A Lucky Woman

Penelope was practically drooling over the cheeses after sampling them, trying to decide which one to buy. She could only afford one—wait. That wasn't true. If she could afford multiple Prada bags, she could definitely afford three wheels of fancy cheese.

Unfortunately, she hadn't brought her purse or wallet with her because she didn't know which cards were credit vs debit and still hadn't figured out the PIN situation. Debit cards required PINs while credit cards didn't but sometimes needed a zip code.

She sighed. So much for her cheese dreams.

Roman noticed where her eyes were and chuckled. "Penny, if you want cheese that badly, I'll get you cheese. You're staring at it like you've never seen food before."

Penelope gave him a sheepish smile and tried to engage in the kind of banter that normally existed between husband and wife. "Guess there's no hiding anything from you. I do want cheese. Can I get three different kinds though?"

"It'll take you ages to get through all that by yourself but sure. Cheese has a long shelf life in the refrigerator. This jalapeño kind is really good too so I guess we're going to have four wheels of cheese. I hope you have some good recipes in mind to use some of this up."

Recipes with cheese…she salivated at the very thought. She could check online to find some that would make good use of it.

Now that she wasn't completely drained from two jobs and had a second person to cook for, she didn't mind it nearly as much as she did before. She always managed to cook something nice when Percy came over back home since cooking for two felt different than cooking for one.

Roman mussed her hair and laughed at her enthusiasm, making her scowl. Now her hair probably looked terrible! As if bright red hair didn't stand out enough on its own, it just had to be made frizzy.

Penelope's ire was immediately forgotten when he bought some food to give the llamas. She hadn't fed an animal like this since going to a petting zoo when she was a kid.

Roman poured some into her cupped hands and she held them out for one of the llamas. It tickled so she squealed out of reflex, making him laugh. He snapped a picture of her pulling a face while feeding it.

Oh. This was the first picture of her taken in this world. It was actual proof that she had been here, if only for a moment.

Nobody would ever be able to tell the difference. They would think that it was a picture of Penelope Cross not Penelope Logan. Only Percy would know the truth if things ever went back to normal and he saw the date on the timestamp.

Her heart sunk; the high from feeding the llama immediately gone. She wasn't sure why the thought of no one realizing she was here hurt. She didn't even know anybody here on a meaningful level. Even her family members had different memories.

"Penny, are you okay? Did it nip you?" Roman asked in concern.

She couldn't let this get to her. She put on her brightest smile. "Nah, I'm fine. I am a little tired though. You take your turn feeding one of them and then we can go home so I can nap."

His brow furrowed. "Are you sure you're ready to go back to work on Monday?"

"Yes. I can't sit around the house all day and the doctor said I could go back because I cut back on my pain meds."

Penelope had been looking forward to working at a real graphic design job, even if it was only on a temporary basis. She might never get the chance again with how much debt there still was to pay.

Her father's chemotherapy bills cost around $900-$1100 per month and on top of that there were hospital stay costs to contend with. Since he wasn't able to work anymore, the Logans only managed to pay those in full with their savings for about six months.

Penelope quitting school and working part time close to home while still being sure to spend time with her father helped a little but it wasn't enough. The remaining four and a half years resulted in a lot of debt and then there were funeral costs to contend with. Penelope's hard work resulted in paying off about $16,000 but there was roughly $21,000 still owed.

With all the interest that continued accumulating, she doubted she would ever be able to pay it off. All of her dreams had been shattered. She had no future in her world.

Knowing that, she had to take advantage of the opportunities she had been given here if only for a short while. She didn't know when or if the spatial disturbance that brought her here would send her back.

"Are you sure? I don't want you to overexert yourself. You always work so hard," Roman worried.

Penelope smiled to reassure him. "If it is too much to handle, I'll come home. I'm sure my boss will understand since I did just have surgery and have a doctor's note. I might be able to work from home if necessary."

He accepted her words with silent resignation but ended up holding her hand for the first time all day. He needed physical reassurance that she wouldn't push herself too hard.

She let out a barely audible sigh. Penelope Cross was a lucky woman to be loved this much.

Had anyone ever been this concerned about her? She led a relatively simple life as a child so there was no reason to worry about her. Percy was the troublemaker in the family because his experiments could go wrong in 0.2 seconds.

When Penelope was sick or injured or worn out or grieving her father's death, no one had bothered to take care of her. She was always looking out for everyone else. Being watched over like this by a concerned party was strange.

She wasn't used to it but part of her wished that she could get used to someone caring about her well-being enough to check in on her. If there was just one person who bothered to ask her how she was doing and actually mean it…it would make such a huge difference in her life.

She didn't mean to complain. She had accepted her lot in life long ago and tried to face it with optimism as best she could but sometimes she got tired and wished there was someone to lean on.