Valentine's Dinner, February 14th.
"What do you think, Sheldon?" Amy asked, watching Sheldon's face closely for any signs that would reveal his innermost feelings. She felt her heart go pitter patter as he turned around and beamed a full on smile at her.
"It's magnificent. This is going to be the best Valentine's Day ever."
"I'm so glad you like it." Amy smiled as Sheldon continued to walk through the dining car, he looked over his shoulder at his girlfriend.
"I'm prepared to say I love it, as soon as I confirm there are no hobos aboard." Sheldon smiled again and Amy felt that familiar thumping in her chest when she saw the light of excitement gleaming in his blue eyes.
"Think you're on a winner there, Amy. Don't let him get away from you this time." Bernadette whispered from behind Amy as she and Howard followed Sheldon down to their table.
"Yeah, strike while the iron's hot and all that." Howard chimed in as they reached their table and sat down together.
"Do you have any questions?" Their waiter asked as he finished reciting the menu to the table.
"I do." Sheldon raised his hand eagerly. "Does this train car have the original link-and-pin coupler or the Miller Hook and platform?"
"I meant about the food, sir." Just as Sheldon was about to ask the same question again only phrased slightly differently, the man seated behind them chipped in.
"Fun fact; it's neither. They actually use the AAR type 'E' coupler. If you listen carefully when the locomotive disconnects, you'll hear the characteristic click, whoosh, thunk of the knuckle."
"Get out of town!" Sheldon playfully slapped the stranger on the arm, overwhelmed by the excitement of meeting a fellow enthusiast.
"Fun fact; I'm gonna jump off this train." Howard muttered to Bernadette as he took a large swallow of wine from his glass.
"Fun fact; I might join you." Responded Amy from the opposite side of the table, she and Howard clinked glasses in a toast as they listened to more railway talk from Sheldon and the other guy. By the time the first course was ready to be served, Sheldon had abandoned his own table to join Eric at his.
"Do another one, do another one!" Sheldon begged as Eric mimicked yet another train sound. "My God, it's like there's a train in your mouth."
"See if you guys can guess this one…Bang! Splat! Thud!" Amy mimicked holding a gun to her forehead and pulling the trigger, before resting her head on the table. "I should have guessed this was a bad idea from the very beginning. Why do I even try?"
"I'm gonna fix this right now." Bernadette said as she lay her napkin on the table and started to rise from her seat.
"Okay. Just make it look like an accident." Howard patted her hand, recognising the gleam of battle in his wife's eyes. Bernadette stalked over to where Sheldon was deep in conversation with Eric and stood tapping her foot, waiting for either man to notice her.
"Excuse me. You are at Valentine's dinner with your girlfriend. Now get back over there and be with her!" Bernadette snapped at Sheldon and he backed away from the fury in her voice.
"You're right," Sheldon nodded, seeing that he was in the wrong. "That was insensitive of me." He rose from his seat and turned to face Eric. "I have to go back to my table now. You should join us."
"All right."
"Great, now there's two of 'em." Bernadette sighed as she watched as Eric pulled a spare chair up to the table set for an intimate dinner for four.
Through the starter and the salad, Eric and Sheldon kept up their conversation completely ignoring the rest of the table.
"Amy, what are the odds we run into this guy?" Sheldon turned to ask as the waiter came back with yet another bottle of wine after seeing Howard's frantic signal.
"Better than you think." The waiter murmured as he started pouring the liquid into Amy's glass; when she tapped on the edge of the bottle he smiled faintly as he filled her glass almost to the brim.
"You know, if you ask nicely, they'll let you visit the engine room." Eric pointed out to Sheldon, who started bouncing in his seat like an over excited puppy being offered a bone.
"I never want this day to end." Sheldon said as he turned in his seat to face Amy, who managed to summon up a small smile to appease him.
"It's feeling like it never will." She replied drolly, taking a large swallow of her wine, as she turned back it was to see Sheldon disappearing down the corridor toward the engine room, Eric at his heels.
"Sheldon actually had the gall to invite a total stranger to share Valentine's dinner with you guys? I can't believe it!" Penny was furious, and rose from the couch to pace around the small living room.
"I know, for someone that didn't even want to share breakfast with strangers – he sure changed his tune pretty quickly when he met Eric." Amy sat forward on Penny's aqua couch and laced her fingers together tightly in her lap. "As you can guess, things went pretty much downhill from there."
