"Sheeeeeeeeelyyyyyy!" Emily pranced into his office and Sheldon sighed in annoyance. He had been at UT Austin for a month and so far she was the only 'friend' he had made.

'Friend' That was a funny word.

"Emily. I've asked you to stop calling me that." Sheldon capped the marker he was using a moment ago to write on the whiteboard. True, he had only been playing with vectors but still, the point stood.

"C'mon Shelly, it's lunch time. Let's go!" Emily ignored him and smiled at him.

Sheldon narrowed his eyes at her but the young woman simply smiled at him. After a moment he relented, "Very well. Let us go to the cafeteria."

"Yay!" Emily did a little jump.

As they walked to the cafeteria, Sheldon pondered on his current friendship…it's odd how different it was from the one he had with Leonard and the rest.

Except perhaps Penny. He could admit that out of everyone she was the one he missed the most. She had treated him like a friend even at the worst of his…eccentricities.

Emily was bubbly and overly friendly but she seemed to honestly enjoy his company. She was an experimental physicist and despite Sheldon's remarks about her choice of career it only seemed to make her want to try harder to get close to him.

Emily was half Korean but didn't speak a word of it. She was fluent in Spanish though. She liked soap operas and anime. Loved spicy food. And more importantly, she didn't mind driving him from time to time.

"Oooooohhhh black rice!" How could she tell without actually looking at the food, Sheldon would never know. They were at the entrance to the cafeteria. Her nose was as good as his hearing.

"I just hope they have jello." Sheldon added.

Soon they had their trays and sure enough, the cafeteria made black rice. Sheldon and Emily ate as they talked about Kingdom Come and the art by Alex Ross which in turn led Emily to insist that Sheldon needed to watch Ergo Proxy and Sheldon countered talking about the upcoming adaptation of Meathouse Man into a graphic novel.

The banter during lunch felt nice.

Friend. What a funny word.

"I don't know how you can watch Star Trek."

Then again, maybe 'friend' was too strong of a word.

Penny was thrilled about Dallas. She was playing Emma Brown and she was loving it.

She had been worried about not being good enough, about everyone hating her, about the showrunner regretting choosing Penny.

Thankfully she was wrong on all accounts.

And while it was true that her contract was only for three years, but c'mon, she had stable work for three years and this role could open so many doors for her.

Her new agent was already telling her about a couple of commercials.

If she were to complain about something tho, it would be that she was lonely. A new city meant having to start from scratch, new friends, new neighbors. On the other hand, it also meant a fresh start.

She emailed Raj updating him on all this and then started to write an email to Sheldon that would end up simply saved in her drafts.

It was a habit she picked up when getting the role. She was scared of calling, texting or emailing him, scared that her call would go straight to voicemail, scared that her email would bounce. She still felt guilty for not doing more for him, not understanding the gravity of the situation.

'Hi Moonpie,

Today I filmed episode 8 and it was supposed to be this big dramatic-'

Maybe one day she'd actually send it.

Maybe.

"Boom! You're dead." Emily laughed.

"Pure luck I assure you." Sheldon's face twitched and he put the controller down to take a sip of his glass.

Halo night was one of the routines he had been able to keep thanks to Emily's presence. Now, if he could only figure out how she was so good at the game.

Emily sprawled on her side of the couch while dropping the controller on the seat between them. Sheldon simply raised an eyebrow before shaking his head. "I do not envy the back pain you will experience later."

Emily laughed at him "My back already hurts. Because of these." She cupped her breasts briefly. Sheldon only glanced at her chest for a moment before looking back at Emily's face.

"Perhaps you should consider a reduction." Sheldon grabbed his controller again and faced the TV. "Now, let's keep going."

"I'm glad I stuck with you Shelly. Us asexuals should stick together." Emily sat back up and grabbed her controller.

Sheldon froze for a second before turning a confused look at her. "Asexual? I'm not asexual."

Emily gaped at him, confused as well. "You're not?" She said slowly before a smile broke her face. "Oh I get it, it's one of your Bazinga's right? Right?"

"Emily. I find coitus to be a messy and unhygienic activity, but I experience attraction even if at times I wished I didn't."

"...Oh…OH!..." Emily raised her hands to her cheeks. "Sorry, sorry. I just assumed, I mean, I've never seen you with a boy, but it makes sense, you just moved here."

"I'm not gay either."

"Oh…then…is it the trains?" She cringed as she asked him softly.

"...I'm not even going to answer that." He sighed.

Emily laughed and Sheldon realized she had been joking. Drat, he had been doing so good.

"So if I'm not your type, who is?"

Before Sheldon can stop it fully, his brain conjures the scent of vanilla, of tanned skin and blonde hair. But he closes his eyes and focuses on the moment before the memory can fully materialize.

"No one." His face twitched.

"Right…forget I asked." Emily said with narrowed eyes and Sheldon knew that she would bring it up again in the future. "Now, let's play, I need to kick your butt."

"You can certainly try."

Emily must have cheated because there's no way he would lose so thoroughly.

Hi Moonpie,

We just wrapped up filming for the season. I wished you were here to make fun of the show because very few people actually have Texas accents. The director told me to not even try, it wouldn't matter. Isn't that funny?

The cast and crew have been really nice to me and I'm learning a lot from Linda Gray.

While the show will be on hiatus before we shoot season three, I'm not going to be on break. I got 2 commercials to shoot and I'm traveling back to LA to shoot a horror indie film. I'm playing the little sister of the lead actress and my character dies on the first 15 minutes lol.

I also found a new Thai place near my apartment that I think you would love. I checked the kitchen and everything is up to your standards.

I miss you.

A lot.

I'm also seeing someone, after Leonard I wanted to take a break but this guy is truly nice, he's also an actor and while we've only been dating for a month, I have a good feeling about him.

Take care Sheldon.

"Shelly, can I stay here for a while?" Emily only peeked her head into his office, he hadn't even heard the door open.

"If you must." Sheldon agreed and turned back to his whiteboard.

"Yay, thanks." Emily closed the door behind her and moved to the small couch resting under the only window in the room. "I'll be quietly reading here. I promise. The school is shooting a commercial in my lab and I just can't deal with all that."

"Understandable." Sheldon focused back on his formula, he was certain that even the failed experiment could help advance his work.

Sheldon's thoughts were derailed by Emily's soft singing voice which while not unpleasant was not part of 'quietly reading' promise.

"Emily."

"Hmmm?"

"No singing please."

"Oh! Sorry. Since we're already talking, do you want to eat lunch here or want us to go somewhere?"

"It's Thursday, we always eat at the cafeteria on Thursdays."

"Ah, silly me. How could I forget?" Emily shook her head and went back to her phone.

"Perhaps you should review your calendar, I have already added our lunches there."

"Yay." Came the enthusiastic response.

Thankfully Emily didn't interrupt him again until it was time for lunch. By this time he was used to her rather bubbly attitude to anything food related so he didn't scold her for prancing next to him as they moved to the cafeteria. His long strides easily matched her dancing steps.

"Ohhhh banana pudding!"

Sheldon turned a confused glance at her. "We're not even at the door yet."

"You can't get between me and banana pudding." Emily tapped her nose and winked at him.

Sheldon shook his head at the nonsensical response but he couldn't hide the small smile on his face.

Sure enough, they had banana pudding but Sheldon made sure that Emily also had more than just pudding for lunch. She pouted a little as he put a small plate of roasted veggies on her tray.

Their table was thankfully clear, it had only taken a couple of tries before people knew that this table belonged to them during lunch. Sheldon was pretending to listen to Emily as she listed all the reasons he should watch a new cartoon named Steven Universe when an unexpected voice interrupted them.

"Sheldon?"

Notes:

Well...I got Covid.

LETSGO!

No, but for real. Yesterday was the worst day so I went to the doctor, they did the test and it was positive, I was pretty much a zombie for most of the day after that. At least this time I didn't ended up in the hospital on the edge of dying like the first time I got it. Thankfully I got all I got my shots so this time it's just ibuprofen and Gatorade.

Today I felt better and was able to write, so now lets move on to the story itself.

I've only watched a couple of episodes of Dallas 2012 and I like the angst but it just didn't click with me. Something I found funny is that of the young cast, only a couple actually had southern accents. The character of Emma certainly didn't, so I thought it fit Penny.

Ps. Also, some of this might seem disjointed, I wrote it in bursts of not feeling like I was about to pass out.