A/N...Thank you for reading. If you like, review, it keeps me updating so quickly. I know this one is shorter, but more is to come. Enjoy.
Thank you So much to a new Beta'er of mine, TheRimmerConnection. Bunches of tulups for you TRC.
Previously...
"No, she wasn't happy. He always made her feel stupid and wrong. Remember the whole psychic thing? Or the whole mess with him not telling his mother about her? They argued more and more lately, that was her last straw."
The table hushed when they saw Penny storm back into the room. She had her coat on and Sheldon's in her arms.
"Come on Sheldon. The lady at the front desk said there is a cafe down the road. They serve French toast."
Penny leaned over the sink staring at herself in the mirror. I should move, she thought. Move the hell away from that stupid, arrogant, conceited, Frodo loving, lactose intolerant scientist. She sighed, stood up and pushed herself away from the sink. Sheldon was probably scaring the waitress. Poor thing, she thought. Sheldon had made breakfast very difficult on her. The juice was sour. The fork was spotted. The toast wasn't toasted evenly. Thank God the French Toast was 'acceptable'. She walked out of the restroom and saw Sheldon talking on his phone. She looked around, wondering if the men in white coats were on their way to drag Sheldon out. Peggie, the poor waitress threatened Sheldon with just a look.
"Are you sure?...Fine, we will formulate a plan when we return to the hotel... yes, yes. Good bye." Sheldon made an exasperated sound and started tapping away on his phone. He squinted at it, moved it around in the air, probably trying to get better bars, then gave up, by shoving it in his pocket.
"So what's happening?" Penny asked as she rubbed her stomach. Her breakfast had been stress eating in its finest form. She had probably gained three pounds.
"Well, Wolowitz just called to inform us that the airline just called and informed the hotel that we are here another night. Apparently Mr. I-wanna-be-a-weatherman from the news last night failed to guess that there would be freezing rain and a good ol' fashioned ice storm later today. Apparently by the time the town uncovers itself of snow, the ice will be here."
"That suck-a-roos." 5
Sheldon nodded sarcastically. "Yes, it Suck-a-roos." Penny let his attitude slide. She didn't feel like bickering, or making him more pissy.
"Well, if we're here another night, we might as well get some supplies." Penny stood up and grabbed her purse. Sheldon looked up at her, confused.
"Supplies? Like flashlights and water?" She smiled. She was thinking more like soda, chips and condoms, but a flashlight was what he thought of.
"Yeah, flashlights," she said, rolling her eyes . He stood up and reached back for his wallet. Penny looked at the check when she sat down, seeing how much her gut-busting meal was. She pulled out the needed amount from her wallet and put it on the table. Sheldon noticed and looked at the money in his hands. He pulled out enough for the whole bill. Socially acceptable customs would suggest that the man pay from the meal, he thought. So why was Penny paying for her meal?
"Penny?"
"Ya sweetie?"
"Isn't it customary for me to pay the bill?" He looked up at her, money clinched in his hand.
"Well, ya I guess, on dates," she said, putting her hat on. He looked at her then back to the table.
"Is this not a date?" Penny caught on. She smiled and rubbed his arm. He looked at her hand and felt the rush of heat speed from her touch to his core.
"This is breakfast. I guess we could count it as a date, but I'm not. This is just getting breakfast."
"OK," he said as he put down some money. He followed her out the door and to the corner of the block. They had seen a drug store just on the other block. They carefully stepped over the snowbank that was forming on the edge of the sidewalk. The snowplows had already been through, but it was still snowing pretty good.
"Penny?" Sheldon asked as they reached the other side of the street.
"Ya," she said absently.
"I observed something during our meal. You consumed an amount of food that would have sufficed for two grown men. Why?"
"Its called stress eating my dear. I do that, in case you didn't notice. If I was at home, I would have downed a carton of ice cream."
"You were stressed? I felt that our meal was rather relaxing. I rather enjoyed it." Sheldon felt a ping of pain. He had liked their private meal together. No Raj, whispering into someone's ear, no Leonard glaring, no kissy kissy from the love birds.
"No, I liked breakfast, I was talking about before that."
"I thought our walk was pleasant. Very visually appealing."
"No, I mean when we were at the hotel. Leonard. That was stressful for me. I didn't recover from that well." She kicked the bike rack next to the door of the store, getting as much snow off of her boots as she could. "The walk over to the diner was pretty, wasn't it."
They walked in and Penny grabbed a shopping basket. Sheldon, for better measure, grabbed one as well. Then they walked over to the food section and grabbed some snacks. Penny also picked up some powdered drink mixes: she was sure it would be better, in the long run, than just water, soda and vodka.
Sheldon followed her faithfully, chiming in with what she thought were pearls of useless wisdom. She listened though: never know when you might need to know the manufacturing process of a shelled walnut.
In a moment they found themselves at the condom section. She smiled and looked at Sheldon.
"Ok sweetie, you get to pick a box. I'll go get some other stuff on my list. See you later," she said as she winked at him.
Sheldon looked at the selection of assorted condoms. He felt his lip twitch. He reached up and soothed the nerve. You can do this, he thought. A voice in the back of his head screamed, No you can't! He shook his head and stepped back. Think logically Sheldon, think orderly, he ordered himself.
He started at the top right corner of the section.
Ribbed. Twisted. Studded. Twisted. Latex. Non-Latex. Large. Snugger. Thin. Ultra Thin. Shared Pleasure! Her Pleasure! Colored? Flavored? Scented?!? Who would want scented contraceptive devices? He asked himself. He told himself, just pick one, but he couldn't do that now could he? Perhaps this was a test of some sort. Whichever box he grabbed would send some message to Penny, he was sure of it.
Problem was, he didn't have a clue about this. This was an impossible decision without opening the boxes to examine the options. How could he know if he wanted the 'Twisted' condom?' The mere thought of putting anything that twisted on that part of one's anatomy seemed thoroughly undesirable.
He cringed thinking of it and instinctively placed his clenched hands in front of his manhood.
"Ya pick one yet sweetie?" Penny asked as she rounded the corner. She stopped dead in her tracks. Sheldon was in full twitchy mode. Her first thought was of a movie she saw once with the guys, and there was a robot that got wet, twitched and then blew up. She quickly walked up to Sheldon and rubbed his arm.
"Sheldon? Sweetie?" His lip and eye twitches continued, but a little toned down. She didn't want this to happen. She wanted him to have fun picking out condoms, get excited. Not have a panic attack.
"P-P-Penny. I don't know what to get? Scented, twisted, ribbed, lubricated. There are too many. And I don't know how I feel about a Spermicide. That just doesn't seem right. This one talks about prolonging the male erection for longer, more satisfying sexual intercourse." He pointed at the box. Penny rubbed his arm and Shhh'ed him.
"Ok, well spermicide is a good thing, lubrication is a good thing. How about we start off simple," she said as she reached for a box. He shook his head.
"So we have a type. Now what about size? They failed to put a size chart on here."
"Sweetie, we'll get one of each," she said as she put two more boxes in the basket. She grabbed his hand and dragged him to the register.
When they got outside he calmed down a little. She smiled and shook her head. Boy this one was green,
she thought. What did shock her, which shouldn't have, was that he didn't even have a condom. Never bought one before, ever. How was that even possible?
When they walked in the hotel doors Sheldon stopped and turned to Penny. He looked panicked and for a moment Penny feared that Leonard was coming at them. "What, Sheldon?"
"We forgot flashlights."