Chapter 2

Penny for her part continued with her job at the restaurant. She still hung around Leonard and Sheldon's apartment for dinner or whenever she needed help with her laptop. She went to a couple of auditions but it didn't pan out. She got back together with Zack but something didn't feel right. It was fun at first since Zack was sweet and very easy on the eyes but she found herself in the same situation of being bored with his senseless yammering so she had to cut him loose. Somehow she missed talking to Leonard about anything and everything. She thought she could return to dating 'normal' guys but the thought of Leonard kept springing up in her mind and even the thought of sleeping with these 'normal' guys felt forced and unnatural to the point of making her sick to the stomach.

She started to notice gradual changes in Leonard. One night, she was having takeout dinner at Sheldon's with Howard and Raj when Leonard came home wearing a fancy suit and tie.

"Wow Leonard, what's with the fancy outfit?" she asked casually.

"Oh...I had a meeting with the grant committee of the university. They want my input on the upcoming research grants for the university." he answered her while looking at his computer on his desk. He didn't even bothered to look at her.

Sheldon decided to chime in. "Leonard's playing with the big boys now." he said in a low voice.

"I'm not playing with the big boys...this is work. What am I supposed to do, say no to the president of the university?" he looked at Sheldon. Sheldon slumped back on the couch to eat his food.

"Is that really a good way to get under your boss' good graces Sheldon?" Howard asked him.

Sheldon didn't respond and went back to his food.

"What do you mean Sheldon's boss?" Penny asked Howard.

"Didn't you hear?….Leonard is Sheldon's boss now!...funny right?" Howard smiled at her.

Penny was shocked. "What!?….how did this happen?" she asked.

"Do you remember the time when Sheldon cut the power to the building?" Howard asked.

"Yeah….that was you?" she glared at Sheldon. Sheldon didn't respond to Penny as well.

"Anyway, it turns out that your upstairs neighbor has a son who have a bad case of asthma and needs a ventilator at night...they found out it was Sheldon's fault and filed a complaint with the police for reckless endangerment of a minor….Sheldon's mom came and begged the lady to drop the charges which she did. The university found out about the incident and Sheldon got chewed out. As punishment he will report to Leonard until they say otherwise….how cool is that?" Howard laughed.

Sheldon pouted and didn't respond.

"Wow!" was all Penny could say.

"Aren't you gonna join us Leonard? We saved you some food…" Howard asked Leonard.

"Thanks but I've already eaten….you guys can go ahead and eat it." Leonard said as he went straight to his bedroom to turn in for the night.

Somehow she found this new and confident Leonard appealing. She asked herself if breaking up with him was a mistake. She already knew the answer. When Penny thought about it, she realized that Leonard never really hurt her when they were together, in fact, he did the opposite. He always tried his best to make her happy, he was faithful, funny, smart, respectful, kind and sweet – all the things she wanted from a guy. But she couldn't just walk up to him and ask him to get back together, she knew it would just drive him away from her. She could wait for him to ask her out again. She knew that Leonard's always been crazy about her and when that time comes, she's gonna make sure to make an extra effort to make their relationship work. She figured she had to be subtle about it – lay the trail of breadcrumbs so to speak.

The breadcrumbs were laid but Leonard never responded to her subtle goading. In fact, Leonard spent more time at the university and became more focused on work that he wound up spending less time with the other guys. Sheldon even said that Leonard seldom goes to the comic book store anymore. Penny knew that this change in Leonard was somehow triggered by their breakup, like something snapped inside of him to make him take charge of his life and not take crap from anyone. She tried to convince herself that this was for Leonard's own good.

It was a Saturday and Penny's laptop was acting up again. She went over to Sheldon's apartment and was glad to see Leonard sitting in his desk typing on his computer.

"Hey Leonard….are you busy….can you please help me out...my computer is acting up again." Penny walked up to him. Luckily she wore Leonard's favorite perfume...she hoped he would notice.

"Sorry Penny...maybe later...I'm trying to finish up my report...I'm already late as it is…" he said in a matter-of-fact kind of way without even looking up to her. "What's wrong with your laptop now?" he said as he continued to type on his computer.

"Uh...I don't know….some of the keys are kinda stuck….you know what it's okay...I'll come by later maybe around six or seven?" Penny asked him.

"Yeah sure." he said as he continued with his report.

Penny went back to her apartment feeling rejected. The Leonard she knew would immediately stop whatever he was doing to help her. But not today. She felt like he was deliberately ignoring her. Nothing felt more painful than this.

She went back later around six-thirty and true to his word, Leonard looked at her laptop and fixed some if not all of the issues with it. She pulled a chair and moved closer to him as he fixes her computer. She stared at him the whole time hoping that he would notice her perfume. He didn't even looked at her. Howard, Raj and Sheldon arrived later with takeout Chinese food. They invited Penny to eat with them which she accepted. Leonard was done putting Penny's laptop back together and stood up and went to his bedroom.

"Leonard aren't you gonna join us for dinner?" asked Sheldon.

"Oh...no thanks….I'm going out tonight." he said.

Howard looked at him. "Why, you have a date or something?" he said jokingly.

"No...it's not like that...I'm just meeting someone for coffee." he said as he went to his bedroom.

The three guys looked at Penny.

"What?" She asked them.

They said nothing and started to eat. A few minutes later, Leonard came out from his room and went to his desk to make sure his computer simulations are running normally. He took his wallet, keys and inhaler and went to the door.

"Alright I'm out…" he said as he closed the door behind him.