They seemed to flicker and dance almost in unison their soft light creating an ethereal and surreal backdrop to the supposed festivities. Barely distinct distorted and oddly shaped shadows played across the wall as the candles arranged in a haphazard pattern on the small cake continued to slowly melt away to their inevitable extinction.
The flame from each candle reflected in her glasses Bernadette leaned forward slightly from her seated position on the couch. She seemed to hesitate for a second when with a huff she blew all the candles out in an instant before with arms folded against her chest collapsed with a loud sigh back on to couch.
"Fine birthday this turned out to be!" she offered angrily.
Penny lounged back in her chair calmly sipping at her glass of wine. The last wisps of smoke from the candles dissolved slowly in the air as she studied the almost annoyed and exasperated expression plastered across her best friends face.
"Ok what did Howard do this time?"
Bernadette raised herself back up to a sitting position her wide open eyes glaring at Penny.
"How did you know it was Howard's fault?"
"Listen sweetie when you get to know Howard as long as I have," she stopped to down the remaining wine in her glass, "the very first you discover about him is that it's always his fault!"
She picked up the wine bottle from the coffee table to refill her now empty glass right up to the brim.
"In fact," Penny continued, "if the rumors are correct and I'm pretty sure that they are all women cringe in horror and revulsion whenever the name Howard Wolowitz is mentioned!"
"Hey!," Bernadette snapped, "Howard may be an idiot and a moron but he is mine and I love him."
"Sorry I didn't mean-."
"I knew exactly what you meant!," Bernadette cut her off with a cheeky smile, "but I still mad at him and it won't get him off the hook!"
Quickly gulping down half of the contents of her glass Penny leaned forward in her chair. "What did he do tell me, tell me!"
"Well I shouldn't be telling you this..." Her voice faded into silence leaving Penny hanging.
"Come on tell me you know it won't go any further than me or this room!"
"Ok ok. Well in the week leading up to my birthday he kept dropping hints that he had booked a high class restaurant for a wonderful romantic birthday dinner for just the two of us. And no it wasn't the Olive Garden or The Cheesecake Factory! I must admit I was pretty chuffed when we walked in the door of the restaurant only to be lead to a our table to find his mother sitting there!"
"No way! What did you do?"
:"I stormed out that's what I did. Later on he had audacity and nerve to give me a Lego death star as a birthday present and top it all off I heard that he arranged for tickets for the guys to see the new Star Trek movie leaving us to celebrate my birthday all alone."
"Actually in this case you can't blame Howard for everything."
Bernadette looked at Penny with a puzzled expression on her face. "What do you mean?"
"The part about Howard arranging tickets for the guys is not exactly true..."
"Huh?'" It was all Bernadette could offer in return.
"Well I was the one who told the guys to tell you that it was Howard who got them the tickets so that you will be even more mad at him and also to make doubly sure he wouldn't be here."
"Why?"
She was a little more than puzzled when Penny did not offer a reply looking on as she rose to her feet to stride the short distance behind the couch towards her bedroom. It was only then when Bernadette had twisted her head around to follow her that she noticed it was strange and unusual that her bedroom door was closed and shut something that almost never happened.
Penny had stood by the closed door for only a few seconds before she turned the handle letting the door swing open on its own.
As if to heighten the tension for just couple of seconds nothing happened as Bernadette looked on expectantly as the door slowly swung open noiselessly on its arc. Then the figures of Rajesh, Leonard, Zack and Barry Kripke emerged all dressed in white robes tied securely with a sash around the waist. All them calmly followed Penny standing directly behind her as she sat back down.
Her eyes darted from Penny crossing her tanned legs as she eased herself back onto her chair then to the boys standing behind her and then back to Penny in one continuous cycle.
"What's going on?" she asked innocently.