Ties in to yesterday's chapter, one day later... Flames will be donated to the KJBWFF.
It had been a long time since Kevin had cried real tears. Sure, he'd faked them when CSU technician Sharp had broken up with him, but these were the first real tears he'd allowed himself in a long time.
Nursing a broken heart, he found himself at a bar, with a drink in front of him that he couldn't remember ordering, and a lonely aura that left him in solitude, pushing away anyone who might dare to approach.
"Kevin, what are you doing here?" Penelope Garcia questioned, walking through the front door in classic Penelope attire. He did a double take before gesturing to an empty seat next to him.
"I'm nursing a broken heart. You?" he fired back, drinking from his glass, unsure of the contents. It tasted like sand, even though he was pretty sure that it was supposed to be some type of beer.
"Wow… We have quite good timing, I guess," Penelope said sadly, ordering herself a drink. "So am I."
"What happened?" Kevin asked. Inside, though he wouldn't admit it, something leapt in his heart.
"Sam and I said goodbye last night. He's moving to Canada next month." She looked down at her hands, melancholy clinging to her like a blanket. "So now, I'm back to being alone."
As Penelope's drink came, Kevin stared at her, and suddenly, without meaning to, blurted out, "I miss you." Penelope smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes.
She placed her hand over his, which had come to rest on the bar, and said, "I miss you, too." She paid for her drink, which sat untouched on the counter, and stood up to leave.
She had expected him to let her walk out of his life.
She was wrong.
Instead, he pulled her into a hug, and whispered two words that made her consider staying.
"I'm sorry."
She pulled away from his embrace, one of the many things she'd missed, and walked away from the bar, leaving him to stare after her. She couldn't tell him the truth, that she wanted nothing more to accept his offer to love again, but that she couldn't.
As she walked away, she rubbed at her eyes furiously, climbed into Esther, and drove away, trying to ignore the magnetic pull that insisted she return to Kevin.
It would only result in more tears.
She didn't need more tears.