Time passed. After graduation I heard from Abi, via Maurice, that Penny had taken a job in finance in New York. I spent three years working in Peru. My contract ended and I went to make a long-delayed visit to my parents. Nothing seemed to have changed there, my mom spent my first evening back harping on about my failure to write and bending my ear about the multiplicity of phone calls she’d fielded for me, notably from someone very persistent called Abigail, who declined to leave messages but just asked if I was back yet. This, apparently had gone on for months. I reassured my Mom that this wasn’t some girl I’d left in trouble. Such faith she had in me! I apologised and called the number which was the one thing Abi had left. I was prepared to be discreet as my Mom would most likely be listening in. My parents refuse to have more than one, corded phone and my cell was still somewhere half-way up a South American mountain where I’d dropped it.
“Hi, Pete. At last! Maurice doesn’t know it yet, but he and I are going to get married. I’ve been waiting for you to emerge from your jungle so you can be a witness for us, because you were there right at the beginning. Will you?”
“Of course I will! Congratulations…er…when is it?”
“Now I know you’re here, as soon as I get him to ask me. Once that’s done, I can make the arrangements.”
It was a month later when I got the call. It was Maurice this time, sounding like a five-year-old who has just woken up to discover it’s his birthday.
“You’d have been proud of me, Pete,” he burbled. “I came right out and asked her. And she said yes, first time!”
I made suitably congratulatory noises and eventually got out of him the venue for the wedding. It was a good eight-hour drive but Maurice had the answer; I could stay the night in the one of the guest rooms of their new home.
“New home?” I questioned. I was thinking: One of the guest rooms?
“Yeah.There was piece of software I sold and I bought a house. Actually, it was Abi who sold the program. She’s a demon negotiator. I didn’t just get a girlfriend and now a wife, I got a business manager, too! We got a great deal for a cash buy.”
“You bought a house? Cash?”
I swallowed hard. At that point, investing in anything pricier than a pizza required considerable financial reflection on my part. My previous contract had come to an end and I hadn’t yet persuaded my employer that a new one would be nice.
On the due date, I loaded up the car with my smartest clothes and a present I could just about afford and hit the road in drizzling rain at six in the morning. Eight hours or so later, I was driving along a sun-drenched, palm-tree-lined avenue looking to right and left and wondering which of the substantial properties could possibly be Maurice’s. As a result, I nearly ran over him as he leapt out into the middle of the road.
“Pete! It’s so great to see you!” he yelled. “Park anywhere and come on in!” I followed his instruction and followed him up the driveway to a seriously impressive house.
“You’ll want to get changed, I guess. Come on, I’ll show you to your guest suite.”
Suite? It had its own bathroom and balcony. I had never had so much space to myself. Maurice sat on the bed and chattered about computery stuff while I showered and changed. It was a throwback to sharing a room at college. I put on my glad rags and followed him back downstairs
“There won’t be many people you’ll know,” Maurice said as he showed me into the vast living space. “These are mostly either Abi’s friends or computer geeks that I hang out with.”
I looked around. The male section of the gathering was split between George RR Martin beards plus tattoos and someone’s Mom’s idea of what her little boy should wear to a wedding. I was far more interested in the female gaggle surrounding Abi, who was looking radiant. She caught my eye and waved me over.
“So you made it,” she said and kissed me on the cheek. “It’s great to see you. Girls, this is Pete, the catalyst. All this would never have happened if he hadn’t dragged Maurice out on our first date. I bet he never thought he’d be a witness at our wedding, though.”
“True.” I admitted. “Hello, everybody.” I gave a general smile, hoping to meet some of these pretty ladies more thoroughly later.
“I’ll introduce you properly to people when I have a moment,” Abi said. “But here’s at least one person I’m sure you will recognise,” she said, beckoning to someone behind me. “Our second witness has arrived.”
I turned and there was Penny. At least, the face was Penny’s and as attractive as ever, but she no longer had the spiky orange hair, the heavy foundation or the thick black Goth eye-liner and she was wearing a black pants suit that must have cost a packet. I must have looked as dumb as I felt. She’d given me the shivers from when we’d first met, but now, in her mid-twenties, she was simply a beautiful woman. Lovely shoulder-length, well-cut, shining jet-black hair, (My Mom is a hairdresser, I notice things like that). I’d met some stunning Latina girls in South America but Penny would have stood out among the prettiest of them. I’d always assumed, from Penny’s untamed pubic bush and underarms that she was a brunette, but here was the proof. Mostly our sex had taken place in the dark and the harem pants she preferred had disguised the very neatly-turned ass that her wedding outfit emphasized. I fell in love all over again.
“What brought on the change of style?” I asked her at the reception. ”You are beautiful.”
“Thank you. I’m happy you think so. You look pretty good yourself. I’ve grown up. Goth and office life don’t mix. Besides, that orange dye was starting to make my hair come out in clumps.”
“Whose idea was the notion of you and me as witnesses?” I asked. “Was it Abi or Maurice?”
“It was mine. Abi agreed it was a great idea.”
“Oh. Thank you. Great idea indeed.”
That night I lay in bed with my head in a whirl, but not as the result of the champagne that had flowed so freely. That Penny had wanted me to be at the wedding brought up so many questions. They were answered when, well after midnight, I heard a little tap on my bedroom door.
“Pete? Are you awake?” Penny whispered.
“Yes.”
“Can we talk?”
“Of course.”
She slipped into the room and into the bed beside me. We lay like mummies for a moment. I didn’t dare move. Then Penny rolled towards me and kissed me. And that was that. Penny and I were an item from then on. When I got back to my parents’, a letter confirming my new contract was waiting. It meant we would be working hundreds of miles apart, but we were happy to spend a fortune on travel if we could be together, even if sometimes for only a few hours. We had always clicked intellectually as well as sexually and, without its ever being said out loud, this time we believed that we were together for the long haul. I discovered Penny now had shaved armpits, though her bush was still as luxuriant. She learned to tolerate the space-demanding collection of 1940s Astounding Science-Fiction magazines that cluttered my new apartment and I got used again to referring to knickers and jumpers.