Epilogue

"And then what happened?" asked Penny's friend Bernadette Rostenkowski.

"Well, all hell broke loose," said Penny. "The blonde lady started screaming at me, Leonard started screaming at her, Howard and Raj kept using their damned camera phones... Then I found out that the blonde lady had my car towed and my clothes taken away so I had to borrow a coat from Raj and get a ride home from Leonard in the same car as the other guys. Boy, was that awkward! Having to ride in the same car as four guys while wearing only a coat? That's not something I want to do again."

"Well, surely something good came of all this, right?" asked Bernadette.

"Well, I did actually get paid for the brief amount of time I worked," said Penny. "The blonde lady wanted to stiff me but her brother -- the guy who hired me -- insisted that I got paid for my time. Granted, I got paid in cash but still I got paid."

And then Penny opened up her purse and showed Bernadette all the money she had earned that evening.

"Wow!" exclaimed Bernadette. "That's a lot of money. What are you going to do with it all?"

"Pay bills, mostly," said Penny. "After I first pay rent, of course. And anything left over I'll probably just put in the bank."

"Oh, wow!" exclaimed Bernadette. "I don't suppose you wish to expand your money supply, do you?"

"How would I do that?" said Penny.

"Well, you can play cards with me for a penny -- no pun intended -- a point and win," said Bernadette.

"No, thanks," said Penny. "I'd rather not."

"How about a dollar a point?" asked Bernadette.

"Still no, thanks," said Penny.

"Okay," said Bernadette. "You're probably no good at cards, anyway."

"No good!" cried Penny. "I'll show you who's no good. Now get out that card deck and get out your cash. We're going to play for ten dollars a point and I'm going to beat you."

"Can we make it even more interesting and make it strip poker as well?" asked Bernadette. "After all, you are fully dressed now."

"Sure," said Penny. "But I'm telling you, Bernadette, you're going to feel pretty silly at the end of the night when you're sitting there stark naked and I have all your cash, plus all your clothes."

"Whatever you say, Penny," said Bernadette as she reached for her deck of marked cards...