How Important Is Getting There? (3/10+1)

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Chapter 3

“I'm surprised everything is still intact,” Rose says, emerging from her bedroom an hour after the first cupboard slam. “No broken frames, no torn upholstery? I gotta say, I expected so much more of you.”

Penny's sitting on the kitchen counter with a defeated look on her face and her legs dangling over the edge. Rose looks at a full glass of orange juice in Penny's hands and thinks it's the weirdest thing she has ever encountered. “In your moment of weakness, or shall I say 'savage', did you bump your head and forget that you hate OJ?”


“There's no getting out of this, is there,” Penny's shoulders slump as the question rolls out her tongue. She shows Rose a text message that just came to her phone.

Text Message
From: Sally (work)
They just landed. Thought you should know, hon. Can't wait to see you all! Like Dot said, we moms are excited! :)

Rose makes the time to breathe a sigh. She removes the glass from Penny's hands and takes a big gulp of the orange juice before she finally tells Penny that it's just too easy if there was indeed a way.

//

“I still talk to them, you know,” Rose says out of the blue, in the middle of their quiet lunch. “I mean, not talk talk. Just emails and stuff,” she clarifies. When she finally realizes that she's not going to get a response from her roommate, she goes back to attacking her monster of a sandwich.

//

The day has been going relatively nice, despite the fact that Penny kept on glancing at the clock. She's nervous. She's not supposed to be nervous. I'm supposed to be angry, she thinks.

OK, Penny tries to convince herself. It's gonna be like a walk in the park, right?

As it turns out, she's not the most persuasive person.

//

@MsTaraDances
NYC for a night, then a road trip with long lost familiar faces. This should be interesting.

“What are you doing,” Rose asks from behind Penny. “Wait. I didn't know you follow each other?”

“We don't,” Penny crosses her arms. “Well, OK. She follows me. I don't follow her back. It's not like I care.”

“Right. So you're on her twitter page because you don't care,” Rose pokes her on the shoulder before she walks away. Penny rolls her eyes but never turns her face away from the screen. She can tell a Rose smirk when she hears one.

//

Both Penny and Rose were in the kitchen, preparing for dinner, when the doorbell rang— they both knew who it was. Or at least who it could be. Rose jumps down from the kitchen counter to get the door. Penny grabs her wrist, “please, please can we ignore it? Maybe they'll leave?”

Rose doesn't say anything but drags Penny across the apartment to open the door. Before they do, though, Rose shoots Penny a look. Are you ready?

Penny takes a deep breath and nods.

Rose opens the door and reveals Chiquita and her oversized coat and her exuberant smile and her bags and... that's it?

“Where's Tara,” Penny asks scrunching her eyebrows.

“She has a production meeting. Since she's not gonna be around for 2 weeks, she has to do it tonight. Might come extra late. I, as her manager, however, can get away with certain excuses like, say, managing her accommodations.” Chiquita explains with a smile (if you look closely, you can see a twinkle in her eyes, even). “So, uh, you're going to give me a hug or...?”

Rose is the first one to give her a massive hug, along with a squeal that she has been repressing. Soon enough the two friends engage in a schoolgirl squee-fest complete with jumping up and down. Penny takes the opportunity to clear the hallway out of the ridiculous number of bags Chiquita has (to be fair, most of them are Tara's). One of them, the one that looks like it's made in the 90s and is well worn out, has a big sticker that says T, P, C, and R on it. Penny traces the sticker with her fingers before she picks it up and dumps it in the living room.

Penny turns around to see her friends are no longer tangled. The one who's still in her oversized coat walks towards her. “You look good, P,” she says.

“You look... bigger than average,” Penny grins. “What is up with that coat?!”

Chiquita playfully slaps Penny on the arm. “Shut up! Dublin was cold, OK? Now c'mere and gimme a cuddle!”

Before she knows it, her guest already has her in a hug. Granted, it's not the kind that she had with Rose, but Penny still feels the sincerity oozing out. Being angry with Tara doesn't mean she's angry with the other half of the other half of this... this circle. “It's good to see you, Cee,” Penny whispers into the hug with a smile.

//

“So the guy, which, by the way, smelled like a skunk, and by skunk I mean pot, totally tripped down the aisle. He somehow bypassed the air crew and snuck in from Coach to Business. He got himself up, made his way to our seats and starts slurring about how he had stayed up the other night just to watch Tara's performance on TV and all. He was like, 'yerr preettyy. And yerr dancing is preeeettyyy. And y'have pretty eyes.. wait, how many eyes do you have?'” Penny really didn't want to, but she surrenders and laughs along with Rose and Chiquita. This is nice, she thinks as her chest slowly fills itself with a warm, nostalgic feeling from years behind.

//

The three friends sit themselves down around the table for dinner. At one point, Chiquita, who's always been fluid in expressing herself, lets out an audible moan from how delicious the food is. That earned roars of laughter from Rose and Penny.

“Whaaaat,” Chiquita whiningly asks. “This is delicious, OK? You need to tell me the takeout number! I need to give the cook a smooch or something.”

“Cee,” Rose says, “you're sitting next to the chef.”

Chiquita does a double take at Penny and puts down her fork and knife. “No. Freaking. Way.”

“Yes. Freaking. Way,” Penny says with a smug grin. “By the way, I don't take smooches. I do, however, will consider jewelry.”

“You cook now? You wouldn't even go into a kitchen back then!”

“Yeah, well, you would've known if you'd been here,” Penny playfully scoffs, but then regrets it because it might have come out harsher that it should that the table was suddenly quiet. “Sorry, Cee. I didn't mean... I mean, I wasn't aiming at you, I swear.”

“I know,” was all that Chiquita said before she takes another bite of her dinner. But it didn't take long for her to once again voice her opinion of the food. “For the love of all things gold and mighty, this is so gooooooood,” she says with her eyes closed and head tilted back.

Rose tells Chiquita to get a room. Chiquita pretends to get out of her seat, picks up her plate and replies, “don't mind if I do,” before they all start laughing again.

//

After making sure Chiquita has everything that she needs in the guest room, Rose goes to check up on her other friend who's comfortable on the couch watching a travel show about some ancient ruins in some place whose name she can't even spell.

“See,” Rose starts. “It wasn't a bad night, right?”

Penny shrugs. “It wasn't. Then again I have no beef with Cee.”

Somewhat satisfied with Penny's answer, Rose walks to the kitchen and starts cleaning up. Penny cooks, she cleans. Their system works.

She was setting up the dishwasher when she heard something mumbled by Penny who's still sitting in front of the TV.

“Did you say something, P,” she asks over her shoulder.

Penny huffs before she answers. “I said, I never wanted either of you to pick sides.” A pause. “I'm sorry.”

Penny gets a whack upside her head and a hair ruffle from Rose before she walks into her room.


(end of chapter 3)