"Sheldon, come on…choosing whether to go clear or multi-coloured shouldn't be that hard a decision; we've been looking at these Christmas lights for over an hour now!" Raj checked his watch and frowned at Sheldon.
"Raj, it's a big decision to make – from your description of Amy's apartment the other night, she clearly prefers clear lights, but I don't know whether to try something different in order to show her that I've made an effort." Sheldon picked up two different boxes of lights and re-read the description. "Do we need multi-function chaser lights, or ones that play a dazzling array of carols?"
"No, they would drive you potty within an hour; always go for the static indoor option. Sheldon, come on…if you can't choose then simply take both; one of us will always take the other box off your hands." Raj was losing patience with his friend, now knowing why Leonard refused to take Sheldon shopping; it was as if Sheldon got overwhelmed with the multiple choices on offer and simply got stuck. Their trolley was almost empty and they had been in the warehouse nearly all day; Sheldon refused to consider a live Christmas tree and opted for a six foot faux pine with 'real' pinecones and that was as far as they got. "Okay, that's it for the lights. What type of decorations do you want? Before you ask, no you can't have Star Wars or Star Trek ornaments on a traditional Christmas tree…"
"Oh…Meemaw uses red and gold; Missy likes blue and silver…what does Amy like?"
"Um…she only had a little ceramic tree that contained a little tea light, but her wreath had tartan ribbons and cinnamon sticks." Raj screwed up his nose as he tried to picture the wreath hanging on Amy's front door.
"Hmm…what about these?" Sheldon picked up a box of little nutcrackers and some tartan bows. "We could string popcorn and cranberries to make a garland to drape over the branches. Ooh…little wooden trains…a couple of sleds…aw, some cute little Disney characters dressed up in Christmas outfits…" Sheldon grabbed one of everything and tossed it in the trolley.
"Okay, so we're going for a Toyland tree – I can work with that." Raj nodded and steered Sheldon away from the decorations and toward the cash register. "Come on, Sheldon – let's pay for these and we can head back to set everything up."
"Have you heard anything back from Leonard or Penny – did they say how Amy was?" Sheldon asked casually as they waited in line at the check-out.
"Hmm…no, just that call from earlier saying they were driving around looking at houses this morning." Raj looked up from where he was examining a bag of Christmas pot-pourri, trying to judge the smell through the plastic.
"Oh…" Sheldon glanced over at Raj as he pulled his wallet out to pay for the decorations, "No mention of whether they'd be coming back in time for dinner this evening?"
"No, sorry they didn't say. Emily's working all day today and won't be back until late, why don't I come back with you and help set up the tree? We'll pick up takeaway later if they're still not back if you like." Raj placed the pot pourri back on the shelf and started to push the trolley toward the exit as Sheldon slid his credit card back into his wallet. Sheldon didn't respond to the offer, he just followed Raj silently back to the car and started to load the trunk.
"Sheldon? Do you me to help you or not?" Raj whirled his keychain around his finger as he looked over the roof of his car to where Sheldon was standing morosely with his hand on the door.
"Okay." Sheldon finally accepted Raj's offer and folded himself into the passenger seat of the car. Raj got in and started the engine, he glanced over at his quiet passenger.
"It's going to be alright, Sheldon; Amy will see that you've made an effort and her little heart will just melt."
"I hope you're right, Raj, I really am." Sheldon sat back in his seat and Raj pulled out of the parking lot, heading back to Los Robles with a trunk full of Christmas.
Amy scrawled her signature on the last page of the contract and slid it over the desk where the realtor photocopied the paperwork before placing one copy in a folder for filing with the county clerk and the other copy he handed back over to Amy.
"That's the last of it Doctor Fowler, as soon as we receive the cashier's cheque we can get the paperwork processed. As we discussed earlier, the current owners are satisfied with your background check and are happy for you to have the keys today." Mr Greenstone passed the heavy set of keys across, each carefully labelled with details of the door it related to. "Oh, and here are the details for the firm that supplied the marble fireplaces and surrounds; they may be able to remove them in their entirety and purchase them back from you."
"Thank you," Amy replied as she slid the card into the envelope with copies of the paperwork.
"You'll receive certified copies of your deeds within sixty days, we recommend to all of our clients that these are secured safely."
"I have a safety deposit box at my bank, I can store my deeds there when they come through."
"Excellent, well..." Mr Greenstone rose up from the table and held out his hand to Amy. "It was a pleasure doing business with you Doctor Fowler."
"Thank you, I appreciate everything that you've done for me today, Mr Greenstone. I've heard many horror stories about purchasing your first home, but you've made the experience a delight."
"My pleasure." They shook hands briefly and then Amy walked out of the office with a little skip in her step, Leonard looked up from where he was glancing through a magazine in the lobby and saw Amy's grinning face as she held up the bunch of keys in her hand.
"Leonard! Look…I have my keys!"
"That's great, Amy. Are you ready to head back to your place now, or did you want to make that stop at the pound?"
"Ooh, I'd forgotten about that…" Amy's bright smile dimmed a little as she thought it over for a second. "Perhaps it would be better if I left that for another time. I think I'll wait until the renovations are complete, I wouldn't want the poor thing to get distressed with all of the noise and fuss." Leonard held open the door for Amy to step through and patted her arm consolingly.
"That's probably a good idea, Amy. There's always plenty of dogs to choose from, we'll go over in a couple of weeks when things are a bit more settled."
"I guess so..." Amy was a little glum and Leonard jostled her shoulder playfully.
"Hey! Don't look so glum, you've got yourself a brand new house! Think of all the great things that we're gonna do over the next couple of weeks…ripping up those tiles, getting rid of those horrible fireplaces…"
"Yeah…let's get started!" Amy cheered up a little and Leonard gave her arm a little squeeze.
"That's better, come on; Penny should be heading back by now, if we get a move on we can be sitting on your new front porch when they arrive." They both walked a little quicker toward Leonard's car and headed back up into the hills.