SF Chapter 50: Before the Premiere III
The next morning, Sheldon woke up. He had slept on the couch because Leslie had spent the night with Leonard.
He got up, wrapped the blanket around his body, and started walking. He stopped at the hallway, considered going in, but decided against it and continued toward the refrigerator.
Halfway there, he paused and turned back to look at his whiteboard.
"Someone touched my board." He froze. "Oh, God, my board!" Sheldon made an anguished face.
"Leonard! Leonard!" he shouted, pacing back and forth.
"Hey, what's the matter?" His roommate appeared moments later, wearing pajamas.
"My equations. Someone's tampered with my equations."
"Are you sure?"
"Of course I am." Sheldon gestured emphatically to a spot on the board. "Look at the beta function of quantum chromodynamics. The sign's been changed."
"Oh, yeah." Leonard nodded. Then he paused, thought for a second, and inquired, "But doesn't that fix the problem you've been having?"
"Are you insane?" Sheldon shot back. "Are you out of your mind? Are you - Look!"
He finally analyzed the change. "That fixes the problem I've been having."
"You're welcome." This time, Leslie appeared. She was already dressed and ready to leave.
"You did this?" Sheldon glared at her.
"I noticed it when I got up to get a glass of water, so I fixed it. Now you can show that quarks are asymptotically free at high energies."
"Pretty cool, huh?" she added, slightly smug.
"'Cool'?" Sheldon frowned.
She ignored him and turned to Leonard. "Listen, I've got to get to the lab. Thanks for a great night."
"Thank you. I'll see you at work." Leonard smiled as she walked toward the door.
But Sheldon stopped her. "Hold on. Hold on!"
"What?"
"Who told you could touch my board?"
"No one."
He stiffened. "I don't come into your house and touch your board."
She jabbed back calmly. "There are no incorrect equations on my board."
"Oh, that is so… so…" He shook his head, but was unable to finish the sentence.
"Sorry, I've got to run. If you come up with an adjective, text me," she mocked again.
"Inconsiderate," he finally said, grabbing his phone. "That is the adjective - 'inconsiderate.'"
He quickly typed the message to the physicist who had just left.
Leonard frowned at the message he had just received. "'Congrats, you magnificent beast!'" he read out loud, quoting the text from his cousin.
"Sheldon, why did Daniel text me this?"
"Oh, I called him. Penny and Alexandra were with him, and we ended up overhearing that inconsiderate Leslie say that," Sheldon replied, still annoyed.
Leonard groaned. "Sheldon…"
But soon his expression shifted into a smug smile.
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Two days passed. On Thursday night, Daniel came with Alexandra to the same place as Saturday's party.
"Penny couldn't come. She got called in to film another day of her show," Lexi commented as she sat down in a chair facing the beach.
"Yeah, she texted me." Daniel handed her one of the drinks he had just bought. "With just the two of us, this feels like a date to me," he teased.
"You're delusional," Lexi remarked, taking a sip of her drink and then eating a piece of the cake she had bought.
"I bet if I didn't have anything going on with Penny, we'd be kissing right now," he replied, unfazed by her comment.
She glared at him but ended up conceding. "It could be happening. But now, I'd feel strange. Even if Penny is totally okay with it, it's still strange sharing a guy with your friend."
"So, how was the audition?" he asked, changing the subject.
"It was good... but I won't know until next week if I got it." She took another bite of her cake. "Want a piece?"
"You know I'd say yes, especially since you're going to feed me," he replied with a smug look.
She rolled her eyes but used her fork to bring a bite to his mouth.
"Wow, it's really good!" he praised.
"It's my favorite. I always buy one after an audition. Since I avoid sweets, I use it as motivation," she revealed.
He snorted. "Don't worry, I can see where the fatness-"
He was kicked before he could point at her chest.
Daniel started humming to himself, influenced by the music that was playing inside the bar, until he finally had an idea.
♫♪Goddamn
See you licking frosting from your own hands
Want another taste, I'm begging: Yes, ma'am
I'm tired of all this candy on the dry land
Dry land, oh ♫♪
Alexandra looked at him in surprise.
"Hey, I think it has a better opening like this," Daniel started singing again.
♫♪Oh, no
See you walking 'round like it's a funeral
Not so serious, girl, why those feet cold?
We just getting started, don't you tiptoe
Tiptoe, ah ♫♪
♫♪You're a real-life fantasy
You're a real-life fantasy
But you're moving so carefully
Let's start living dangerously ♫♪
And he started humming again. "Oh man, I need a catchy phase, but can't quite place it..." He kept snapping his fingers until he found himself staring at Lexi. Suddenly, it came to him.
♫♪Talk to me, baby
I'm going blind from this sweet, sweet craving, whoa, oh
Let's lose our minds and go fucking crazy
I-I-I-I-I keep on hoping we'll eat cake by the ocean ♫♪
♫♪.... ♫♪Daniel sang it all in one go. "What do you think?"
"Wow, it's surprisingly good, although you turn everything sexual..." Alexandra praised.
"Have you ever thought about being a singer? I remember Penny talking about you being good at singing. Now I can see it."
"Not really..." he replied. "And you should ask Penny to sing for you too."
She rolled her eyes. "I've already heard her sing. I told her not to audition for anything that requires it... she got a little annoyed."
"You're a good friend, Lexi. I told her never to do it on her show either..." he revealed.
Alexandra went back to the subject. "So you write books, movies, and now songs."
"Yep. I'm good at the first," he said confidently. "I don't know about the third, I do have two more drafts."
"And I expected to be reaaally good at the second," Daniel added, with a clear hint of nervousness in his voice.
Alexandra ended up laughing.
"Heyyy!"
"Sorry," she apologized, but still laughing.
She took his hand. "Everything's going to be alright. It's just funny seeing you nervous, since you're basically ridiculously carefree and sometimes overwhelmingly confident."
He snorted. "Overwhelmingly..."
But he ended up revealing. "God, I put 80% of my money into making these movies... gee, even my parents put a good chunk of their money into it..."
Alexandra widened her eyes. "You financed the whole movie?"
[Daniel commentary]
"The Harper & Pritchett, or H&P Studio. It was founded with 42 million dollars - 70% mine, 20% my father's, and 10% my mother's," Daniel read from the studio's initial report.
"That 29.4 million is basically 80% of my entire net worth. And the studio is basically spending all this money on the two movies: Mean Girls and Superbad."
He grew thoughtful. "I still don't know how I convinced the old man to make this giant bet..."
[Commentary ends]
The two of them were still holding hands when a girl walked by with her friends.
"Dani?"
"Oh, hey, Sam," he replied.
She glanced at Alexandra, gave a quick hello, and walked away with her friends.
Dani and Lexi looked at each other until she pulled her hand back and went back to eating her cake.
"No, no, no, I can see my brownie points fading away..." he remarked dramatically.
Alexandra just rolled her eyes again.
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