Flower on the ash

Penelope's smile dropped when she saw Graham coming but she quickly recovered. She smiled but that didn't reach her eyes. She took the flowers bouquet from Mia's hand and stepped forward towards Graham.

" You Okay?" I asked Penelope. She nodded her head.

" I thought that if I'll meet him after so many years I won't feel emotional but I can't help with that. I still can't forget all those memories." she said sadly. I put my hands on her shoulder to show that she has my support. She smiled looking at me.

" Let's join the party." Penelope said and walked inside the hall with me. We both made ourselves comfortable on a chair in front of the stage. Mia was there delivering the speech and thanking all the members for coming to the party. We all clapped our hands together at the end of the speech and now people started drinking, eating and chatting with each other.

" Let's go to eat something." Penelope said and I nodded my head. We first went to eat something sweet.

" Would you like to have cakes?" Penelope asked me and helped herself to get one.

" No thanks. I don't want to run throwing up here and there." I said with a chuckle. I remembered when I ate cakes last time with Alex, I vomited all my food and at last I had to drink that bald soup. I served myself with chocolate and vanilla flavoured ice-cream and we came back to the chair on which we were sitting previously.

" You know this cake is very tasty." she said making me jealous. I looked at her with puppy eyes.

" Don't look at me in that way. Ok, I won't tempt you anymore." she said and laughed. We finished our sweets and went to the bar area in the hotel. We both sat on the bar stool.

" Please give one glass of orange juice and one red wine." Penelope said to the man standing there on the counter.

" The drinks are on me." came a man's voice from behind making both of us still. It was Graham's voice. I looked at Penelope who was still standing freezed. Graham left with two drinks in his hand.

" What's your order ma'am?" the man asked.

" One orange juice and a re~" I was going to repeat what Penelope previously said but she stopped me from saying any further.

" We want one glass of orange juice and two bottles of most expensive wine here." she said with a smile.

" Ok ma'am." the man said and left to bring our drinks. I elbowed Penelope and she looked at me.

" What are you doing?" I asked.

" He wants to pay for our drinks. I'll make his pocket empty today." she said and I can sense anger in her voice. The bartender came back with the drinks in his hands.

" Here you go ma'am." the man said and gave me the glass of juice and opened the bottle and put a glass beside it. I took a sip from my glass. Instead of pouring the wine in the glass, Penelope lifted the bottle and started drinking it taking big gulps.

" Hey, hey. Slow down." I said panicking. She stopped drinking and put the bottle on the table with a thud. She had emptied half of the bottle in one go.

" What does he think he is?" she said and again started drinking. I tried to stop her when my phone rang. I picked it up as it was of Alex.

" Hello." I said on the phone and with one hand I was trying to stop Penelope from drinking anymore.

" Where are you?" he asked through the phone.

" I'm at the drinking area." I said. Penelope had grabbed my hand to stop me from disturbing her in drinking. She had completed her first bottle and now had proceeded to another bottle.

" Come to the private room at the corner of the hall with Penelope." he said and hung up.

" Hello, hello..." huh?? He is so bossy. How can I take her with me when she is all drunk. I looked towards her. She had finished her second bottle and was going to order third one but I declined.

" Why don't you let me drink another one? I want to teach that guy a lesson." she said all drunk.

" Let's go to meet them. Then you can teach him a good lesson." I said to her.

" Really?" she said excitedly.

" Yeah." I nodded my head and held her hand so that we both can go where Alex has told me to come. I held Penelope's hand as she was wobbling. We both made it to the room where Alex told me to come. I knocked at the door and waited for someone to open it.