Who: Penny and Vanessa What: Meetings When: Backdated to Penny's arrival Where: Cafe Rating/Warnings: Medium/Penny thinks he's whoring himself out for a room Status: Complete
Vanessa knew that Nasir would yell at her if he found out what she was doing but she needed to do something...different. And going to meet this guy from the network was definitely different. And she’d met up with other people from it and those had all turned out okay so why should this time be any different? Plus she knew a lot more about defending herself now than she had when she’d first moved back to California.
Penny had let her pick the place for them to meet and she’d picked a coffee shop close to her place but not close enough that she’d be worried about being followed home if this meeting didn’t go well. She parked her car, taking a moment to tighten up her ponytail before heading inside and looking around for the guy she’d been talking with.
***
Penny had found the place pretty easily - the homeless shelter he’d been trying to negotiate a bed at had been just a few blocks away, actually - and was seated in the back, feet kicked up on the table and glaring back at the employee that was glaring at him. Whatever. He probably wasn’t gonna be here very long. He’d ‘employed’ himself in this manner before, for various things - money, drugs, a place to crash - and he knew the song and dance. Someone met him, they either liked what they saw or didn’t, they were on their way a few minutes later. He was pretty good about sniffing out a cop and this girl had seemed both way too young and way too giving to be an officer, but he was still going to check her out. Could have always been a plant, he supposed, some poor intern or someone’s daughter helping daddy out by trapping people online. Whatever. He hadn’t put a term to what they were doing so they couldn’t get him on anything concrete.
When she walked in he dropped his legs and sat up in the chair, feet nudging at the bags by his feet. Like hell was he leaving his stuff at the shelter, that was just asking for someone to steal it. He’d haul it however far she wanted to go before he’d let anyone else touch his shit.
The girl was pretty - blonde, strong jawed, maybe a little younger than he’d been anticipating but hey, Penny looked older than he was so he couldn’t say anything. He wouldn’t particularly mind a night with her, would probably seek it out under different circumstances, but it wouldn’t have mattered if she was some old bat with a single tooth. So long as he got what he wanted, he’d do what he had to. This would just be one of the nicer things that he’d done.
“Hey,” he said, raising a lazy hand in greeting. “Penny. You?”
***
It hadn’t taken long for Vanessa’s eyes to fall on the guy she’d come there to meet and she’d have to admit he was better looking in public. Probably a little older than her but she’d already decided not to mention doing this to any of her friends. The plans to meet up had been made privately after all. She made her way over to his table, sliding into the seat across from him. “Vanessa.” No need for last names clearly. She could live with that.
She swallowed as she leaned back in her seat, eyes meeting his for a few seconds before she spoke. “Look me in the eye and tell me you aren’t a serial killer.”
***
Penny resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the question. “I’m not a serial killer. What more do you want me to say? I don’t have my background check results on me at the moment.” It was a valid question, sure, but still a stupid one. What was he going to say? ‘Yes, I’m totally a murderer, I’m going to eat your liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti.’ “Just gonna have to trust me on that one.”
Since that hopefully settled the matter, he settled a little further into his seat, looking to all the world like he was right at home. Really, he was a little tense, running through his second and third options in case this didn’t work out. Not everyone appreciated the Penny Adiyodi Attitude, and that was totally valid, there were a lot of peoples’ attitudes that he decidedly did not appreciate, but if this girl decided she wasn’t a fan then he might be in trouble. He did not want to sleep on a bench tonight. He had a list in his pocket of shelters in the area and he could start crossing them off the list if need be. Just might have to roam all night to do it.
But instead of letting any of that show, he just raised a shoulder lazily. “So,” he drawled. “How’re we doin’ this?”
***
Vanessa gave a little laugh at his sarcastic response to her question, shaking her head slightly. “I had to ask. I have a strict no serial killer in my house policy.” Nasir didn’t count - he was a gladiator in the dreams, completely different. “And while we’re talking about trust you’re going to have to trust me when I tell you that if you try anything I don’t like - I’m extremely confident I can kick your ass. My best friend is an amateur MMA fighter and is my self defense trainer. I’m not his level but he’s teaching me everything he knows and has been training me for almost a year. Just so you know what you’re getting into with me.” It wasn’t a threat - it was just a statement of fact. Nasir had trained her really well in how to protect herself from people that wanted to hurt her.
“I’m not sure how this normally goes - I’ve never done this before. I’ve met other people off the network but never to take home.” She admitted with a half shrug.
***
“I feel like that’s kind of a standard thing,” Penny said, again resisting the urge to roll his eyes. He’d heard worse threats from bigger people, he’d lost count of the number of people who threatened to kick his ass (and, unfortunately, the number of people who’d actually gone through with it; his mouth wrote a lot of checks his ass couldn’t cash, but like hell was he going to stop talking as big a game as he did), he wasn’t worried about this girl. Not like he was planning on trying anything. It was kind of counterproductive to what he wanted. “Sure, whatever. You’ll kill me if I try anything, got it.”
He’d gotten the impression that this was gonna be this girl’s first rodeo. He’d take it easy on her. “Well normally what happens is we work out what we both want out of this, we get what we want, and if it works out then great, see ya again sometime. If not, oh well, we both had our fun. Sound good?”
***
“Not kill you. Disposing of a body is way too much work after all,” Vanessa told him her serious tone of voice at odds with the little smile on her face. She knew she didn’t look intimidating and she liked that she didn’t. It made it easier to get to know people. And made it a little more satisfying to her to prove to people you shouldn’t judge based on appearances.
“So what do you want out of this?” She asked, trying to keep her nerves under control as she realized she was actually going to do this. She was going to bring a stranger home with her for the night.
***
That actually got a chuckle out of Penny. He hadn’t expected dark humor to come out of someone so perky, but it wasn’t a bad surprise. “Truth. Dexter made it look so easy, didn’t he.”
His mood soured a little. He thought that he’d made that obvious, but apparently this girl was a little more savvy than she looked. Work out terms of payment beforehand, no surprises after. “Roof over my head for the night, like I said. I’ll be out in the morning, if you need it before sunup then I need to know now.” This girl probably lived somewhere nice, somewhere where she didn’t want her neighbors to see her bring home a gentleman of the evening, so to speak. Not that Penny necessary looked like what people would look for with a male escort, but well, the gaping shirt didn’t paint a lot of other options. “And what do you want?” He hoped it wasn’t anything too freaky. He’d do it, but he could hope that he wouldn’t have to.
***
“He did. And never seemed to worry about people tracking victims back to him. Which I would definitely worry about. I don’t care what the prison shows show - I’m not interested in going to jail.” Vanessa said calmly.
“Company. And my neighbors can go fuck off if they’re going to judge the people I bring over. It’s my place not theirs.” Technically her dad’s place but he didn’t care who she brought over if he ever heard about. There were benefits to living on opposite sides of the country.
***
“Company,” Penny said flatly, only a raised eyebrow betraying his confusion. “Gonna have to define that one for me, it’s kinda broad.”
He scooted his chair closer to her and leaned in. “Do you want company?” he asked, placing a hand on her shoulder and giving it a squeeze. He leaned in even more and whispered in her ear, breath hot, “Or do you want company?” He slid it lower, trailing over her thigh and resting his fingers on the inseam of her jeans.
Penny pulled back just as suddenly as he’d approached and tipped his chair back. “Or somethin’ in between? None of the above? Like I said. Broad term.”
***
Vanessa hadn’t been expecting him to move closer to her that way but she didn’t react other than turning her head so she could see his face better. She pulled back slightly at that whisper, holding her breath as a little voice in her head asked if she was really sure she wanted to do this, wanted to get involved in what was only going to be a one night stand with a stranger.
“Something in between,” she said quietly, blue eyes locking on his.
***
He’d surprised her - Penny had a pretty good read on people (sometimes, when it benefitted him to actually look), and he could tell from her intake of breath.
That answer didn’t tell him much, though. He crossed his arms. Fine. Cut to the chase then. “You this closed off with every guy you bring home like this, or am I just getting the special treatment?”
***
Vanessa took a deep breath to keep herself calm at that attitude change. “Believe it or not I don’t normally bring guys home like this.” Meeting in cafes or restaurants with guys from the network was different. A lot different.
***
“I’m starting to gather,” Penny drawled. “But I’m gonna need you to be y’know, kinda upfront with me about this? What you want from me. I don’t go into shit like this blind and I’m willing to be honest with you.” Or, well, as honest as he got, which wasn’t really all that honest at all. He at least gave pertinent information. “If you can’t do that then I’m goin’ back to the shelter, you can go back to being a good girl or whatever’s got you hung up, and we can never speak of this again. But right now I don’t got time to be dancing around the issue all night.”
***
Vanessa felt something inside her snap at his comment about her being a good girl and she sat up straighter as she glared at him. “Who the hell do you think you are? You don’t know one damn thing about me and you want to pass judgement on me for being cautious about bringing a stranger home? You’re hot I’ll give you that and yeah there’s a part of me that wants nothing more than to go home and take you to my room and have sex all night. But I’m not stupid. And being careful doesn’t make me a good girl. It’s kept me alive.” She snapped at him, temper flaring up.
***
Oh, Penny knew all about being cautious - he always checked people out before he did anything even mildly questionable with them, which is how he knew that Vanessa Clevland was squeaky clean and completely inoffensive, no records that he could find. Her posts on that stupid Network were completely bland, the other traces of her online were equally as boring. The only even moderately interesting thing about her was her father was a musician (no one Penny had heard of, but granted, there weren’t a whole lot of dubstep artists with 20-something daughters). She was, from everything that he could find, a good girl, normally everything Penny stayed away from. But apparently that hit some kind of nerve, and Penny kind of liked that fire. He leaned forward and narrowed his eyes at her. “That’s great and all,” he said. “But you didn’t answer my question, and you keep dodging it, and like I said, I don’t got time for games. You’re lookin’ more and more appealing but girl, if you don’t know what you want then I’m not the guy to find it out with. If you wanna take the leap, take it, quit thinking so damn much. If not, then it was nice meeting you.”
***
“So hot, conceited and deaf. I’m starting to get a whole picture here.” Vanessa snapped at him, breathing so that she wouldn’t lash out physically. This was definitely not something she could ever admit to having done - it had been a mistake. “Pretty sure I told you what I wanted but you didn’t hear it, must have been because there were too many words for your attention span to filter through to hear the answer to your question. Why don’t you think back a minute about what I said I wanted to do and try to pick it out. Because you don’t have time for games and I don’t have any interest in stroking some guys ego by begging.” She leaned back against the seat, arms crossed across her chest as she looked him in the eye.
***
Oh he liked this girl. Hell, with an attitude like that, tonight wouldn’t be a harship at all. “Yeah,” Penny drawled. “I’m not so much a thinker. More of a do-er.” So he stood up, leaned across the table, and pulled her into a kiss. She’d said that she’d wanted something ‘in between’ companionship and companionship (wink wink) and, well, Penny wasn’t sure what that meant but he could handle one half of the equation at least.
The barista that had been particularly contemptuous of Penny all night was now glaring at both of them, so Penny shot her a look out of the corner of his eye and said, “How about we take this back to your place?”