"Daniel's company went public."
"How wonderful." The sarcasm in her voice was barely veiled, and yet her mother managed to completely miss it.
"Yes it is. You know, he'd be happy to find you a place."
"I have a job."
"Penelope, it's not proper."
"Not for you, but I like it. I feel like I'm making a difference."
"If you want to make a difference become a teacher or a nurse."
She felt like she was going to scream. And she knew that all she had to look forward to was her mother's typical rant on how she was almost thirty, single, her clock was running out.
"Mother, I'm sorry but the office is paging me."
"On a Saturday?"
"Well, Mother, crazed lunatics that snap and kill their overbearing mothers don't worry about interrupting our days off."
"Alright then. Please be careful."
"Of course, Mother. I'll call you next weekend."
"And don't forget about Thanksgiving."
"I won't. I'm watching the prices."
"Good. You want to be sure you get a good price."
"Happy Birthday, Mother."
Penelope hung up the phone with a mild feeling of guilt. Pretending she was being paged wasn't a nice thing to do. Then again, neither was telling off her mother.
The buzzer on the tiny dryer in the bathroom went off and Penelope pulled out the load of clean towels and neatly folded them. Aside from calling her mother, the day had been quite a good one. With a sudden drop in crazed lunatics for a few days, she had been able to finish all the background reports from the various departments by the end of the day, allowing her to actually have a Saturday off.
She'd gotten up early and gave her tiny but comfortable apartment a thorough cleaning including her bedsheets and towels. She even scrubbed the stove and oven until they shined and defrosted the refrigerator. The whole apartment smelled clean and fresh, just like she liked it. Tomorrow she would go to the supermarket for real groceries but tonight she was too tired. A quick trip to the corner store for some milk and eggs would tide her over.
"Good evening, Miss Penny." The old man behind the counter greeted her.
"Good evening, Mr Kasi."
"Miss Penny has no date tonight?"
"No, Mr Kasi, Miss Penny has no date."
"What a pity. Beautiful Girl like Miss Penny should have suitors lined up begging for her hand."
"Mr Kasi would be first in line."
"If Mr Kasi was a spring chicken."
Penelope laughed as she walked to the coolers at the back of the store. The shelves of ice cream caught her eye. She knew that she shouldn't, but a sudden craving for Mint Chocolate Chip hit her. She knew it was mostly from her mother getting her riled up. As a teenager she had developed the habit of eating off her stress.
"Still, I've been good for months." She opened the freezer, searching the shelves for the low fat flavors. She finally found a single remaining pint and tossed it in her basket. To make up for the ice cream, Penelope grabbed an apple from the stores meager fruit selection.
As she walked to the front, a young man entered the store. He was tall and skinny, with long hair. For a moment she thought it might be Reid. Only she knew that he lived on the other side of the park.
"May I help you, young man?" Penelope heard Mr Kasi ask. The young man muttered something she couldn't hear. She looked up from the bread shelf when she heard a loud bang.