Chapter 88: The Double Standards
Game night. My penthouse. Katie's here.
Everyone's acting weird.
Howard's sitting perfectly straight. No crude jokes. No belt buckle references.
Raj is calling Katie "Ms. Stevens" despite her asking him to use her first name.
Leonard's barely speaking. Just nodding along.
Even Bernadette seems formal.
"This is painful," Katie whispers to me.
"I know."
"Make it stop."
"Working on it."
Sheldon's the only one acting normal. Because Sheldon doesn't care about celebrity status.
"Katie," he says during a Halo match. "Your driving technique is suboptimal. You're drifting left consistently."
"I—am I?"
"Yes. Adjust three degrees right."
She does. Immediately improves.
"Oh. That's better. Thanks."
"You're welcome."
Everyone else is still frozen. Treating us like royalty.
I've had enough.
"Okay. Stop."
They all look at me.
"Stop what?" Howard asks innocently.
"This. Whatever this is. The weird formality. The careful speech. Just—stop."
"We're not—"
"Howard. You haven't made a single inappropriate joke all night. Raj, you're calling Katie 'Ms. Stevens' like she's your boss. Leonard, you've said maybe ten words. This is ridiculous."
Silence.
Then Leonard: "We're intimidated."
"By what?"
"By her." He gestures at Katie. "She's famous. She's on TV. She's—"
"She's a person," I finish. "Just a person who happens to be on a TV show. That's it."
"Stuart's right," Katie adds. "This is exactly what I hate. People treating me different because of what I do."
"But you're—" Raj starts.
"What? Special? Better? I'm not. I'm an actress. That's a job. Like physicist is a job. Or engineer."
"It's not the same," Howard protests.
"It's exactly the same. You went to school. Got training. Work in your field. I did the same. Different field. Same process."
Sheldon's nodding. "That's logically sound. Celebrity status is merely a statistical byproduct of public-facing professions. It doesn't indicate superiority."
"Thank you, Sheldon."
"You're welcome. Now can we continue the game? This social recalibration is consuming valuable gameplay time."
Something breaks.
Howard laughs. Makes a joke about Sheldon's priorities. It's crude. It's inappropriate. It's normal.
Raj relaxes. Starts talking to Katie about his telescope. No formality. Just excitement.
Leonard joins the conversation. Debating something about astrophysics.
Bernadette catches my eye. Mouths: Thank you.
Midnight. Everyone's left except Katie.
"That was good," she says. "The confrontation. Needed to happen."
"They're good people. Just—starstruck."
"I know. But I don't want to be a star with your friends. I want to be Katie. Who dates Stuart. Who plays video games badly. Who fits in."
"You do fit in."
"I do now. After you pushed reset."
She's washing dishes. My dishes. In my kitchen.
"This is nice," she observes.
"Cleaning?"
"Normal. Being with people who care about you, not what you can do for them."
"That's Hollywood?"
"That's everywhere famous. Everyone wants something. Access. Introductions. Roles. It's exhausting."
"And here?"
"Here you're just—you. Successful at your thing. Comfortable with your people. Not trying to leverage me."
"Should I be leveraging you?"
"God no. That's the point. You don't need to. You've got your own thing going."
She dries her hands. Turns to face me.
"I like this. Your world. Your friends. The fact that Sheldon critiqued my driving and nobody thought that was weird."
"Sheldon critiques everything."
"I know. It's perfect."
We end up on the couch. Her head on my shoulder.
"Stuart?"
"Yeah?"
"Thank you. For not being intimidated. For having friends who see past the TV thing. For—being real."
"You make that sound rare."
"It is rare. Trust me."
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