Chapter 35

The Present

Penny rang Amy's doorbell in happy anticipation of discussing the latest gossip and a hundred other things they would all be talking about at their girls night tonight.

"Hi Bestie", Amy greeted Penny cheerfully, while Amy's Daughter Vera smiled shyly up at Penny, "Come on in, Some of the girls are here already, we are just waiting for Kay", Amy added.

The girls had increased now with the inclusion of Elizabeth Leyton-Jones nee Plimpton, making five of them altogether, and the evenings were usually filled with laughter too, which gave them all some respite from their busy schedules.

Soon Kay had arrived and the discussions began on general lines. Then Bernadette began a new subject.

"It's our anniversary next Wednesday, and I just have not got a single clue what to get Howard".

"I know exactly what you mean men are so difficult sometimes to know what to buy them, I mean when you want to give them that really special present that will express all the love that you have for them, just what on earth do you get?", Kay agreed.

"I have just the same trouble, it will be our twentieth this year and I don't really know what my Leonard wants either. And I really want it to be so special too as it's our twentieth", Penny opined.

"Excuse me, are you kidding Penny?, to give Leonard what he really wants, all you have to do Honey, is dress yourself in fancy wrapping paper and give yourself to him, I'm not kidding girls. When I stayed at their place for a spell, while I looked round for an apartment, I could not help noticing but they are so like magnets, you two have always got to be next to each other", Elizabeth observed.

"Oh my and I thought it was just me that noticed how close they are?, you know most couples sit in their particular favourite armchair, but these two always have to be snuggled up together on the couch", Amy agreed.

Bernadette began singing the words to me and my shadow when the others all joined in, except for Penny who looked distinctly upset at their teasing, at which point the teasing suddenly stopped

"I'm sorry, I guess it's because Leonard and I have been through so much turmoil", Penny sadly explained.

"We're sorry Penny we didn't mean anything by it", Bernadette apologized.

"Truly, what you have together Penny is very rare indeed, it's so cute to see the pair of you like that, still so much in love", Elizabeth said soothingly.

"It's a pity Penny, that that guy I got to do the painting of us together moved back to Wisconsin, or you could have got a painting of yourself in the nude for Leonard", Amy told her, then added "Then we could have all seen it".

The other four women all looked strangely at her. All feeling a little uncomfortable at Amy's suggestion at seeing a painting of a nude Penny.

Penny shuddered, She knew quite well though that the only person she wanted to see her in an unclothed state was her Leonard. And she certainly would not like anyone else but her Leonard, seeing the painting either.

However as the women chatted together, Penny thought about Amy's suggestion, Though Penny had added her favourite dress into the idea, it was also the dress that Leonard so loved to see her in however Penny realized she needed to lose a few pounds for her dress to fit properly though, and so she decided there and then to have a painting of herself as a present for Leonard. And at that point she revealed her plan to the other girls, who were very supportive as Penny would be fully clothed in the painting.

Bernadette began looking through the ads in the Pasadena Star, while Kay suggested to Penny that her wonderful team of make up artist and hairstylist could do her hair and makeup for her, which Penny readily accepted, and already seeing her Leonard unwrapping his present on their anniversary.

Though there were no adverts in the newspaper that day for portrait artists commissions, Bernadette informed Penny that she would trawl the net and find one for Penny.

Penny's extra yoga classes soon shifted the pounds, though she was able to still put on the dress the unsightly bulging in a couple of places detracted, in Penny's view, of the fit of the dress on her and now as she looked at herself in the mirror she was very pleased to see now an image of a trim Penny wearing a beautiful dress.

Bernadette heard of an artist that was doing commissions for portraits through a neighbour and Penny went to see him almost as soon as she had obtained the address from Bernadette.

The artists studio was housed in a small store, next door to a Bistro, and it seemed that it had been divided between reception/office at the front with the studio at the back, as Penny could see through the half open door leading to the studio, an easel and a stack of paintings leaning against the wall, Sebastian De Porter was very helpful as he showed Penny some photographs of his previous commissions and after Penny paid half the fee of $750, and she obtained a receipt though she had to remind him twice, as he seemed to get so carried away, with discussing the merits of titian and Holbein. Finally though it was agreed for Penny to come in and model for the painting a fortnight later.

Penny was so excited she went and had a coffee in the Bistro next door to try and calm herself down.

The next two weeks for Penny seemed to take a month to go by, but at last the day arrived and after Kay's hairdresser Chrissie had worked her magic with her hair and Jas made her up, while Kay herself did Penny's nails. Penny though was aghast at the expensive items of cosmetics that Jas was using and immediately offered to reimburse her, but Kay waived her offer aside, "Hey Penny you are my dearest friend and I can't let you do that, so don't worry sweetie, Honest, I'll square it up with Jas later, "And I know if I didn't, then I would be sure to lose the best make up artist in California", Kay Joked, while Jas just pulled a face as if feeling hurt that she would be so mercenary to accept any payment for such a good friend of Kay's.

Kay herself drove Penny to the studio, while Penny was still lost in wonder after she had seen herself in the mirror in Kay's large dressing room. Truly Leonard would be speechless at how beautiful Penny looked right now.

Penny exited the car and noticed a man repairing a door while a cop was writing something in a notebook. But Kay immediately sensed something wrong for she had noticed a woman with a little girl dressed in her finest as another couple, also in their best clothes, were approaching the cop with the notebook, and began asking him, ' what's going on?'.

Penny soon found out that the guy wasn't repairing the door, he was changing the locks, as Mr De Porter had gone owing $1300 dollars rent for the store as well as unpaid utility bills. It seemed from the patrolman that this guy would set up a fake studio in different places, get people to pay half for their portrait to be painted and after choosing a date for the sitting, a date he had already long gone by, taking their money with him.

After the humiliation of arranging a convenient appointment to visit the local precinct to give them any evidence, and with all the customers from the Bistro looking on with interest, Penny, feeling utterly Humiliated beyond belief, quickly retreated back to Kay's car and wept bitterly.

Kay was so angry as she drove Penny back to Kay's house, 'How anyone could do such a mean thing to such a wonderful person as Penny like that', I don't know?, then she found that she was gripping the wheel so tightly that when they reached Kay's place, Kay found that she had dug her fingernails into her palms.

At the precinct later, Penny was led to a female officer, as most of the victims of his fraud were females it was felt for their comfort that a female officer would have more Empathy), who then proceeded to totally surprise Penny by telling her that she was lucky. Apparently according to the officer, Penny was lucky to have this incident investigated at all, if the stupid jerk had not ripped off a close relative of the Mayor himself, then we wouldn't have had the time or the resources for this incident to be investigated at all.

"Now then do you have anything at all that we could use against this Guy?", the officer asked.

"I only have a receipt, but that's bound to be a false name, so I doubt if it will be any good?", Penny told her apologetically.

"This is great!, Truly honey, false name it may be, but we now have the dudes handwriting, and also his own acknowledgment here that he stiffed you for $750, so if he's caught with any proceeds from his crimes you've got a good chance of getting your money back. Truly you'd be surprised how many folks went there and didn't think to get a receipt, you are one clever woman", The officer told her, hoping that Penny would not feel so down after this encouraging point.

Though the reason Penny was feeling miserable, was because she had not yet told Leonard about the incident, though Leonard knew full well that something was wrong but Penny begged him to let her tell him about it a bit later on, for Penny was still determined to give Leonard what he wanted most, but her problem now was finding another artist who would not take her for a ride., so for that reason she was shy of any word of mouth or indeed small ads in the newspaper.

It was not until two months before their anniversary that Penny found her artist, quite by chance.

Kay's daughter Chloe, had by now become firm friends with Penny's son Wyatt, so they were often in each others houses and on this particular day while Penny was remonstrating with Wyatt for running through the kitchen that she noticed Wyatt had a piece of paper in his hand and Penny asked him what was the paper for?.

"Chloe gave it me, isn't it good, she said I could put it on my wall", and Wyatt showed Penny what was on the paper.

The drawing was a very fine study of Chloe, in Pencil, Penny gasped in amazement at how good it really was, for the artist had captured not only Chloe's likeness, but also somehow Chloe's personality too, it was such a fine picture it quite took Penny's breath away.

"It's absolutely wonderful Wyatt", Then Penny turned to Chloe, "It's superb Chloe, are you sure you want Wyatt to have it?", Penny asked her.

Chloe answered in the affirmative, she was quite determined for Wyatt to have it on his wall for some reason.

Penny then asked Chloe where she went to have it done and Chloe informed her that a woman draws them at the local market that they had gone to, and then Chloe told Penny how embarrassed her parents made her as they insisted on wearing weird clothes and dark glasses despite it being overcast that day.

Penny then rang Kay that very evening, in order to discover the exact market they went to. And accompanied by Bernadette they visited the market that very weekend.

But to Penny's chagrin the only person drawing that day was a man and he was drawing cartoons of the kids, and certainly not the fine pencil art that was done on Chloe's portrait.

Penny now bitterly disappointed turned to go home, but Bernadette was determined to find this talented artist if it killed her, so she decided to ask the cartoonist if he knew who it was.

"Actually it's my sister Rachel, Isn't she talented, I wish I had her talent, all I can draw is cartoons, still it helps to keep the wolf from the door so to speak. I'm Bob Harris by the way, Er, why do you ask?", he said quizzically.

Penny's despondency had suddenly vanished as a new hope appeared in her eyes.

"Well she drew a wonderful picture of my friends Daughter, and I wondered if she paints portraits as well?", Penny asked eagerly.

"Well, let's find out, I'm nearly finished here as chance would have it, so if you would like to follow me to her place, we'll ask her" Bob told them.

A little later, as they walked to Rachel's door. Bob confessed, actually Sis was filling in for me last week, I had rather a heavy night of it Saturday night, and I just could not bear to hear the noise of the market that morning. If you know what I mean?.

"Yeah, I think Penny has a good idea", Bernadette revealed as she poked her tongue out at Penny's stern tacit rebuke.

Rachel Harris opened the door and greeted her Brother, and Penny got her first sight of a very pretty petite blonde, which caused Penny to feel rather glad that she had not brought Leonard with her, she still could not help having her insecurities.

Rachel's apartment seemed to double as her studio too for there were dozens of canvases, a few half finished, and artists materials strewn around, and it comforted Penny somewhat in that she was looking at a real artists studio.

Penny went on to explain about the picture Rachel had drawn for Chloe, and if she painted portraits then Penny would be very grateful if Rachel could paint a portrait of Penny.

"Wow, this will be my very first commission, you know I've always dreamed of opening a gallery in L A, to display my work, I'd love to paint you, yeah it will be great, so when will you be coming for a sitting?, Penny arranged for a week later, hoping that Kay would let her team work it's magic again.

So with a "right let's knock your old man's socks off", from Rachel, they all said their goodbyes.

And when it came to the point that Rachel asked for half the fee up front. Penny had no qualms at all in giving it to her and Penny received a receipt from Rachel without the need for Penny's prompting at all, after all it looked like Rachel had been living there for some time without the obvious clutter identifying the place as an artists studio, and also Penny had the artists real name.

Kay could not have been more helpful at Penny's request for her teams help, Kay had not even told her team what happened to spare Penny from further humiliation, she just told them that there had been a slight hitch.

So a week later a Stunning Mrs Penny Hofstadter nervously knocked on Rachel's door with Kay in tow, and to her relief the door was immediately opened by Rachel herself who ushered them in, eager to begin.

She put Penny in various poses before settling on one in which Penny was sitting sideways on a chair and looking almost straight at the artist with her left hand underneath her chin. The pose still did not look quite right however for Rachel, and she pondered for a little while. "now then, you tell me that this is going to be a present for your Husband?, Rachel asked her.

"yes, that's right it's for our anniversary you see", Penny confirmed.

"OK Penny, if you could then imagine that you are looking at your Husband then?", Rachel requested.

For some reason Penny thinking of their coming anniversary then began remembering the look on her Husband's face on the day of their wedding.

"Oh my God, Yes, that's it, Oh that's wonderful", Rachel squealed with delight and she began to hurriedly apply paint to canvas.

After a few days of sitting still and holding a pose, Penny was finally relieved as the day arrived for her to be seeing the finished portrait at Rachel's studio along with her four girlfriends. They all stood on tenterhooks waiting for Rachel to remove the cloth from the painting, and with a dramatic flourish Rachel unveiled the painting.

With gasps of astonishment the girls gazed at the sheer loveliness of the subject, Like the pencil drawing of Chloe, Rachel had not only captured the likeness of Penny but also the deep love that was mirrored in her face for the object of her sight,(In her mind's eye), of her Leonard.

Rachel bathed shyly in the copious praises from the five women and feeling a little star struck that that famous actress Kay was among them in Rachel's very own apartment,( Rachel now furiously wished she had tidied up a bit now). Also Penny was so overcome by how wonderful her portrait was for Leonard that she added a considerable tip for Rachel.

"you know, I was just thinking earlier, you had mentioned to me when we first met about a pencil drawing I did of a young girl?", Rachel asked Penny.

"Yes that would be my Daughter Chloe", Kay informed her.

"Wow!, you see normally I don't put that much effort into a drawing as they usually get ripped or shoved into a drawer and quickly forgotten. But your Daughter insisted quite firmly how it was to be for someone very special and I was so moved by her request that I took exceptional trouble to get her just right, who would have thought it would have led to my first commission?", Rachel mused.

But Penny was hearing again, Chloe's own quite determined answer that it was for Wyatt to hang on his wall, "I think I had better talk to Kay about this later", Penny thought.

XXXXXXX

The day of their anniversary.

Leonard looked at the parcel, "obviously a picture frame, but really could be anything, a Star trek Captains shirt signed by William Shatner perhaps, or perhaps a picture of their four children?".

"Come on Leonard, please stop teasing me and open it", Penny pleaded excitedly.

Leonard opened his present and then gaped in utter astonishment at the portrait of an absolute vision before him, so overcome was he that his hands began shaking," are you OK Leonard?, Do you like it", Penny asked, her nerves on edge.

"How did you do it?, That's the look you had on your face when you turned to look at me on our wedding day, It's wonderful, then he whispered and repeated, truly wonderful, I love you so much", then Leonard turned and held her close to him and kissed her passionately for quite some time.

Leonard was so pleased he had a smaller version painted by Rachel, so that he could hang it on his office wall and look at it every morning when he came into work.

It did not look like the fraudster ever getting caught until the day he dropped his wallet in Sacramento and an officer called to alert him to his loss when the jerk ran and collided with the side of a moving bus, a few seconds earlier and he would have been under it. While still semi conscious and believing he was caught he told the officer, "Yeah OK, you got me, guess I upset quite a few folks Huh, and the study of his hand writing tied him to Penny's receipt and he was jailed, Penny fortunately got her money back which she insisted on donating to Rachel to help her realize her dream.

And when Penny finally told Leonard what happened, Leonard was so relieved, as he had been worrying that there was something wrong with his wife and that it was only money, and not his beloved wife's health, that he hugged her.

Penny later, also discussed with Kay over Chloe's feelings for Wyatt, but in the end, they decided that as Wyatt did not seem to show the same feelings for Chloe. That they would just keep an eye on the situation, after all it was bound to fizzle out eventually.

One night, and Chloe lay and wondered for a while if Wyatt did look at her picture every night, meanwhile at the same time, Wyatt was just saying goodnight, god bless to Chloe's picture, then whispering to it before he fell to sleep, "I Love you".