Ten years ago, if you would have told 28 year old Penelope Park that she would walk in from a long day at work, to see her house covered in spaghetti sauce, and her adorable fiancé on the floor crying, she would have laughed in your face. Yet today, that’s exactly what she did.
•
“Yeah, I know, Mom, but the box doesn’t say that!” Josie was trying to surprise Penelope for their anniversary. She decided to cook her a meal, and sit in front of the fire place, but Josie cannot cook. Penelope works her ass off 6 days a week, 13 hours a day, so Josie took it upon herself to cook the ravenette her favourite meal, spaghetti. “I mean, how hard can it be? Spaghetti is easy to cook!”
An hour later, Josie had just about given up. She had cut herself five times, had hot oil splashed in her face, and tasted something that was definitely past it’s sell by date. “Fuck it.” At this point, Josie had picked up the phone, already having their favourite takeout place on speed dial. “Hey, can I place an order for- SHIT!” Josie abruptly ended the call, completely forgetting about the sauce on the stove. She picked up the pan, burning the fuck out of her hand. She winced, and dropped the pan, spilling bright red spaghetti sauce all all over their white cupboards.
“Fuck!” Josie dropped the the floor, a crying mess. At this point, her fiancé walked through the door, and Josie could hear her coming up the hallway. “Happy Anniversary ba- what the fuck.” Penelope stopped dead in her tracks. It looked like a murder scene. Red sauce all up the walls, smoke coming out of a nearby pot, and Josie on the floor, curled up into a sobbing mess.
“Hey, hey. What’s up baby?” Penelope bent down to Josie’s level, trying to get a better look at what was going on. Josie didn’t say anything. She just curled up into the green eyed girls arms, and sobbed even harder. About five minutes went by, and Josie’s cries became to a halt. Penelope was rubbing circles on the small of Josie’s back, expectantly waiting for Josie to explain.
“What happened in here then?” Penelope grabbed Josie’s wrists, and brought her to her feet. Penelope wiped her tears away with her thumbs, letting her hands rest on Josie’s cheeks for a while. Penelope then led Josie over to the couch, waiting for her to talk.
“Okay, so I was going to cook for you,” Penelope visibly softened at this, taking the girls in her arms, Josie rested her head on her shoulder “then, after stabbing my hands a few times and getting hot oil on me, I gave up. So, then I called Capri’s, because you like spaghetti, and they-“
“they do the BEST spaghetti,” Penelope finished for her.
“Exactly, so just as I was about to place an order, I forgot about the sauce that was still on the stove. So I picked up the pan to put it in the sink, and I fucking burnt my hand.” Josie held out her palm to show her fiancé, who immediately panicked. “Jojo this is so bad.”
Jo looked down onto her palm. “Oh please, it’s just a little sore. An ice pack will heal it.”
“No, Josie i think we need to go to urgent ca-“
“NO!” Josie practically left off the couch and his behind it. She hates the doctors. Penelope couldn’t help but laugh at her cuteness. “Jo, you’re 27, you don’t need to be afraid of the doctor anymore.”
“P you literally cried for an hour over a spider, shut up.”
“Well played Saltzman, well played.” Penelope smirked. “Okay, no doctors, but I am going to run to the store for a first aid kit, you at least need to treat it somehow.”
“Okay okay.”
•
Penelope got back around ten minutes later, and was greeted with a sleeping Josie. Instead of waking her, Penelope thought it was best to let her sleep. So Penelope did just that, she even ended up joining her.
When Josie stirred awake it was dark outside. She got up to check the time on her phone, when she was pulled back down due to a sudden weight on her. It was Penelope. She had fallen asleep into the crook of her neck. She began to try and wake her, when she sighed contently. There was no way she’d be able to wake her up now.
Josie moved the locks of hair covering Penelope’s face and tucked it behind her ear. “Happy Anniversary, baby,” she whispered, before settling back to sleep.
•
When she woke up the next morning, Josie was hit with a giant wave of pain coming from her arm. She got up and stretched her limbs, and Penelope audibly cringed at Josie’s cracking joints from the kitchen. “I told you to stop doing that, it’s gross.” Josie chuckled softly, “yeah well, I wouldn’t have had to do it if you didn’t weigh me down on the couch,” she yelled back.
Josie thought she heard Penelope mutter something underneath her breath, but she chose to ignore it.
Josie looked down to her arm to see that it had been bandaged up. Penelope must have done it while she slept. This made the brunettes heart swell. “My god, I love you.”
Penelope walked out of the kitchen, two mugs in hand. She passed one to Josie that had her strong black coffee in, and Penelope settled for a green tea.
“I’m sorry I ruined our anniversary, i really did try to-“
“Josie shut up. You didn’t ruin anything. Plus, I slept for so long, and it was needed. And I even got to wake up early and watch you sleep.” Josie tried to fight the smile that crept up onto her face, but was suddenly overcome by guilt. “I just can’t help to think I ruined it. I knew I couldn’t cook. Today’s your day off right? I’m sure we can redo it today.”
“I have to go in to finish off what I couldn’t yesterday, but i’ll only be about an hour. You should come, to meet everyone.” And of course, Josie wanted to. She loved to meet new people. She also knew that Penelope talked about her at work, considering the amount of times her boss let her go early to spend time with Josie. “I don’t have to be there until around 12, and it’s only around 9 now. So we have plenty of time. How about we start off our day by having some morn-“
“No,” Josie cut her off. “Wha- why? And how did you know what i was gonna say. I hate you.”
“I know.”
•
After watching a movie, Mulan- Josie’s favourite, it was time for them to head off to Penelope’s workplace. Josie came out in the long, flowing yellow dress which made Penelope weak at the knees. She looked down to her band shirt and her ripped jeans and immediately felt insecure. “It’s fine, it’s only work,” Josie tried to comfort her. “It’s not fair, you’re perfect and I look like i’m about to weld some metal together.”
They then walked out of the house, Josie being prepared to drive. “No no no no, you’re not driving, you’re injured.” Penelope pointed to Josies arm, who only just realised her engagement ring was missing.
“Penny, where did you put my ring?”
“What, I didn’t touch it?” Josie went into sudden panic mode, and Penelope couldn’t help but laugh at her. Josie huffed and mumbled “not funny” before settling into the passenger seat.
•
Penelope works just outside of town, so it look the couple around ten minutes to arrive there.
When they got up to Penelope’s floor, Josie was immediately taken in by her co-workers. This gave Penelope time to quickly finish off her work.
Around 30 minutes later, Penelope went out to see that Josie was showing her co-workers her baby photos. “Oookaayyy enough of that, let’s go.”
Before Penelope could fully pull her away, Josie quickly showed them one more. Which showed Penelope stood in the bathtub, completely butt naked. “Josie!! How did you even get that?”
•
“I can’t believe you showed my boss my ass.” Penelope complained the whole way to the restaurant. “I have to go to work tomorrow and face them!”
Josie just laughed to herself, knowing deep down Penelope would have done the same to her given the chance.
They pulled up to Penelope’s favourite Italian place, Capri’s. They waited to be seated when Penelope spoke up. “So, you know last night?” Josie hummed in response, “you tried to get up, but couldn’t because i was sleeping? Well, maybe i wasn’t really sleeping. I just didn’t want to move and you looked so cute and-“
“P, it’s okay. I was tired anyway.”
“Oh, and happy anniversary to you too, babe.”
Just then, a waiter came and showed them to their table, and took their drinks order. Josie ordered a water and Penelope ordered a ginger ale.
•
On the way home from the restaurant, Josie insisted on going into a convenience store to get snacks. They decided to have a movie night, and Josie wanted food, despite eating their weight in spaghetti.
She came back around 10 minutes later with two big bags, filled with snacks. “Okay, so i didn’t know which kind of chocolate you wanted, so I got them all.”
Penelope just grinned at the other girl, admiring her need to care for her.
•
They both spent the rest of the night cuddled up watching movies, appreciating each other and everyone around them.... among other adult things. After all, they were an engaged couple.