Penguin - 2. Chapter 2

Sean

“What’s got your panties in a bunch? You’ve been moping around here for days. Now spill it, mister.”

I narrowed my eyes at Beth. She was one of my co-workers and a dear friend, but I really wasn’t in the mood for her scrutiny. “Nothing.” I mumbled.

“Mmm hmm. That’s a whole lotta ‘nothing’.” She wasn’t going to let me off the hook that easily. “What happened on your day off to put you in this mood? Bad date?”

“I don’t really want to talk about it. It’s stupid.” I swigged the last of my coffee and threw the cup out as I exited the break room. I should have known she’d just follow me.

“Well, I have something that should cheer you up.” She grabbed my arm and led me to the nurses’ station. She pointed out a beautiful flower arrangement.

“Those are nice. Who are they for?” I figured they were for one of our patients.

Beth smiled at me. “Penguin.”

“Penguin? I think this is the first time my cat has ever received flowers!” I opened the card that came with the flowers and couldn’t stop the stupid grin from spreading across my face.

Beth smirked at me knowingly. “I’m guessing that’s from your ‘nothing’?”

I laughed and put the note in my pocket. “I have patients to see.”

*****

I set the flower arrangement on my kitchen table as Penguin trotted over to his food dish to wait for dinner. I hadn’t been able to wipe the goofy grin off my face all day. I think I managed to at least curb my exuberance while I was with my patients. The Hospice Center wasn’t exactly the best place to display an overly giddy mood. I shook my head as I opened Penguin’s can of cat food. I wondered for the hundredth time over the past few days how a man I had known for all of ten minutes could get under my skin so badly. I mean, yeah the guy was absolutely adorable, but he blew me off the minute his friend showed up. I heard his friend call him ‘babe’ so I had figured he was the man’s boyfriend. Apparently not, since he sent me flowers. Well, sent Penguin flowers with that sweet note inside. I sat down on the couch and read it again. I couldn’t help but smile. I debated whether I should wait a day or two before calling him just to make him squirm a bit for leaving me so abruptly. I decided I’d wait until tomorrow. I’d just have to survive work and Beth’s interrogation first.

*****

Beth did not disappoint and the first chance she got she dragged me into the break room. “Ok…enough of this ‘nothing’ crap. Now dish. Who sent Penguin those flowers and why haven’t you stopped smiling since?”

I sighed and rolled my eyes at her. “Fine. If you must know, on Wednesday I took Penguin for a walk along the creek at Meadowlane Park. There was a man jogging toward us, and I could see that he wasn’t paying attention to where he was going because he was staring at us. He ended up running right off the bank and fell into the creek.”

Beth tried unsuccessfully to stifle her laughter. “Are you serious? He ran right into the creek?”

I frowned at her. “Yeah. It was obvious that he hurt himself, so I jumped down to help him. I’m pretty sure his wrist was broken and he’s lucky he wasn’t more seriously injured. He didn’t have his car with him so I was going to drive him to the hospital, but before I had a chance his friend drove up and Daniel hopped into the car with him without even a backward glance.”

“Daniel sounds like a dick. This is the guy you’ve been moping over all week?”

I sighed and took a sip of my coffee. “It was about a ten minute walk from the creek to the parking lot. He’s absolutely adorable and has a great sense of humor, despite the pain he must have been in from his wrist. He was really cool about Penguin, too. We were having a really nice chat until he ditched me. I was even planning on giving him my number.”

Beth looked at me in surprise. I haven’t dated since Michael died. “So are you planning on calling him?”

I shrugged nonchalantly. “Maybe.”

Beth slugged me in the shoulder good-naturedly. “Liar. You probably already have.”

I smirked as I left to do my rounds. “I’m going to make him squirm for a day before I call.”

Beth’s laughter followed me out the door.

Daniel

It had been two days since I sent Penguin and Sean the flowers. I sighed dejectedly and resigned myself to the fact that Sean wasn’t going to call. I figured I either misread him, he already had a boyfriend, or else he thought that I was just a big asshole for blowing him off.

I sat down on the couch with a beer and the pizza I had ordered for dinner. I planned on watching some good action flicks and getting wasted. There’s nothing like drowning your sorrow, right? I was two beers into ‘Die Hard’ when my phone rang. I paused the movie and answered without looking at the number. I figured it was Robbie. “Hey asshole. Get your sorry ass over here and bring a 12-pack. I need to get wasted.”

“Considering you’re the one who left me standing in the dust the other day, you may want to reconsider who’s the asshole here.”

My eyes widened and I sat upright. “Oh my God, Sean! I thought you were Robbie. I’m so sorry! Man, all I do is screw things up with you.” I was mortified.

I heard an amused chuckle. “How about we start over again?” Then he hung up.

Shit. I thought it was time to switch over to hard liquor. Beer just wasn’t going to cut it tonight. I was chugging the last of my beer when the phone rang again. This time I actually looked at the number and grinned when I saw Sean’s name. “Hi Sean.”

“Hi. Someone wanted to thank you for the flowers.”

I heard soft purring through the phone and laughed. “You’re welcome, Penguin.”

“Penguin wanted me to tell you that they were delicious.”

“Please tell me he didn’t eat them…” I knew my own cat probably would.

Sean chuckled and said “He gnawed on a couple stems, but that’s about it. They’re lovely. Thank you. That was very thoughtful.” He paused. “Oh, and Penguin thinks all humans are stupid, so don’t take it personally.”

I laughed. “So would you like to go out for a cup of coffee or something?”

“How about an ‘or something’? Are you free on Saturday?”

“Yeah. I can’t work with a broken wrist so I’m off for the next month or so. What did you have in mind?”

“Oh, something I think you’ll enjoy. What’s your address? I’ll pick you up at 1:00.”

I gave him my address and we chatted until I heard a knock on the door. It was Robbie carrying a six-pack and a pizza. I swear that man has ESP. And the worst timing on the planet. I said goodbye to Sean and told him how much I was looking forward to Saturday.

“Who was that?” asked Robbie through a mouthful of pizza.

“Nobody.”

He arched an eyebrow at me.

I sighed. “It was that guy from the park that helped me when I broke my wrist.”

“You mean the one you won’t shut up about?” He smirked. “Maybe now we can talk about something else once in a while.”

“Dick. Hand me a beer.”

“So… are you guys going on a date?”

I couldn’t stop the smile from spreading over my face. “Yup. At least, I think it’s a date.”

Robbie laughed at me. “I would think you’d know if it was a date.”

“Fine… it’s a date then.” I really wished I could wipe the stupid smile from my face. I felt like an idiotic teenager.

Robbie handed me another beer and smirked at me. “Somebody’s going to get laid…” He said in a sing-song voice.

I smacked him with a couch pillow. “Just because you’re a slut doesn’t mean we all are.”

Robbie looked indignant. “Hey! At least I’m getting some.”

“Who says I won’t?” I smirked.

“Hey, seriously though. Be careful, man. You don’t need another Trevor.”

I scowled at him. “He’s not Trevor.”

“You’ve known him for what? Like an hour? How do you know what he’s like?”

“He’s nice, charming, and freaking hot. Besides, he’s really great to his cat.” I took a sip of my beer. “Trevor wasn’t that bad.” I added under my breath.

Robbie just about choked on his pizza. “You’re kidding me, right? That fucker put you in the hospital for Christ’s sake!”

“I’m not having this conversation again.”

“Fine. Don’t come running to me when he turns out to be a serial killer or something. Pass me a beer, will ya?”

I resisted the urge to throw it at him.