Wanda nods meaningfully at Penny, her eyes comically wide. “Oh, that was a good answer, wasn’t it?”
Feeling like I dodged a bullet, I just continue eating. The food is delicious. It still cracks me up that she has been sandbagging this entire time, letting me make her dinner every night. Still, it has been fun.
“Well… I really need to be going,” Wanda announces, pushing herself back from the table before taking her plate to the sink.
“Have a good time!” Ethan suggests, again acting years beyond his age.
Penny sees Wanda to the door, and Ethan excuses himself to go back to the game room. He has been trying to teach himself ping-pong tricks, with one half of the table in a vertical position. It’s become a bit of an obsession.
“Thank you so much for dinner,” I smile, careful to keep any trace of sarcasm out of my voice. “It was really delicious.”
Penny stops for a moment with dirty plates in her hands, checking me over momentarily before apparently deciding that my comments were sincere.
“I am very glad that you liked it. You can go back to cooking, if you like.”
Actually I enjoy cooking for you, I think but do not say.
I help get the dishes off the table and over to the counter, though I keep an eye on her. Something is on her mind, I can tell. She keeps averting her eyes.
“You know, you could,” she says suddenly, looking up at me with a startled expression. “Date, I mean. Like, Tinder or whatever.”
Again I feel that damn smirk crossing my face. But what am I supposed to do when she’s so fucking adorable?
“Thanks for that,” I mumble. “Maybe later. Right now it doesn’t really interest me.”
She seems to accept the answer and rinses a few dishes, but then shifts toward me again and I can tell we’re not done talking about it yet.
“But, you know, if we are platonic… You probably have, uh, needs or whatever. I don’t want you to lose your social life because of me. That would be terrible.”
I glance around the living room and dining room, sort of confused by her words.
“Isn’t this our social life? Didn’t we just have a instant dinner party?”
She sighs impatiently. “Come on. You know what I mean.”
“I don’t know if I do know what you mean,” I answer, gathering up wine glasses. “You want me to find some slightly less interesting conversations via Tinder and go have those? What if I’m happy where I am?”
“Are you?” she asks me suddenly. “Are you happy where you are? Don’t you have greater needs than this?”
Walking around the other side of the kitchen island to put the wine glasses into the dishwasher, I allow myself to almost brush against her.
“Well, don’t you?” I counter.
I see her grab one corner of her bottom lip between her teeth. She shrugs slightly.
“So, what if we, um,” she begins, tracing a circle of moisture on the granite counter, “you know, explored some of those… Benefits.”
I reach across her to pluck a dishtowel off the ledge, so close to her I can feel her heat.
“Benefits?”
She’s getting a little frustrated with my teasing, I can tell, but I like watching her face change with every emotion. I like it that I know her so well, that I know her buttons.
“Benefits,” she finally declares, turning around to look at me directly, suddenly rendering me helpless.
“Okay, tell me more,” I begin carefully. “Because I don’t want to have any confusion. I don’t want us to be getting in each other’s way, you know what I mean? I feel like life around
here is pretty good, don’t you?”