It was 10 o'clock in the morning and Rajesh was skipping work. He called in sick. He was sitting on the couch in his apartment holding a box of Carefree pantiliners instead. Cinnamon, his Yorkshire terrier, was dozing off on the cushion next to him. Ten minutes ago he was considering this a new low in his life but the more he looked at the box the more satisfied he became with his accomplishment.

..

It all started when he managed to give himself a perfectly circular shiner two nights back. At first, he did not think much of it but as the next morning progressed he could sense his black eye was attracting considerable attention from everyone around him. The extra scrutiny he was getting, especially scrutiny from the opposite sex, was making him very uncomfortable but one way or another, he was handling it. At least he thought he did. Stare by stare his anxiety was building up inside and then it happened. One of them tried talking to him in the cafeteria. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. His embarrassment surged and he run off and drove straight to his apartment where he indented to stay until his face returned to normal.

He refused to go out for dinner with his friends in the evening. He could not tolerate another female asking him about his health. When Leonard came by, Rajesh tried hiding his bruise by wearing a pair of sunglasses. After gauging his friend's reaction, however, he decided he better stay home instead. He reasoned sunglasses would make the situation worse. Instead of getting looks from people concerned about his well-being he would get looks from people that thought he was a tool for wearing sunglasses at night.

After Leonard left he came up with a more tolerable solution to his problem. All he needed was some makeup. If he could cover up his bruise he could even go to work tomorrow. The only problem with his new idea was he had no makeup. He knew he needed some heavy duty concealer but procuring some would take some scheming.

Going to the nearest pharmacy was out of the question. It was bad enough he was trying to buy something so feminine. He would be ten times more self-conscious if he knew there was a chance he would run into the people he dealt with in the future. No he definitely could not try any store nearby.

He decided to investigate what he was after on the Internet. One thing became obvious very quickly. He had no idea what color he needed. Every brand had a whole set of different pigments and pallets with myriads of names which created more confusion than offered any help to aid his choice. According to what he read he had to match the color of the concealer to the underside of his forearm. He stood in front of the mirror holding up his hand next to his eye trying to see which part was closer to the color he was seeking. He grabbed his sunglasses and walked out of his apartments not even acknowledging Cinnamon's excitement when he opened the door. He would figure the rest out in his car.

He got on the highway going east. It was almost two in the morning when he pulled into the Walmart parking lot in San Bernardino. He decided to pretend he was a person going to the store when his girlfriend calls and asks him to pick a few thinks for her. "Yeah. I can pull that off." He imagined as he entered the store taking a deep breath.

Luckily there were not a lot of people in the place. He walked fairly quickly down the main aisle pretending he knew what he was after. The last thing he needed was an employee asking him if he wanted any help. When he got two-thirds down the middle corridor he was satisfied he was far away from anyone else and he turned into one of the side isles. He was at the outdoor sports section. He grabbed 3 bags of paintballs figuring they could pass as something someone needed at two in the morning if he was planning to go play tomorrow. He put his phone next to his ear and acted as if he was talking to someone on it as he made his way back to the front of the store.

"Yes, Honey. Ok…."

"Yeah. I'm at Walmart now..."

"They have those here?"

"Ok. Anything else…"

"Ok. I'm stopping for gas afterwords."

"30 minutes."

"Bye."

Rajesh was satisfied the conversation with his imaginary girlfriend he just performed sounded authentic. He even changed the look on his face halfway through his act to what he thought a boyfriend having to do a chore for his girlfriend would look like.

He grabbed a can of spray paint for barbecue grills he happened to be standing next to, thinking just paintballs was not a good enough reason. As he made his way back down the aisle he realized he needed something else to make sure the cashier had a clear idea that he was shopping for two and not getting the makeup for himself. The idea made his heart beat faster. It was bad enough he had sunglasses on.

He walked up and down the aisles still pretending he knew where he was going while looking for something only a woman would use. A few trips up and down later, he came across what he thought suited his search criteria perfectly. Carefree acti-fresh body shape pantiliners. He grabbed a package and made his way to the makeup counter in the pharmacy section.

He made a quick pass through the pharmacy part. Unfortunately there was a woman shopping in there so he could not stop for a closer look. He would have to circle around and come back in a couple of minutes. He needed to stop and compare his skin tone to the color samples hanging there but to do that he had to make sure there was no one else around. If his girlfriend sent him it was with a specific order. He could not be seen making the decision himself.

He made a second attempt a couple of minutes later. He got to the color charts but he realized they were not for concealers. He identified a rack at the corner with what appeared to be a color chart as well but as he walked there he saw another woman walking towards the same corner from the other side. He panicked and turned and walked out of the pharmacy.

He would have waited a couple more minutes and made another attempt but he noticed an employee walk in there and get behind the counter. He had everything in his hands and even though they were not particularly heavy, the sweat in his palms was making holding onto them uncomfortable. Clearly this was not going to happen he theorized and made his way to the registers. There was only one open and the cashier was female. She was in her early twenties and fairly cute and unluckily for Rajesh there was no one else in line which gave her more time to talk to him.

"This looks like fun." she said as she started moving the items over the scanner.

"Hmm." Rajesh replied without understanding what she was talking about.

"I never tried it myself but some friends of mine went there and they had a blast."

"Hmm Hmm."

"You're over 18 right?" She asked.

"What?" Rajesh thought. All he could master was another "Hmm Hmm".

"Your total comes to 32.85." She said as she put everything in a bag.

He handed her a pair of $20 bills and as soon as she placed the change back in his hand he grabbed the plastic bag and run out.

As soon as the cool air filled his lungs he slowed down. He walked to his car thinking this is another place he could not set foot in again. "And what was she going on about?" he wondered. He put the bag on the passenger seat, got in and looked at what he bought. Her words were making sense now. She was talking about paintballing being fun as she scanned the balls and she asked if he was over 18 when she was scanning the spray can. He was really happy she didn't say anything about the other item.

..

He put the box down on the coffee table. Yes, he acted like an idiot and he did not get the concealer he wanted but he did bye pantliners. "And that is something to be proud of. Isn't it, Cinnamon?" He said looking at his dog. Just then his phone rang startling both of them. The call was from Amy.

"Hello Rajesh."

"Hello Amy"

"We missed you last night."

"Yes. Something came up."

"I wanted to see you as well. As I told the rest of the gang I'm moving soon. I wanted to say goodbye in person."

"Oh. Wow. Big news. Looks like I picked the wrong night to stay in."

"What time will you be back home? I was thinking of dropping by if you don't mind. I'd hate to leave without seeing you again."

He considered her question for a second. He did not have any problem with Amy seeing him in his current state. Or the rest of his friends for that matter. "I didn't go to work this morning. I'll be home all day. Drop by any time you want."

"Ok. Cool. Probably sometime in the afternoon then. Ok?"

"Ok. See you then."

"Bye"

"Wow! Amy is leaving…" Rajesh thought as soon as they hang up.

"I wonder how Sheldon handled it." He told Cinnamon. She did not seem to care.

..

Five or so hours later, Amy was sitting at her desk at work, her phone in her hand. It was mid afternoon and she was debating whether she should stay there a while longer or just leave to go see Rajesh. There was nothing more to take care of at work until she heard back from the lawyers or the accountants of the parent company that was financing her current research. She wasn't going to sit around. Those people would take days to figure things out. She decided to go to the bathroom and then leave.

Just as she got up her cellphone started ringing. She sat back down.

"Hello" she answered.

"Hello Amy, how are you."

"Hello Bernadette. Good. How are you?"

"Are you doing anything right now?"

"I'm sitting at work waiting to hear back from the Accountants. But they'll probably need a couple of days to get my paperwork together. So nothing I guess."

"Perfect. Penny and I are coming by to take you shopping."

"Ok. "

"Be there in 20."

"Ok." she repeated and hung up.

She was glad the girls thought of her. Except from visiting Rajesh she had nothing else to do. She was not going to go to Sheldon's for Halo night which left her evening free as well. She went to the restroom and then walked out to wait for her friends in the parking lot.

Penny's car showed up a few minutes later. The girls noticed Amy and drove to her.

"Hey Amy. Get in. We'll bring you back for your car when we're done". Bernadette said from the passenger side.

Amy got in the rear seat and moved in the middle so she could stick her head in the front of the car. "Hey girls. Thanks for doing this for me."

Penny was quick to make light of their intentions. "Bernie's skipping work and you know me. Any excuse to go shopping... Even if I can't afford anything."

"Are we still meeting Saturday as well?" Amy asked. Their initial plan was to do this on Saturday.

"We'll see how today goes. Where do you guys want to start from?" Bernadette asked.

"Let's go down town. There are a couple of fancy shops down there." Penny suggested.

"When do you think we'll be back? I told Rajesh I would drop by his place to say goodbye in person. He didn't go to work today."

"Want to get that out of the way first? His place is on our way." Penny offered. "Who knows where we'll end up."

"Oh yeah, Let's." Bernadette agreed. "We didn't get our caramel candy fix last night anyway."

"I'm not sure what that means but it sounds naughty." Amy said and she started giggling.

"Don't listen to her Amy. Bernie's still hot from her date." Penny teased Bernadette back.

"Hey." Bernadette said pretending to be offended.

"What date?" Amy asked genuinely curious.

"It wasn't a date. We both had lunch with one of Penny's regular customers at the Cheesecake Factory." Bernadette said turning to face the other two. "But he sure was smoking hot." she added and turned to face forward again before everyone burst out laughing.

"But seriously Amy..." Bernadette started again, desperately trying to keep from cracking up to maintain the illusion. "If I was single like you, I would definitely tap that caramel macchiato. You Are leaving for good next week."

"My God woman! You did turn into Howard." Penny said and began laughing again making the other two join in.

"How much wine did you two have? " Amy asked, still giggling.

"Nothing. I told you. It's from the date." Penny answered.

"Oh. I have to meet this guy."

"No you don't. But as I said, you can have Raj." " Bernadette said causing another round of laughter.

"Ok. Enough now. We're here. None of that nonsense in front of the poor guy." Penny warned as she pulled to a stop in front of his apartment complex.

They all got out.

"I was only joking. When are we going to get a chance to tease Amy like this again?"

Bernadette's last comment changed everyone's mood. Amy who was walking in the middle grabbed both girls by their shoulders and got all three closer together. "I'm going to miss you two." She said.

"We'll miss you too, Amy" Bernadette said as she pressed the buzzer waiting for Rajesh to buzz them into his complex. A minute later they said their hellos and he was letting them into his apartment.

"I hope you don't mind Rajesh. I brought Penny and Bernadette with me. We were on our way to the shops and decided to stop by together. "

"Oh no, please have a seat ladies."

All three women noticed the mark around his eye but they pretended they did not. None of them wanted to be the first to bring that up.

"Where's Cinnamon?" Penny asked.

"She's in the bedroom taking a nap. I think she had too much of me for a weekday."

"How come you're not at work?" Bernadette asked. "Are you ok?"

"Oh yeah. I'm not sick or anything. I just got this bruise and I didn't want everyone looking at it." He said pointing to his eye.

All three women pretended they noticed it for the first time.

"It's not that bad. It should go away in a couple of days." Amy said.

Penny and Bernadette realized that this was the same comment Sheldon made last night at dinner.

"I know but I prefer not to have people staring at me and talking about me and asking me how it happened all the time. Even if it's nothing. I prefer not to tell the same story a hundred times." He paused for a second but then decided he might as well tell it one more time. "I got it when I hit the eyepiece of a telescope at work the other night."

Penny had to find out. "Is that the reason we missed you at the Cheesecake Factory last night, sweetie?"

"Yes. I'm sorry. I understand I missed Amy's big announcement."

Penny and Bernadette gave each other a puzzled look. They were both wondering what the hell those two were up to. Meanwhile Amy started telling Rajesh about her new job and her breakup with Sheldon. The conversation between the two carried on for a couple of minutes when Rajesh noticed Bernadette, who was sitting on the armchair facing the kitchen, staring at something in there with a weird look on her face. He knew what it was. The pink Carefree package. He could feel his face changing color as his embarrassment was taking over. "Who knows what crazy ideas she'll get from it?" He thought. He decided the best course of action was to explain it himself and downplay its significance. He jumped up and offered his guests something to drink. The all thanked him but declined. He moved into the kitchen anyway, saying he was getting some water himself. He placed an empty glass on the counter next to the pantiliners and poured in some water from a bottle he got out of the refrigerator.

"You must be wondering what I'm doing with a box of these." He said picking it up trying to disguise his embarrassment. Penny and Amy turned and looked at what he was holding but only for a second.

"Are you using them on Cinammon?" Bernadette asked.

Rajesh realized that he was making a bigger deal about it than the girls were. Bernadette was probably looking at something else. "I guess women are used to these things." He thought. He did bring it up, however, so he reasoned he might as well tell them something. Maybe he'd get some sympathy from them.

"Oh no. I get ones made specifically for dogs for her. I got this last night when I was trying to buy some concealer for my eye. I got confused by the different colors and the different types. I didn't know what to get. So I grabbed something else at random and ended up with these." He turned his adventure into a more believable tale he thought as he moved back to his seat. And a lot less weird.

"Oh, you poor thing." Amy said.

"Yeah. Makeup is not as simple as guys think it is. Is it?" Bernadette asked.

"I'm still having trouble figuring everything out and I'm a girl myself." Amy added.

"And choosing what to buy is not even the hard part." Penny offered. "Putting it on is even more complicated."

Rajesh was glad he told the girls his problem. He was feeling a lot better about his predicament now.

"Want to come to the drug store down the street with us to help you get the right color now?" Penny asked.

He thought about Penny's idea but he decided going shopping for makeup with three other women was even more embarrassing than doing it alone.

"Oh no. Thank you all. I'll figure something out myself."

"Well my car is still back at work and we should be back around 7 to pick it up. If you change your mind by then give us a call." Amy said.

"Ok." He replied.

Bernadette got up "Well I think we should go if we're going to get any shopping done."

The other three got up as well. Amy hugged Rajesh and the three women left. He considered Amy's offer for a moment. "Could he tolerate shopping for makeup with only one other girl?" He then realized that none of them had a skin tone anywhere close to his. The cashier would definitely recognize who the makeup was for. He could not accept that.