If Penelope kept her distance and treated Roman coldly after the conference, there was a good chance the relationship would be fractured beyond repair. He didn't seem like the type to usually speak his mind but had been sincere and said what he wanted from her for once.
This could be problematic if his real wife came back but good news for her if she wanted to escape him. Except for the fact that Percy would probably know she did something and follow through on his threat to get her sent to a mental hospital.
So she could go to the other extreme of being the kind of wife she thought her other self should have been anyway. It would make Roman happy but their entire relationship would be built on a lie.
There was a third option of continuing to treat him the way his wife had before but that didn't sit well with Penelope either. No matter what she did, someone would be losing out in the end.
She looked over the mountains of clothes she had left everywhere and sighed. She could think about that later. Right now she had to take care of this. The closet really was too overwhelming; no one needed this many clothes.
===
Penelope made it until the group going to the conference headed to the airport without further incident. There were ten of them in total: four from the creative department, two from account planning, two from online development, one from the media buying department, and one from account services.
The only ones whose names she knew were Max and Julie but she recognized the other guy from the creative department's face. Everyone else was a total stranger. She really hoped this wouldn't be a problem.
"Max, do you know all of these people?' Penelope dared to whisper as they made their way through airport security.
"Yeah. Don't you? I guess we do only see them during big conference meetings…You already know Julie and Kyle," Max began. So that was his name! Asking had been the right choice.
"The two ahead of the rest of us are from account planning and their names are Hayley and George. Micah from online development has the blue keychain hanging off his laptop bag. His buddy Travis is next to him.
"Reagan is the woman whose hair is in a bun and the one bigshot they assigned to come with us is Everett. Don't cross him. I heard he gets pretty nasty," Max finished in a conspiratorial whisper.
The man in question wore a sharp suit and looked to be in his late thirties or early forties. He had sharp features and seemed annoyed at being stuck in line like everybody else. Penelope made a mental note to stay away from him as much as the situation allowed.
Her best bet would be to stick as close to Max as possible since she was already supposed to be good friends with him. That would probably get her through the week.
Their group made it through security and ended up having to wait another thirty minutes to board their plane. The flight wouldn't be long, only an hour and a half, but Penelope didn't want to sit around chatting with people who might notice something was off about her.
She put in her earphones and decided to watch some more tutorial videos about the software she was supposed to be familiar with. No one would know since there wasn't enough available seating at the gate for anyone in their party to sit next to each other.
It would be a different story on the plane since the tickets had been bought together. She had brought an iPad that thankfully also had touch ID with her and figured she could either play mobile games or draw during the flight while listening to music so she wouldn't be disturbed.
Today was not her lucky day. Penelope ended up in a window seat directly next to scary-faced Everett.
Not wanting to strike up a conversation AT ALL, she quickly put her earphones back in and put the music on shuffle. The first song that came on wasn't from a band she recognized but at least the genre was consistent with her usual taste.
She checked to see if there were any mobile games downloaded and only saw ones she had no idea how to play. There had to be tutorial videos in there somewhere, right? But would playing games next to an account executive look bad? He wasn't even looking at her; he was reading a book.
Penelope sighed. She was far too self-conscious about all of this. It would be better to sketch something using a digital art app.
Out of curiosity, she checked to see if there were any works in progress her other self had saved on there. There were a few finished pieces in a style halfway between cartoonish and realistic where people she recognized had been associated with some aspect of nature.
Percy—it had to be him based on his hair and glasses—had planets orbiting his head as if he was the sun. Her mother had flowers sprouting from her hair next to her father, who had been drawn to look translucent as if made of air. The last finished one she found was of Roman wearing blue that matched his eyes perfectly with a stream of water swirling around him. The only unfinished one from this series was obviously supposed to be of Penelope.
It wasn't completely colored yet but she had been drawn wearing a simple sleeveless dress with hair made of flame while striking a pose that looked almost wistful. What had she been thinking when she drew this?
If she thought of herself as fire and Roman as water…did that mean she thought they were opposites or complementary? What she wouldn't give to understand her other self's logic. Maybe it would be a clue to her real feelings regarding their ongoing disagreements.
Penelope Cross's drawing style was a bit different than hers. She probably had more time to develop it than she had.
Not wanting to disturb something that someone else was working on, she started a new file and began to sketch. If her other self could draw what she was feeling, so could she.