First Time: Penny's Story (First Time (Penny) Book 1) by Abigail Barnette

clothes. That
would give me the boost of confidence I so desperately needed, at
the moment. I pulled my hair up, put on some waterproof mascara,
and waited. About an hour after his call, the buzzer
rang.
    I hit the button and said, “On my way down,”
because the apartment was way too trashed to let him come up. As I
hopped out the door, I slid my sunglasses on so I wouldn’t be all
squinty and scrunch-faced in the sunlight.
    Ian leaned against his car, wearing navy suit
trousers and a white button-down with the sleeves rolled back and
collar undone.
    Sunday. Right. I couldn’t imagine how distracting he must be in
church to anyone who was attracted to men. Or maybe I was biased,
because every time I saw him, he seemed a little hotter.
    His gaze flicked down to my legs, then
guiltily back up. There was that confidence boost I’d been looking
for. He cleared his throat. “So, where is this adventure that
requires swim trunks taking us?”
    I smiled sweetly and pushed up my sunglass to
bat my eyelashes at him. “To trespass.”

Chapter Seven
     
    I have snuck
into the pool at the One UN hotel somewhere around a hundred times.
It has a beautiful panoramic view and a canopied ceiling. It was
like swimming in an event tent. Not as glamorous as some of the
rooftop pools in the city, but there was never an attendant on
duty, and in all the times I’d been there, I’d only seen three
guests.
    We parked on the street. As we walked toward
the building, I reiterated the plan we’d gone over in the car.
“Walk through the lobby like we’re supposed to be there. We’re
going to go up to the fitness center. We’ll split up at the locker
rooms, but from there, you can go right to the pool, no
hassles.”
    “ You’ve robbed a bank
before, haven’t you?” he asked, casting a worried glance up at the
edifice of the building.
    “ It’s going to be fine. I do
this all the time. I like to break rules if they’re ones I know I
can’t get into actual trouble for.” That was true. I would never
jump a turnstile or shoplift anything, but I frequently took food
and drink into stores with posted signs, just for the thrill I got
if no one asked me to throw it out. “My teenage rebellion was
really boring.”
    The air-conditioned lobby cooled the sweat on
my neck and cleavage, sweat I hoped Ian wouldn’t notice. Luckily,
the pool water would wash it off.
    The first time I’d visited One UN, the lobby
had nearly caused me to run out again. There were so many mirrors
and contrasting patterns, it was like a full-on assault on my taste
in furnishings. But the more often I came here, the more it grew on
me.
    “ This place is what the
Epcot designers probably imagined the future would look like back
in the 1970’s,” Ian mumbled under his breath, and I
laughed.
    “ If you come here often
enough, you’ll grow fond of it.” I led him down the mirrored,
vertigo-inducing hallway, to the east tower elevators.
    “ How often do you come here,
exactly?” he asked cautiously.
    “ Oh, maybe twice a month,” I
said as I hit the button. “Nobody has ever said anything about it
before. I don’t know if there are just so many people coming
through that they don’t recognize me—”
    “ They, uh…” He cleared his
throat. “They might recognize you. They might just think
you’re visiting guests .”
    It took me a moment to understand what he
meant by his inflection. When I did, I laughed. “Oh my gosh, you’re
probably right. Well, there are definitely worse misconceptions
that have been made about me in my life than mixing up what job I
have.”
    “ That’s true.”
    We got on the elevator, my mind suddenly
blank of any conversational topics.
    “ What sort of
misunderstandings would you say you’ve run into about yourself?” he
asked, saving us from awkward silence purgatory.
    The biggest ones all had to do with sex, or
my lack of having it. I hated to keep bringing up the virgin thing.
There always came a moment, be it in