Chapter 17

The next afternoon, Penny decided to lounge around in the pool area. She put on her new bikini while Leonard put on his beach shorts and a loose floral shirt that Penny picked out for him. They made their way to the pool area and settled on a couple of lounge chairs. Penny ordered a couple of margaritas from a pool attendant walking by. She took out her sunscreen lotion and asked Leonard to put it on her.

"Leonard honey, can you put some sunscreen on me?" She said playfully.

Leonard's cheeks turned red and was a little hesitant.

"Awww...are you shy honey?" Penny teased him again. "Ok how about this...you take off your shirt and I'll put sunscreen on you first...and then you'll put some on me…" she smiled at him.

Leonard nodded and laid down on the lounge chair. Penny proceeded to apply sunscreen on Leonard starting from his lower legs up to his upper body. Leonard felt tense at first but slowly relaxed as Penny applied the sunscreen all over his body.

After she was done, she laid down on the lounge chair and handed Leonard the sunscreen bottle. Leonard proceeded to put sunscreen all over his fiancee's body. Penny just laid there motionless, savoring her fiancee's soft touches.

"Honey if you keep doing that, I'll fall asleep…" she said softly. Leonard continued and after a few minutes, Penny was drifting off to sleep. He let her rest as he laid himself on his chair while sipping his drink. It didn't take long for him to doze off as well.

They woke up a couple of hours later feeling refreshed. Penny dragged Leonard to cool off in the pool. Penny made sure she had her arms around Leonard all the time to show off to everyone that she is Leonard's girl. They would play in the water, embrace, kiss, joke around and just be silly around each other.

"Honey, I'm so glad we did this…" she kissed him. "I'm so happy…" she kissed him again.

"I'm glad you liked it." he kissed her back.

They went on like this until around four in the afternoon after which they decided to go back to their room to take a shower and get changed for dinner. Once inside their room, Penny immediately took off all her clothing and went straight to the bathroom. Leonard saw this and immediately followed her. He grabbed her hands and directed her to the cool stream of the shower. Penny didn't show any resistance as Leonard spun her around and proceeded to soap her up. They got more frisky and made love right there in the shower.

They made their way to the bedroom to get dressed after half an hour in the shower. They smiled at each other, satisfied with the intimacy of their relationship. They got dressed in casual clothing as they are meeting the rest of their friends for dinner in a restaurant not far from the hotel.

Everyone was already settled on the table when they got to the restaurant. The waiter was taking their orders while another was pouring wine for everyone. Leonard pulled a chair for Penny and helped her get settled before sitting down beside her. She gave him a kiss for being a gentleman.

They were sharing stories about their casino experience last night. Bernadette and Howard won five hundred dollars in the Black Jack table but Bernadette being a little too drunk, over-tipped a cocktail waitress with two hundred-dollar chips. Howard was pissed off as he was planning to use the money to complete his Star Trek collection. Amy and Sheldon also won a few hundred dollars in the Roulette Table. Raj for his part got separated from Amy and Sheldon and found himself in a private dance party in one of the hotel's multi-purpose halls. He couldn't remember how he got there but was glad to have met a nice lady at the party. Hopefully it will lead to something.

The conversation then turned to Penny and Leonard's engagement and what their plan for the wedding was. Leonard said that they will start planning the wedding when they get back home to California.

Penny's face then lit up. "Oh...I know honey!" she exclaimed "Let's go to one of the chapels here and get one of those fake silly weddings!...you know….so we could practice…" she said smiling at him.

"Penny, I know they might be a little silly..but they're definitely not fake." he told her.

"Of course they are….A few years ago Zack and I went here for Thanksgiving and went into one of the chapels to get one!...it's really fun you know?" Penny said casually.

Everyone on the table looked at her. Leonard's face suddenly turned to confusion as he looked at his fiancee.

"What?" Penny asked everyone. She got a little uncomfortable.

"Are you telling me you are married to Zack?" Leonard asked her.

"No….it was a fake wedding!" Penny insisted.

Amy decided to butt in. "Penny they're real." Everyone nodded and agreed with Amy.

"No they're not." Penny said defensively.

"They're real Penny." Bernadette added.

Penny suddenly realized her friends were dead serious. She turned to Leonard and was afraid of what he might say or do. "I didn't know it was real." she tried to appeal to him.

Leonard's voice then started to intensify. "So what you're telling is after you broke up with me...your solution was to look for the next tall handsome hunk you could find, get drunk and marry him!?" Leonard was starting to raise his voice.

Penny was speechless. It was a stupid mistake from her past but was now coming back to haunt her and Leonard is paying the price for it. "Honey...I…" she choked.

Leonard sighed and stood up. "You know what….I'm gonna need some air…" He left the table and walked away.

Penny put her face in her hands and began to freak out and cry. "Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! What have I done Amy!?...I've hurt Leonard again!"

Amy rubbed Penny's back to calm her down. They were all quiet then Sheldon spoke. "Well if you want, you could get the wedding annulled. It's as if it didn't happened." he continued while looking at his phone. "There is a form you fill out and file at the civil courts...you need to get Zack to agree and sign it though…"

"Really?" Penny wiped the tear off her cheek as she tried to calm down.

"It's quite easy actually...if you want, Amy and I can help you with it…" Sheldon offered. Amy nodded.

"Thank you Sheldon...I really appreciate it…" she said as she tried to compose herself.

"Come on Raj, maybe we should go and look for Leonard…" Howard stood up "We'll let you know when we find him….you should probably call Zack now." He added as they walked away from the table.

Howard and Raj looked around the hotel lobby and the casino but couldn't find Leonard there. They tried other places but they had no luck. "Maybe he's in their room." Raj suggested. "You're probably right…" Howard sighed as they made their way to Leonard and Penny's room.

They knocked on their door. "Leonard it's me and Raj….are you in here?" Howard said.

"It's open!" Leonard answered. Howard opened the door and they entered. Leonard was sitting on the balcony with a bottle of beer.

"Dude are you alright?" Raj asked him.

"Yeah I guess...just have a lot on my mind…" Leonard said as he took a sip from his beer.

"Sheldon suggested to have the wedding annulled...he says it's really simple to do as long as you can get Zack to sign the papers…" Howard said.

"Yeah...I kinda figured it out too…" Leonard sighed. "Do you think we're making a mistake getting married?" he looked at Howard.

"What!? Of course not...Penny loves you….she felt guilty as soon as you left the restaurant…" said Howard.

Before Leonard could speak, Penny opened the door and saw the three at the balcony. Leonard looked at her and saw sadness in her eyes.

"We probably should give you two some space…" Raj said. "Come on dude...let's give them some privacy…" he told Howard. They turned and walked away.

Penny walked towards Leonard and pulled a chair to sit beside him. She put her hand on his arm. "I'm sorry….it seems the only thing I know is to hurt you…" she said to him.

Leonard looked at her and said nothing.

"Sheldon said that we can get the wedding annulled...we just fill out the paper work and get Zack to sign it…..I already called him to explain...he said no problem…" Penny assured Leonard.

Leonard put his hand over Penny's and gave them a squeeze. "I'm sorry too...I guess I overreacted…" he gave her a weak smile. "Come here." he motioned for Penny to sit on his lap. She stood up and sat on his lap and wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

"I'm so sorry honey...this is supposed to be our romantic vacation but I ruined it…" she buried her face on his neck.

"It's alright honey….don't worry about it...we'll go to Zack and have him sign the papers." Leonard kissed her on the cheek.

"Really?" she asked smiling.

"Of course...we're a team...when we hit a rough spot...we fix it together…." he told her.

She hugged him tight. "Awww...honey? How did I get so lucky?" she kissed him hard. He returned the favor.

While kissing, Bernadette and Amy opened their door and craned their necks inside. "Looks like they're ok now Amy…"

Penny heard them. "We're ok now." she smiled as she hugged Leonard tightly to her chest. Leonard smiled at the two. The two girls smiled back and left them in peace.

They stayed like that for a little while. "Honey?" Leonard said to Penny.

"Hmmm?" Penny replied.

"I was thinking...if we want to do this wedding right…we should go to your parent's house so we could ask your father's blessing." Leonard explained.

"Really?...You'd do that for me!?" she got excited.

"Of course!" Leonard smiled at her

"Oh honey I'm so excited!" Penny said as she hugged him again.

"And...since we are talking of blessings...I was thinking that after Nebraska, we should go to New York and ask my father's blessing as well….you know so we could invite him to the wedding too." he smiled at her.

Penny kissed him hard. "Ok, let's do it. But after we annul the wedding ok!?"

"Sure!" Leonard said as they hugged each other tightly. "Hey...uh...now that we are on the subject of making up….why don't we lock the door and...you know?" Leonard winked at her.

"Hmmm...I like it….do you want to see my tan lines?…" Penny teased him as she led him to the bedroom to make love.