Sheldon

Tuesday is barbecue bacon cheeseburger at The Cheesecake Factory night. As Wolowitz has decided to have a romantic evening with Bernadette, and Koothrappali has no desire to be alone with me, I am forced to attend The Cheesecake Factory by myself, a feat that requires me to utilize public transportation.

At the restaurant, Penny waits on me. "Where's everyone else?" she asks in a tone of semi-concern.

"Not here," I respond cleverly with a slight shake of my head. I appreciate the way she's decided to wear her hair tonight – down her back to display femininity, but also clipped to keep her hair from spilling into her face. I tell her so.

She shifts her weight onto her left foot and gives me a scrutinizing look. "Why are you complimenting me?"

"Penny, please, my only agenda is to give compliments when they are rightfully deserved." I try to give her my best convincing pained smile and head-tilt assemblage.

She's grinning at me in an off-putting sort of way. "Sheldon thinks I'm pretttty," she says in a sing-song voice.

"That's not what I said."

Penny raises her eyebrows. "Excuse me? What, so now I'm ugly?"

I tsk at her. "Although I cannot deny your attractive and picturesque features, I was merely feeding you a flattering remark on your hair in order to provide reason for you not to expel your saliva on my burger."

She frowns and softly stamps her foot. "You said there was no agenda!"

"I lied." I stare at her. "Bazinga."

She puffs her lips at me. "And to think I wondered why you came alone tonight." She sighs. "My shift ends in ten minutes. I'll join you, if you want. That way, I can drive you home."

I am startled by her proposal. "Well, Penny," I say, pleased, "isn't this a pleasant revelation? You're more thoughtful than I previously imagined, both literally and figuratively. I welcome you to join me after you bring me my barbecue bacon cheeseburger with the barbecue, bacon, and cheese on the side. Don't forget my lemonade."

She gives me a tight smile and turns to leave. "I never do."

"Thank you, Penny. And if it pleases you, I really do think you look startlingly beautiful tonight."

She turns back. "Really?"

"Bazinga. You look the same as usual."

xxxxx

Penny

Sheldon's being more aggravating than usual. He's spouting off about some science thingy he's working on that I don't care about. I pretend to be listening, when I'm really staring off into space. My thoughts always seem to come back to Leonard. Weirdly enough, I don't miss him as much anymore. It went from pain over his absence to a dull ache to hardly anything at all. Sometimes, I think Sheldon misses him a lot more than I do and a lot more than Sheldon cares to admit.

I think Leonard being gone is a good opportunity for me to get over him and move on…I just wish there was someone I could move on to.

My gaze falls on Sheldon. He's still talking animatedly about something or another. I hear the words "bosonic string" and "fermions" and "mallard duck," none of which make any sense to me. As annoying as he is, it's cute to see how his eyes light up when he's talking about something that interests him. Kind of like how my eyes light up when I see a pair of boots half-off at Dillard's.

That brings me to another thought. I wish Sheldon would let me dress him. I'm sure I could totally find dozens of outfits that would make him look more like a man and less like a tall, gangly child. After all, Sheldon's really not that unfortunate looking. He has nice eyes and smooth skin, despite his paleness. His hair is severely parted, but with a little mousse, I could make him look like a rock star.

I find myself staring at his mouth as he talks. He has a way of speaking without really showing his teeth, and his lips seem to pull to one side more than the other. His lips, to my embarrassment, look very soft.

" – isn't that fascinating?" he asks, his eyes dead-set on mine.

I clear my throat. "Yeah, sweetie. Fascinating. And, uh, since you've paid for and finished your burger and everything, can we go now?"

"Certainly, Penny," he says, dabbing his mouth with his napkin and standing up.

On the car ride home, my phone rings. To Sheldon's horror, I answer it while driving; it's Leonard. "Leonard!" I exclaim. "Hi! What's going on? It's been a couple of days."

"Yeahhh," says Leonard on the other line. "Sorry about that. My mother's very demanding when she's ill. Though, to give her credit, she's not as bad as Sheldon. How's he doing, by the way?"

"Well, currently, he's bugging me about talking on the phone and driving at the same time. He says I have to pay for his hospital bill when we crash. Other than that, he's okay. We just had dinner together at The Cheesecake Factory." I glance over at Sheldon.

"Eyes on the road!" Sheldon hisses.

"Together? Alone together?" Leonard asks, laughing uncertainly.

"Yeah. It was a date."

"It was not!" Sheldon tries to wrestle my phone away. He wins and says into it, "Leonard, why have you been avoiding my calls? I've left you countless voicemails detailing the horrors I've been subject to due to Penny's new living arrangements. She bought the wrong milk. Are you listening to me, Leonard? The wrong milk. There will be repercussions, Leonard, or so help me, I'll – " Sheldon falls silent and listens to whatever Leonard is saying to him. Sheldon scowls and turns to me, holding the phone up to my ear so I can have both hands on the wheel. "He wants to talk to you again."

"I'm back," I tell Leonard.

"I'm so sorry I left. Living with Sheldon must be hell for you."

I give Sheldon a sideways look before I reply, "It really isn't that bad. He complains a lot, but he's been real sweet." I'm suddenly very conscious of Sheldon's fingers resting against my cheek as he holds the phone to my ear.

"Sweet?" Leonard repeats. "Sweet? God, what has he done to you, Penny?" He laughs. "In any case, I think I'll only be here for two more months. My brother folded and said he'd take off from teaching for the summer to be with her. Makes sense since Massachusetts is a hell of a lot closer to New Jersey than California."

"Two months? But Barry Kripke's already moved into my old apartment. Where am I going to live?" I can feel Sheldon's fingers twitch against my cheek as I say this.

"We'll figure something out. Until then, have fun with Sheldon. I have to go now – a nurse is getting mad at me for using a phone in the hospital. I'll talk to you when I can."

"Alright, Leonard. Sheldon misses you. Bye!" I push the phone away from my ear so Sheldon can end the call.

For some reason, there's an uncomfortable silence in the car. Sheldon's looking out the window and ignoring me. I try to make conversation. "Sucks about Leonard coming home earlier than we thought, huh? Now we don't have much time to become BFFs."

Sheldon makes a noncommittal noise in his throat.

"I meant what I said about you being a sweet guy to live with," I go on. "Plus, your jibber jabbering is soothing."

"Mmmm." He still doesn't look at me.

"Sheldon, what's wrong?"

Finally, he faces me. His eyes, startlingly blue in the headlights of passing cars, appear hesitant. "Nothing's wrong, per se. I was just becoming acquainted with the idea of you living with me long-term; that's all. I'm trying to work out how I'm going to adjust to Leonard's return."

I smile. "Is that your Dr. Whackadoodle way of telling me that you're going to miss me?"

He pauses to think about this for several seconds. "Yes," he finally says.

I say nothing to this, but I can't seem to stop grinning for the rest of the ride home.

xxxxx

A/N: Aww. Hey, I know I might be spitting these chapters out pretty quickly – it's just that it's only the first week of school, so I don't have much to do yet. But let me know if I'm going too fast. Review.