Give Yourself More Credit

The home office was set up next to the master bedroom upstairs so Penelope grabbed an envelope and a piece of paper on her way to go get changed out of her work clothes. She wrote out all of her frustrations with how her other self had acted and sealed the letter inside the envelope.

She addressed it 'To Me' and stuck it inside the journal. It had been strange not writing in one every day as was her habit but it somehow felt wrong to her to write in someone else's. If she did end up staying here forever, she would have to get over that.

While she was up here, Penelope decided to pack since her flight left tomorrow. Everyone involved in the conference would only be working until lunch so they could all fly up to San Francisco together.

There were a lot of clothes to sort through. This conference required more of a business professional look than a business casual one—or so she had been told—so she spent a lot of time digging around for the right things.

She had never worn anything business professional in her life. For job interviews in the past, she usually wore her one pencil skirt with a blouse but that was the extent of it. In her world, she didn't even own a blazer.

Penelope Cross definitely owned six days' worth of business professional outfits but deciding which ones to bring was the problem. She was overwhelmed by her options.

Eventually Roman came up to tell her dinner was ready and found her on the floor staring at mountains of clothes. He looked like he was trying really hard not to laugh. "Uh…how's the packing going?"

"Don't ask."

Penelope brushed herself off and left the chaos on the floor to go eat. She would deal with it later.

Roman made parmesan chicken for dinner and it was absolutely delicious. She told him so while thanking him for making it and ended up eating four pieces.

Having someone else cook for her was still a novel experience. She hadn't been able to enjoy others' home cooking consistently since graduating from high school, though her college roommates did cook for the whole apartment a few times.

Percy didn't even know how to cook. He lived off of $1 frozen microwave meals or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches since their mother went off the deep end and didn't seem to care much. Or at least never said anything about it.

Penelope had tried interesting him in learning a few years ago by saying something about the science behind cooking but he had seen through her in an instant, accusing her of wanting him to help with the cooking. Nothing got past him.

"You're a really good cook," she said conversationally.

It was a bit surprising that Roman was this good considering he came from a rich family. They weren't 'personal chef' level but the Crosses did seem like the type of people who ate out a lot based on what she had read in the journals.

He smiled and teasingly said, "Aren't you really praising yourself here? You did teach me everything I know."

Ah. That made sense. It probably happened after they started dating and spending more time together.

"Even the best teacher is useless if the pupil is unwilling to learn," Penelope replied wisely. "Give yourself more credit."

Roman stood up and kissed her on the cheek for that. She frantically tried to hide her blush. After supposedly being in a relationship with this man for eight years, she shouldn't be reacting like an inexperienced schoolgirl.

He really was the most affectionate man she had ever met though. None of her past boyfriends were anywhere near this touchy-feely. She simply wasn't prepared for frequent physical affection.

Penelope needed to use the week they were apart to make some decisions one way or another. To either prepare herself to better handle this sort of thing and continue keeping her distance or to dive into it fully.

It only got worse after dinner because Roman scooped her up out of nowhere while she was putting the dishes away and brought her over to the couch to snuggle with him. She squeaked in surprise before protesting, "Roman, put me down! I haven't finished packing yet!"

"You can do that later. I'm not going to see you for a week so I need to get my Penny fix now," he said firmly.

She sighed. What was she supposed to do with this man?! Her face was so hot she thought it might burst into flame any moment.

Roman moved her hair out of the way and started kissing her neck. Penelope felt her soul leave her. This was how she was going to die; being kissed by a ridiculously handsome man in another world.

How did her other self manage not to be affected by this?! Was it because they had grown up together and she developed some form of immunity or what? She didn't see how anyone could possibly make it through this without having a heart attack.

She sat perfectly still, trying not to let him notice how much she was freaking out. She knew it couldn't go any further than this because she was still recovering from surgery but even so…

Penelope started mentally chanting every mantra she could think of to calm herself down. When she ran out of those, she begin reciting random facts that Percy had told her over the years such as how frogs throw up their entire stomachs to remove toxins physically instead of simply vomiting them out.

That lovely mental image killed the mood completely. Good. She was no longer affected by Roman's neck kisses.

He hummed contentedly and caressed her face, thankfully not noticing anything was wrong with her. It helped that she was sitting on his lap facing away from him. He would definitely know something was up if he could see her expression.