Penelope Featherington had a habit of collecting calendars.
This was something Colin discovered while they were moving in together as he hauled a very heavy carry-on inside their tiny apartment.
“What is in this thing?” Colin said, incredulous. “I thought our apartment didn’t need any renovations but it feels like I’m hauling bricks!”
His girlfriend of one year (but best friend/situationship for a decade) looked at him with wide eyes.
Penelope Featherington had a habit of widening her eyes. In their many years of friendship, Colin determined that Penelope had 5 different kinds.
One, her most common, was being secretly sarcastic all while trying to be engaged with the person she was talking with. People knew Penelope to be sweet and quiet but only a select few knew how cynical and cleverly biting she really was. It worked well for her alter-ego Lady Whistledown, the main character of her young adult detective series. He shared many a glances with those widened sky blue eyes throughout the years and always wondered how people could get Penelope so wrong.
Two, was for her mother, the constant thorn in her (and his) side. Penelope rarely used this in public but would often have it on while emphaticly complaining about another of her mother’s wild antics. This one he disliked seeing the most.
Three was when she felt embarassed by not having the timing right on a perfect quip she just thought of. She had this in networking parties, one he would often drag her to just to bring colour to her pasty cheeks when she would get too lost in her writing. Great sex came after he realised after datinf her in account of her girlfriend feeling grateful for the distraction. As if he wasn’t an already incredible distraction.
Four was when she would stop herself from squealing at another thing a Bridgerton nephew or niece would do. Penelope loved being auntie Pen and was already a favourite among the many, many Bridgerton babies.
Lastly, number five, was aimed at him whenever he discovered another evidence of how Penelope had been obsessing about him for the past 15 years. He teased her about it when he first discovered one: a faded yellow children’s scarf she used as a bookmark for her nighttime book (because Penelope read 2-3 books in a period of time depending on what mode she was in for writing). But Penelope burst into tears feeling that he made light of her keeping mementos of their relationship. Colin knew about the scarf for a long time but never thought it was about him. He had since managed to find a journal full of short stories about him, a shirtless photo when he was 18 and she was 15 at that one disastrous Featherington-Bridgerton getaway, and a preserved yellow rose he gave Penelope on her 13th birthday. He couldn’t remember doing that so he appreciated that she kept the memory alive.
There was a treasure chest of everything that Penelope loved about him all these years. Discovering them made Colin feel like a giant, as if he could take on everything in the world.
“What is it, Penny?” he teased.
“Nothing you need to know about,” Penelope stammered.
“You know you are incapable of keeping a secret from me. Now that I’ve seen everything.”
“Stop teasing,” Penelope chuckled.
“Fine. You’re bound to see it soon anyway.”
Colin practically bounced off his feet as Penelope unzipped the small suitcase and out popped—
“Calendars?” Dating from 15 years back to last year. Colin pulled one of them and started to flip through it. There were marks everywhere in each month. Drawings, quotes, tiny diary entries everywhere. Some as common as every Bridgerton and Featherington’s birthdays (including the nieces and nephews as they came). Even anniversaries for his siblings and their partners. Edmund Bridgerton, Archie Featherington, Marina Thompson and John Stirling’s death anniversaries had beautiful quotes about the life they had.
Colin looked at Penelope. Her eyes worried and afraid. After all these years, she still had something she was insecure about. Why would anyone feel afraid to show how open their heart was to the memory of each day? No one celebrated every moment the way Penelope did. She always remembered everything someone said and did. And now Colin knew that she chronicled every big moment, careful not to let the moment just pass by.
How could he have ever been stupid enough to wait 10 long years to realise how much he loved this woman?
His eyes fell on the month of April, on the single square coloured in yellow. It was empty unlike the others and it was the same for every year.
“April 6,” he said quietly. “The day we first met.”
Penelope’s eyes widened. Her blue eyes sparkled in surprise. “You remember?”
Colin put the calendar he was holding and took his phone out. No one really looks at the calendar on their phones except for work. He opened the calendars list, hid everything except for the one called Sunshine and passed the phone to Penelope.
“Click on April 6 and flip through each year.”
Penelope opened the calendar entry and saw a simple note: Met Penelope this day. Make it special. She saw the little recurring icon next to it. Noticed a bunch of notes like buy yellow scarf and ask Daphne to teach me how to bake a cake. The notes were all over. The calendar had marks for the days that corresponded to her own calendars like beach day with Penelope. Do push-ups and figure out better way to remember timezone difference so not to wake Penelope up too early.
“I don’t know why but I’ve always written on that calendar everything I experienced with you,” Colin started. His eyes were brimming with tears. “You always show me how much you love me— have always loved me. I want you to know that even though my head didn’t know what my heart was telling me, you have been in my heart since the day I met you.”
Colin leaned in and kissed Penelope’s lips softly. “My forever Sunshine.”
“I love you,” she whispered.
“I love you. Happy Colin and Penelope day,” Colin remarked, realising that it was, after all, April 6.
“Yes, that was the 6am alarm that woke you up this morning,” Penelope said, chuckling.
“I thought it was the moving day alarm.”
“That was the second one.”
Colin laughed and kissed Penelope again. “What do you say about calling April 6, Colin and Penelope day?”
Penelope’s eyes widened in delight and Colin discovered the 6th way his girlfriend’s eyes widen.
“What about Polin day?” Penelope suggested, he bright eyes twinkling.
“I love it. Happy Polin day!”
Today’s polinweek entries will consist of me doing whatever pops in my head in the moment. Because Polin is my forever muse ❤️
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