Amy stood in front of her bathroom mirror, running a brush through her long brown hair. She hummed to herself as she stared at the reflection of the positively elated woman whom she hardly recognized to be herself. The exuberant smile that dazzled across her features made her feel like a real life princess. She couldn't remember the last time she'd felt so effortlessly happy, and she knew that it was all because of David.

Three weeks had gone by since their first date, and over the course of those three weeks, they had slowly moved from the getting to know each other phase of their relationship to something a little deeper. Amy was getting more and more comfortable around him, and much of it had to do with his respect for her hesitancy to become intimate too quickly.

In fact, David had yet to attempt to make an inappropriate physical move on her, and she was beyond grateful for it. She simply enjoyed the time she spent with him, not just on their dates, but at the university as well. She started coordinating her schedule around his so that they could eat lunch together. They traded stories and laughs, and the more time she spent with him, the more confident she became that he truly was a perfect gentleman who just may be worthy of becoming her boyfriend.

She was hoping that tonight would be the night that they would officially make their relationship exclusive. Amy got butterflies in her stomach just thinking about it. She wasn't exactly sure how the conversation would go, but she assumed that the socially acceptable way to go about it would be to wait for David to ask her to be his girlfriend. Amy's heart fluttered as she grinned even wider and clasped the handle of the brush in front of her body. She simply could not wait. Perhaps tonight would also be the night that she would finally let him kiss her.

She was still a little apprehensive at the idea of allowing herself to surrender to her growing feelings for David by giving into her natural biological urges. She was pleased with herself in her ability to not only tame the urges but suppress them over the years. It had been so long that she'd almost forgotten what they felt like. The unpleasant experience in college still haunted her every now and again. The logical part of her knew that it would be different with David, as he was mature and well-mannered, but there was still a miniscule, yet powerful part of her that worried about the consequences of diving into a physical relationship with him. Kissing was one thing. Sex was certainly another. The mere thought of seeing David naked brought heat to Amy's cheeks and a nervous swirling in her stomach that wasn't exactly comforting.

When it came down to it, she simply wasn't ready for that yet. Truthfully, she wasn't sure when she'd ever be ready, but she took comfort in the fact that David would be patient with her. He really was an all-around sweet guy, something she almost found too good to be true.

A soft knock at the door suddenly drew Amy out of her thoughts and back to reality. She quickly ran the brush through her hair one more time before setting it down on the sink and shutting off the light. As she walked out of the bathroom, the knocking stopped, but she already knew who was behind the door. She crossed through her living room, glancing over at the clock on her oven to see that it was a few minutes past seven o'clock. She grinned to herself. He was fashionably late, as always.

She opened the door and only grinned wider. "Good evening, David," she said in a hospitable tone.

"Good evening, my dear Amy," David replied, awarding her with a dashing smile. "You look remarkably ravishing as always."

She did her best not to blush at the compliment. "Thank you, David. You, too, look just as handsome as you always do."

"Well, then," he said, holding up his arm with his elbow bent. "Shall we venture off to our date?"

Amy giggled at his purposely diplomatic dialect. He had quite the unique sense of humor. Without hesitancy, she slid her hand through his arm and clasped her fingers around his elbow. "Lead the way, kind sir."

As they left her building, Amy found that it was a warm, calm night, a perfectly serene backdrop to what she just knew would be yet another pleasant evening spent in David's company. As far as she was concerned, as long as she was with him, it was like nothing else mattered. Tonight would be wonderful, just as every other date they'd been on thus far.

There was absolutely nothing that ruin their romantic evening together.


"You can't possibly be serious when you say that you've run out of Red Vines. What kind of poor excuse for a movie theater concession stand do you think you're running here?"

"I assure you, sir," an overweight teenager said from behind the counter, "we take our customers' candy consumption needs very seriously here. I personally care very deeply that you won't be able to enjoy your precious Red Vines while watching your movie tonight. Might I suggest buying a pack of Twizzlers instead?"

"Twizzlers?" the irate man snapped back, completely appalled. "Do you really expect me to swap out Red Vines, a delectable red licorice candy, for Strawberry Twizzlers, a brand of candy which pales in comparison in flavor, texture and overall satisfaction?"

"You can have them for fifty cents off," the teenager offered.

The tall man stared at the teenaged employee for a long moment, his eyes intense and twitching slightly as he narrowed them at the worker. Slowly, he reached for his wallet, where he took out four dollars and plunked them down on the counter. The unenthusiastic teenager took the money and popped open the cash register to get two quarters. He slapped them down on the counter with a loud clink, then reached beneath the counter to get the Twizzlers, which he held out for the man.

"Enjoy you movie," he said, "and your Twizzlers. Sir."

"I won't enjoy them," the lanky customer said plainly as he picked up his change and candy, straightening his shoulders. "And by the way, you should know now that this transgression will not go unpunished. I'll be contacting the Better Business Bureau within the next 24 hours, and I'll be sure to inform them that you…" He paused to read the teenager's name tag. "…Paul, were of no decent help to me whatsoever."

"That's awesome," Paul said with no enthusiasm. "I'm sure that conversation will go really, really well."

"Sheldon," a much shorter man with glasses said from a few feet away, standing alongside two other extremely nerdy looking guys. "Come on already. The previews are about to start."

"Ha. Sheldon," Paul snickered.

"Excuse me?" Sheldon said, entirely offended. "Why did you just repeat my name and include that haughty laugh?"

"Sheldon," his friend repeated.

"Fine," Sheldon said, taking one final angry look at Paul before he joined his friends. "I'll see to it that you get demoted to cleaning toilets."

"Yeah, well, joke's on you, 'cause I already do that," Paul called out to him, but the four of them completely ignored him as they handed the usher their movie tickets and walked away. "Dick," he muttered to himself.


Sheldon followed Leonard, Howard and Raj, carrying his blue ICEE in one hand and his horrendous package of Twizzlers in the other.

"I still don't understand why we're seeing this movie when there are a number of other films we could be watching," Sheldon said as they headed toward the darkened theater.

"The only other movies that are playing right now are animated films and a couple of bad buddy comedies," Howard said.

"What's wrong with animated films?" Raj asked. "They're adorable."

"They're for kids," Howard said.

"So? That also includes those who are kids at heart, you know," Raj said, resulting in Howard rolling his eyes.

"Sheldon," Leonard spoke up, "I already explained this to you before we left. Penny wants to go see this scary movie tomorrow night, and I don't want to do anything in front of her that would be considered unmanly. You know, like scream like a girl or shield my eyes at the sight of blood. Or wet myself." He paused, and shook his head. "The point is, I want to be the one to protect her, not the other way around, and the only way to do that is for me to watch the movie beforehand so I'll know what to expect."

"I honestly don't understand the mass appeal of horror films," Sheldon said, disregarding Leonard's reasoning because he simply didn't care about it anymore. "It's an overrated genre that consists of the same hackneyed elements. There's a slow build up of suspense, paranoia and emotional tension through dramatic effects and music, only to be released through grotesque images of blood and gore coupled with deliberately enhanced screaming to add some sort of shock value."

"What, is the amazing Sheldon Cooper scared of a little blood?" Howard asked, arching an eyebrow.

"I am not frightened by the sight of blood," Sheldon said defensively, but after a moment of hesitancy, he admitted, "I simply become nauseated and have been known to faint on occasion."

"On occasion?" Leonard scoffed. "What about that time you got a paper cut from turning the page of one of your The Amazing Spider-Man comic books too quickly, and then you passed out cold on the floor of our apartment and didn't wake up for a whole five minutes?"

"It was four minutes and eighteen seconds," Sheldon corrected, "and the only reason I passed out was because I was in excruciating pain. If you recall, I had to numb my finger to alleviate the stinging sensation."

"Right, and that's totally not a big deal, considering it was a paper cut," Leonard said.

"Exactly. About time you finally see my point, Leonard," Sheldon said as they finally entered the theater and began walking to the ideal center seats where the acoustics were perfect.

"That was sarcasm, Sheldon," Leonard informed him. "And by the way, that guy working the concession stand threw about four sarcastic comments your way that all went completely over your head."

Sheldon blinked in dismay at this knowledge. "Is that an exact number or an estimation?" he asked.

Leonard just shook his head as they approached the most desirable row of seats in the theater. Specifically, it was the third seat from the aisle where the vents were at a perfect distance so that it wasn't too chilly, and the speakers were at just the right angles so that the movie wasn't too loud. While it wasn't equivalent to Sheldon's spot on the couch, the center of his entire universe, in a movie theater setting, it came close, and no one would stand in his way of sitting there.

Upon reaching the row of seats, however, Sheldon was the first to stop in his tracks. A woman was sitting in that third seat, his seat, seemingly deep in conversation with a man sitting to her left. Sheldon felt the torrid rush of anger whirl through him. He took a moment to compose himself by closing his eyes and using Kolinahr to squelch his anger.

Then, when his eyes flew back open, he went to work.

"Excuse me," he began politely enough. Both the man and woman tore their gazes from one another to look up at him. "I'm going to have to ask that the two of you move to some other seats, as my friends and I would like to sit there."

The woman blinked as she lowered her eyebrows, where they nearly hid behind the rims of her glasses. "Well, sorry to you and your friends, but these seats are already taken."

Sheldon's eye twitched involuntarily. He squeezed the Twizzlers in his hand, the plastic crinkling from the pressure. He took a deep breath, knowing he had to maintain his composure. He wouldn't give up so easily. "I'm quite aware, but that doesn't change my request of wanting you to immediately move to another seat so that I can sit there."

"Sheldon," Leonard hissed at him, before looking at the woman and offering her an uneasy smile. "I'm sorry. Don't mind him. He's off his meds."

Sheldon snapped his head to Leonard, his anger flaring up all over again. "I'm not crazy. My mother had me—"

"Tested. We know already," Leonard rudely cut him off. "God, you say that so often it might as well be your catchphrase."

"First of all, I hardly say it that frequently, only when the situation requires it," Sheldon said, barely taking a breath as he continued, "and second of all, if I were to have a catchphrase, it would be something memorable and catchy, hence the term, catchphrase."

"Ooh, like Bazinga?" Raj asked.

"Bazinga is a word solely meant to be said after I've pulled one of my classic pranks, and I am by no means in a laughing mood right now," Sheldon said, before locking his gaze back onto the stubborn woman who was being unnecessarily difficult. "I will make this request only once more. Please move to another seat."

The woman raised her chin and responded with a clear and defiant, "No."

"Okay, you heard her, Sheldon. Let's move along," Leonard said quickly before Sheldon had a chance to retort. "Sorry again for bothering you."

Sheldon didn't move at all as his three friends walked a little farther down and began taking seats on the right side of the theater. Sheldon was experiencing such an intense whirlwind of frustration that he was blinded by everything else, whereas this woman was simply sitting there, completely uncaring of the situation.

"I believe your friends are waiting for you," she said, her tone calm and straightforward, one of the few inflections he was able to easily recognize. Somehow, her aloof behavior only made him feel even angrier.

He reluctantly turned away and walked the short distance to his new seat at the very end of the aisle, where he sat down and immediately felt a draft. He slid his ICEE into the poorly made cup holder that barely succeeded in supporting his soft drink. He'd been tightly clutching the cold cup for such a long period that he hadn't realized until he began to move his fingers that his hand was practically numb.

Sheldon narrowed his eyes and cast a glance back at the woman who'd caused him so much trouble. She'd resumed talking to the man beside her, but even with his Vulcan hearing, Sheldon was unfortunately unable to pick up on what they were saying now that the previews were starting. With a loud huff, he turned back in his seat to look at the screen.

The only bright side to this horrible situation was the knowledge that he would never have to see her ever again.


Author's Note: That's what you think, Sheldon. The hostility will continue in the next chapter. I mean, what, did you think Sheldon and Amy were just going to hit it off right away? That wouldn't be any fun, now, would it? ;)