"Oh, uhm, there was an accident a few years ago," Leonard replied to Penny's inquiry. "Nobody got hurt," he added hastily at her shocked look. "It was empty at the time of the explosion."
"Explosion?! The elevator blew up?"
"Uh, yeah." Leonard wished she would just drop the subject, and was glad they were almost on the fourth floor. Digging the keys from his pant pockets as he climbed the last set of steps, he failed to see his large neighbor, and walked straight into him. It was good thing the larger man grabbed hold of him, or he would've fallen down the stairs, quite possibly straight into Penny.
"Whoa, careful Leonard."
Leonard looked up at the man that towered over him. Sheldon and he had been terrified of the man when they'd seen him move in, but he turned out to be a really nice guy, a good neighbor and even friend. He'd even agreed to be Superman for their Halloween party at the comic book store, his girlfriend completing their group as an excellent Wonder Woman. "Sorry, Jason, I wasn't paying attention."
"I can see why."
Leonard noticed the knowing grin directed straight at him. "Oh, no, I met her the other day because her son wanted to attend one of my lectures and then I ran into her last night when I went to get take-out." When Penny added he'd stayed the night, Leonard hastily added, "In the guestroom."
Jason chuckled. "Bro, leave that last part out. Let people think something did happen." He offered his hand to Penny. "Hi, I'm Jason. I live across the hall from Leonard and his crazy roommate."
"He's not..." Leonard started but was interrupted by Jason almost immediately.
"Bro, his Mom should get a second opinion."
Penny laughed. "He can't be that bad. I'm Penny."
"Oh, trust me, he is. Anyway, I gotta run, or Miranda is going to kill me. Nice meeting you, Penny. Leonard, we're still on for tomorrow?"
Ah, yes, the dinner invitation. Still, it beat being home alone. "Sure."
Jason gave a nod. "Cool. Should I ask Miranda to set an extra plate," he asked, glancing briefly in Penny's direction.
Leonard was shocked when Penny enthusiastically said she'd love to accompany him; was she seriously wanting to accompany him to have dinner with him and two people she didn't even know? "Uhm, yeah, I guess we'll both be there."
"Great!"
Penny looked around the apartment. The living area was pretty spacious, roomier than she had expected. Like her son's bedroom, a good percentage was taken up with laptops, gaming consoles and a lot of games. She'd pretty much imagined that would be the case, but it surprised her how neatly everything was stored; she didn't even dare to go in Andy's room, afraid she would trip over all the stuff just thrown about carelessly.
It quickly dawned on her everything she could see was tidy and spotless. It hadn't occurred to her Leonard might be a neat freak, though it was possible his roommate was responsible for that. After all, Leonard had mentioned how his roommate had a fixed schedule for food, so it was possible the guy was just very obsessive about everything being in their proper place.
"If you want a drink, you can just get it from the refrigerator. Just nothing from the top shelf."
Penny turned to look at Leonard. "Why not?"
"That's Sheldon's shelf and he freaks out when he knows others have touched his stuff. And, because he has an eidetic memory, he will actually notice if things have moved around, so forget about me replacing whatever you took, because I just wouldn't get it right."
Yep, the roommate was definitely obsessive. "You're kidding, right?" Penny walked to the kitchen.
"I wish. Okay, I'm gonna take a shower."
Penny nodded as she looked at the selection of cold beverages. "Sure, sweetie. Take your time." She decided on just water, took it out and closed the door. She walked toward the couch. "Is it okay if I watch TV?"
"Of course," Leonard's reply came from down the hallway leading to the bathroom and apparently the two bedrooms.
She was about to sit down, when a thought occurred to her. "Hey, does your roommate have a spot he doesn't want anyone else to sit in?"
"Oh, uhm, yeah. The leftmost seat on the couch is his. How did you guess?"
She turned to him as he had actually walked back, shirtless once again. Did he have any idea what that was doing to her? "Well, if he's so obsessed with pretty much everything being just perfect, I figured there was a good chance the seating arrangement might be set as well. He'd probably notice if anyone disturbed his spot?"
"Probably. He once sat down on some change and added up."
"Now I know you're just messing with me."
He grinned at her. "Again, I wish, but no, he seriously did that. I really should take that shower."
Leonard was drying himself, his mind still on the beautiful woman currently sitting in the livingroom. She had accepted Jason's invitation without pause, had even seemed happy about it. It wasn't likely last night's alcohol was still affecting her, which would indicate her interest in him might be genuine, however unlikely that had seemed not even twentyfour hours ago.
Of course, it was entirely possible she was only interested in friendship and nothing more. But he'd seen her look at him when he'd been shirtless, a look he'd never been on the receiving end of before last night. All the signs pointed to the fact that she was physically attracted to him, unlikely as that seemed.
It should make him feel good about himself: an attractive woman showing interest in him beyond friendship, something any guy would be pleased about. But all it did to him was make him even more nervous and uncomfortable, as he wondered at what point he'd do something stupid that would chase her away. None of his previous relationships had lasted very long, as everytime he had managed to scare away the woman he'd been in a relationship with in a very short timespan. Of course his roommate had managed to scare a few away for him, but even before meeting Sheldon he'd never been in a relationship lasting longer than a few weeks. Heck, the only reason Joyce had stayed with him for almost a month had more to do with her being a spy, than anything remotely romantic or even physical attraction.
Then again, all his previous relationships, with the exception of Joyce Kim, had been initiated by him, with a great deal of effort on his part to get the woman in question even interested enough to go out with him. If Joyce's interest had been solely based on obtaining classified information from him, did that mean Penny's interest in him might have an ulterior motive as well? It didn't seem likely she was fishing for classified information, but how could he be sure? Should he ask one of his government contacts to perform a background check on her?
Yeah, that would go over well, Leonard thought with disgust. Just imagine going up to her and say, "hey, you know how I wasn't sure about going out with you? Well, your background check came back good, so when should we go on a date?" Okay, so maybe he wouldn't tell her, but what if she found out about it? Besides, Joyce had asked him about his government work from practically the first minute they'd met, whereas Penny had shown nothing more than a passing interest. Her son had shown more interest, but nothing specific, just physics in general. No, Penny and Andy weren't likely to be spies, so that meant Penny was actually interested in him. "So, what now," he asked himself, feeling that he had basically circled back to the same question he had when his brain had decided to put all its capacity into figuring this out.
Penny glanced toward the bathroom door once again, hoping Leonard would make an appearance soon. Between the Indian not talking, at least not directly to her, and the miniature Beatles member talking, she was becoming very uncomfortable. Luckily Leonard did step out of the bathroom at that exact moment, clad in just his boxers and Penny's eyes once again roamed over his torso and arms.
"Hey guys," Leonard said. "What's going on?"
She turned to the guys in time to see the creepy short guy ogling her breasts and she raised a warning eyebrow. "Keep looking and you may lose that eye." True, the girls were a bit on display, but it was for Leonard's benefit, not his.
"Oh, you're worth losing an eye over," creepy short guy answered, but looked away from her anyway and focused on Leonard. "We came by last night but you weren't here. Just wanted to check if you're okay, but..." At this he turned back to her, "It looks like you were doing fine."
Penny stood up, mostly to reduce his view of her, folded her arms and turned straight to the creep. "Yes he did, and I think it's being disrespectful to your friend to be ogling his date like that."
Creepy short guy turned his head quickly toward Leonard again. "Date? You guys actually went on a date?"
"He even stayed over," Penny added, hoping Leonard would this time refrain from elaborating on the actual sleeping arrangement. "And we had a great time, didn't we sweetie?"
It seemed like Leonard had indeed learned from his encounter with his large neighbor earlier and raised his head proudly. "Yes we did. And Penny's right, Howard. I don't appreciate you looking at her like that."
Ah, creepy Beatles guy had a name. Penny watched as the Indian leaned over and whispered in his ear, to which Howard started the chuckle. "Yeah, I guess so," Howard said, nodding to his friend.
"What?" Penny accompanied her question with a glare, as she assumed the little joke between the two was most likely about her night with Leonard and their obvious assumption, mistaken as it was, about what had happened last night.
"Well, Raj pointed out that Leonard apparently has the power of brainwashing, or you would never have invited him in the first place."
"Wow," Penny said, turning to Leonard. "Nice friends you got here, Leonard."
Howard shrugged. "Oh, come on. How likely is it for someone like you to..."
"What do you mean 'someone like me'?" Penny took a step in Howard's direction, who immediately took a step back and raised his hands, Raj following him, looking terrified of her.
"Nothing," Howard exclaimed. "It's just, you're very beautiful and Leonard's..."
"What about Leonard? He's a great guy, polite, smart, good looking..." God damn hot in just his boxers and his hair still damp from his shower. "...and, as far as I'm aware, honest. Why wouldn't he be able to date 'someone like me'?" She pointed at Raj as he started to whisper in Howard's ear again. "Hey, if you've got something to say, say it out loud or keep it shut."
Leonard couldn't stop smiling as he walked toward his bedroom. Penny had made it very clear to Howard and Raj she wasn't someone they should argue with. More importantly, she'd made them believe the two of them had sex the night before; there was no question in his mind she knew exactly which conclusion the guys would jump to, and she'd kept that ilusion up, not even coming clean as they guys left the apartment.
Leonard was about to close the bedroom door, when Penny rushed in. "I'm not gonna stay out there by myself again," she said as he looked at her questioningly. "I don't think I want to meet any more of your friends without you around."
Leonard chuckled as he closed the door. "You pretty much met everyone except Sheldon. The chances of him returning early unexpected are pretty slim." As soon as he had turned around, Penny was pushing him back against the door, her lips on his, the palms of her hands resting gently on his chest. It took a few seconds and Penny's probing tongue for him to respond to her kiss.
He wasn't sure how long the kiss actually lasted, completely lost in the sensation of this gorgeous woman kissing him with more passion than anyone that had come before her. If he had doubted the genuinity of her attraction, it was completely wiped away by the way she was still touching his chest, her shallow breathing and widened pupils. Things he'd never seen with Joyce. He smiled at her as she bit her lip, looking uncertainly at him.
"Sorry, I just... It wasn't too much, was it? Oh, God, please don't say I came on too strong. It's just... I really like you and, you're just all... bare chested sexiness and, oh God, I can't believe I just said that! Ugh, I'm such an idiot..."
Leonard pulled her mouth back to his, kissing her again, showing her he didn't mind in the least. "It wasn't too much," he told her once the kiss ended. "But I definitely was surprised by this." He grinned when her hands were gently gliding over his chest. "I better get dressed. You know, hide my 'bare chested sexiness' so we can talk about us." The prospect of actually talking to her about them, about what might happen between them, terrified him. In his experience, talking led inevitably to him messing up, chasing the woman away.
"Yeah, you should," Penny agreed. "I don't think I could focus on a conversation when you're like this."
The fact that Penny's eyes were still directed at his body proved to him more than words ever could that she really was physically attracted to him. He put on a shirt first, suddenly feeling a little bit self conscious.
"I really didn't plan on attacking you like that," Penny said. "I mean, I wanted to ever since I saw you similarly exposed last night, but I wanted to make sure we were on the same page."
Leonard nodded in acknowledgement as he put on his socks. "So, what page are we on? I mean, I've been attracted to you pretty much since the second I met you." He glanced in her direction as he stood up to pull on his pants, seeing her nod, brow slightly furrowed.
"Yeah, me too, though I tried to suppress it. Then we had our emotional moment at that little cafeteria in the mall, and the peck on the lips as we said our goodbyes. Again, that was not planned, but it did make me realise I liked you a lot more."
She sighed and plopped down on the edge of the bed. "Then I became worried about Andy. I mean, I know he'll be leaving soon, but it's still going to affect him. I know he likes you, but I wasn't sure how he would feel about us being together."
Leonard sat down next to her. "I hadn't really thought about that," he admitted.
Penny smiled at him. "Why should you? He's my son, not yours. Besides," she bumped her shoulder against his, "I get the feeling your mind was preoccupied with other things."
Leonard chuckled again. "Yeah, it was. I was busy telling myself I shouldn't kid myself into thinking there was anything other than friendship going on between us." He looked at her as her hand came to rest on his forearm.
"Leonard, you're a great guy. Why wouldn't I want something more than friendship? Besides, I was definitely trying to get your attention last night and this morning I was this close to just push you on the bed and ride you. Okay, that's not flirting, but it shows I'm attracted to you."
"You were?"
Penny nodded with a grin. "When I sat on your bed last night, I was definitely putting the girls on display. And before I left your room, I practically shoved my ass in your face. Even though that was an accident, I realized it almost immediately and was actually glad when the stupid object slipped from my fingers and rolled towards you."
"Huh," Leonard said, shaking his head. "I was convincing myself it was the alcohol."
"I doubt it," Penny said. "Granted, I haven't done much drinking in a while, but when I did, I drank quite a bit. I'd have to have quite a bit more to get tipsy."
Leonard grinned. "I do remember thinking you were a lot more stable on your feet." He sighed. "So, where do we go from here?"
Penny shrugged. "I don't know, really. I mean, I still want to ride you, but I feel like that would be too soon. I guess we just start out dating?"
Leonard nodded. "Yeah, that's probably a good idea. We already have a date tomorrow evening anyway." He wondered if it was bad that he wasn't the one to ask her out on a date. Sure, he hadn't even thought he had the tiniest of shots with her before she had accepted Jason's invitation, but shouldn't he be the one to ask her out? Besides, a first date spend with his friend wasn't the best way to start dating, was it? "But maybe we should go out on a date tonight? You know, just us?" It took him a few seconds before he dared to turn his head in her direction again, only to see a bright smile.
"I'd like that very much." She leaned over toward him and kissed him again. It was a sweet kiss, not too deep, but definitely not a 'we're just friends' kiss. "Leonard, try not to worry too much, okay? Let's just see how things are going."
