New Jersey.
Princeton University.
The moment Leonard, the overbearing CEO type, laid eyes on his goddess, he instantly turned back into the wobbly-kneed, timid Leonard we all know.
"No surprise there!" Adam thought to himself with an internal eye-roll. Still, he had to smooth things over for his buddy. "Leonard's not just your junior here, he's also a huge fan. He's super impressed by your academic work."
"Oh, really?" Elizabeth Plimpton said, finally tearing her gaze away from Adam for a second to glance at Leonard. "You're a Princeton student too?"
"Y-Yes, I…" Leonard stammered, completely falling apart.
"He's just too excited to meet his idol," Adam chimed in, barely able to watch. But he had to keep propping Leonard up. Otherwise, this version of Leonard might go home, blast some heartbreak ballads, and—God forbid—buy a cat.
This wasn't ten years from now, when that geneticist in San Diego would breed those adorable, hypoallergenic transgenic kittens. With Leonard's asthma, getting a cat now would basically be suicide.
In American TV shows, normal people like dogs. Weirdos go for cats. Dogs suck up to you; cats don't—and they trigger allergies with those creepy, shadowy stares. A young, single guy like Leonard—already a "lone dog"—getting a cat? That's a clear sign he's been crushed by life, given up all hope, and is basically socially self-destructing.
Adam couldn't just stand by and let Leonard off himself like that.
"Leonard, you're a physics guy too, right? Weren't you always going on about how amazing Dr. Plimpton is?" Adam said, forcibly dragging him into the conversation.
"Y-Yeah, yeah," Leonard managed. After a moment to catch his breath, he was doing a little better. His words were still shaky, but at least they made sense now. "D-Dr. Plimpton, I've read all your papers. So many times."
"You understood them?" Elizabeth asked, genuinely curious. "Any thoughts?"
"Uh, uh…" Leonard's face turned bright red, and he was back to babbling nonsense.
He was just a physics student, driven by his crush to read her papers over and over. Sure, he could kinda grasp the basics, but deep insights? No way. IQ's just the hardware—without serious training, it's like a computer with no operating system. Useless. Plus, theory wasn't his strong suit anyway; it's why he'd later become an experimental physicist. And Elizabeth Plimpton? She was deep into the mind-bending world of quantum cosmology.
Adam rubbed his forehead. This guy was impossible to carry.
"You're in the physics department too? My junior?" Elizabeth asked with a light laugh, turning to Adam.
Leonard was the type she saw every day—nothing new there. But Adam? He was different. She'd never met anyone quite like him.
"Nope," Adam said, shaking his head with a grin. "I'm just Leonard's good friend. I've heard so much about you, Dr. Plimpton, from him—my ears are practically calloused over. Didn't expect him to clam up like this when he finally met you, though."
Elizabeth was in her prime, radiant and stunning, but Adam kept the conversation orbiting around Leonard, showing zero interest in diving deeper with her.
The future version of her? Way too wild. She'd left too strong an impression on him.
"Just call me Elizabeth," she said, her eyes lingering on Adam.
Leonard, standing awkwardly between them, suddenly felt like he'd turned invisible. A bad vibe hit him hard.
"No!" he blurted out in a panic.
"What's wrong?" Adam asked, startled.
"Dr. Plimpton, I'm Leonard! I've read all your papers—you're incredible!" Fear of fading away somehow kicked him into gear. He shoved down his nerves, stuck out his hand, and rambled, "I'm Leonard, a physics student here at Princeton. Sorry about earlier—I just wanted to seem smart."
Adam: "…"
You didn't need to say 'I'm Leonard' twice for me to believe you're still a mess.
"No worries," Elizabeth said with a smile, shaking his hand. Then she glanced at Adam. "Why don't we all sit and chat?"
"Thank you, thank you! You're so down-to-earth," Leonard gushed, finally slipping into full fanboy mode.
Adam felt a wave of relief.
Once they sat down, with a little nudge from Adam's眼神 (eye signal), Leonard finally got it together. He started asking Elizabeth some academic questions—mostly begging for advice.
At first, she wasn't that into it. But when she noticed Adam looking interested too, she warmed up, happily tossing out some basic physics tidbits.
Back-and-forth like that, Leonard's confidence grew. He even landed a few nerdy jokes that had Elizabeth giggling.
Adam watched, amazed.
"You can go now—I've got this," Leonard whispered, poking Adam under the table. When Elizabeth wasn't looking, he shot Adam a "fierce" glare with those big eyes, signaling him to get lost.
"Seriously?" Adam's mouth twitched.
This guy was ditching him now?
Adam's first instinct was to smack some sense into him. But then he remembered last Sunday—Leonard waiting all day downstairs for Peggy, looking pathetic—and that flustered mess from earlier.
"Fine, guess I'm just too good a friend," Adam sighed to himself, running a hand through his hair.
Ding-a-ling.
Lisa, who'd been secretly snapping pics nearby, caught Adam's signal and dialed his phone right on cue.
"Sorry, gotta take this. You two keep chatting," Adam said with an apologetic smile, grabbing his phone and stepping away.
Leonard's grin was practically bursting. In his head, he was screaming, "Adam, you're the best bro ever! I almost misjudged you!"
"He's always so busy," Leonard said quickly, noticing Elizabeth watching Adam walk off.
"Oh? What does he do that keeps him so tied up?" she asked, turning back to Leonard with a warm smile.
That smile stopped Leonard's heart for a second. He stared at her, lovestruck, yelling internally, "It's just us now! I'm done for! I'm done for!"
"Leonard? Leonard?" Elizabeth called, snapping him out of it.
"Uh, what'd you say?" He blinked back to reality, already forgetting her question, his face flushing.
"I asked what Adam does. He's so busy," she repeated, still smiling.
"Oh! Adam's a doctor. Just graduated from Columbia Medical School this year. He's doing his residency at New York Medical Center…" Leonard rattled off, eager to make up for spacing out on his goddess.
Seeing her smile and look so interested, he was over the moon. He spilled everything he knew—and some stuff he didn't—about Adam.
"Praise Adam!" he cheered in his head. Without Adam, he'd have nothing to talk about with her!
"So that's who he is," Elizabeth murmured after a while.
"Yep!" Leonard nodded hard, smirking to himself.
With an IQ of 173, he wasn't clueless about romance like Sheldon. Sure, chatting with his goddess using Adam's stories was a blast. But he wasn't about to let his guard down.
So, in his version, Adam became this flirty, kinda sleazy guy.
That should kill her interest, right?
Heh heh heh, how am I this smart?
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