Life would never be the same again for Danny Castellano. Being in love had changed his whole outlook on life. He could no longer keep up the old-fashioned curmudgeon routine- the cat was well and truly out of the bag. He was in love with Mindy Lahiri and he could no longer hide his smiles or stifle his giggles when he was around her. It seemed crazy to him now that he had wanted to keep their relationship a secret the first time around. These days, PDAs were commonplace in Shulman and Associates and he was nowhere near as irritated or embarrassed by comments from their co-workers about their sex life as he though he would be. It had come as a surprise to him that his colleagues had been so encouraging of his pursuit of her. He had come to realise that the gossipy, overly-invested-in-each-others'- lives nature of their office had in fact thrown him a life line. He knew they were responsible for ultimately getting her to believe in him and he would be eternally grateful. And definitely friendlier around the office.
It was for this reason that Dr Castellano came to be stood outside the window of a jewelry store with a gaggle of his colleagues, all of whom were now squashed together fighting for a peek at the precious item they had come to inspect (all except Beverly, who had sheepishly muttered something before they had left about cops, jewelry and somebody called Susan). Morgan's nose was pressed fully against the glass, eliciting some irritated glares from the store manager inside.
"So uh… what do you guys all think?" Danny asked tentatively, eyeing each of his colleagues expectantly, trying to gauge their first impressions.
"Damn, Dr C. I think I might just dump his sorry ass and marry you myself!" declared Tamra, poking Morgan affectionately in the ribs as she spoke.
"This is gon' earn you some serious brown sugar, bro!" declared Peter, patting him roughly on the shoulder to demonstrate his approval.
"Danny. It's exquisite. She's a lucky girl" smiled Jeremy kindly.
Morgan simply grabbed him by the shoulders, pulled him forward into a bear hug (almost winding him in the process) and sobbed into his hair. Pulling away, he nodded approvingly and wiped a tear from his eye. Danny rolled his eyes at him and brushed down his hair to show his irritation at the gesture, but who was he kidding… he loved that his friends were so invested in his future with Mindy.
"Ok, so I'm doing this. This is happening." Danny announced nervously.
Truth was, he was petrified. He knew she would say yes, the three months they had spent together as an official couple had allayed any doubt in his mind that they were both all in. But Mindy was a sophisticated woman with a particular taste, and he knew that the ring had to be one hundred percent perfect. Mindy was a woman who could never mask her disapproval of something convincingly, so he would know instantly if she were to not like his choice. He desperately wanted to see joy in her eyes and for her to see how well he knows her. He had opted for a simple yet elegant white gold and diamond three-stone ring. It was exactly what he imagined on her finger, and he smiled to himself at the thought of her waving her hand around for all the world to see. He knew he loved it, but he wanted to run it by the people he had grown to appreciate greatly over the past few months. He was certain she would be touched to know they helped him along the way.
"So go do it!" They all encouraged as they pushed him through the doors, cheering rowdily enough to attract the attention of a rather surly looking security guard.
"Perhaps we'll leave you to it" suggested Jeremy, sensibly.
Less than an hour later, Danny was walking out of the jewelry store with a very special box safely ensconced in his jacket pocket. He had considered it an extremely good sign that the ring in the window had been her exact size. He could hardly wait to put the next stage of his plan into action and his cheeks ached from the constant smile that could not be wiped from his face. Yeah, life would never be the same again. And he loved it.