"Sheldon!" Raj's voice called through apartment 4A. "We're waiting."
Shaking his head to himself, Sheldon muttered, "I've been gone for four days. You'd think they can wait another ten minutes for me." He opened the door and called into the hallway, "I'll be out in a few minutes. You guys can start without me."
Everyone grabbed a slice of pizza from the box in the center of the coffee table. "That means he can't complain when we take all the sausage, right?" smirked Howard.
"He just spent the better part of a week with his family. Save him a couple of pieces of his favorite," Penny chided the engineer. "He's probably just unpacking or something."
Sheldon sat on the edge of his bed, holding his phone to his ear. Suddenly his sister's voice was coming through, "Hi, Sheldon. What'd you forget that you don't want Mom to find?"
"You know I have an eidetic memory and haven't forgotten anything since Mom stopped breastfeeding us. I'm calling to ask a favor."
"Shoot," Missy prompted her twin to proceed with his request.
Pausing to collect his thoughts, he finally shared, "I have a friend who recently moved to Houston for work and doesn't know anyone. Could I give her your number? In case she needs something? I think she'd be more comfortable knowing she's got someone she can call if there's an emergency."
"Sure, Sheldon," she chuckled. "You can give Amy my number. Tell her to call me and we can get lunch or something."
"Thank you. Wait, how did you know I was talking about Amy?"
"You might think I am, but I'm not stupid. Mom said you went out to dinner last night. I'd put money down that you were meeting Amy. Penny told me she moved to Houston a few months ago. It's sweet that you still care about her after she broke up with you the way she did."
Sheldon's eyes widen at the fact his dinner mate from the previous evening wasn't as big of a mystery to his sister as he'd been hoping to keep it. "We're just friends."
The volume of Missy's laughter caused Sheldon to pull the phone away from his ear. "You keep telling yourself that. Amy might have broken your heart, but you've still got it bad for her."
"Got what?"
"Oh, Sheldon. Text me Amy's number and I'll call her later this week."
Nodding, even though his sister couldn't see him, he agreed, "Thank you. Can you please not tell Mom about this or that we had dinner while I was home?"
"Goodbye, Sheldon."
Sitting in a coffee shop across town from her apartment, Amy sipped her tea as Missy did the same with her latte. "I hate that we never met before now."
"Yeah," Missy agreed. "Shelly's always been pretty private about his relationship with you, so I'm not surprised. Sheldon said you just moved here for work. Where are you working? Didn't you work at the college Sheldon works at?"
"Yes. After I broke up with him, I wanted a change, so I started looking for fellowships. Fellowships are short-term contracts, usually only a few months long, to consult on research already in progress."
Missy shook her head as she listened to Amy explain what a fellowship was, "The two of you are so much alike. Sheldon said almost the same thing when we spoke earlier this week.
"Oh," a blush spread across the scientist's cheeks. "The last I heard you were a hostess. Is that right?"
"Sheldon really didn't tell you much about his family, did he?" Missy let out a chuckle. "I haven't been a hostess for years. I do online customer service for a small business. Answering emails, responding to people on Twitter, that sort of stuff. I like it cuz it's a regular schedule. I know I'll be home to put my kid to bed every night." Changing the topic again, she shared, "Penny told me you were in Houston, but you're Sheldon's ex. I wasn't sure if it'd be okay for me to reach out. Then Sheldon called me after the two of you had dinner last week and I figured if he's okay with it, it couldn't hurt to shoot you a text. I take it things are okay between you guys?"
Glancing around the shop, Amy momentarily fixated on a picture on the wall to her left. "I guess," she shrugged. "We spent Thanksgiving at the aquarium, then I was stupid and asked him to get back together. He shot me down, so I accepted the job here. We briefly spoke the night before I left, but then not until we ended up next to each other on the plane. Honestly, I was surprised when Sheldon asked to have dinner. I wasn't surprised when he asked me to not tell Penny we had dinner together."
"He's keeping you a secret," grinned Missy. "He asked me to not tell Mom he asked me to call you or that you were the person he met for dinner while he was home." The woman glanced at her phone, "I hate to cut this short because I'm enjoying talking to you, but my husband got called into work. I have to get home."
"I'm enjoying getting to know you, too, but I get it."
Missy stood and offered Amy a hug. "Call me anytime. I mean it. I might be bringing a two-year-old, but he loves meeting new people. I'm sure he'd love to meet you, especially if I tell him that you're Uncle Sheldon's friend. I don't get it, but he adores my brother."
In the middle of lunch the next day, Sheldon's phone rang while he was showing his friends something on it. "Excuse me, I need to take this." He pushed his chair back and rushed from the cafeteria.
"Did you see that?" Howard leaned into the center of the table. "That was Amy calling him. Since when are they talking again?"
"He hasn't mentioned anything, but I'll see if Amy has said anything to Penny later," volunteered Leonard, taking a bite of his sandwich.
Squealing, Raj projected, "Oh my god, could you imagine if they got back together?"
Walking down the hallway toward his office, Sheldon answered his phone, "Hello, Amy. How are you?"
"Missy called me," she shared through the phone, almost certain Sheldon could hear her smiling.
"Was that okay? When you said you don't get out much, I thought it would be good for you to have someone close in case you needed someone.
Amy continued to smile to herself at Sheldon's thought process of having his twin sister call her. "We had coffee yesterday. It was nice to get out instead of going straight back to my apartment after work. Thank you for giving her my number. I can't wait to hear more stories about young Sheldon and share what it was like being your girlfriend."
Panic rose in Sheldon's voice, "Please don't!"
"I'm kidding. I'll let you go back to work. I just wanted to say thank you."
"You're welcome, Amy. Have a good afternoon," Sheldon calmly said, ending the call.
Thank you to everyone who has been reading. I was doing my regular journaling before bed when I realized I hadn't posted yet today, so I grabbed my computer to post quick. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I just finished writing chapter 16, I've got up to chapter 19 or 20 outlined. I haven't fully fleshed out the ending, so I'm not exactly sure how many chapters it will be total.