"I was thinking we could let Max stay home alone and we could go out for our anniversary next week," Amy shared while driving herself and Sheldon home from work.
Sheldon glanced across the car to look at her before replying, "Okay."
Amy returned his look across the car while pulling up to a stoplight. "Really? You're okay with that? You've been so hesitant about him being home alone aside from a little while after school."
"We agreed he could start being home alone for longer than the hour after school once he turned twelve. His birthday was two weeks ago. I think this would be the perfect opportunity for him to stay alone. We'll give him the option of staying home or seeing if one of our friends can hang out with him for the evening or calling your parents. We're just going to dinner, so it will probably be less than two hours that we're gone."
"Okay. I guess we can tell him tonight that he gets to stay home alone next week."
"Now, what did we tell you about tonight?" Sheldon quizzed his son while waiting for Amy to finish getting ready for their anniversary date night.
The twelve-year-old rolled his eyes. "The same rules as when I'm home after school. Don't open the door unless it's you and mom, or Penny, Leonard, Raj, Bernadette, or Howard. I can't use the stove, but I'm allowed to use the microwave. I'm allowed one snack but since you're going to be gone for dinner, I can heat up the leftovers for dinner that mom left in the fridge."
"You ready to go, Sheldon?" Amy asked, entering the living room. "What are the rules for tonight, Max?"
"I'm ready and I just went over the rules with him."
Max followed his parents to the door. "Bye. See you later," he said as he closed the door behind them and attached the chain, like he had been instructed. He returned to his spot on the end of the couch and picked up his homework to finish it before heating the dinner that had been left for him. Just as he was putting his homework away in his backpack, there was a knock on the door. Max dropped his backpack and looked through the peephole to see who was on the other side. He didn't take the chain off before opening the door and peered through the few-inch gap. "Hi, Raj. What are you doing here?"
The man on the other side of the door held up a grocery bag, "I picked up ice cream and remembered your parents said you'd be home alone tonight. I thought you might like some, too."
"Okay. Hold on," Max closed the door and quickly removed the chain before opening the door fully. "I haven't had dinner yet. Mom said there are leftovers in the fridge I can heat up."
"Oh, come on. Ice cream is much more exciting than leftovers. I'll even tell them that it was my idea to have ice cream for dinner," Raj was already unpacking the ice cream and toppings from the bag before gathering two bowls and spoons.
Raj prepared two large sundaes and passed one to Max. "So, how's school? You've got what, about three weeks left before summer vacation?"
"Yeah," replied Max between bites of dessert. "It's good. I've got all A's right now. Dad's been teaching me harder stuff after I finish my homework. I'm excited about moving into the new house soon. I think mom said we can move around Memorial Day. It's even closer to my school, so I'll be able to walk to and from school next year. Dad wants me to keep taking the bus for the rest of this year."
The pair continued to talk and enjoy their treat before Raj decided it was time to leave. "Bye, Max. Thanks for having ice cream with me. We should do this more often." Max closed the door behind him and attached the chain once again. Exiting the elevator in the lobby of the building, Raj nearly ran into Penny, who was waiting for the elevator. "You know you don't live here anymore, right?" He pointed out.
"Yes, I know I don't live here anymore," she snapped back. "Sheldon asked Leonard to check on Max since he's home alone while they go out for their anniversary, but he was in the middle of something for work and asked if I could stop. So, I brought some stuff Amy asked me to drop off last week," she patted the bag under her arm. "What are you doing here?"
"The same thing as you. Amy asked if I wasn't busy tonight if I could check on Max, so I brought some ice cream. He and I spent the last forty-five minutes hanging out and talking. He's a cool kid when he's alone."
Penny shook her head, "Leave it to Sheldon and Amy to each try to get someone to check on Max without the other knowing. I guess since you were just with Max, I won't go up. We don't want him to figure out that they put us up to this and didn't just happen to stop by tonight."
"Hi, bestie. What's up?" Amy said into her phone while Sheldon drove them back to the apartment after dinner. "Really? That's funny. Thanks anyway. Dinner was good. I'll talk to you more tomorrow." Amy ended the call before turning her attention to her husband. "You asked Leonard to stop by and check on Max?"
Keeping his attention on the road, Sheldon replied, "I did, but he said he was working on something and was going to ask Penny to go over. What did she say? Is everything okay at home?"
"She didn't see him because she ran into Raj getting off the elevator. I asked Raj to check on him. He brought Max ice cream for dinner instead of leftovers. She didn't want Max to suspect we asked our friends to check on him and didn't go up. I can't believe both of us asked one of our friends to check on our son. Does that mean we don't trust Max? He's growing up, Sheldon. We have to be able to trust our kid. He's never given us any reason to not trust him to be home alone for a few hours," Amy started to ramble.
"We do trust him, Amy," Sheldon smiled at her before quickly turning back to the road in front of him. "But trusting him doesn't mean that we don't worry about him. We asked our friends to check on him because we wanted to be sure he was okay, which he is and he doesn't suspect we asked anyone to check on him. We should probably check with each other the next time he stays home alone so we don't have all of our friends stopping at our house."
Amy let out a small smile. "I guess you're right. How do you know to say exactly what I need to hear?"
"It's a gift, I guess," he shrugged while parking his car in the lot next to their building.
