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Leonard’s panic had worsened in the shower. It had brought forth an asthma attack and in the scramble to reach his medication he had fallen down. By the time he should be leaving for dinner with Penny he was only just able to breathe properly, couldn’t put weight on one potentially sprained ankle, was still somewhat wet, both from water and sweat, and not entirely dressed.
Sheldon advised he cancel his date in the circumstances, which led to Leonard being forced to explain that it never really had been a date in the first place. After all, Penny thought all the guys were going to be there, which cleared up Sheldon’s earlier question as to why Penny might be expecting him to show up even if Leonard didn’t.
“Well, I do still need to eat tonight,” he considered aloud, “and it would hardly be considered neighbourly to leave Penny to eat alone.”
All this he said standing by himself in the living room, since Leonard had taken himself off to bed extraordinarily early to both recover and sulk. Another moment’s thought had Sheldon picking up his jacket and keys before heading out.
“So are the rest of the guys meeting us here?” Penny asked approximately twenty-seven minutes later as she and Sheldon sat across from each other at the restaurant table.
“Actually, no,” he explained, reviewing the options on the menu at the same time. “The truth is that Leonard was attempting to invite you to dinner in the sense of a one-on-one romantic interaction, but when you seemed to misunderstand, assuming our friendship group would all be present, he simply allowed the confusion to remain in the hopes that you would be more comfortable and accept.”
Sheldon looked up from his menu when he felt Penny staring.
“A one-on-one romantic...” she began to echo, then shook her head. “This was a date?”
“Isn’t that what I just said?” Sheldon checked, replaying his own words in his head a moment. “Yes, I believe I did. In any case, a veritable odds-defying series of unfortunate events rendered Leonard unable to attend, and though Howard, Raj, and myself were never actually invited in the first place, I decided to step into the breach, as it were. It seemed like the thing to do.”
Penny slowly nodded, reached for her water and sipped it. She looked overly thoughtful for a while before, finally, she spoke again.
“Um, so, now I’m on a date with you?” she checked.
Sheldon opened his mouth to deny it immediately but then stopped. He hadn’t asked Penny out to dinner, but he was here in Leonard’s stead, and it was true enough that his room-mate’s intention had been to initiate a romantic interlude. Sheldon had to admit that he could actually well understand how Penny had drawn this conclusion, however inaccurate.
“Technically speaking, I suppose you could say I am here as a substitute for Leonard, which would indeed make this a date, at least in his mind,” he said, nodding his head. “However, since you agreed to the dinner as an act of friendship, unaware of Leonard’s own plans for the occasion, and I myself came here purely out of a combination of hunger and human decency, I would suggest that, in fact, this is not a date at all.”
“Oh. Okay.”
There was a tone in Penny’s voice when she said that and a look on her face that Sheldon could not quite make out. If he had to take an educated guess, he might say Penny seemed disappointed, and yet that really didn’t make any sense as far as he could tell.
It was plain enough to Sheldon, if not to Leonard, that Penny’s interests as far as dating were concerned revolved around men far less evolved than them. Therefore, discovering she was not on a date tonight ought to be of some relief to her. Disappointment couldn’t factor in unless Sheldon had read the situation wrong in some way. Given his intellect, it seemed unlikely for him to be mistaken, and yet, social interactions were hardly his area of expertise.
When the waitress suddenly appeared and asked to take their order, Penny was quick with her request for a drink and selection of food. Sheldon, naturally, had a few questions before he was happy enough to give his own order, and half-expected Penny to be affronted or confused by his need for so much clarification in the menu.
“Huh. I wish I was that brave,” she said, shaking her head.
“Brave?” Sheldon echoed, a little baffled by the chosen word. “I see no particular courage in checking the status of certain food items before I deem one suitable for consumption.”
Penny frowned some and lowered her voice, leaning into Sheldon’s personal space more than he was accustomed to people doing. “You’re not worried that you’ll piss off the server? You know, they can be pretty mean sometimes. I know some girls - not me, but some - who will take it out on your food. You know, serving sneezers and stuff?”
Sheldon made a face at the very idea, swallowing hard at the thought of anyone else’s bodily fluids in his food. Of course, it wasn’t as if he never considered the possibility of that kind of thing happening. He just believed he was intelligent enough to recognise when it might have occurred and would take evasive action before it was too late, if necessary.
“I think perhaps a change of subject is in order,” he said, taking a sip from his water glass.
“Sure, okay.” Penny nodded. “So, what’s new in the world of physics?”
If anyone else had asked him that question, perhaps Sheldon would’ve laughed at them, given a snort of derision, or perhaps just tut-tutted and shook his head. As it was, it was very difficult to let himself have any of these reactions to Penny’s inquiry. It was made with such genuine earnest somehow.
“There is nothing new in the world of physics,” he assured her, in as neutral a tone as he could muster.
Penny frowned. “Really, nothing?”
“Really, nothing,” he confirmed. “With the exception of string theory, not much has happened in the field since the 1930s, and at this point, no-one can definitively prove string theory. At best, we can say the idea has an internal logical consistency.”
She looked a little lost, something that Sheldon was surprised to find he felt bad about. A lack of intelligence in others did make him sad sometimes, but it was more how he may have inadvertently hurt Penny’s feelings that bothered him right now. Just as he opened his mouth to apologise, the food arrived and somewhat derailed both his plan and the conversation in general.
There was an awkward silence that followed, even after the server was gone and both Sheldon and Penny were eating their meal. As much as it was rude to speak with one’s mouth full of food, Sheldon knew dinner conversation was usual in such circumstances and tried to come up with something to say between bites of chicken piccata.
“So, what’s new at the Cheesecake Factory?” he tried, taking his lead from Penny’s own question about his area of work, even if he wasn’t sure he cared much about any answer she might give.
“Oh, uh, not much,” she told him with an awkward kind of smile. “We do have a chocolate key lime that’s moving pretty well.”
Sheldon nodded his head and then found a smile of his own when a certain piece of knowledge came to mind.
“You know the key lime, or citrus aurantiifolia, is actually a hybrid? They crossbred the citrus hystrix, or micrantha, with the citrus medica, or citron, to make an entirely new variation of fruit.”
Penny’s eyes were wide with surprise when he looked at her, but at least she was smiling more genuinely now.
“Wow, I did not that. Hey, did you know that key lime pie was invented by Jane Ellison, but she wasn’t even a real person, she was just made up by this company in the ‘20s to sell condensed milk?”
“Interesting,” Sheldon noted. “Did you know Betty Crocker is also fictional?”
“I did know that.” Penny grinned all the more. “You know, you work with dessert a lot, you pick up a few things.”
When they both turned their attention back to eating then, Sheldon found the silence between them much less awkward. However, he did also find it very hard to keep his eyes on his plate, as he found himself drawn to looking at Penny rather more than he might usually with his other dining companions.
Of course, that was probably understandable for most heterosexual males in the company of an attractive woman like Penny. Sheldon usually ate with some combination of Leonard, Howard, and Raj, none of whom were in any way attractive to him. Penny, on the other hand, was what was known in the popular vernacular as ‘a hottie’ and Sheldon would have to be more than a little blind not to see it. The fact that she also possessed a little general knowledge and seemed genuinely interested in any facts he wished to share with her, that others may have found boring or pointless, only added to her charm.
“That was delicious,” she declared when she was done with her meal. “Oh, was the chicken not good?”
“Quite well-prepared actually,” Sheldon noted, though when his attention moved back to his plate, he realised why she had asked her question.
He really hadn’t eaten all that much, but made a point of doing so then. By the time the server came by to see if they were done, he was, albeit he would probably have indigestion from the rate at which he had eaten.
“You know, you didn’t have to hurry for me,” Penny told him, as the server walked away with the plates and promised to be back shortly with their dessert order. “I’m happy here, you know, with you, hanging out.”
Sheldon nodded in understanding but didn’t really know how to answer. The truth was, he was quite happy hanging out there with Penny too, he just didn’t entirely understand why that was. It bothered him.
“Oh, I know,” said Penny suddenly, reaching for an empty glass further across the table. “I just remembered, I know this one cool physics thing,” she explained, grabbing an olive from the bowl too. “I can make this olive go into this glass without touching it,” she said proudly.
Even though Sheldon was 99% sure he knew exactly what she was going to do before she did it, it was still quite something to see Penny perform her demonstration. Putting the olive on the table, she placed the glass over it, then rotated it quickly until eventually the olive rose up into the glass, to the point where it stayed inside, even when the glass was lifted high above the table.
“See, centrifugal force,” said Penny, with a grin. “Oh!”
The smile was gone in an instant and a blush rose in her cheeks when the olive suddenly shot out of the glass and disappeared onto the floor. Sheldon immediately retrieved it for her, placing it back on the table. Shifting forward in his seat a little, he spoke in a quiet voice when he corrected her.
“Actually, it’s centripetal force, which is an inward force generated by the glass acting on the olive,” he explained, “but you were close.”
“Oh, well.” Penny shrugged. “Guess maybe I don’t even know one cool thing about physics.”
That awful feeling of guilt crept up on Sheldon again and he didn’t much care for it. Usually, other people’s lack of knowledge was only annoying or tiresome, sometimes painfully sad, but with Penny, it actually hurt him to know that she felt less intelligent in his company. She had already proven there were plenty of things she did know about, it was just that physics obviously wasn’t one of them.
“You know, if you wanted to know more about physics, I’d be happy to educate you,” he said, hoping it was the right thing in the circumstances.
“You could teach me?” she asked, leaning across the table a little more and smiling once again. “I mean, it all seems really interesting, but I have to warn you, I was never that great with that kind of stuff in school.”
Her hand landed on his arm and Sheldon felt a shiver run through him that was not entirely unpleasant. His gaze dipped to her fingers, curling around his forearm and then came back up to meet her own sparkling eyes.
“Well, I’m sure that wasn’t your fault,” he said, clearing his throat before he could go on. “Not all teachers are able to adequately adapt their learning style to best suit the students. I know I had that problem in high school. Of course, I still graduated when I was eleven...”
When Sheldon started talking about himself, he half-expected Penny to get bored. When she countered with tales from her own past, he expected the boredom to be his own, and yet, it never happened.
They talked a lot over dessert, then coffee (decaff for him, since he always promised his mother he would stay away from drugs), and on the cab ride home too. Penny was surprisingly interesting for an aspiring actress who worked at the Cheesecake Factory, and highly intelligent in her own way, as far as Sheldon could tell. The fact she seemed to be very interested in everything he had to say didn’t hurt at all.
“It’s like that theory you had the other day about Superman and Lois Lane. I’ll admit, it freaked me out a little bit, but hey, you’re the one that knows the science on these things, so I guess it is a little wacky to think that could really work,” she was saying as they climbed the last flight of stairs to their landing.
“Well, Leonard wasn’t entirely wrong in what he said either,” Sheldon confessed. “If Superman had enough space to adequately match Miss Lane’s speed, he could have caught her without cutting her into pieces. Personally, I think it was just some sloppy calculations on the part of the movie makers.”
“I’m sure they would’ve done better with a guy like you helping them out,” said Penny with a bright smile.
“Well, thank you,” he said, smiling back at her. “It’s so nice to be appreciated.”
“You’re welcome,” she assured him as they stood opposite each other close to her door. “You know, Sheldon, I really had fun tonight. Thank you for that.”
“As surprising as it is even to myself, I also had a pleasant time,” he admitted, “so thank you, Penny.”
She shifted her feet a little then, her eyes dipping to the ground a moment, before returning to meet Sheldon’s own gaze. She was suddenly very close, her face going a little out of focus and the heady scent of her fruity shampoo making Sheldon feel giddy.
“It’s almost too bad this wasn’t a date,” she said, biting her lip.
Sheldon was a little lost for just a moment before his good sense came back to him.
“I don’t date,” he said shortly, something in his chest constricting when Penny’s smile wavered.
“No, I guess not,” she said, almost sadly. “Well, goodnight,” she added then, finally turning away to open up her door.
Sheldon took a few quick steps towards his own apartment before turning back.
“Penny?”
She looked back hopefully. “Yeah?”
Sheldon faltered a little before finally saying; “Goodnight.”
She smiled and nodded then disappeared into her apartment.
A sigh escaped Sheldon’s lips as he turned back to his own door, unlocked it, and went inside. He was only mildly surprised to find Leonard was out of bed, sitting on the couch and seemingly in an agitated state.
“I woke up and found your note,” he explained. “What happened? Did it go okay? Did she mention me at all?” he asked, all rapid-fire.
“Really, Leonard.” Sheldon rolled his eyes, walking swiftly through the living room. “It was just dinner with a neighbour,” he told him, before calling a quick goodnight and moving switfly to his room.
Behind the safety of his own bedroom door, Sheldon exhaled loudly and allowed himself a moment’s reflection. Dinner with a neighbour, that was exactly what it had been, nothing more and nothing less. Strange then that he should feel so giddy at the very thought of his meal with Penny, at the idea of seeing her again. So odd to realise that perhaps what they had shared really was a date, and more than that, the start of a truly extraordinary relationship.