Leonard walked out of his apartment, with his bag throw over his shoulder, hair combed back, and his car keys in his hands. Jennifer also exited her apartment at the same time, and they stood face to face in the hallway between their two apartments.
"Morning" Jennifer said with a lovely smile.
"Good morning" Leonard said, tumbling around with his keys. "Listen, I just wanted to thank you for the other night, I really needed someone, and you were there"
"No worries, what are you up too tonight Leonard?" Jennifer asked, as she walked forward and linked her hands in his. Leonard immediately stumbled for words.
"I was just going to finish a presentation comparing the values…' He was cut off by Jennifer connected her lips with his. She ran her hands up his back, as Leonard struggled to know what to do.
She broke the kiss, and turned to walk back into the apartment. "Okay, you'll pick me up at 8:00?" And with that, she closed the door, and Leonard stood, frozen in the middle of the 4th floor hallway. As he stood there, Penny ran up the stairs in gym clothes. Leonard started to breath heavy, his eyes rapidly blinked as he put one hand to his chest, and another to his side pocket rummaging around for his inhaler.
"Oh my god, Leonard are you alright." Penny helped him sit down as his legs became weak.
She kneeled down beside him "Top draw, beside table, inhaler" he managed to say with his breathing becoming heavier and harder. Penny ran into the apartment, almost tumbling over Sheldon as she ran up the hallway.
"Penny!" Sheldon yelled, as she quickly grabbed the inhaler, "Did you knock?" he said once, again as Penny brushed past him with the inhaler in her hand, and slammed the apartment door shut. She handed the inhaler to Leonard, and bent down next to him. He put the edge of his mouth over the cylinder, and pushed down on the pump, allowing the medicine to rush through his body, straight to his lungs. As his inhaler took effect, Penny called out for Jennifer, but she immediately assumed she wasn't home. Leonard closed his eyes as his breathing returned to normal, and coughed getting rid of the left over carbon dioxide in his lungs. Leonard was unsure was caused the strange asthma attack, although he was used to them, quite frequently.
He opened his eyes, to find Penny almost as out of breath as Leonard was, she sat down next to him up against the door of apartment 4A.
"Thanks Penny" Leonard mumbled, as he stood up. He offered his hand to Penny, to pull her up off the ground. Penny accepted the offer, and grabbed his hand.
"No worries" Penny said, as she was pulled to her feet, now standing in front of Leonard, only a few centimetres away from his face. They were both caught in the moment, Leonard who's breathing had now become slow and paced, whilst his heart beat a million miles a minute. Penny leaned forward, closer to Leonard, she felt his body calling her. Leonard, pulled away, but at the same time closed his eyes, no proposing any rejection. Their lips moved closer together, but were stopped by the sound of an apartment door opening. Penny quickly shuffled away, her heart pounding as Jennifer exited her apartment.
"Hey, you ready to get Penny" Jennifer said, bending down to touch her toes.
"Sure!"
As Penny headed towards the stairs, Jennifer walked over towards Leonard and wrapped her arms around his neck, passionately kissing him in front of Penny, fully aware of the awkwardness between Leonard and Penny.
Penny glared jealously, as Jennifer made out with the guy she could of called hers. Although, Leonard wasn't the typical type of male that Penny dated, she had no idea why her heart wouldn't let the thought of him go, why was she so caught up on this nerd from her collage. She didn't understand, why Leonard of all people could make her heart melt, and body crumble, just by him touching her. She shook this thought from her mind, once again as Jennifer joined her at the bottom of the stairs. They ran down the remaining 3 flights of stairs, as a warm up for their run. Leonard slowly wandered behind the girls, but turned off to get in his car to drive to the University. Once they got out onto the pathway, the started a smooth jog, as they shrugged off all the temptations of the surrounding food shops and cafés.
"So, you and Leonard are getting pretty serious, huh?" Penny suggested, as they slowed to a walk to cross the street.
"Yeah, we are going out tonight, and we spent the night together the other night."
"Well… spill the deets, how was he?" she asked, immediately thinking that they slept together. Having Penny bring up the idea of them together, Jen went along with it, knowing that nothing happened that night, except Leonard being too drunk to sleep alone.
"That little nerd sure does know how to satisfy a women!" Jennifer said, starting to jog again. This made Penny feel even worse about the whole situation.
"What else?" Penny said, curious about what she was missing out on.
"Best and biggest" Jennifer simply said, turning the corner. Penny knew how well endowed Leonard was, but for Jennifer to say that he was her best, was a statement and a half, you could say, she got around with the male community, and some of the men that Penny saw her take home, or back to motels only made her more shocked, he must be dynamite in the sack!
After about a 25-minute run, they both stopped at a tiny bakery on the corner, for a bear claw, like they did every week.
They both returned to their respective apartments, with Jennifer returning for her date with Leonard, and Penny to start her night shift at the Cheesecake Factory.
In apartment 4A, Leonard had spent the last half and hour, suiting up for his date with Jennifer. He was enjoying his time with her, but whatever happened between Penny and him today, the feelings were unexplainable. He knew he still had feelings for her, but had to push past that, as she had told him already (twice) that she didn't want to get involved.
Howard, Raj and Sheldon sat on the couch in the boy's apartment, playing tag team on Halo.
"You know this doesn't work without you Leonard!" Sheldon yelled, as he almost died, "We can't play 2v2 with 3 people and Koothrappali was highly against being chopped in half like you suggested…"
"Yeah, well sorry. I have other plans," Leonard said, as he paced around the apartment looking for his wallet and keys.
"You know what, if you spent more time playing video games, and less time chasing after girls, we would be a lot happier…"
"You know what Sheldon, if I spent less time playing video games, and more time chasing after girls, there wouldn't be a 'we'…" As Leonard said this, he exited the apartment.
He stood in the hallway, unsure of how to approach Jennifer's apartment, when he heard from inside 4A a bunch of laughter coming from the boys. They were just probably paying him out, like usual.
He wiped the sweat off the palms of his hands, and walked forwards to knock on her door. He connected his knuckles with the wooden door, a couple of times, then stood back, with his hands in his pockets, waiting for an answer. He heard the muffles of movement inside her apartment, moments later Jennifer emerged.
"Hey" Leonard said, which was the first thing he thought of.
"Oh hey" she replied, with a smile forming on her face.
"You look, wow," he said, linking his arm in hers, and walking down four flights of stairs.
-=0o0=-
They were taken to their seat at the restaurant; it was a two-person table, next to the window, with a beautiful red rose as the centrepiece. Leonard pulled Jennifer's chair out for her, as she sat down, then he went to his. The waiter returned, this time carrying two menus, "could I start you off with some wine? Or just a water?" he asked, placing the menus down, one in from of each of them.
"I'll have a glass of red wine," Jennifer said, browsing the menu. "Just a water for me thanks…" Leonard added, as he was driving.
There seemed to be an awkward presence at the table, both Jennifer and Leonard were quiet whilst looking over the menus, and often made eye contact but never said anything to each other.
"I might just have the 300g steak," Leonard said, breaking the silence.
"I'll just have the shrimp salad…" Jennifer said, closing the menu and taking what seemed to be a chug of the red wine, almost emptying the glass.
The waiter came over, after noticing them both shutting their menus, "are we ready to order?" he said, pulling his notepad out of his apron.
"One 300g steak, with the garlic sauce, and a shrimp salad" Leonard said, placing his napkin on his lap.
"With no olives." Jennifer added, as the waiter, with the nametag 'Tom' jotted everything down. "Will that be all tonight?"
Leonard nodded, and Tom ripped off the page from the notepad, and turned away.
The awkward silence rose again, as they waited for their food.
"So, how's collage?" Jennifer asked.
"Actually really good" Leonard said, as his face lit up. No one was ever interested in what he was studying. "We are looking at the study of string theory vs. loop quantum gravity, evidence and theory's and stuff. Jennifer nodded, pretending to understand what he was saying.
-=0o0=-
It wasn't long after their food arrived, that they both finished. Leonard laid his knife and fork sideways across his plate, as Jennifer finished off her third glass of wine. "Did you want some desert?" Leonard offered, looking at the desert menu that was on a small turnstile in the middle of the table.
"No thanks" Jennifer mumbled quietly. "I am planning on getting a different type of desert later" she winked, as Leonard gulped, automatically feeling extremely uncomfortable, but slightly turned on.
After they left the restaurant, Leonard drove back to the apartment block, and they both walked up stairs, hand in hand.
"That was a lovely night," Jennifer said, as they got to the top on the 4th floor stairs. Leonard nodded in agreement, as Jennifer wrapped her hands around his neck. She connected her lips with his, and caressed his bottom lip, begging for entry. Before he could accept, she broke the kiss. "Did you want to go inside?"
Jennifer grabbed his hand, and pulled him towards her on the couch, she sat down on the middle cushion, and Leonard walked towards her, as he slowly unbuttoned his shirt. Their lips locked again, Leonard picked up where they left off in the hallway, as he tasted tentatively with his tongue, tracing in across the bottom of her lip. Mid-kiss, Jennifer's stomach rumbled, almost as loud as their moans. "You all right?" Leonard said, breaking the kiss. Jennifer just nodded, as she pulled on his tie, making him fall on the couch right beside her. Not long after, Jennifer's stomach groaned again, making Leonard aware of the unease, they both looked at each other for a second, until Jennifer stood up and bolted towards the bathroom, expelling what he guessed, was her shrimp salad into the cold bathroom bowl. Leonard ran in to the bathroom, pulling her hair back out of the way.
-=0o0=-
A short 15 minutes later, she got out of the shower, feeling refreshed. "Of course, I'd get food poisoning on a date…" she said, sitting on the bed next to Leonard.
"Well, I might go. You need some rest." Leonard said, hugging her. As he pulled away, she attached her lips to his, one final time. They both pulled away from each other, eyes still closed, noses touching.
"I had a really nice time with you tonight Leonard, before the ugh…"
"I had a really nice time with you too Penny"
Jennifer almost pushed him off the bed, at the speed she stood up.
"Get out" she mumbled quietly trying to calm herself down.
Leonard, after realising what he had done, stood up and walked towards Jennifer.
"Look, just go. Don't make it worse!" she said, turning to walk into the bathroom and slamming the door. Leonard turned towards her living room, and walked out, head dropped in shame, and feeling absolutely horrible about what he just did.