Best of both worlds (a Big Bang theory fanfic)

Chapter 12: The girls night hypothesis

I had just arrived at Amy's apartment and knocked on the door, I was rather excited for tonight. Things were really beginning to feel right again.
"Ah hello Alice" I was greeted by Sheldon who let me into the apartment.
"Sheldon, hi. How are you?" I gave him a warm smile and listened as he explained that he had a fun evening planned doing some sciencey thing which I didn't particularly understand, "well that sounds lovely, enjoy it" I say as he walks into his room and I join the girls in the kitchen area.
"Alice! Here have a glass" Penny hands me a glass of wine as I sit down beside Bernadette.
"Thank you, how are you guys?" I ask taking a sip from the glass.
Bernadette was the first to respond, "Very tired but yeah I'm good, ready for a night away from the kids".
Penny laughed a bit at this, "tell me about it! Honestly I'm so glad that we get tonight off. Like Rose is amazing but I have been missing my social life lately".
"And you only have one!".

I turned to Amy, noticing she had been a bit quiet, "what about you? Penny told me some animals escaped or something earlier in the week?".
"Oh yeah we we're working with lizards and studying their behavioural patterns but a few of them escaped their enclosure which was certainly interesting. They got quite far as well. I mean it was interesting to include in the study but we spent the whole morning searching for them and then had safety checks all afternoon. Luckily things have been calmer since then". There was a clear smile on her face as she recalled what had happened. Her work seemed really interesting I do have to say and it was clear she enjoyed it.
"I love lizards but That does sound a bit chaotic" I say laughing. For a while growing up I had really wanted to get a lizard, I just thought they were so cool and I tried really hard to convince my parents to let me get one. My parents however weren't too keen on the idea so I never did get one sadly.

"How was your week?" Amy asks turning the attention to me.
My week certainly hadn't been as entertaining as Amy's but oh well. "It was alright. Since I've had the week off work I've been a little lazy, watched some films and tellly but I have started making a new dress which is exciting".
"Oooh what kind of dress?" Penny asked intruiged.
"Well it's probably something the boys will be a little more excited by. I'm making a Padme amidala cosplay"
Yeah the boys definitely would have been more excited by that but the girls were still interested, "That sounds cool".
"Yeah it's exciting, I haven't made a cosplay outfit in so long and I know Stuart was talking about doing another costume party at the comic book store so it'll be perfect for then!" Sewing and making costumes was certainly something I could spend hours talking about. Honestly I was really beginning to find myself again with it all, for years I had to try and suppress the more geeky side of my personality but now I just needed to find ways to bring it back.
"Not another costume party... I'm just going to stay in with the kids instead" Bernadette says laughing.
Penny agrees with this, "yeah sorry Alice you're on you own with the boys for that".
I do let out a slight chuckle, "That's fine with me, I'll babysit them".
All three of them seemed to find that funny.

"Raj will be very happy that you'll be there" Penny interjects with a scheming smile on her face.
"Oh..." I wasn't quite sure what she meant by that.
"Yes very happy" Amy agrees which just confuses me more.
I look around at the girls who seem overly excited for no clear reason at all, "what on Earth of you guys talking about?".
"It's so obvious he likes you!" Bernadette points out.
"We'll we are friends but he doesn't like me as anymore than that" I respond taking a sip of my drink. Me and him had talked, Valentine's Day was a mistake that we had moved past, which was something we both agreed on.
Penny gives Bernadette and Amy a quick look, trying to stop laughter escaping her mouth, "oh no, he definitely has a crush on you".
"No he doesn't, we're just friends!" I argue back, repeating myself. But the three of them refused to believe me.

Their laughter had led to Sheldon emerging from his room, "it's hard to concentrate with you all laughing like that".
"Ah Sheldon come here and settle something for us" Penny said leading him towards the group.
He of course was happy to give his opinion, not knowing what it was about "Of course, my intellect is always here when you need it".
"Okay so does Raj have a huge crush on Alice?".
His expression sunk, clearly that wasn't the score he was hoping to settle, "I don't care for gossip".
"And I respect that" I say, relieved he wasn't joining in. I didn't need to risk him backing them up on this.
"Hang on a minute, you love being right and we're asking you to give us the answer. You can do that" Bernadette suggests, clearly trying to manipulate him, which just wasn't fair.
It worked though, "alright, this once. The excessive amount Raj mentions you and compliments you does strongly Suggest he sees you as a potential mate".
At this point I chocked on my drink, "you guys are all crazy!".
"No I'm not, my mother had me tested".

I couldn't convince any of them otherwise and quickly gave up, letting them all believe what they wanted to. But surely he didn't have a crush on me... after all we had decided to put what happened on Valentine's Day behind us. Either way at least one of us was misreading things but the girls couldn't have been right, they probably just got excited to set Raj up with someone.