I hope you all enjoy this chapter! ;)
Chapter Twenty-Six
Penny barely got settled into the room that was hers before she was bouncing back into the main room of their hotel room. Sheldon had just walked into his room with his suitcase and Penny huffed a breath and slumped on the couch, knowing that this could take a while. All she wanted to do was get out of this room and explore. She had wanted to visit Paris since she was a little girl and now, she had the chance.
"What should we do first, Sheldon?" She called through the open door of Sheldon's room. She could see him setting his suitcase on the bed and carefully moving his folded clothes to the dresser. "Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe or Notre Dame?"
"I have not made an itinerary for this portion of our trip," he said, his voice floating back to her. "So, we can do whatever you want, Penny."
"Then, we'll do all of those things today," she decided with finality.
"Penny," Sheldon poked his head out the door. "We won't be leaving until Sunday morning. We have all day today and tomorrow to do what you would like. Unfortunately, I don't think we can see all of the things you suggested all in one day."
"Fine," she huffed and crossed her arms. "But we're definitely seeing the Eiffel Tower today."
"Of course," Sheldon said before ducking back into his room. "I, too, am looking forward to seeing it."
"You've never been to Paris before? Not even to visit while you were in Germany?" She got up from the couch and walked to Sheldon's doorway so it didn't feel so odd to have a conversation across a room.
"Penny," Sheldon sighed, exasperated and stopped unpacking to look at her. "I was there for purely academic reasons. I didn't have time to 'visit' anything. However, I did stop here for a few hours to switch plans on my way back home to Texas."
"And I bet you spent that whole time in the airport, huh?" Penny leaned against the doorframe and rolled her eyes, already knowing the answer.
"Of course I did! I didn't want to risk missing my flight."
"Oh, Sheldon, where's your sense of adventure?" She walked into the room and sat on the bed, next to his suitcase.
"Penny, Penny, Penny. Of course, I have sense of adventure. Just not back then."
Penny rolled her eyes again and couldn't help but smile. In her opinion, and she was sure in everyone else's, too, Sheldon didn't have a sense of adventure now, either. Maybe she could change that while they were here...
Once Sheldon was done unpacking a few minutes later, Penny thought they would be home free to explore Paris, but he made a beeline for the bathroom. Unlike Germany, this room only came with one.
"Ugh, Sheldon!" Penny threw her head back in exasperation and followed him to the bathroom where he was vigorously washing his hands.
"Penny, you should be joining me. There are probably millions of germs on your hands just from the doorknob alone." Penny didn't argue, knowing that things would go quicker if she didn't, and stuck her hands under the faucet of the other sink in the bathroom.
Once Sheldon deemed his hands and hers clean enough, they were ready to go. Finally. Penny was bouncing excitingly on her toes in the elevator, which was making Sheldon slightly nervous. However, he didn't say anything and willed the ride to go faster. The last thing he needed was to be stuck in an elevator.
The elevator opened with a ding and Penny grabbed Sheldon's hand to pull him into the lobby and into the streets of freaking Paris. "Even the people are beautiful!" She exclaimed when a group of them walked by. Sheldon looked over his shoulder at them and wrinkled his nose.
"Penny, I think at least one of them was a homeless person."
She didn't look phased and continued walking, the whole time Sheldon's hand was still in hers. "Well, Parisian homeless people are more beautiful than American ones."
"Uh, Penny. Do you even know where you're going?"
She stopped and Sheldon nearly collided into her back. Despite his longer legs, he had still struggled to keep up with her and even she had been walking any faster, he would have probably been dragged along the sidewalk. "Um," she said and looked around, a finger on her chin. "No."
"The Eiffel Tower is...that way." He hooked a thumb over his shoulder and in the opposite direction they were going.
"Oh." Penny's cheeks pinked and she let go of his head. "Sorry, I was just a little excited."
"It's all right. I understand." Together, they began to walk side by side and there hands brushed. Sheldon wanted to grab Penny's hand, again, but he wasn't brave enough. Not then, anyway.
"Maybe on the way there, we can stop at a cafe or something. I'm starving!"
"Of course. Did you bring your dictionary so you can order in French?"
"Yep," she said, proudly and patted her purse. "Though I wish I had taken a look at while we were in Germany. You did tell me too, but at the time, I didn't see the point."
"If you need assistance, I'll be there to give you some."
"You speak French?" She rolled her eyes. "Who am I kidding? Of course you do!"
"You're right. During my time in Germany while I was young, I made sure that I learned every language spoken in Europe just in case I needed to use them."
"And did you?"
"No. I only spent time in Germany and stayed mostly on campus. Like you said earlier, I didn't have a 'sense of adventure'," he said and used air quotes.
"I'm glad things changed this time and you decided to explore more of Europe." Penny bumped into him when she had to side-step a couple.
"If you hadn't come with me, I wouldn't have," he said and looked shy. "I wanted to do something nice for you and I knew you would like a trip here."
Penny threw her arms around him, right there in the middle of the sidewalk. Surprisingly no one was giving them odd looks. "Oh, Sheldon, taking me with you to Germany was the nicest thing you ever did for me. This...I don't even know how to explain it." She pulled back from him.
"You don't need to, Penny. I want you to enjoy yourself and it's clear that you are." In a moment of braveness, he offered Penny his arm, like a gentleman. She looked startled for a moment before slipping her arm through his.
They walked for a few minutes before a small cafe at the corner of a street caught Penny's eyes. Instead of walking arm-in-arm to it, Penny grabbed him by the hand and practically dragged him there.
He didn't complain once.
When they ordered their food, it took them a few minutes. Penny had to look up every word and insisted that she say her complete order on her own. Sheldon sat across from her patiently and when she finished, he congratulated her.
Unlike the French, they ate their meal in less than thirty minutes and were moving once more. Penny's mission to see the Eiffel Tower hadn't been deterred and she was even more eager, now, to see the structure since she continued to catch glimpses of it as they continued to get close.
"Did you know the Eiffel Tower was completed the March of 1889?" Sheldon started to spout off facts as they grew closer. "It was designed by a man named Gustave Eiffel and took nearly two years to complete. It was supposed to be torn down in 1909 by the City of Paris, but they decided against it."
"Good," Penny said. Finally, she could see the complete structure. "It's too beautiful to tear down."
"Everything here is beautiful to you, isn't it Penny?" Sheldon smiled, liking the look of awe on Penny's face as they approached the famous monument.
"It is," she sighed.
Several minutes later, they were craning their necks to look up at the top of the tower. Several other tourists were doing the same. "Do you want to go up to the top?" Sheldon asked. "They have elevators that can take us up there."
"Of course!"
Sheldon was deathly afraid of heights.
However, Penny didn't seem to care that they were hundreds of feet above the ground. She, along with some other people, were at the railing looking at the view. They could see most of Paris from how high they were.
It was comforting, though, to see that Sheldon wasn't the only one hanging around by the elevator waiting for whoever they came with to be ready to go back down. A few others were there. Some even had their backs turned so that they couldn't see how high up they were. Sheldon could at least look outside and see the tops of buildings from where he was. Seeing the ground was a different story, though.
"Come on, Sheldon." Penny appeared before him and grabbed his arm. "You can't see anything from here."
"I'd like to stay right here, Penny. If you don't mind."
"Sheldon!"
"If I go to that rail, I can not promise you that my lunch will stay in my stomach."
Penny let him go as if he burned her and made a face. "Never mind, then." She took a step back. "Give me a few minutes and then, we can get you back on solid ground."
"That would be pleasant."
Just as she promised, a few minutes later they were heading back down the elevator and Sheldon was able to step on to solid ground. The queasiness in his stomach vanished instantly. "Now what?" He asked.
"There's still so much to see. I don't even know where to go from here."
"If I may, I request that we head back to the hotel around six. I have made reservations at nice restaurant at seven and I figure that you would require some time to get ready for it."
Penny beamed. "Of course!" If it was possible, she looked even more excited.
At six, they were back at the hotel. Penny was taking a quick shower and Sheldon was getting ready for their dinner. He hoped that Penny would get that this was a date without having to tell her. She was more savvy with these things than he was and he didn't know how he would react if he asked her on a date and she said no.
Of course, there was a chance that she would think that the dinner was just like any of the meals they had eaten together over the last few days. But this was Paris, after all. The City of Love.
"Don't look!" Penny cried when the door to the bathroom opened. On instinct, Sheldon looked just in time to see Penny streak to her room in nothing but a towel.
"P-Penny!" He sputtered.
"Told you not to look, Sheldon!" She called from behind her closed door. She didn't sound angry, so that was a good thing.
In Penny's room, she slipped off the towel and quickly pulled on her undergarments. Leaving her clothes in her room had been a mistake, but she would have done it again just to see Sheldon's face when she ran to her bedroom.
Digging through her suitcase, she pulled out the black dress she had planned to wear for any special occasion that may have occurred before she had bought the green dress in Germany. She hoped that Sheldon would think she looked just as beautiful in it, as well.
She slipped it over her head and zipped herself in. The top fit like a glove and the neckline was low, but still classy. From the waist on, it flared out and hit a few inches above her knees. A pair of black heels finished the look and she looked herself over in the mirror. All that needed to be done was her hair and make-up and then, she would be ready.
When she finally walked out of the room, Sheldon's eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets. Penny took that as a good sign and followed him out of the room.
"I hope you don't mind that we are walking to our destination," Sheldon said, offering his arm once they stepped out onto the sidewalk.
"Of course not," she said. "In fact, I'm glad we are." She beamed up at him. "It just means more time I get to spend with you."
Sheldon blushed and looked away, not knowing how to respond to that. However, he did know that Penny was flirting with him and took that as a good sign.
The sound of some pop song coming from Penny's purse stopped them in the middle of the sidewalk and Penny groaned, reaching in to pick up her phone. "This better not be Leonard," she mumbled, almost so low that Sheldon couldn't hear. When she saw the number her face went from annoyance to confusion.
"Hello?" She asked and looked up at Sheldon, shrugging.
"Hello, is this Penny Dixon?"
"Yes, it is."
"Hi, this is Ashley Roche from the Pasadena Theatre Company. You auditioned for our upcoming play, correct?"
Penny's brow scrunched. She had auditioned for a part, but that had been weeks ago and she had thought for sure she hadn't gotten it. "Yeah, I did."
"We know that this call has been a little late in coming and a little short notice, as well. But you got the part of Jenny from Kansas. Rehearsals start Monday, if you are still interested."
"Yes!" Penny screeched. "Of course, I'm still interested." She ignored Sheldon's wide-eyed look and the looks she was getting from other people as they walked by.
"Great! Oh, and we have changed up plot a little and would like to discuss it with you when you come in. Does that sound good?"
"It sounds absolutely perfect."
"Good. Congratulations, Penny, and we'll see you, then."
Penny hung up the phone and looked to Sheldon, who was looking at her questioningly. "I got the part," she said.
"The pa-?"
"I got the freaking part while I was in freaking Paris! Can this day get any better?" She reached for Sheldon's face and smashed her lips to his.
Seconds later, she was jumping away from him. "Oh, God. I'm so so sorry, Sheldon! It's just that I was so exci-"
"Pardon me for interrupting, Penny. But isn't the kiss supposed to happen after the date?"
So, what do you all think?
Thanks for reading!