"Good. Well I need to finish up here and get going." She put her pen away and adjusted her purse, "I will wait eagerly for your call so don't take too long. Buh-bye Oswald, have a lovely day." She moved around him to continue down the aisle.

"Bye." He called after her, and quickly turned back to the shelves of peanut butter. He looked down in his basket giving the peanut butter jar a pointed look. "you started this."

Penelope sighed as she once again looked at her phone. Nothing. Nothing at all, and it had been a day. She groaned and looked down at the newspaper in her lap. She was sitting on her bed looking through the personal ads, searching for someone looking for a piano or voice teacher. Nothing so far. Plenty of ads from men looking for a cheap fuck, but no jobs. She was working as a waitress to help pay the bills but she really wanted to not be working at Mels 24 hour diner.

She threw the paper to her side and turned on her bed to glare at her phone. Why hadn't he called? Why didn't she get his number so she could call him? She huffed and got up and walked to her small kitchen. A nice cup of peppermint tea would brighten her mood. She opened her cabinet and grabbed the tea box. Penelope looked through the various bags and nothing. Nothing seemed to be the theme of her life. Cute boys who seemed like gentle men and said they would call, nothing. Job opportunities for her dream career that she has wanted for years, nothing. Peppermint tea to make her move to Gotham feel like less of a failure, nothing! She put the box back and slammed the door closed.

"Why won't he just call me?" She sighed but jumped as she heard the phone ring. She ran to her bedside table and looked down at the beautiful 1940's crystal circle dial phone as it rang. She took a deep breath and picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Hey! Hows my sweetest lil' bell doing?" It wasn't Oswald but at least it was a familiar voice.

"Hey Kenzie, I'm doing good." Penelope smiled into the receiver.

"Oh no. Why are you down? I know that voice. What happened? Were you mugged? I knew you shouldn't have moved up there! I'm buying you a ticket home right now and you can live with me." The rushed voice made the blonde smile.

"Nothing like that I promise. It's just that I'm still working at Mel's I can't find a job and," She sighed for the hundredth time, "I met a guy who seems really great, but he hasn't called. I thought he liked me. He acted like he did at least."

"If I know you, and I do, Then he does like you and he is some scrawny tall thing that is a little shy and awkward and not good at talking to women."

"Are you judging my taste in men?" She heard her friend laugh over the phone.

"I have been judging your taste in men since the third grade." It was Penelope's turn to laugh.

"I met him in the grocery store and He was 'confused about the difference in these two products' it was store versus name brand, and it was peanut butter."

"Products? Seriously? Oh my God he is by far the biggest dork you have ever been interested in." The twenty year old plopped down on her bed.

"Yeah but you should have seen him. He was wonderful. He just hasn't called." The southerner pouted.

"Well he might not actually know how to talk to girls so he is going off of what he has seen in movies or some shit, and is waiting three days to call." Penelope made a face.

"Why in hell would anyone wait three days? If a girl gives you her number you call her either that night or the next day. You don't wait." she ran her fingers through her hair.

"Well It looks like you're gonna have to." Kenzie teased gently.

Oswald sighed as he walked into the back of the restaurant. He was dressed in his white uniform and walked to the sink that already had dishes waiting for him. He turned on the water and waited for it to get hot. He was pretty tired he had stayed up late thinking about Penelope and then woke and had been think about calling her all day. He reached the conclusion that it would probably be better to not call her. After all He had big plans for his future plans that a girl like Penelope wouldn't like. He rinsed the dishes and then reached down to plug the sink and fill it up with the hot water. The squirted some soap in and got started.

He had been washing for about and hour when he actually looked down at his arm. There was Penelope's number being washed away. He quickly pulled his arm out and looked down at the number. The last few numbers were fading, but still visible. the last one however couldn't really be made out. It was either a 3 or an 8. He wasn't sure. He groaned and cursed under his breath. He would probably never see her again and she was really the only girl who showed any interest in him. He wanted to bang his head on the side of the sink.

"Paulo! To the bar get the cups and clean 'em!" He heard the irritating voice of his manager. He sometimes wished he could shoot that man. He grabbed a dish bin and walked to the bar. Oswald looked up and saw Maroni sitting by the bar. He straightened his back the best he could with his injured leg. He had already spoken to Maroni once, and he had as far as he could tell made a good impression.

He stood behind the bar and loaded the glass cups into his bin. Maroni made his way to the bar.

"Get me scotch will ya?" Oswald looked around and saw the bartender was currently absent. He moved quickly to get a the bottle and poured carefully. Maroni looked up. " Ah Paulo." Maroni saw numbers on the young mans arm. "Got a ladies number did ya?"

"Huh? Oh yes sir." Oswald smiled to himself.

"You call her yet?" Maroni pushed. He, although was a crime boss, loved a good love story. He couldn't help it. It was how Mama Maroni raised him.

"No not yet. I'm actually not sure if I am." Oswald kept his head down and fidgeted a bit with the edge of the dish bin.

"Is she pretty?"

"Yes."

"Is she nice?" Maroni picked up his drink.

"Very." Oswald smiled a bit.

"Does she got a nice voice?"

"Yeah she's voice teacher."

"Oh. She's a singer. Call her." Maroni took a drink.

"Wha-"

"Ba-ba-ba-ba. Call her." Maroni looked oswald in the eye. "Trust me if the dame is anything like you make her out to be. She ain't gonna be on the market long."

"Okay then. I will call her tonight. Thank you Mr. Maroni sir." Oswald smiled Maroni walked back to his table.

Oswald walked back to the kitchen to clean the dishes. He worked the rest of his shift with a small smile on his face.

When Oswald hot back to his apartment. He pulled up a chair by his phone and picked up the receiver. He dialed the number and guesses the last digit was a three and called. He hung up the phone as a deep voice answered. He dialed the number again and dialed an eight instead. He was greeted with a familiar and lovely southern voice.