Chapter 15
It was Monday afternoon, and Amy had just entered her apartment. She had left work early to get ready for the Caltech Faculty Awards Dinner. She pulled out her phone for the thousandth time and checked it. There was still no email or text from Sheldon. There were two unread emails from Barry, and a text as well. She was feeling a huge amount of guilt; for hurting Sheldon, and for misleading Barry. She sighed as she threw her bag by the door and then sunk down into the couch.
Amy hadn't really slept well all weekend. She had spent most of it pouring over Sheldon's journal which was now sitting on the coffee table. She picked it up and ran her hands along the soft leather bound cover. Reading his thoughts was such a fascinating journey. She felt she had a direct connection to the mind of her brilliant boyfriend. He had such funny insights, quips, and observations about the world. He truly saw the world differently than most do….with a critical eye, but also with a childlike fascination. The combination was so perfectly and uniquely him. Barry was a fun person to talk to, to joke around with but she felt completely different with Sheldon. Her heartbeat quickened when she saw him, when she thought about him. The fact was, she was in love with one Dr. Sheldon Lee Cooper.
She felt bad with how she had left his apartment yesterday. She had just felt overwhelmed with everything that had happened. He had been so hurt, reeling from the knowledge of her kiss with Barry. And she had stomped off, telling him that he was at real risk of losing her. He was emotionally broken…shattered. All she wanted to do now is pull him into her arms and tell her how sorry she was for hurting him. Her heart belonged to him. Only to him.
Amy walked to her room, and opened her top drawer. On top was the lilac negligée that Sheldon had purchased for her. It was so beautiful and delicate looking. She ran her fingers along the lace on the bodice. She held the cloth close to her heart.
"Oh Sheldon….how can I show you that my heart only belongs to you?" she whispered.
The entire gang except for Amy all arrived at the Regency Hyatt Hotel roughly around the same time. They entered the ballroom that was marked for the Caltech Faculty Awards dinner. The room was beautiful, with a large stage in the front, and tables all filled with fresh cut flowers. There was a bar off to the side and appetizer stations set up at various locations in the room.
Sheldon was dressed in a black suit, with a dark blue shirt and matching blue tie. His right eye had a small cut underneath it, and small bruise. He kept taking out his phone and texting somebody.
Leonard was looking at the seating chart. "Hey guys, we are at table 12, on the right". The group all headed to the table and sat down.
"Hey Penny?" Bernadette whispered as they walked to their table.
"What?" Penny replied.
"Do you think Amy is going to come? With how things are between her and Sheldon?"
"I have no idea. I'm curious myself." Penny whispered back. The group gathered around the table and began sitting down. There was an empty chair next to Sheldon.
Raj pulled out the seat for Emily. "Would you like a drink my love?"
"A red wine would be nice" she replied.
"Mmm…that sounds nice." Bernadette chirped.
"Make that three please" Penny added in.
"Let's go" Raj said as he nodded to Howard. They headed to the bar where a man in a dark grey suit was standing with his back to them. Raj signaled the bartender. "Three house red wines, one grasshopper and a Sapporo please."
Howard looked past Raj at the man in the dark grey suit. His fingers were in a peculiar configuration. "Kripke?"
Barry turned around and faced Howard and Raj. His left eye was a deep purple and looked quite swollen.
"Whoah! Oh my God….Sheldon really clocked you! I never thought he had it in him" Raj exclaimed.
Barry frowned at them and took a sip of his gin and tonic. "This is a nightmare. I have to give a presentation tonight, and I look like I've been in a bar fight or something. That's all anyone is asking me…what happened to your face? What happened to your face? I can't tell them, or HR will come sniffing around. I'm on the edge of a major breakthrough and up for an award, I don't need to deal with the administration right now. If Cooper tries to pull anything tonight, he's dead. I'm not kidding. All bets are off."
"Here are your drinks" the bartender interrupted. He set the five drinks down on the counter.
"I'll take the girls their drinks" Raj said. He took the three drinks and headed back to their table.
Howard leaned up against the bar and faced Kripke. "Listen, I can't believe Sheldon punched you. The pranks make sense from what I know of him. But to be honest, kissing Amy? You were really asking for it."
Barry scoffed. "You only know what Sheldon told you. You don't know my side. You don't know Amy's side. I'm not the villain here. Amy showed up at my apartment, not the other way around."
"Yeah, but the fact remains that you kissed another man's girlfriend. No matter how you slice it, it's kind of a dick move."
Kripke sighed and gazed towards the entrance of the banquet room. Howard looked at him thoughtfully. "I'm not saying this to make you feel bad. I'd probably be the first one to spout of all the things that are annoying about Sheldon. I know you and Sheldon have no love lost between you, but you never really hated the guy. Maybe you should just step back, and let them figure stuff out between them. Who knows if they work out or don't. But at least you'll know it's not because of you."
Barry held up his claw hand in front of Howard's face. "Well excuse me if I'm not feeling entirely empathetic right now towards Cooper. My eye is throbbing, my head hurts. I'm going to look like an idiot up there with my face looking like this."
"Well think about what I said for Amy's sake then" Howard said quietly. Barry gazed towards the door again, looking for her.
Raj returned to the bar for the remaining drinks. He looked at Kripke's face. "Duuuude…I still can't believe that's the work of Sheldon Cooper!" Raj laughed and then took a sip of his grasshopper. "Maybe you can spread the rumour that you saved a kid from a mugger or something. You're good at spreading rumours!"
Barry rolled his eyes at Raj, grabbed his drink and headed back to his table.
"Too soon?" Raj asked.
"Too soon" Howard replied.
Amy walked into the room and saw the group sitting at their table. Sheldon was sitting at the table, but he was looking down at his phone. He looked so handsome in his black suit. She smoothed her white dress, and tucked her hair which she had curled behind her ear. She was so nervous to speak with Sheldon. Would he speak with her? Did he still want to break up? Was a termination notice waiting for her at the table? Amy could feel the panic rising up in her chest. Well there was no point in waiting, she took a big breath and approached the table.
The group looked up, as she quietly sat down beside Sheldon. "Hi Sheldon" she said quietly.
Sheldon put his phone down on the table and looked up at her. Amy gasped. "Oh my God Sheldon! What happened to your eye?" She grabbed his hand. She felt a jolt of electricity pass between them, as she clutched his hand. Amy gazed at the bruise and cut that was just below his eye, but then her eyes drifted up to his blue eyes. His beautiful blue eyes…clear and true as always, but they looked different. His eyes revealed a quiet sadness to them.
Amy suddenly felt a arm clutch hers pulling her up from her chair. She looked up and saw Penny standing there. "Ames, we need to talk. NOW."
Sheldon looked startled as Penny dragged Amy down towards the bar. Bernadette quickly got up from her chair and joined them.
Penny stood in front of Amy. "Ames, what the hell? You kissed that creeper Kripke? How could you do that to Sheldon?" she said angrily.
"He kissed me! I didn't kiss him –" Amy started.
"-So what? Sheldon wasn't giving you what you wanted, so you just CHEAT on him? I can't believe that you would do that to him! I should have known something was up when you were texting that loser. I guess I trusted you, but maybe I shouldn't have."
"God Penny…Lay off a bit. Let Amy tell us what happened" Bernie interjected.
Amy's eyes filled with tears as she looked back at the table with Sheldon sitting there. "It wasn't like that at all. I was just upset after the Cheesecake Factory, and I thought I would hang out with Barry. Honestly, I didn't think anything would happen. We watched a movie and were just joking around. I never thought he would turn and kiss me. I never would intentionally hurt Sheldon. You don't know how much this is tearing me up inside." Amy wiped a tear from the corner of her eye.
Bernie looked at Amy sympathetically, and touched her arm. Penny frowned. "Well, you always wanted to be the popular girl. Is having two men coming to blows over you getting you off?"
"Blows? What? Is that why Sheldon has bruise on his face?" Amy exclaimed.
Bernie turned Amy around and pointed to a man sitting at the table across the room. "Look at Kripke."
Amy gasped and put her hands over her mouth. "Oh my God! His eye is totally swollen shut! Sheldon hit him? I can't believe this!"
"You should see Kripke's hand! Ames, if they keep this up, they could get in serious hot water at work. You and Sheldon need to work your stuff out, and get him to call off whatever Phase Two is. Listen, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that you didn't intend to hurt Sheldon, but don't play games Amy." Penny stated.
"I'm not playing games" Amy started angrily. "You have no idea –"
Would everybody please take their seats. The awards ceremony will be starting shortly.
"Let's go" urged Bernadette. The girls filed back to the table and sat down. Amy sat down next to Sheldon and looked closely at the bruise on his face. She then looked over at Barry's table. She couldn't see what Penny was referring to with his hand, but his eye looked terrible. She just couldn't imagine Sheldon punching anyone. She wondered exactly what happened. And what is Phase Two? What was Phase One for that matter?
Thank you. We have a jam packed evening ahead of us. We will have a number of in depth presentations from the following departments: Art History, Political Science, Economics, Geology -
"Oh good Lord, Geology?…stupid rock monkeys…" Sheldon muttered.
-Physics and Anthropology. After the presentations, we will then begin the awards portion of our evening beginning alphabetically by faculty. So please enjoy the next four fun filled hours, it should be an exciting evening!
"Four hours! Did I hear four hours?" Penny exclaimed. She shook her head. "Oh my God….I can't do this without some reinforcements." She got up and left the table.
Sheldon was looking at Amy. She looked so pretty in her white dress. She was wearing dangly sparkling earrings, and had her hair pulled back off her face with a little diamond clip. Part of him just wanted to hold her hand and talk to her like everything was normal. Part of him wanted to make her feel as miserable as he had been feeling. Part of him felt bad for letting things get this way in the first place, in not letting her know how much he cared about her. And part of him wanted Kripke to suffer. Well hopefully he would get some resolution on his last thought tonight.
Penny returned to the table, with a waiter carrying a tray of glasses. He set down a shot glass in front of each person, and put down a bottle of Jägermeister at the centre of the table. "Compliments of the beautiful young lady" the waiter said nodding to Penny.
"Shots? Do you remember the Chancellor Awards the other year? I'm not really in the mood to see Sheldon's pasty white behind again" Leonard complained.
"Hey! It's not pasty, it's perfectly aesthetically pleasing!" Sheldon interjected. Amy blushed and let out a small smile.
"Listen, these next four hours are going to be pure torture unless we do something to make it fun. Now do any of you have to give a speech?" Penny asked.
"No" the group muttered.
"Are any of you getting an award?" Penny enquired again.
"No" the group said in unison.
"Ok it's settled then. Jägermeister it is." Penny started pouring the alcohol into the eight shot glasses.
Howard broke out in a big smile. "Hey, let's make this interesting, and play a game. How about "That's what she said….with the speeches that everyone is giving. That's bound to get funny quick."
"Oh great, it sounds like everyone is going to stay sober then with THESE speeches." Bernadette stated.
"Oh honey, you know I can make ANYTHING sound dirty" Howard replied.
"Well that's true…" Penny muttered.
The waiter came and put two large baskets of piping hot sourdough bread on the table with whipped butter. Sheldon's eyes went wide as he looked at the bread. It was sitting there emitting the most delicious smell. He looked at the bread thoughtfully. It sat there with perfectly cut pieces, as though it was mocking him. He gazed over at the bread, and then back at Amy. She was staring at the basket of bread also.
The arm off the torso of the sculpture was so large. I could barely get my hands around it.
"That's what she said!" exclaimed Raj. The group all snickered with the exception of Sheldon who looked confused. They all hesitantly grabbed their shot glasses and shot the liquor back.
"Oooh that's awful! My throat is burning!" Amy exclaimed.
"That's what she said" Howard chirped. Leonard burst out laughing. Penny quickly refilled all their shot glasses, and they all took another shot.
Bernadette slammed her glass down on the table. "Ok, new rule. We can only do 'that's what she said' on speeches from presenters. Or this evening is going to get messy super quick."
"Oh Maaa…my Bernadette. Come on! Where's the fun in that?" Howard complained.
"Oh God…I'm already feeling it" Amy said shakily.
"That's what she said" Raj whispered. The whole table started laughing again. They all quickly took their shots.
Bernie shook her head. "New rule stays…or we'll all be puking within the hour." Bernie said sternly. "We've already almost polished off this bottle, and we're only ten minutes in."
Leonard jumped up from his seat. "Oh don't worry about that, I'll go get another bottle." He walked off towards the bar.
Sheldon looked at Amy. She was still coughing from the last shot of the Jägermeister. Maybe it was the alcohol, but he was feeling less upset with her. He just wanted to make her feel better. He slowly picked up the basket of bread and held it to her with a slight smile. She smiled shyly back at him and took a piece of the bread.
He leaned in towards her and whispered. "I heard a new calculus joke that I thought you might enjoy" She broke out into a big smile, and nodded.
Raj leaned over to Emily. "Please tell me I'm smoother than this guy…"he whispered. Emily laughed and held his hand.
Sheldon cleared his throat. "Ok, so a bunch of functions were sitting around a campfire: sine, cosine, tan and some others. But e^x was sitting off all by itself. Someone went up to e^x and asked, why don't you join the others? e^x replied that as much as I want to integrate, I just remain the same."
Amy burst out laughing. "I love it!" she exclaimed. Kripke turned around and stared at Amy and Sheldon laughing. Sheldon saw Kripke staring at them, and stared directly back at Kripke. He glanced up at the presentation screen and then back at Kripke and then gave him a large smile. Kripke went white as a ghost and quickly turned around.
Leonard sat down. " What was that about?" he whispered to Sheldon
"Half the battle is always psychological." Sheldon whispered back. "He has no idea what I am going to do, and it's just driving him nuts."
"What ARE you going to do?" Leonard whispered again.
"The genius never reveals his plans" Sheldon whispered back.
That's the thing about earthquakes. You never know when one is going to come.
"That's what she said!" Bernie yelled out, her face flushed red. The whole table burst out into a fit of laughter. The tables next to them were giving the rowdy table looks. They all quickly did their shot. Sheldon got up, and made his way to the washroom.
Sheldon's phone started buzzing and fell off the table onto the floor. Amy reached down to pick the phone. A text message was on the front screen from a woman named Maria.
Maria:
Hi Sheldon, I was really touched by your message. I would like to meet. Am I too late? Can I meet you at the hotel? Please phone me right away.
Amy returned the phone to the table. Her heart started beating faster. Who was this woman? What did Sheldon tell her that was so touching? And why was coming here to meet him? Sheldon wouldn't try to make her feel jealous with another woman would he? Her heart started beating even faster. Amy looked over at Barry's table. He looked nervous and twitchy, and his eye looked just awful. She needed to talk to Barry but she just didn't know what she was going to say to him….
A/N: Lots happened here! Lots more to come! I don't know why, but I love getting the gang drunk. And the sourdough bread made a comeback! Most importantly I got to feature my very favourite calculus joke. I guess that statement indicates that I have more than one calculus joke (which is true), and that gives you a little insight into what a cool and hip person I am. Lol! The next chapter might a bit of a long one, but I'm sure it'll be over before you know it. (That's what she said!)