Chapter 268: Sheldon and Paige.

[Edward POV]

10 minutes later, Paige arrived at the beach house while riding a beat up car. Wearing a plain white, semi translucent shirt and long jeans, Paige was confused when she saw Missy opening the door and welcoming her inside the house.

"I thought, we were going to discuss the script?" She asked, confused.

"I lied obviously." I said with a mischievous grin. Missy was elated and she took Paige's hand, "You need to see the sea at night. It is so beautiful!"

 Paige's eyes shook as she realized that I had successfully lured her out of her hiding place. Glaring at me slightly as Missy pulled her away, Paige tried to ask, "Is Sheldon going to be here? If he's coming, please tell me! I don't want to meet him right now."

Depressed, Missy asked whiningly, "But why?"

"I have my reasons…" Paige said, feeling guilty towards Missy. However, as she wanted to get out of the house, she bumped into Sheldon and Mary at the door.

"Oh god." Stunned, Paige widened her eyes as she looked at Sheldon. "Hello." Sheldon greeted casually before he entered the house, walking past her.

"That's it?" Paige turned abruptly, flabbergasted by Sheldon's dismissive reaction. 

…

During dinner, despite Paige's nervousness, Sheldon didn't ask her even one question about what she's doing now– in fact, he wasn't interested in talking at all. All he did, was stare warily at me.

"I'm not going to do anything." I said with disbelief. My seat faced Sheldon directly, Paige sat next to me, Mary at the head of the table, and Missy next to Sheldon, facing Paige.

"How can I trust you? I know my game crashing right before I won a match is part of your insidious plan too." Sheldon replied with some bitterness.

Baffled, I said, "You know there's millions of people playing the game. Do you really think I'll risk destroying the game, just to mess with you? You think too much."

"Oh, really? Then tell me, why did a message pop up saying 'You suck' at my laptop, flashing for a second before it disappears when I start the game?"

"How should I know? Did you download the game from a risky website, or have frequent visits to such websites?" I asked instigatively.

Missy looked at him with disbelief. Even Paige gave him a disgusted look, but Sheldon didn't understand why people were staring at him. "You mean illegal websites? I've never surfed on them. There's too much important data in my laptop for me to do something that could compromise them." He explained.

Well to be honest, I was messing with him online with some pop up messages. But I never crashed his game when he was going to win a match. 

"Do you want me to take a look at your laptop and find out what's wrong with it? With your advanced age, I'm sure it'll be hard for you to do it yourself." I added an insult, packaged as a concern for him.

Missy giggled but Mary obliviously said, "That's a great idea. Why don't you let him take a look, Shelly?"

"Mother! I'm not an old person needing help from the younger generation about technology." Sheldon exclaimed in bewilderment. "That's you."

"Shelly, he's just trying to help." Mary scolded Sheldon. 

"More like, he's trying to insult me." Sheldon protested. 

"Anyway," Mary turned to Paige and asked, "I hear you two are working on a movie together. How's that going on?"

"Um.." Paige glanced at Sheldon, feeling self-conscious about her choice of career. 

Sheldon noticed it and asked obliviously, "Why are you looking at me? I don't know anything about your movie."

I rolled my eyes before turning to Mary, "Paige is a great screenwriter. Not that great in comedy, but she has some real world experiences unlike the other college graduate writers, which made her writing…um, believable."

Paige was taken aback, and Sheldon asked curiously, "How did you know that? Isn't this her first production?" His tone wasn't condescending or trying to insult Paige, but she felt the need to defend herself regardless. She interjected, "I did work on a few independent projects before–"

"But none of them finished their production." I exposed, making her glare at me. Turning to Sheldon, I replied, "Cause I read her works?"

"And you're qualified to assess the quality of her writing?" He asked condescendingly.

"I have 4 production credits which mainly focus on the script, so…yeah." I replied casually. "I got to say Sheldon, I thought you'll be more excited to meet Paige. You said she has been on your mind for decades."

Paige was taken aback, and her expression softened as she turned to Sheldon, "You were thinking about me?"

"No." Sheldon replied, dousing the little excitement Paige has in the topic. However, it was rekindled when he said, "Not on purpose. I have an eidetic memory, so thoughts about you come out even if I try not to think about you."

Paige's cheek turned red, and she had to sip on the wine to calm herself. Missy shot a knowing look as she glanced at me. 

"Oh-ho~" I exclaimed as my eyes darted between the oblivious Sheldon and the blushing Paige. "Wonder if Amy will kill me when she knows about this." I mumbled to myself. "Eh, they haven't dated yet." I shrugged before continuing to watch the duo.

"Sheldon, aren't you curious to know details about Paige's life? Aren't you two friends?" Mary asked.

"Not really, no." Sheldon replied flatly. 

Paige was irritated once more. "Are you toying with me?" She asked.

"Why would I toy with you?" Sheldon asked with confusion.

"Maybe because you toyed with his feelings before." I interjected to add some fuel to the fire. Paige turned towards me with astonishment and asked, "When did I do that?"

"You know, the first kiss." I whispered, which made Paige taken aback. Confused, Sheldon asked, "What are you guys talking about?"

"Nothing." Paige replied with a blush.

Mary didn't realize it and asked me, "Do you two work well together?" 

I chuckled and replied, "No. She seemed to have an opinion about me. But I'm too lazy to ask." 

The girls were taken aback but Sheldon felt as if he met a kindred spirit. "So, you too can see behind his facade."

"Behind this mask is just another mask, that is; the Batman mask." I said as I pointed to my face. 

Missy and Mary giggled, but Sheldon accepted the statement. He commented, "True. You can't be Bruce Wayne, but you can be a real life Batman. One that has both of his parents. Even though one of them abandoned you–"

Missy punched Sheldon's bicep, hard, which made him wince in pain, "OWW!! What's the matter with you!? Are you having sudden burst of violence tendencies as part of your menstrual cycle symptom–"

He got punched another time.

"OWW!" 

Mary quickly apologized on Sheldon's behalf, "Edward, I'm very sorry. Sheldon didn't mean it."

"Eh, not really bothered by it. It's a fact." I replied casually. 

"SEE! He's not bothered by it!" Sheldon said to Missy, but quickly shut his mouth when Missy threatened to punch him again. "Paige has an opinion on him too!" Sheldon quickly turned to Paige.

Being put in a tough spot, Paige hesitated and said, "I don't really have anything…"

Missy giggled and said, "You don't have to worry. He won't hold it against you or anything." She added teasingly, "He's too busy to care about people's opinion on him."

"That's accurate." I chuckled. Mary was feeling gossipy but she covered it by acting as if she wanted us to clear the misunderstanding, "Do you feel like he's wasteful for the way he throws his money around?"

"Oh, so That's how you feel about me." I interjected, which made Mary embarrassed. Paige glanced at me and asked, "You won't get mad?"

"Like I said, I don't really care. I don't know you enough to care about what you think about me." I replied. "But, we're going to work together, so if you have any issues about me, just talk to me about it." I added.

Paige took a deep breath, collected her thoughts before she spoke, "During our first meeting, I thought you were a misogynist and was making my work harder on purpose. B-But not now!"

I looked at her with confusion, which made her explain, "Well, you know, you seem like you don't want to work with me. But then I realized you just don't want to work on the movie. But on our second meeting, you had a lot of great input and you- you kept checking out Pepper's expression, which made me realize, you were just working on this for the CEO."

I nodded in agreement to what she said and asked curiously, "But what part of me seems like a misogynist?"

"So you DO care!" Missy interjected teasingly.

"Well I got to know." I played along with her. Paige breathed in relief and said, "Oh, I heard about your work on Breaking Bad, so I thought you just don't want to work with me because I'm a woman. I also thought you were a classist and didn't want to work with me because I'm poor–"

"You overthink a lot." I interjected with a deadpan expression. 

Paige smiled guiltily and said, "Sorry."

"So Sheldon, tell me about your research." Paige asked after we ate for a while. Sheldon replied, "Would you understand it if I told you about it now?"

"I kept my toes in science waters." Paige replied. "Alright." Sheldon replied before starting to talk about his research. Missy and Mary were bored as hell, but Paige and I listened closely to his works.

The last dinner with the Coopers went by pretty smoothly. Missy and Mary had a lot of baggage to bring home, which I helped load into the car. Missy scolded Sheldon, "You could at least help."

"I want to, but that looks heavy. Let the athlete do it." Sheldon replied as he took one step away from the bags. 

Mary hugged me and said, "Thank you Edward. We have known each other just for a little while, and you have been so generous to our family. I'll always keep you in my prayers from now on. I'll even pray for you before Shelly. And I hope that whatever it is you're doing, you'll always have God watching over you from all of the evils of mankind."

"Thank you Mary." I replied sincerely.

Mary grinned and said, "Perhaps one day, you'll even sing songs about bringing people to church–"

"Mom! Stop." Missy stopped Mary and slowly moved her to the side. "Get in the car, we're late!" Missy said to her mother before hugging me tightly, "Thank you Ed! Although I know you just brought us here to mess with Sheldon, I'm still very thankful for you!"

"I didn't. I brought you here because I want to get to know you." I flirted a bit with Missy, which made her say, "Still too young."

"Damn it." I cursed fakely, which made her giggle. She hugged me one more time to say goodbye. Mary and Missy also hugged Paige and Sheldon before they got into the car.

A driver took them to the airport from the beach house, leaving Paige, Sheldon and I alone there. Suddenly, Sheldon asked, "So who's going to take me home?"

"What?" Paige was confused. "Not it." I replied as I put on my sunglasses. Sheldon scoffed and said, "I'll never get in a car with someone who wears sunglasses to drive at night anyway."

"Paige, you can send this idiot home, can you?" I turned to Paige and asked.

"Excuse me– I have–" Sheldon tried to speak, but Paige interjected, "Sure I guess."

"It's 45 minutes away." I added.

Paige was in disbelief, "45 minutes! Um… I…err… I kinda have an important thing to get to."

"It's fine, I'll call my roommate to pick me up." Sheldon said casually. 

"She doesn't have any appointments." I exposed Paige. "She just doesn't want to be alone with you. I'm assuming she was anxious about something."

"Anxious about what?" Sheldon asked in confusion. "I don't know, ask her." I replied with a shrug. "You guys can use the drive home to work it out."

Then, I left the beach house in my car, leaving behind the two of them. I wasn't curious to see what would happen with them. Knowing Sheldon, nothing will. 

…

The next morning, inside my villa by the seaside. As I was sipping some coffee, my dad asked with confusion, "Why do you have a trip to Colorado planned tomorrow?"

"Oh that. Dylan invited me to his house for Thanksgiving, but I couldn't be there, so I was going to visit him before Thanksgiving." I replied casually.

He looked uncomfortable and said, "So, you don't think to tell me about your trip to another State? Alone at that?"

I looked at him weirdly and said, "It's just Colorado. Besides, I'm taking a break. Isn't that what you always wanted me to do?"

"That doesn't mean I'm going to let my underage son travel the country on his own!" My dad replied.

I sipped my coffee silently, which made him agitated. "Ahh~" I exclaimed in satisfaction, which irritated him. "I'm not going alone, Frankie's going with me."

"What–" My dad widened his eyes. "She didn't tell me." He mumbled, but I could hear him. Then, he looked at me with bewilderment and asked, "Why is she going there with you?"

"I invited her." I replied casually, which made my dad even more confused. "But…why?" He asked exasperatingly.

Maybe because I wanted to see if Frankie's doppelganger was in Greendale. If I manage to make them meet, will one of them absorb the other, or will they merge together, or will the world get destroyed– hopefully not the last one, but I was excited regardless.

"Just because. I'll be back on Wednesday night." I said casually to my dad, which made him stunned speechless. 

"I understand you less and less Ed." My dad shook his head as he walked away in defeat. Laughing at his misery, I said, "Don't worry, I won't flirt with your girl."

"I'm not worried about that." My dad replied agitatedly. "Tell Dylan I said Hi." He said before he left the house to go to work. But before he left, he turned around and asked again, "Why did you want Frankie to come with you? Just tell me that so I can relax."

I sighed and replied, "I just want to get her help on something."

"What help?" my dad asked.

"You want to know that too?" I replied with disbelief. "Just restructuring helps, and maybe… overhaul the entire college administration, holding a coup, you know, just ordinary stuff."

"It's fine if you don't want to tell me. Don't make stuff up." My dad replied before he walked away.

I had plans on getting my haircut today, but then I received a text from Alex before I could get up from drinking my coffee in the kitchen.

"Let's see, Thanksgiving will be held on the last Thursday of November. But in the series, they blow off Thanksgiving dinner to celebrate Luke's birthday. But Luke's birthday is on Saturday…" I read Alex's text, which was about Luke's birthday invitation. 

"I'm confused now." I shook my head slightly before I replied to Alex to say 'I will be coming' to the party. Robin suddenly appeared and said, "Sir, your treasure hunting kit is now ready."

"Oh, that's great. Remind me to take them on the trip." I replied with excitement. Yeah, my purpose for going to Colorado wasn't only to visit Dylan, but I had other plans with Greendale Community College. Maybe, doing something to ensure the place wasn't such a mess? Who knows, that'll depend on my mood tomorrow.

When I was going to start the car and go to my hair appointment, I suddenly received a video call from Haley. Surprised, I answered the call, only for Alex and Luke to be on the screen.

"Hello?" I greeted puzzledly.

"Sorry, my phone ran out of battery." Alex said. "Were you excited for her to call?" She teased.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"Remember the Fel D 1 experiment?" She showed her papers and smiled, "I believed I had done it."

"You mean, the federal agents had done it." Although it was a petty revenge, I had to take the shot.

"Shut up." Alex grimaced. "Come and read it." She said cheerfully.

"I don't have time today. I need to get my hair cut, and I have work to do in the afternoon." I said with a disappointed expression. "You can email it to me, I'll read it when I'm at the salon."

"You're a cowboy?" Luke suddenly chimed in. "I wish." I replied to him. 

"I don't have any soft copy though." Alex said.

"Hello hello! I'm here!" Gloria suddenly showed up on the screen, seemingly just getting into the Dunphy's house. Her eyes lit up as she saw me, "Edward! Thank you for letting Manny into the music video! My family back in Colombia is all very happy to see him act!" Gloria intruded on the video call and Alex was shoved to the side. 

Wearing a tight, low cut floral dress, Gloria took the phone from Alex and asked me, "What should Manny do next? Should he audition for movies or tv series? Or is that the wrong move for him?"

"Rather than asking me, it'd be better if you discuss with Manny and see if he wants to become a child actor." I said casually. Gloria realized that she had been thinking too far ahead and laughed, "I should do that first shouldn't I?"

Alex squeezed her way into the camera shot and said, "You know, since you brought them into that industry, you're responsible for them."

I sighed and said, "I know I know."

Gloria pushed Alex away again, thanking her at the same time, "So what time can you get here to discuss their career?"

Alex shouted, "He doesn't have time today. He needs to get his haircut."

Gloria narrowed her eyes as she scrutinized my hair and said, "Haircut? I used to work as a hairdresser. I can cut your hair."

Alex scoffed and said, "He's going to a fancy hair salon."

"You're saying I'm not fancy! That I can't cut celebrities' hair! Let me tell you something, men will line up at the hair salon to get their haircut by me!" Gloria spoke agitatedly.

"I don't think they're there to get their hair cut." I replied teasingly. "What?!" Gloria snapped.

"N0-Nothing. Well, I only need a trim, so I guess you can cut my hair." I replied.

Personally, I'd like to experience getting my hair cut by her, but at the same time, I was a bit afraid of her messing it up since my hair was a big part of my identity. Nevertheless, my curiosity got the best of me.

After a short drive, I arrived at the Dunphy's house where Gloria cut my hair in the kitchen while I pretended to read Alex's research papers. Gloria hugged my head and brought my face really close to her bosom as she checked out the length of the hair she just cut.

"Hmm…" She pressed her bosom on my face as she leaned in closer to see my hair given her short sightedness. "Umph." I grunted as I couldn't read the papers anymore…well, who cares about the papers by now.

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