Roman shrugged. "Work was the same as usual. I ended up hanging out with Harry and some other guys a lot more often. And Percy dropped by the hospital on Friday night to say hi for less than ten minutes, which was a little strange, but he's always been an odd one."
Penelope didn't find this suspicious because it seemed like the two of them had a good relationship. She smiled. "I hope you were able to have at least a little fun while I was gone."
"The escape room was fun. It would've been more fun if you were there with us though. That reminds me—Percy wanted the three of us to do an escape room at some point. He said he would find a fourth person."
That was a bit surprising. He wasn't exactly the type to have friends offline. Had he found out that one of his online friends lived in the area or had he finally branched out?
"That would be fun," Penelope said mildly, keeping her thoughts to herself. This Percy might be a bit different than the one back home based on his life experiences.
They pulled into the garage and Roman got her luggage for her before she had even gotten out of the car. She meant to unpack immediately so she didn't have to worry about it later but he stopped her by pulling her toward him and kissing her fervently.
A jolt went through her because he had never made out with her since coming here but she couldn't pull back. It would be seen as a rejection and she had already told herself that she wasn't going to be cold to him anymore.
Penelope ended up going along with it since she knew it wouldn't go further without the doctor's say so. Besides, Roman was a very good kisser. Way better than her past boyfriends had been.
What she tried to tell herself before about only being affected by it because it was weird being kissed by a virtual stranger wasn't true. Roman simply had that effect on her.
She let herself get swept away in the moment for a while until it became clear that they needed to stop. She pulled away completely red-faced and couldn't look him in the eye. "Better call it for now."
He sighed. "Yeah. What a shame."
That comment only made her blush worse. It was time to change the subject. "Hey…do you want to do some research on getting a pet and potentially go to an animal shelter this weekend?"
Roman seemed surprised. "Really? Are you sure you're feeling well enough to take on that kind of commitment right now?"
Penelope nodded. "I've been doing fine. I haven't even needed to take a nap the last few days. Besides, there's no guarantee we'd find the one we wanted right away. I figure we can learn more about dogs and cats first and then go take a look to see what options they have."
Going to a shelter this weekend could be more of a recon mission than anything since neither of them really had any experience with animals. They could see what was available and talk about it further from there.
Roman gave so much to the people he cared about and got so little in return. Getting a pet would be such a small thing she could do for him while simultaneously putting down some roots in this world. It would be like a declaration to herself that she was here to stay.
His smile when he looked at her was nearly blinding. "That sounds like a great idea. Do you want to start looking things up now?"
"Sure."
They ended up finding articles meant for people thinking about getting pets who never had them before about both dogs and cats. Dogs sounded like a lot more work but having one would also possibly have the benefit of keeping Roman busy for a while so he wouldn't bring up the 'having children' conversation anytime soon.
He did seem more interested in having a dog than a cat anyway based on the kind of lifestyle the Crosses had. It would be easy enough to take a dog hiking or to the beach but a cat would have to stay at home when they did those sorts of activities.
Penelope didn't mind so they started looking at potential breeds to watch for when they went to the shelter. She had read that most shelter animals were mixes but you could find purebreds that had been abandoned for some reason or other too.
Roman seemed so happy while they sat close together looking into their options on his laptop. He was so easy to please. How had his wife let things get to this point when it took so little to make him happy?
===
Over the next couple of days, Penelope fully threw herself into trying to accept her life as it is now. She presented all of her convention notes at work and ended up being assigned her very first project since coming here.
She researched for it diligently and consulted a bunch of other people in the creative department for their input. They were all flattered since her other self was more of a lone wolf when it came to things like this.
But work stopped the moment she came home, which was something the other Penelope wasn't capable of doing. She and Roman ended up playing a lot of board games and video games or simply walking around the neighborhood hand in hand.
She was getting a little better at controlling her embarrassment at displays of affection. She hoped she could have it under control completely in the next few weeks.
Even better was that her parents were now back in town and wanted to get dinner on Sunday. Penelope fervently hoped she could stop herself from bursting into tears when she saw her dad. She had already been close just by hearing his voice over the phone.
Things were finally starting to settle down and she was grateful for that. So far it seemed like throwing herself into this new chance at life was working out.