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“Penny, dear,” I say in the most condescending voice I can muster, and loud enough that the tables closest to ours can hear. “Even if your twin sister wasn’t sitting in my lap. Even if she hadn’t agreed to marry me this morning. Even if you were the last creature with a cunt left alive on the planet and me marrying you was the only way to ensure the survival of the human race, I can promise you with every fiber in my body and every dollar in my trust fund that I will never, and I mean never, agree to marry you. So, I’m not embarrassing myself or my family or even your family. In fact, the only person who’s embarrassing themselves is you.”
Penelope’s lips purse into a hard line, and she blinks at me like a serpent assessing its prey. Her gaze moves from me to her sister, and her lips curl into a chilling smile that makes me wrap my arm around the girl in my lap protectively.
“Apparently, congratulations are in order, sister, but I think you should check that ancient cell phone of yours. Mom wants to speak to you,” she says coldly, then she turns and struts away, her ass swaying provocatively with each step.
The moment Penelope is back in her seat, Izabella rips my arm from around her and jumps out of my lap and back into the seat next to mine. I can see how badly her hands are trembling as she searches the floor around us for her backpack.
“It’s in my locker,” I remind her.
“My cell phone is in there. This is only going to get worse if I don’t call her back. I’m so fucked, so fucking fucked,” she whispers, her voice shaky.
“Hey, it’ll be okay,” Kip says, reaching across the table and laying his hand reassuringly on her arm.
The urge to slap his hand away and then punch him comes out of nowhere. What the hell? I don’t care about Izabella, she’s a means to an end, that’s it. So where the hell are these protective urges coming from?
“Gulliver will fix this. He’ll explain to your parents that this was just a joke that got taken a bit too far. It’ll be fine,” he assures her.
When she looks up at him, her eyes huge and full of hope, I have to force my fingers to unfurl from the fists I’ve clenched them into. My cell phone rings at the same moment that the server arrives with the food, and a plateful of my favorite wild mushroom and truffle oil pasta is placed in front of me.
Nodding my thanks to the server, I pull my cell from my pocket and snarl when I see my dad’s name on the caller ID. Looking pointedly at Davis, I nod in Izabella’s direction. He nods back and moves over to take my seat when I stand up and head to the exit doors, answering my phone as I go.
“Hi, Dad,” I say deliberately and breezily.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” he demands, not even bothering to say hello.
“There’s nothing wrong with me. In fact, today has been a pretty great day so far,” I answer churlishly.
“Don’t be a smartass, Gulliver. I’ve had Barnaby and Trudy Rhodes on the phone demanding to know what you’re playing at. They seem to think you’ve very publicly proposed to some girl on the front steps of the school.”
I can’t help the bitter laugh that falls from my lips. “Some girl,” I snap. “Jesus, that fucking family. Penelope has a twin sister.”
“A twin?” Dad asks, his voice annoyed. “What?”
“Yep. Penelope has an identical twin sister. Her name is Izabella. You’ve met her.”
“What are you talking about? I think I’d know if they had another daughter,” Dad hisses.
“Yeah, it was a surprise for me too, but they do. You met her last Friday night because she pretended to be her sister and came to our house for dinner. The girl I proposed to this morning was Izabella, Penelope’s twin.”
There’s silence on the other end of the call until Dad finally speaks. “Gulliver, this isn’t funny.”
“That’s because I’m not joking,” I insist.
More silence follows. “And you’re in a relationship with…what did you say her name was?”
“Izabella, Dad. Her name is Izabella, and…” I open my mouth to tell him the truth, to confess that this was all a joke, but instead I say, “Yes, we’re in a relationship.”
Dad’s exhale is slow and ragged. “So why didn’t I know about this? Was that what our chat last night was about?”
I take a minute before I speak. If I tell him we’re really engaged, this won’t be a joke I can play off further down the line. But for some reason, I just can’t confess that this is all fake. “Yeah, I needed you to understand that I was never going to marry Penelope. I just didn’t want to say it was because I was in love with her twin.” The lie slips easily from my lips.
“Where the hell have they been keeping another kid?” he mutters.
“In plain sight. She’s been at GAA the whole time. It’s so fucked up. She’s a student here, she goes to class, only from what I can gather, the Rhodeses and Penelope all pretend like Izabella doesn’t exist. The girls even ride to school together, and their driver drops Penelope off first, then brings Izzy back just before homeroom starts.”
“What the hell?” Dad hisses. “And you asked her to marry you? Are you sure about this? How long have you known about her?”
I can feel how wide my eyes are, but the words keep pouring from my mouth. “Yes, I asked her to marry me, and she said yes. We haven’t been together long, but you’re always telling me to trust my gut. I was just waiting for the whole Penelope thing to get cleared up before I asked her.”
