7
It might have been a boring night for Leonard, but Jimmy liked hearing Penny's stories of life in Nebraska over dinner, growing up on a baseball team and her family's antics. Having grown up in a family with a strict schedule regime, private schools and very little adversity of any at all, he liked hearing about that sort of homespun Norman Rockwell rural life from Penny's brother trying to put a jet engine in an old Oldsmobile, her cousin blowing up a deserted barn with homemade hooch to her uncle sending a jeep home from Korea piece by piece through the mail to be put back together again later. At around midnight, as the rain had decreased to light spring showers, Penny thanked Jimmy for his kindness and retreated up to Sara's room, replete with a canopy bed, twelve stuffed bears and a closet and drawers still filled with clothes. In the morning after a breakfast of sausage biscuits and orange juice, she made the drive back home to her apartment on Los Robles Avenue, but it was a trip from one world to another. As she ascended the fourth floor walk-up with the busted elevator, she heard yelling, screams and angry shouting.
"You're nuts!" An African-American guy came running out the guys' apartment. "I'd rather live with my ex-wife another month than live with you!" He furled a bag pack of clothes in his fist and started to head out. "Someone like you shouldn't be allowed on the street!"
Penny watched from her door as Mr. Angry Man stormed down the steps to the third floor. She looked up to Sheldon in the apartment.
"Sheldon…" She had to ask. "What happened?"
"He wasn't for me." Sheldon answered. "I didn't like the way he said "often." There's a "T" in there everyone seems to forget."
"But he was the first guy to look at the apartment!"
"Actually he was number three…" Sheldon revealed. "The first person to come by was from San Francisco, and I can't live with a gypsy." He paused briefly. "The second person worked as a masseuse, and just can't allow those kind of people to live around here."
"Wow…" Penny responded stunned by his extreme ignorance and turned away to unlock her apartment.
"Penny…" Sheldon called on her. "Do you think there's anyway you could talk Leonard into coming back home? For some reason, despite your reputation as a community college drop-out, he really seems to care about what you say to him."
Penny had her door open and looked back at him for inserting an insult into his plea for help.
"Sheldon…" She tried to help him. "Don't you think the problem could be that Roommate Agreement you make everyone sign?"
"No, that's not it…"
"You know…" She started. "I bet Leonard might even come back if you got rid of it."
"Penny," Sheldon looked to her big blue eyes. "You know I can't do that."
"Well…" She had tried. "See hello to a lot of screaming…" She unlocked her door and turned back to her apartment in order to get ready for her afternoon shift at the restaurant.
"Penny?"
"Yes?"
"Could you drive me to work?'
She looked away annoyed.
"Okay…." She groaned with a roll of her eyes.
"Could you also drive me by the post office and by the comic book store after work?"
"Didn't Raj take you yesterday?"
"No…" Sheldon responded matter-of-factly. "He dropped me off at the turn-off to his place."
"Leonard was right…" Penny thought back. "That's about five blocks." Already regretting the favor, she slipped into her apartment and was back out a few minutes later to drive Sheldon to Cal Tech, reminding herself to stay on Los Robles than listen to his commentary about the speed bumps on the other quicker route, but still that did not stop Sheldon from rambling on about the minutiae of his day. Meanwhile, the caterers had appeared at Jimmy's house to set up for the investors meeting. He showed them the side entrance for the shortest way to the kitchen and they immediately took it over with people preparing the dining room into a gathering hall with a spread of finger foods. Another team cleaned and prepared the rear pool area for the guests, but Jimmy was going through pulling gates and doors to lock and seal off the upstairs and the front of the house from the guests. When Siebert showed up to check the progress, it was almost as if the last few years had never happened. They were talking, sharing news between each other and no longer bearing any ill will to each other. Charles revealed his daughter was now fifteen, and Jimmy revealed he was no longer dating the redhead or anyone else at the time. What had been a friendship marred by bad feelings had turned them into just barely more than acquaintances, but they were finally civil to each other. When Leonard came in, he found the two of them in Jimmy's study drinking a bottle of sherry and catching up on old times.
"Hostadter…" Siebert looked over to the young physicist. "You're the first to arrive!"
"I live here now."
"Oh, yeah…" Siebert and Jimmy exchanged glances. "I forgot that part."
"Jimmy, you staying?" Leonard looked up.
"I haven't decided…"
"Oh, come on," Siebert looked back to Jimmy. "Stay… we have so much to catch up on…"
"I think we've caught up on everything."
"If you'll excuse me…" Leonard looked once to Jimmy's Marilyn Monroe mannequin and back again. "I need to get cleaned and dressed for the party." He turned on his heel to head upstairs just as his boss asked Jimmy if he recalled a certain brunette actress that they both liked but neither got a chance to date. From there, Leonard's mind had drifted to Penny. He had invited her to the party as his guest, but she wasn't sure she could come. After getting rid of Sheldon, she still had to work the Twelve to Eight shift at the restaurant. If she could make it, she would come by. Meanwhile, the regular staff and professors were expected to arrive before 7:30 to meet and cajole the investors to continue their funding. Most of the potential investors were locals, but some of them traveled from as far away as Seattle, Sacramento and Dallas. One of them came from Boston, but despite the number of guests and colleagues, Leonard huddled in the corner of the grand dining room near the game room with Howard, Sheldon and Raj and shared their common awkwardness in the social setting.
"Aw, crap…" Howard commiserated. "It the same wrinkled old faces from last year. It looks like a prune factory in here." There was no one in the place close to his age to try to ask out.
"Why didn't you bring Bernadette?" Raj asked.
"She had a prior commitment." Howard confessed then looked to Leonard. "So, did Jimmy ever let you see his grandfather's work?"
"No…" Sheldon answered first. "And it's not fair. A scientific genius like myself begrudged the honor of another scientific genius's work…"
"Sheldon, give it up!"
"How can I?" Sheldon miffed. "Howard, do you think you can use your skills as a structural engineer to unlock one of these gates so I can get upstairs and check out the room?"
"Sheldon, give it a rest!" Leonard corralled Sheldon for the moment. "I got in the room…" He continued. "But Jimmy's sisters have used the room for storage. It's wall to wall boxes in there, and the first five boxes I looked in were full of romance novels, stuff from high school and cheerleader uniforms."
"Cheerleader uniforms?" Howard's attention was piqued. "Any photos?"
"What do you think?"
"He found photos." Raj was now interested. "Are they hot?"
Leonard just looked back at Raj, shook his head and walked away. He got another drink from the punch bowl, ate another piece of sushi from the table and headed toward the door to the kitchen. If he could get into the pantry, he could enter the front hall and get upstairs to retire for the night, but something caught his interest. Coming through the back doors to the pantry area, Penny arrived in a simple black dress and her long blonde tresses brushed out over her shoulders.
"You look incredible." He told her.
"Yeah…" She responded softly. "Things slowed down, and my manager let me go early." She stood at the bottom of the curving staircase up to Leonard's room where a metal gate closed off the upstairs hall. "So…" She acted distractedly. "Leonard, I was thinking…" She looked at him a bit flustered. "Um, about that thing we did yesterday…"
"Yeah…" Leonard back at her, but caterers were crossing before them from the kitchen to the refreshment table and guests were coming in and out from smoking cigarettes outside on the back patio. Penny seemed distracted.
"Leonard, is there somewhere we can talk?"
"Yeah…" He pressed forward into the kitchen where the breakfast table was covered with empty and partially empty champagne bottles and people used the kitchen to bake and prepare more food for the guests in the dining area. Leonard tugged Penny to the small alcove beyond the broom closet and next to the gate to the back stairs. He rolled the sliding door out to the small area to cancel out the noise in the kitchen then leaned back against the door to the pantry.
"Leonard, " Penny turned round to him. "I realized something today." She whispered. "I do have feelings for you. I didn't realize them until you moved out of the apartment. Maybe… I do love you and just didn't know it."
"Does this mean we're getting back together?" Leonard asked.
"Are you taking me back?" Her eyes looked into his just as pulled her close and pressed his lips to his. Leonard felt her heart pumping hard against his, her arms trying to pull him tighter. He kissed her with a slight tear running down his face and his mind racing a million miles a minute. He embraced Penny and caressed her face to realize they were back together.
"Penny…" He looked at her in the subdued light with the muffled sounds of the kitchen beyond them. "Move in with us."
"What?" She responded taken aback.
"We get alone so great together!" Leonard flashed back on the night before. "I know Jimmy likes you, and he's barely asking me for any rent at all! He just wants the company. You could save so much money!"
"Oh, Leonard…" Penny's mind was racing. "I don't know. I mean… it's just way too much to ask."
"Do you really want to be stuck driving Sheldon to work every morning?" Leonard responded. "Your trip to the Cheese Cake Factory from here would shave several minutes off your drive, and we'd be together!"
"Do you think Jimmy would go for it?"
"All I have to do is ask…." Leonard was getting excited just thinking about it. "All he could say is "No." but I don't think he'd say it. I mean, usually when someone has money, you'd think they would be obnoxious, but he's not."
"Do you think he'll let me move in?"
The intercom behind Leonard squawked on. "She can move in." Jimmy's voice sounded from it.
Leonard and Penny looked at it.
"Jimmy?"
"Next time you kiss…" Jimmy and Chuck were playing chess in the study. "Don't lean up on the intercom." He flicked the switch off and turned to analyze the chessboard. Siebert had more pieces on the board, but he just took another knight.
"I wonder how Cooper's going to get to the university now." Siebert smoked a cigar and knocked off a few ashes into the ashtray.
"Well…" Jimmy sat back as Chuck debated his next move. "That's his problem."
The following morning, Sheldon was up on schedule. Bathroom 8AM, Breakfast at 8:30, he was out of his apartment on time and knocking at Penny's door at nine o'clock expecting her to take drive him to work.
"Penny…" He knocked. "Penny…" He knocked. "Penny…" He knocked. After the last knock, the door unlocked and swung open. Howard's petite girlfriend, Bernadette, stood there.
"Hi, Sheldon, what's up?" She asked in her squeaky little voice.
"Hello, Bernadette…" Sheldon recognized her from the university as well from the Cheese Cake Factory where she worked off her student loans. "Is Penny ready to drive me to work?"
"She's not going to be living here, Sheldon." Bernadette continued. "She and Leonard got back together, and she's going to be staying with him at Jimmy's. Isn't that romantic?"
"I don't believe in romance." Sheldon answered. "Romance is just an archaic term to refer to the hormonal influxes in the brain regulating pheromone attraction between humans in the initiation of coitus." He paused temporarily. "Are you going to be living here?"
"For a while until the water in my building is repaired."
"Can you drive me to work?"
"Sorry, Sheldon, I still need to take a shower." Bernadette started pulling the door closed. "I guess you'll just have to take the bus. Excuse me…" She closed the door. Sheldon stood a few seconds more in the hallway. He looked around perplexed and unsure what to do next. His regular routine was getting disrupted by reality altering the world around him. First Leonard, then Penny… Everyone was leaving him. Who was next? Rajesh? Howard? Stuart at the Comic Book Store? What was causing this?
"Jimmy!" He started cursing the name like Captain Kirk swearing vengeance upon his enemy in Star Trek 2 - The Wrath of Khan.
