Chapter Text
Chapter One:
The Bridgerton brunch was a lively affair that happened once a month at the family home. Violet, the matriarch of the family, hosted it without fail. Her children rarely missed it, aside from Colin. He was traveling the world for his blog, and only made it occasionally to brunch. Penelope, however, who was not technically a Bridgerton, had not missed a brunch in years. She loved all of the Bridgertons. She and Eloise, the fifth born out of the eight children, were best friends. They’d met when they were five years old, and had been attached at the hip ever since.
Penelope was also close with Colin. He was her other best friend, and the man she’d been secretly in love with practically her whole life. He didn’t see her that way, and she’d come to accept it, but there was a part of her that would always hold out hope. She wasn’t certain there would ever come a time where she did not love him.
Which was why this particular Bridgerton brunch turned her entire life upside down. Just when she thought nothing could shock her, Colin Bridgerton proved her wrong. And, the worst part, she could do nothing but agree with him.
Violet had made french toast and so many breakfast sides, it could feed a small country. Penelope, always wanting to help, came early to give Violet a hand in the kitchen. That’s when she found out that her best friend was home.
“Pen!” Colin exclaimed, causing her to drop an egg on the floor.
“Colin!” She gasped. “What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be in South Africa!”
“I wanted to surprise everyone,” He grinned. “Did it work?”
“Obviously!” She laughed.
Colin opened his arms for her, and she stepped over the broken egg, and into his embrace. She did her best not to melt in his arms. She had missed him, and even just the smell of his cologne brought her instant comfort.
“I got in yesterday, swore mum to secrecy, and slept off the jet lag,” Colin explained as they pulled out of the hug. “You’re the only other person who knows so far.”
Penelope grinned up at him. He hadn’t been home in months. They’d facetimed, called, and texted, but it wasn’t the same. She missed their move nights, their Mario Kart marathons, the endless laughing fests, and all the other moments they shared when he was home.
Colin helped his mum and Penelope finish up brunch. Soon, the siblings began pouring in. One by one, Colin was engulfed into hugs by his family members. Penelope watched as his family excitedly greeted him.
As much as she loved that Colin was following his dreams and seeing the world, she knew it left a hole in the family. Colin was the reasonable one, the sibling who was easy to talk to, Violet’s sensitive son who always took care of his mum. She knew how much the Bridgertons missed him while he was away. It was nice to have him back for the time being, and to see the family complete again.
Once the family was all there, they migrated to the dining room table. Brunch was never a quiet affair. Growing up, meals at the Featherington home were very serious. Children were meant to be seen and not heard. But, at the Bridgerton house, everyone talked and laughed and enjoyed each other’s company.
“Can you believe he left South Africa for this?” Eloise whispered to Penelope. As usual, Penelope was seated in between her two best friends. “The idiot was literally in one of my bucket list destinations, and he just hopped on a plane and came home.”
“Maybe he was home sick?” Penelope suggested. Eloise shook her head.
“Something weird is going on, and I want to know what it is.”
Penelope knew better than to try and argue with her. Eloise was head strong. It was one of the many things Penelope loved about her. But, she was also stubborn. When Eloise Ruth Bridgerton set her mind on something, no force in the world could sway her.
Colin was engrossed in a discussion with Benedict and Gregory. Penelope knew Benedict was filling him in on Sophie. Watching Benedict fall in love in the past few months had been something she’d been so happy to witness. She had met Sophie first, and knew the pair would hit it off. Now, they were practically inseparable. Sophie had unfortunately had to work during brunch, and missed it this time. She owned her own bakery, and when she got big orders, she worked on Sundays. Everyone understood, but Penelope knew Colin would be bummed he didn’t get to meet her.
“So, Colin, be honest, what brings you home?” Eloise interrupted their conversations.
“Yeah, what happened to South Africa?” Gregory asked.
“South Africa was fine, but I’m going to be in London for a while.” Colin stated.
“Don’t tell me you’re looking for a new purpose,” Anthony said in a tone that was only half joking. “I thought traveling was your biggest passion.”
“I thought it was writing,” Francesca said. “Oh, are you writing a book?”
“There’s no stability in book writing, not until you’ve written a best seller,” Benedict commented. “Did you get fired from the travel blog?”
“Maybe we should stop pestering him and let Colin answer for himself,” Kate suggested, shooting a look at the siblings. “No wonder he prefers to be in a different time zone most of the year.”
“Thanks, Kate,” Colin smiled appreciatively at her. “There’s actually a very good reason I came home.”
“What is it, dearest?” Violet asked her son curiously.
“It turns out my purpose wasn’t traveling the world, but finding my soul mate.” Colin stated. Penelope felt her heart drop. Colin hadn’t mentioned seeing anyone new. Why hadn’t he told her about this? She pushed down the hurt, and the jealousy. She picked up her mimosa, taking a large sip, which turned out to be a terrible idea. “Penelope and I are in love, and we wanted you to know that we’re together. We have been for a while, and we’re done hiding it.”
She half choked and half spit out her mimosa. What the heck was he playing at. Colin reached out and patted her back as she tried to get her breath back. She managed to catch his eye and saw the pleading look. He wanted her to go along with this.
“Sorry, love, I know that wasn’t how we discussed telling everyone,” He said with ease. “But I was just so excited.”
“Y-you’re together?” Eloise stuttered, clearly betrayed by this information. Oh boy was Penelope going to hear about this one if she went along with it.
“Is this a joke?” Anthony asked, sounding annoyed at his brother.
“Colin, this is so not funny,” Hyacinth pouted. “I’ve been waiting years for you to get together, and you make a big joke out of it.”
“Honey, please,” Violet pleaded. “What is going on?”
Colin’s face turned red. Whatever he had hoped to accomplish, it was not going in his favor. Penelope took a deep breath. He owed her a huge explanation after this. But, she couldn’t let him go down alone.
“It’s true,” She said, causing everyone to turn their heads and look at her. “It was my idea to keep it quiet. I wanted to wait until Colin was home for an extended period of time. I was worried he would change his mind, but he hasn’t, and we knew keeping it a secret wasn’t right.”
“When did this happen?” Eloise demanded. Penelope gulped, worried her best friend would catch her in the lie.
“April,” Colin answered without hesitation. “When I was home for Pen’s birthday. Something changed that night, and we decided it was time we gave it a fair shot.”
Penelope’s heart raced. Something had changed that night. He had taken her home while she was drunk. She’d made a move to kiss him, but he stopped her. He insisted she’d regret it when she was sober. She promised she wouldn’t, but when she woke up the next morning, he was gone. He’d hopped on a plane to Egypt, and they never talked about it again.
“Six months!?” Eloise exclaimed. “You’ve been seeing each other for six months!?”
“Oh,” Violet gasped, her hand coming to cover her mouth. “This is wonderful.”
“Wonderful?” Eloise scoffed. “They lied to us. Pen, you’ve never kept something like this from me before. What the fuck?”
Penelope felt a wave of guilt rush over her. She had kept something from Eloise, actually. She’d never been able to tell her best friend that she was in love with her brother. It was too embarrassing, and she didn’t want Eloise to pity her for it.
“Come off it, El,” Colin snapped at his sister. “Penelope is entitled to privacy, and discretion about her love life. I’m sure you don’t tell her every detail about your relationship with Phillip.”
“Phillip isn’t her brother!” Eloise practically shouted.
“I for one am thrilled,” Hyacinth grinned. “Penelope is going to be my sister.”
“Hy, chill, they just announced their relationship. Let’s not rush them down the aisle,” Daphne said, rolling her eyes. “Colin, how the hell did you manage to keep this from me?”
“Like I said, neither of us are obligated to tell anyone all of the details about our love life,” Colin answered. “We’ve been figuring things out.”
“Let me get this straight,” Benedict said. “You came home after being gone for what, three months? And instead of rushing to your girlfriend, you came to mum’s house? Seems strange to me.”
“He wanted to surprise me,” Penelope replied. “I didn’t know he was coming home.”
At least that wasn’t a lie. She was going to strangle Colin for putting her in this position the moment they were alone. Why was she going along with it? Probably because she’d never been able to resist him, or anything he asked of her.
“That’s so sweet!” Francesca exclaimed.
“Colin, you better not be playing with her,” Anthony warned. “She’s family to us.”
“Please,” Violet chuckled. “Did we not all know this would happen someday? I mean for goodness sakes, they’ve been inseparable for years. I, for one, have always hoped they’d find each other. Penelope, darling, you’ve always been like a daughter to me. I could not be happier for you two.”
“T-thank you,” Penelope said awkwardly. “That means a lot to me.”
“If you’re all momentarily satisfied with this interrogation,” Colin said. “I’d like to take my girlfriend home now for some alone time. I’ll see you all later?”
“Penelope, we will be discussing this later.” Eloise warned.
Penelope nodded. She blindly let Colin lead her from the room. What the fuck just happened?
HOAXHOAXHOAX
Penelope remained silent as Colin drove them in her car to her place. She didn’t trust herself to drive, and had tossed him the keys as soon as they got outside. She needed to think, but she couldn’t even get her thoughts straight. She had no idea what had just gone down at brunch, but she knew she was now in it. Whatever Colin had planned, she was his accomplice.
They arrived at her apartment, and she led him inside. Colin took his shoes off at the door, knowing it was her number one rule. She normally would have loved that he remembered it, but she was far too mad at him.
“Colin, do you care to fill me in on whatever the fuck that was?” She asked him. Colin’s jaw dropped at her outburst. “I just lied to your entire family! I think your mother is planning the wedding!”
“If she’s not, Hyacinth definitely is.” Colin smirked.
“This is not time for your jokes!” She exclaimed. “Why did you tell your family we were together?”
“Did you hear how they were harping on me?” Colin asked. “I couldn’t take it. They are always expecting me to mess up, and I did. I quit the travel blog, it just wasn’t right for me anymore. I want to write a book about traveling, but they’ll think I’m ruining my career. I love my family, I really do, but it’s hard to not be the disappointment when you’re surrounded by Anthony the CEO, Benedict the Art Gallery owner, Eloise the lawyer, Francesca the pianist, Daphne the humanitarian-”
“Colin, no one is disappointed in you,” Penelope said softly, placing her hand on his arm. “You are an amazing writer. Writing a book would be a huge accomplishment. Of course you need to stop the blog in order to focus on that.”
“You get it because your a writer, Pen. My family will think I’m wasting my time,” He explained. “Not to mention the fact that all of my siblings are in happy, committed relationships, even Hyacinth.”
“We can’t lie to them,” Penelope said. “We have to come clean about this.”
“Hear me out,” Colin begged. “Do this with me for a few months. We go on dates, attend family dinners, spend the holidays together, etc. My family will get off my back and give me some time to work on my book. Tell me you wouldn’t love to get Portia Featherington to stop setting you up on blind dates.”
“I mean, of course I would!” Penelope sighed. “The last guy was a vegan. He got mad that I ordered ice cream for dessert. Something about the inhumane use of cows, I don’t know.”
“See,” Colin smiled. “This will be perfect for both of us. We already hangout all the time.”
“What happens when it’s time to end this little charade, Colin?” She asked. “We break up, and then just go back to being friends?”
“Why not?” Colin asked. “People do that, right?”
“I don’t know, you saw how excited your family was. They’ll be really upset.” Penelope was still not convinced.
“Pen, please,” Colin took her hands in his. “Be my pretend girlfriend for six months, and then we can reevaluate the situation.”
“That’s kind of a long time,” She hesitated. “What about two?”
“I want them to know I can be in a long term committed relationship,” Colin replied. “Come on, Pen. Don’t you want an excuse to spend more time with me?”
“I guess,” She said softly. “Can I tell Eloise? She’s pretty mad at me over this.”
“She can’t keep a secret to save her life,” Colin reminded her. “She’ll rat us out instantly.”
“You’re right,” She sighed. “Okay, fine. We can do this, but if at any point I feel like it’s not going well, we have to end it. Okay?”
“As long as we talk about it first, I agree.” Colin nodded. He held his hand out.
“You want me to shake your hand?” She quipped. He chuckled.
“We could seal it with a kiss,” He suggested. “If you’d rather.”
She rolled her eyes, and stuck her hand out. She gave him a firm shake. He grinned. She couldn’t believe he had talked her into this. What was she getting herself into?
“Oh, one more thing,” Colin said. “To make it more believable, we have to go social media official. We gotta take a selfie.”
“For real?” She asked. He chuckled.
“Come on, it’ll be fine.”
He tugged her closer, and she caved. She rested her hand on his shoulder, and let him take the picture. He showed it to her for approval and she had to admit, it did look believable. She hated that she wanted this to be real. At least, she’d get an idea of what it was like to be loved by him, even if she never had the real thing.
Posted: ColinBridgertonTravels
Caption: The cat’s out of the bag! So happy to be home with my girl ♥️
Tagged: PenFeathers
Comments:
HyBridgey: Talk about a hard launch 😍
DuchessDaphne: So cute! Congrats 🥰
Violetmomof8: I am thrilled for you both! Quite a wonderful surprise ❤️
EloiseRuth: Still can’t believe you kept this from me
Gregiscool: Penelope, if you want a cooler Bridgerton brother…call me 😉
HyBridgey: In your dreams #gregisNOTcool 🙄
PenFeathers: Welcome home, Col 😘