Everything seemed neatly laid out, she was with Leonard, Amy was with Sheldon, Howard and Bernadette were married. Only Raj was without someone, but she had heard that he met a socially awkward little bird of a girl at the comic book store and that something might develop. It was neat. Tidy. Everyone was with the person who made sense for them. She liked when things kind of happened that way, when the pieces of the puzzle fell into place and the picture on the box began to emerge.
"Penny, I need your advice," Amy stood in her living room, and Penny peered at her through her almost drunk eyes. She was still drinking a little more than was good for her, and she wasn't exactly sure why. She was with Leonard, and that made her happy. She wasn't constantly excited or turned on but she was a mellow kind of happy, and maybe that was a part of growing up, leaving childish things behind. Leonard was nice, thoughtful, stable, smart. What more could she want? She finished her current glass of wine and stumbled to the kitchen to get another. What more could she want?
"Oh?" she said, knowing it would be advice about her and Sheldon and their relationship, because this was the only area anyone considered her advice worthy of obtaining. She had a doctorate in relationships, she thought, and giggled.
"Yes, I recognize that you have much more experience in this area than I do, so I would value any recommendations you could give me," Amy stood near the couch, swaying back a little. Amy wasn't drunk, she only drank when Penny instigated it. Penny took a healthy swallow of her wine, a cheap white, because she had found that reds caused a worse hangover in the morning. It must be the tannins.
She looked at Amy, taking in her layered clothes, a shirt and a sweater over it, a skirt and tights and school girl shoes. She took in the long light brown hair parted in the middle. In one acting class or another one of the teachers had said that if you were going to part your hair in the exact center you had better have a Covergirl face. Penny had been parting her hair slightly off center since then.
She hoped Amy wasn't going to ask about some sexual thing she was planning on doing to Sheldon. She just couldn't imagine any of that. She thought of the three times she had hugged Sheldon, exactly three. The first time was after she had sent him and Leonard after her T.V. and Kurt pantsed them. He had been standing slightly behind Leonard wearing white briefs that were showing far too much, but he had cupped his hands protectively over them. She hugged Leonard first, and he leaned in and smelled her hair. Then she hugged Sheldon, and he inhaled sharply and tensed every muscle, and she felt like she was hugging piano wire. At the same time he was puling away, even as her arms were around him. The second time was one of her most treasured memories, and she could cry just thinking of it. It was Christmas and the Leonard Nimoy napkin, and she remembered the awkward way her reached his arms around her, pulling her tentatively close, and she remembered the scent of his light cologne and his antibacterial soap. The third time was after he was pestering her to let him go to Switzerland with Leonard. She wasn't going to let him go, thinking how selfish he was about it, and that damn power point display that he made, insulting her. But then he said something about how important it was to him, and that if she went he just hoped she would appreciate what it meant. There was a certain look in his eyes then, and she could respect what he was saying. It had to do with his field of study that he had devoted his life to, that he had like a million degrees in, and she realized that his power point display, while insulting, hadn't really been intended that way. He meant that he should go and in his mind those were the reasons why. So she relented and said she would talk to Leonard, and he ran over to her and hugged her, pulling her to him, and she couldn't help feeling his taunt muscles underneath those ridiculous T-shirts he wore.
"Okay, what's up?" she said to Amy, thinking of those hugs.
"How can I dump someone without breaking their heart?"
Penny fell into one of the bar stools in her kitchen, her wine splashing a bit in the oversized glass but not a drop was lost. She was that good.
"What do you mean? Are you planning on dumping Sheldon?" Her mouth was slightly open. If Amy did that it would disrupt their perfect puzzle and all the pieces getting into the right places. If Amy did that it would disrupt everything.