This is a really small chapter, even by my standards, another one or two to come still. Thank you all for the reviews, follows and favourites, it makes my day. Hope you enjoy this.
It was Christmas Day.
Yesterday Penny had bought home one of the Christmas Dinners that The Cheesecake Factory had been selling over the holidays; she had also grabbed a piece of their special "Christmas Cheesecake". She had wine and egg nog , and Christmas movies to watch, but after eating her dinner and two bites into her cheesecake Penny started to regret not accepting Bernadette's offer of joining her, Howard and Raj for Christmas Dinner. But when the invitation arrived Penny believed that she did want to spend Christmas Day alone, she was fine with that, until it actually came to spending Christmas Day alone.
Truth be told she was the one that forced Leonard and Sheldon to celebrate Christmas Day, and they had even gotten into the habit of exchanging gifts, every year Penny got another basket of toiletries from Sheldon, and Leonard's presents were hit and miss, like the time he bought her the Herb Garden, "grow delicious herbs you can really use". It still bought a smile to her face, what was he thinking? But this year Leonard was in England probably enjoying his first ever real Christmas Day, and Sheldon was very possibly hating every minute of his family Christmas.
In an effort to feel less alone she phoned her parents and wished them a Merry Christmas, they were having a family get together and told her to come home next year, you've not been home for Christmas for years her mother told her.
The phone call didn't make her feel better, if anything she felt more alone in the quiet of her apartment. Penny pressed the play button on her remote and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation recommenced. She sat down, poured another glass of eggnog and watched the movie. Rusty was helping his dad with the decorations, Penny remembered that she used to have a crush on Rusty when she was younger, hey he was a cute kid. A tear trickled down her cheek, and another followed. She wiped them away and sniffed, she was not going to be sad, she is spending Christmas Day the way she wanted. Penny took another bite of her cheesecake.
When she awoke the room was dark, the DVD was finished and she was sure that she had heard a knock at her door. She got off the couch, smoothed her hair and walked towards the door, looked out the peephole and saw a delivery guy. She opened the door.
"Penny Taylor?" He asked.
"Yes."
He handed her a bunch of flowers, some lovely Christmas Lilies, and his clipboard, "Sign here please." he asked her.
Penny did as she was told. "You are working on Christmas Day?"
The delivery guy looked up at her and replied, "Yeh just for a couple of hours, missed a few deliveries yesterday, lucky I caught you at home really." and with that he ran towards the stairs and disappeared.
Another bunch of flowers, she opened the card. "Dear Penny, Merry Christmas . Love Raj"
These are from Raj? She looked toward the other much more elaborate bunch sitting on her kitchen island, "Who are you from then?" She asked aloud.