Girl Time

"So Amy, tell us all about your big date with Sheldon." Penny said as she handed Amy and Bernadette their glasses of wine from behind the bar at The Cheesecake Factory.

It was Friday night, but the bar was unusually quiet, so she had texted the girls to come down and keep her company as she soldiered through the rest of her shift which ended at nine.

Due to her work schedule, she hadn't seen the girls much and really wanted – if not, needed – some proper girl time. She was sure the other girls wanted it just as much as she did, especially Amy, who no doubt wanted to spill all the details of her birthday dinner with Sheldon.

"It was ah-mazing!" Amy beamed after she took her first sip of wine, while Penny and Bernadette grinned and waited for her to go into more detail. "He was very good the whole night! He didn't mention a single thing about trains or comic books or superheroes! Not even once!"

Penny and Bernadette giggled, as Bernie sipped on her wine and Penny sat down on one of the barstools behind the bar. "You still didn't tell us what he got you." Bernadette said.

"Yeah, Amy. Tell us!" Penny said excitedly, "Sheldon wouldn't even give me a hint to what he got you! And I was expecting a text from you as soon as he gave you it, but I didn't get one!" She pouted her bottom lip.

Amy grinned as she pulled her necklace out from under her shirt and they shared a laugh as they looked at the little monkey hanging from the chain.

Amy had wondered whether to let them know about what she considered to be the most important gift from Sheldon; the coupons, but in the end decided against it.

On one hand, she really wanted to get excited with them over the fact that Sheldon was making an attempt to further their relationship, but on the other hand, this was something she wanted to keep between the two of them. She could tell that although he was making a good attempt at becoming more intimate with her, he was still very uncomfortable with the whole idea of it and she felt like she owed it to Sheldon, and herself, to keep this between them until he was comfortable enough with it for everyone to know.

She also knew that the girls would, unintentionally, put pressure on her by asking her when she was going to start using them, and the truth was she really didn't know. What she really wanted was to take her time, and ease Sheldon, as much as herself, into the whole thing.

"That is sparkly!" Penny said as she moved the little monkey around, making the encrusted diamonds sparkle in the light.

"And so cute!" Bernadette added.

"I know! It will go nicely with my tiara!" Amy beamed as she let the girls admire her newest piece of jewellery from her boyfriend. "All I need now is to be a maid of honour again so I can have an appropriate setting to wear them both together." Amy said as she casually sipped her wine and looked in Penny's direction.

Penny laughed and nodded, until she realized that Amy was directing her comment towards her and she became a little flustered as she giggled nervously. "Amy, we were talking about you," She said as she shifted her gaze from Amy's eyes and cleared her throat. "Let's keep it that way."

"Oh come on Penny," Bernadette said with a wide smile, "You and Leonard have been together for a while now."

"Yeah, so?" Penny replied.

"So, you must have thought about it, at least a little!"

Penny stood up from the bar stool and began to polish some wine glasses, for no other reason than to give her something to fidget with as she directed her way through the awkward conversation. "Mm. Not really." She shrugged.

"Never?" Amy asked, slightly shocked. "I've thought about marrying Sheldon plenty of times, although admittedly, my thoughts of it are often directed towards the idea that after it, he would be obliged to follow the tradition of post marital coitus."

Penny wriggled her nose and tilted her head, before moving back to concentrating on polishing her glass. "Anyway..." She said as she turned to put the clean glass away, "Oh, did Sheldon give you your slow dance last night?" She asked as she made her way back to her stool, desperate to move the conversation away from marriage and back to something she was a lot more comfortable talking about.

"Yes he did." Amy smiled. "How did you know about that?"

"Sheldon told me he was going to do it, apparently it was 'social protocol'."

"Oh." Amy nodded. "Well yes he did dance with me at the end of the evening." She grinned as her mind floated off to that night only a couple of days ago. "It was so romantic. I felt like I was in the middle of a movie! He was so sweet and attentive; I've really never seen him act that way before... I really felt like this time he was doing these things because he wanted to, not because he had to, even although he thought he had to." Amy stopped frowned, spotting both Penny and Bernadette staring at her, intently listening to what she had to say. "Does that make sense?"

"Um, yeah. Kinda." Penny replied with a furrowed brow and a small smile.

Amy grinned and took another sip of her wine, "He picked out a truly beautiful restaurant and was the perfect gentleman all night. He held my hand, opened doors for me and even walked me to my apartment at the end of the night." Amy looked down at her wine as she swirled it in the glass and let out a small sigh. "There was even this moment…" She said quietly.

"What kind of a moment?" Bernadette asked.

"A moment where…" Amy stopped and looked briefly at both of the girls, and then back down at her glass. "I really, really thought that he was going to…" She took a breath, "kiss me."

Penny let out a short gasp as her jaw dropped slightly. "Really?" She asked as she moved in closer and rested her arms on the bar.

"Yeah." Amy nodded, "He had this look in his eyes, sort of like the one he had when we were playing that dice game in his room." Amy looked up from her glass with excited eyes, "It was like he was really thinking about it…" Her excitement faded as she looked back down at her glass and shrugged. "But he didn't."

Penny and Bernadette glanced at each other with a look of slight shock in their faces before turning back to Amy, who was still looking down into her glass of wine.

"Why didn't you kiss him?" Bernadette asked.

"Because…" Amy said as she looked up and at that moment someone called for service at the other end of the bar, causing Penny to turn around.

"Yeah, okay just a minute!" She said to the man before quickly turning around to hear the rest of Amy's story.

"Shouldn't you get that?" Amy asked.

"No, he'll be alright for a couple of minutes; I wanna hear this first." She said with a nod to Amy to continue her story.

"Oh, alright... Well, it's just that… I don't always want to be the one who has to kiss him first. I don't want to constantly have to force him to kiss me. I want him to want to do it." Amy sighed. "And a part of me thinks that he does… but something is holding him back... I just wish he wasn't so afraid to let go and open up."

"I'm sure he will at some point sweetie." Penny said and Bernadette nodded in agreement. "You know what he's like. He-" Penny was cut off by the man at the end of the bar shouting for her again. "Sorry, I should probably get that." She said to the girls as she turned around and headed over to the man.

"Penny's probably right Amy; Sheldon just takes his time with this kind of thing. I'm sure he will be ready for all that stuff soon." Bernadette said with a re-assuring smile.

"Hmm." Amy said with a nod as she continued to look into her glass. "I hope so."

Amy knew the girls were right; he probably would be ready to give her what she wanted at some point, and in some ways he already was. He had put a kiss on one of those coupons, so that had to mean that he had been thinking about it and was willing to give it a go, but with every day that she felt like he was trying to change, there were now many more where she felt like she was wasting her time. More and more often, she would find herself wondering how long she would actually have to wait for him, or what she would do if at some point he realized he was never going to be able to give her the kind of relationship she craved. She didn't want to spend her life waiting on someone that would never truly be ready for her, but she wasn't sure she would ever be able to leave him either.

When Penny returned from serving the customers, the girls continued to talk, moving the conversation along to how Bernadette was coping with the idea of having children, until Penny's shift was over and she could finally join them on the other side of the bar.

Penny had been a little hesitant about staying out at first. She had been working almost all day, and she wanted nothing more to get out of that uniform and out of that restaurant. However she was really enjoying being around just the girls again and after her first couple of drinks, she found she couldn't care less about the fact they were still in her workplace or that she was still in her uniform, she was just happy being around her girls. Most of the time they had spent together lately had been in the company of the guys and they were all really enjoying all the silliness and boy talk that they couldn't indulge in right in front of the guys.

"So Penny, how is your raging libido coping without having its usual release of nerdy man-love?" Amy joked as she finished off her fourth glass of wine.

Penny almost spat out the wine she was guzzling in shock. "Amy!" She exclaimed with a laugh as she wiped away the few drops of wine that had come spurting out of her mouth. "I'm coping just fine thank you."

"I find that hard to believe." Amy replied. "It has been almost a month now!"

"Yeah, I don't believe it either." Bernadette added with a sly smile. "Spill missy."

Penny tried to hide her grin as she sipped from her glass and her cheeks flushed red. "Fine." She said as she gulped down her wine and sat back in the seat. "I was fine at first. For the first couple of weeks I barely even thought about sex, but now…" She shook her head. "It's like I can't stop thinking about it – and him. It is so hard!"

"Yeah, that's what he said." Amy said, raising an eyebrow and nudging a giggling Bernadette on the arm.

Penny tried to hold in her laugh and glare at Amy, but couldn't and found herself giggling along with the girls. "It's not funny." She said with a smile.

"Well, at least you have your chew toy to keep you happy." Bernadette laughed, raising an eyebrow. "I sure made good use of mines while Howie was away."

"Yeah, I guess." Penny laughed and nodded. "It's just not the same. I'd rather have the real thing." She grinned.

"Yeah, wouldn't we all." Amy said with a nod and rather glum expression.

"I don't know what you're so sad about." Penny said with a smile. "You're getting more action than me these days. Even if it is just hand-holding and the occasional cuddle!"

"And I'm getting more than all of you!" Bernadette added with a swing of her wine glass, causing Amy and Penny to laugh and move back, just in case the tipsy blonde accidently threw her drink over them.

Time passed quickly as the three girls sat and drank, and before they knew it, it was approaching eleven o'clock.

"Alright girls what's the plan for the rest of the night?" Penny asked. "I really don't fancy spending all night in here. So what is it? Will we go dancing, or go back to my place and crack open that bottle of Gin that's been on top of my fridge for like a year."

"Gin? Yuck." Amy said, shaking her head and grimacing.

"Yeah, I know," Penny nodded, "But it's all I have left. I already finished off all the wine."

"Okay, let's go back to yours," Bernadette said, "but we have to stop at the liquor store first; there is no way I am touching that Gin!"

Leonard woke up early, alone in his cold hard bed. He checked the clock on his phone, even although he knew it would only be reaching half six, and it was; twenty-six minutes past to be exact.

He had woken up around this time every day for the past week, and he was pretty sure he knew why it happened. Most of the Skype chats he had with Penny were first thing in the morning and he was sure his body was wakening him up early in anticipation of her call. The mornings – or evenings in her case - were the only times they really had the chance to talk lately due to Penny's busy days, as she was either at work, school, at auditions or keeping to the schedule she had with Sheldon, and as each day passed, he looked forward to those talks more and more.

He liked talking to her in the morning, it always made his days begin well, even when they found themselves bickering, as they had done a few days ago. That fight had played on his mind a little. Once the more risqué thoughts had been forced out of his conscious, he had wondered how he would feel if Penny suddenly started hanging out with some other guy that she had a lot in common with, and the fact that he knew he wouldn't be happy about it, made him wonder if he should stop hanging out with Karina so much.

She was just a friend, he knew that and Karina knew that. Karina knew that he was in a relationship. She knew that he was madly in love with Penny, because he had mentioned it more than once, and, although he wasn't brilliant at reading women, from what he saw there wasn't even an ounce of jealously in her.

The way he saw it, Karina was just like Paul. She was his friend, someone he could talk to and hopefully someone that one day he would be able to confide in when things on this ship got harder.

He needed her, just like he needed Paul, because with each day that passed on this boat, he felt himself missing the company of his friends more and more. As his routine settled and his once abnormal days became normal, he began to miss the little things that would happen back home.

He missed being able to hang out with his girlfriend and his friends. He missed the teasing and joking and doing random geeky things together, but he had managed to find a little bit of what he missed in Paul and Karina.

He knew that his friendship with Karina bothered Penny, but as much as he didn't want to make Penny uncomfortable or insecure, he really didn't want to cut Karina off either. She gave him something that Paul couldn't. She was into the same stuff as he was and he really enjoyed being able to indulge his nerdy side with her, in a way that he just couldn't with Paul.

Leonard sat up in his bed, forcing himself to get out of his head a little and wake up. Overthinking the situation wasn't going to make it any better.

Penny hadn't requested that he stop talking to Karina, so what was the point in worrying about it anyway? Penny trusted him, she knew that he would never cheat on her and he liked to think that she wouldn't put such a request on to him, especially after having that very thing forced upon her by Priya. She wouldn't ask him to cut a friend out of his life, he was sure she wouldn't; she was too kind hearted to do something like that, it was one of the reasons he loved her so much.

Just as he was about to roll out of bed and into the bathroom, his phone buzzed and he instantly picked it up upon seeing it was Penny that had texted him.

God morning sweetie! Wont be able to slope tonight, having a girls night! Woo! Xxx

Leonard chuckled at the messed up text. Although he felt hugely disappointed that they wouldn't be able to 'slope', which he figured was supposed to be 'Skype', he was quite happy to know that she was out enjoying herself.

God morning? Slope? I thought you were supposed to be a smart college girl now that knew how to spell? Xxx

Leonard grinned as he sent the teasing text off, and then instantly wondered if he should have made it more obvious that he was only joking. She was probably drunk, and in her drunken state she might not realize that what he was saying was only meant to be playful. Leonard shook his head a little as he got out of bed and headed towards the bathroom. Penny always knew when he was being serious and when he wasn't, he really didn't need to explain it. What was wrong with him this morning? Why was he forcing himself to overthink absolutely everything?

Once he finished washing up in the bathroom, Leonard headed back over to his bed to check his phone and turn on his laptop as quietly as he could so as to not wake up Paul, who had become quite grouchy in the mornings, probably due to the crappy mattresses that they had to sleep on.

While he waited on his laptop to load, Leonard checked the awaiting text on his phone.

It was autocorrect okay! You better watch the sass that comes out of that mouth of yours or you won't be getting to sleep with this smart college girl again! Xxx

Once again Leonard chuckled, as he sent off his next text.

Really? I'm pretty sure that's not true based on the content of our last few 'slope' conversations. Xxx

Leonard smiled to himself as he sat his phone down, and almost jumped out of his skin when his laptop began to play the tune indicating someone was calling. He looked at the screen and frowned as he saw Sheldon's name pop up on the screen. Sheldon never called him at this time. If he wasn't in the middle of some sort of video game marathon, he would usually be in bed by now. Not to mention that any calls they shared were vigorously planned in advance, he never just called out of the blue, so why was he doing it now?

Leonard heard his phone buzz, telling him that Penny had replied, but his focus had been diverted and he answered Sheldon's call with a frown.

"Hey Sheldon, What's up?"