#Ben is so damn nosy and his simpering brother makes it so so easy

[utterlyinevitable]

Where It Begins (17/?)

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17. Purpose? What purpose?

Pairing: Colin Bridgerton x Penelope Featherington   Format: textfic   Chapter Rating: T+

Summary: Pen turns to Colin for some career advice. 

Penelope Featherington hadn’t had an easy life. Privileged, sure. But never easy. 

Dubbed the ugly duckling of her ostentatious family, she was belittled and made to feel less than her thin and airheaded sisters. Dressed in billowy clothes that drown her full figure. Ignored and overlooked. 

Her father a notorious cheat, both in his marriage and in casinos, or ‘investments’. Their divorce put her mother on edge. Penelope was only nine at the time, but even she could have predicted what came next. The downsizing was awful, worsened with Portia having to get a job. 

Penelope’s physical appearances and lackluster charisma didn’t help her case.

It’s no wonder she’s going through a severe bout of imposter existentialism. Her life is once again crappy, and Pen’s scrappy ways are turning over the only solution that seems to get her out of this situation: school. 

But did she really expect Colin to convince her to go to grad school? Or was she hoping he’d convince her to move abroad and restart her life in whatever way she wants? 

What she didn’t need from him was to be talked down from the educational ledge. She didn’t need to be coddled and brought back to reality (that she cannot afford to leave this life). But that’s exactly what she got.  

On to the next grand idea...