Penelope looked at her list. She knew that Morgan- at some point earlier this year- had sent her a proposed time plan of how he thought things would go, but she didn't see the next point on her list happening anytime soon.
Ever since Morgan knew about the list he kind of dragged her in all sort of bars and introduced her to friends she wasn't even aware he had. So far she always assumed she knew him pretty much in and out, but she never had seen nevertheless even heard of most of these so called friends he seemed to produce all of a sudden by an hourly rate.
Maybe certain things she should cross off the list all by herself. She never thought to say this but as a matchmaker Derek kind of sucked. Yeah, it was a nice gesture to make her meet all of these friends of his, but she didn't have anything in common with anyone of them. Their conversations were rather quickly dried up, creating a rather uncomfortable silence and Penelope wishing to be someplace else. Maybe her best friend took the 'get steady boyfriend who's not a nerd' a bit in the wrong direction. The opposite direction actually. All of his friends were nice and such, but seemed to be more of a player than Morgan himself. Something Penelope never thought could even be possible.
He had just planned another 'party' for the next weekend, when Penelope decided she definitely needed to talk to him about a thing or two.
"Morgan, don't get me wrong, I mean … I really appreciate your support for helping me complete my list this year, but … I don't know whether this month's goal is something I need your help with," she admitted during a coffee break.
That only got her a look from Morgan.
"You remember the last guy you had, right? And how long exactly did he hang around?" Morgan asked curious, knowing that the whole addition, the whole 'who's not a nerd' addition was because of her last boyfriend and any other boyfriend before that as a matter of fact.
For all her life that's what Penelope did. Dating nerds, geeks and hackers. Time for a change. But if the change lay with Morgan she wasn't certain.
"The two years I had spent with Kevin we had a very happy and balanced relationship," Penelope argued meekly, at which Morgan just looked astonished at her.
"Happy and balanced? Is that a new way of saying 'unsatisfied'?" He smiled at her and once more she hated herself for ever confiding in him about Kevin's rather lack of enthusiasm for sexual experiments. She sure as hell was no female version of Hugh Heffner herself, but some sort of improvement would have been a welcome change. But then again any change would have been an improvement, come to think of it.
Morgan of course being Morgan couldn't let go of this for weeks and at some point she was expecting him to go and talk to Lynch about it, have some sort of manly chat in which he would lay out some sort of basics. She seriously could imagine it. But was glad it had never went that far.
According to Morgan a relationship was a perfect balance of amazing, hot sex and a fair amount of commitment, with a nice mix of fighting every now and then, which would, of course, result in hot make-up sex. Come to think of it in his mind a relationship consisted 70% sex and 30% commitment. No wonder he never seemed to have any real, serious relationship. No woman in her right mind would want to deal with his 'amount' of commitment.
At some point they agreed to disagree and from then onwards never really brought it up again unless they were both willing and into a long night of endless discussion during none of these two would get the other one's point. Morgan had his opinion and she had hers. Sometimes they just didn't need to agree on everything.
With her mind back on Morgan's upcoming party, Penelope felt the worry coming up that even if she would let herself get into a relationship with one of Morgan's friends, they would have similar ideas about relationships, if not even worse than Morgan's. And that was something she certainly didn't need either. She might not want to date a geek for a while, but dating a person that was a commitment-phobic? Surely not.
"Well, at least I had a relationship and not just randomly selected warm bodies next to me during the night," she smiled at him innocently. Two could definitely play the game.
"Oh, Baby, they are anything but randomly selected," Morgan replied with a grin.
"Okay, so you know them for like … an hour before you decide on giving them the private tour of your bedroom, as if that makes much of a difference," she smiled, wondering how they managed from her trying to tell him she would want to look for Mr. Right without him to sex talk, well, more like talk about his conquests.
"Sometimes it does," he smiled again. Penelope just groaned, not sure if she really wanted to go any further and deeper in this issue.
JJ and Emily joined them that moment and this was for sure the end of their strange conversation.
"What are you two up to?" JJ asked, getting herself a cup of coffee, while Emily opted for tea.
"Penelope has decided to date again, but none of my friends seem to be good enough for her." Morgan grinned, making Penelope wonder how on earth he knew that she wasn't really considering any of his friends.
"Oh?" was the unison response from both Emily and JJ. "You finally decided on moving on from Lynch? Good for you. He wasn't worth your time anyway," Emily commented, seeming instantly interested in this conversation,
"What requirements do you look for? I have some very good looking friends as well I could introduce to you," Emily laughed, and Penelope couldn't believe she was in the middle of another matchmaker. Just JJ was missing from playing matchmaker, but from the look of her … give her another ten minutes and she would have hooked Penelope up as well.
"That's a simple one. Anything but a geek," Morgan decided on answering, surprising both Emily and JJ.
"That's all?" Emily asked shocked. "No other specifications? Like … needs to look good, be smart, good in bed, genuine, kind, good sense of humor? There must be something else you want and look for?"
"I don't want to lock myself down by restricting things," Penelope simply answered, not able to let the surprising looks on her friends face vanish.
"Come on, there must be some sort of … image in your head when you think of your Mr. Right," JJ pushed, seeming all of a sudden interested as well.
Penelope thought about it for a moment. Fine, if they ask for it.
"Well … he needs to be … suave and challenging. I don't need a guy who is all the same all day long. Good looking and athletic, well build and having a wicked sense of humor, needing to match mine. Definitely not the jealous type since I am sick of these endless discussions of how close I can be with my best friend and what takes things too far …" she winked at Morgan for moment, which got her a laugh in return. "Should like his family, since I don't have one anymore and can't stand when a man trash talks about a mom that calls him six times daily to make sure he is okay or his sister that dresses like a street worker. Not clingy. Good mood most of the time and someone with a positive attitude towards life. Protective, when needed. And definitely not one of these who thinks he needs to bring a show when around his buddy's to prove his manliness. A guy who wants to look out for me and after me. Just … a normal guy," was Penelope's verdict, leaving all three of them rather surprised that her list all of a sudden could be that long. But Emily and JJ seemed to also have some weird smiles plastered all over their faces.
"Okay, ladies, I need to run back, have been spending way too much time away from my reports already. I see you later, okay? And baby girl? We're gonna find you a guy like that, trust me…" he winked at her, before leaving the three of them alone, the smiles on JJ and Emily's face growing bigger again.
"What?" Penelope asked irritated. When no answer came she repeated herself, asking once more "What?" when their smiles only grew bigger.
"I just realized I actually know someone like that. Someone who fits 100% this description," Emily explained, turning to JJ. "What about you? Sounded familiar?"
"Oh, yeah. I know someone like that as well. You would be … rocking together. I swear. A match made in heaven," JJ smiled, barely able to stop herself from giggling.
Penelope couldn't wait to hear just who they had in mind. Would he be perfect? Or a perfect disaster?
A/N: Sorry, but I was forced to devide the chapter in two parts. It got slightly longer than expected. Blame it on my muse. But please don't hate the writer.