“Are you ignoring me?”

Penelope shifted her shoulders away deliberately, raising her book even closer to her eyes. She wasn’t fooling Ryland, of course, but she was hoping he’d take the hint and leave her alone. She didn’t know why she expected such a thing. It had never worked in the past.

I’m just making things worse, she thought.

“Penny, I’m not going anywhere until you talk to me,” he snapped. “You can’t just turn your back and expect me to go away. You can’t do that!”

“Says who?” she muttered, though she wasn’t really looking to engage in an argument. It wasn’t a fair fight, after all. Ryland was so much louder, so much more obnoxious. If she finally caved and barked back, he would just storm off in a petulant sulk, leaving her feeling like she was the unreasonable one in the relationship.

“This isn’t working! I can’t talk to you when you act like a robot all the time!” Ryland yelled, springing up, and for a second, Penny was filled with relief. She turned her clear blue eyes on him and squinted up at him, the sunlight barely blocked by his wiry frame.

Is he breaking up with me? she wondered, a spark of elation sliding through her body. For three years, she had been in the bitter, dead-end situation with the man. Penny wished she had the backbone to just end it herself, but the thought of being alone terrified her more than the squabbling Ryland. Squabbling among other things, she pondered grimly, pushing the thoughts out of her mind. She could only focus on one problem at a time.

Thinking back, Penny found it harder to recall a time when they had ever liked one another, and even as she stared at him at that moment, she realized that she hadn’t been attracted to him in a long time. How could she be? There was absolutely nothing sexy, or even remotely attractive, about him. Not his physique, and not his whining. He wasn’t even as smart as she had thought he was.

Of course, hindsight was always twenty-twenty. When Penny had first met Ryland, he had seemed like a good match. They were both employees at Veriday Telecommunications. Penny had only been in sales, but Ryland was a tech genius, working in upper management and on every woman’s radar, single or married, from the reception to the ivory tower.

It wasn’t that he was particularly attractive, his body reminiscent of a slightly post-pubescent boy of perhaps eighteen. His arms and legs were gangly, and his face was still prone to bouts of acne, even at the age of twenty-seven, but Penny was willing to overlook that because of his intelligence.

And the fact that he’s filthy rich probably didn’t hurt, she thought, shame flooding her. Ryland did have some redeeming physical qualities, including a set of brilliant green eyes that he managed to hide behind a set of outdated and clunky black-framed glasses. He also had a brilliant white smile, but it seemed Penny saw it less and less as their bickering increased and her feelings for him decreased.

Even though Penny knew they should have ended things long ago, it was easier to fall into a stagnant relationship than it was to sever the ties which dragged them both down.

She waited, unmoving from her spot on the bench where she had been trying to read “East of Eden” for the tenth time. Penny had purposely picked the spot on the far side of the building, thinking that she might be able to avoid a confrontation with Ryland. They had already started their feud in the morning before leaving for work, and though they hadn’t seen one another throughout the day, Penny knew her boyfriend was nothing if not a creature of habit. He would go looking for her in the usual places where she liked to spend her lunch break, which was why she had opted for the much quieter area on the east side of the massive lot.

Apparently, I’m a creature of habit, too, she realized. He saw right through my ploy.

“Aren’t you going to say anything, Penelope?” Ryland demanded when she continued to stare at him. She hated that he was the only person who called her “Penelope,” like he was a parent, reprimanding her every time he spoke her name.

“What do you want me to say?” she replied quietly, her small voice barely audible. “I agree with you. This isn’t working.”

Ryland gaped at her in shock, and Penny admitted she was just as stunned by her own words.

The truth was, she couldn’t even remember what that particular fight had been about. Was it that Ryland was angry she had forgotten to put her coffee cup in the dishwasher, or that she had failed to pick up the particular brand of deodorant he liked? Their arguments were all the same, ridiculous and tedious. They rolled into an incessantly loud drone of words in her head. How could she possibly be expected to keep them straight?

“Are you breaking up with me?” Ryland choked, echoing her earlier hope. Before she could consider her movement, Penny nodded.

“Yeah,” she answered shortly. “I guess I am.” As the words left her lips, she was suddenly consumed with a combination of elation and fear, her heart racing erratically. She knew what the statement meant. Goodbye, two-story condo in Baytown. No more beachside living for me.

It was odd that that was her first thought: losing her luxurious home as opposed to losing her boyfriend of three long, dragging years. She knew she’d miss the view more than she would his obsessive nail-clipping habit.

Yet that didn’t scare her as much as it should have. Penny reasoned that she had known for a long while that the day was coming and that she had just been building up her slow-mounting courage. She couldn’t sit around waiting for Ryland to pull the plug on their relationship anymore. Even though instigating the breakup contradicted her somewhat mild personality, a sense of relief ensued after the words left her lips.

“How can you do this to me?” Ryland wailed, and Penny stared at him in surprise. “Just like that? Without any warning! Is there someone else?”

She scoffed inwardly. Have we been in the same relationship?

“Are you kidding me?” she asked, and again, she was struck at how uncharacteristic the words coming from her mouth were. The build had simply reached its exploding point, and there was no going back from there. She had taken the lid off, and now everything was coming out.

“No, I’m not!” Ryland snapped. “We’ve been together for almost four years, Penny! I thought we were going to get married!”

“We’ve been together three years, two months, and twelve days,” she corrected. “That’s nowhere near four years.”

“You make it sound like it’s a prison sentence,” he hissed. “Is that how you feel?”

A blush colored her fair cheeks, but Penny knew she couldn’t back down on her resolve now. He had given her the opening she needed, and she wasn’t about to pass it up because of nerves. The idea of returning home to sleep in the same cold, uncomfortable bed with him was suddenly more than she could bear.

“Yes.” The word was flat but filled with all the sincerity Penny could muster. She didn’t mean to hurt him, not really, but she wanted Ryland to understand that she was miserable in their union.

“Why didn’t you say something?” he cried in disbelief. Penny could only stare at him, wondering if perhaps he had some other personality of which she was unaware. Was that the man she had been dating, and the guy standing in front of her had no idea?

“Arguing all the time is not the sign of a healthy relationship, Ryland,” she sighed, closing her book and running her hand through her shoulder-length hair. The red strands fell in straight blocks along her slender shoulders, curling inwardly slightly at the base of her high-necked black shirt. She peered up at Ryland with dark-lashed eyes and waited for him to protest her assessment.

“We can work this out!” he pleaded, and Penny’s brow furrowed in confusion. She’d been certain he was going to end things himself. It occurred to her that he was upset she had beaten him to the punch, and she almost rolled her eyes.

How did I manage to stay with him for this long? He’s a child. “I don’t want to work it out,” Penny replied, rising to face him. Although her pulse was racing, she managed to keep a relatively stoic expression on her face.

“What do you mean, you don’t want to work things out?”

“I mean,” she began, “that I have no feelings for you anymore, Ryland. We were kidding ourselves when we thought we had a future. You know I’m telling you the truth. It’s for the best.”

Ryland’s face twisted into a sneer of anger. “You know, you’re right,” he spat. “I don’t know why I’ve wasted my time with you for this long, anyway. Jennica in accounting has been hitting on me for months, and I kept putting her off because of you, but now I guess there’s no reason.”

Penny couldn’t believe he’d just said something so inanely childish, and she couldn’t stop herself from laughing aloud.

“Well, best of luck to you and her,” she replied evenly, turning away. “I’ll have my stuff out tonight, and you can move her right in.” She didn’t give him a chance to respond, and she stalked away from him, disregarding him as he called out to her.

But despite his words, which had likely been said just to hurt her, Penny realized she didn’t care if he did hook up with Jennica in accounting. Whatever feelings she’d once had for Ryland had diminished long ago. All she felt as a sense of freedom as she made her way back toward the building. She knew that the confrontation with Ryland had made her late to get back to her desk, but she didn’t care.

Am I changing? she wondered, sliding into her seat and placing her earpiece in her ear. I just ended my stagnant relationship. I’m late coming back from lunch. What’s next? Bank robberies?

She chuckled to herself and turned to her computer, determined not to let what had happened with Ryland affect her work day.

It was one of the many special qualities Penny possessed that others did not share. She could easily compartmentalize her personal life and work life. In a way, it was one of the reasons she and Ryland had stayed together while working in the same building. When Penny sat at her desk, she became Penelope Carling, sales associate, not Penny Carling, exhausted girlfriend. It was also what made it so hard for others to get to know her. Penny did not claim any friends. In fact, the longer she stayed with Ryland, the fewer people she could find on her contact lists.

Maybe I can have a social life now without being questioned every time I want to go out, she thought with tentative excitement. Like magic, the conversation she’d had with Ryland flittered to the back of her head, and Penny focussed her attention only on the work before her.

She was one of the dozens of sales workers for the large, up-and-coming telecommunications company, and while it was far from her dream job, Penny was good at it. Even though she was more reserved than most of her type-A co-workers, the customers liked her because she wasn’t pushy, and she didn’t try to upsell them with products they didn’t need.

Not that upper management appreciated it that much. She’d been lectured more times than she could count on the “power of subtle soft sell.” It hadn’t stuck with Penny because fighting was simply not in her nature.

One day, Penny hoped to move out of her sales associate seat and into a corner office, the real goal of becoming a writer so far gone that she barely remembered it. Now the best she could hope for was a six-figure income and a workspace that didn’t involve overhearing twenty other conversations at the same time.

“Thank you for calling Veriday Telecom. This is Penelope. How may I help you today?” She listened patiently as the caller began a tirade about his new cable services, and she pulled up his account on the screen before her. “I understand, Mr. Brandt. I see what you’re talking about—”

Abruptly, she stopped talking, her blue eyes narrowing as her gaze fell upon a duo walking past her, giggling.

They looked like a high school couple, their heads pressed together, but what got Penny was the way Ryland watched her through his peripheral vision. When he was certain he had Penny’s attention, he deliberately slid his hand down along the back of Jennica’s dress and cupped her rear with the palm of his hand. Jennica tittered loudly and looked around in embarrassment, but Ryland didn’t take his eyes away from Penny.

Wow. Seriously? she thought with disdain, shaking her head to show her disgust with him. Ryland, on the other hand, seemed to think he’d won some great prize, showing her up in front of all their co-workers. It wasn’t jealousy Penny was feeling but a deep sense of disrespect, which filled her gut with bile.

“Are you still there?” the irate voice over the phone line demanded.

“Of course, Mr. Brandt,” Penny said smoothly. “I was just making sure that what I am seeing on the screen is accurate.” She moved her eyes from Ryland and shoved the image of him out of her head. What the hell do I care if he’s groping Jennica in front of all our mutual friends and co-workers?

But no matter how she tried to focus on her work, Penny realized that she couldn’t let it go, and by the end of the workday, she was consumed with the sinking feeling that maybe she’d made a mistake. The emotion sweeping through her seemed to be an awful lot like jealousy, and that troubled her more than she cared to admit.

How can I be jealous when I don’t want him? she asked herself, shaking her head as she made her way to her car. It was not a question she could easily answer.

“Changed your mind yet?” Ryland was waiting for her, perched on the hood of Penny’s Fiat. She stared at him, confusion sweeping through her slender body.

Have I changed my mind? He’s giving me an opportunity to take him back.

“That’s what I thought,” Ryland smiled. “It’s okay. I forgive you.” He extended his arms toward her, and Penny saw what he was doing with blinding clarity.

How many times has he emotionally manipulated me like this? a voice in her head asked. He’s constantly doing things to gaslight you and keep you precisely where he wants you.

Penny suddenly felt as if a protective wall had fallen over her, and she stepped back, out of his reach. Ryland’s smile faded slightly. “What? No make-up hug?”

A hundred memories, déjà vu of the same words coming out of his mouth over the years flooded to the front of her mind, and Penny felt like an idiot for not having seen it before. Ryland was never going to let her go. She was exactly what he wanted her to be: a puppet reacting to his every move.

“Penny?”

“I haven’t changed my mind,” she said shortly, unlocking the car and sliding into the driver’s seat. “Now get away before I run you over.”

And as she started the car, she knew she meant both parts of what she’d said.

She was done.