He sat on one of the tables of Nervosa, patiently waiting for his coffee to be served. Frasier Crane didn't expect anyone to be joining him that day; not his family and certainly not a date. He was simply looking for some place to reflect on his life and the paths he had chosen over the years.
A soft touch on his shoulders made him shiver, cutting his line of thought. He looked around, getting ready to burst at the attendant, but instead he found brownish hair and a sappy smile directed at him.
"Oh, it's you, Roz."
"What happened to you?" Without waiting to be asked, she joined him right away, putting her coffee on the table. "You look terrible, Fras."
"I've come here to think about things, and I've come to a decision." After saying it dramatically, he paused, trying to make suspense. His assistent knew him way too much to fall for it. "I'm giving up on dating."
"Oh, God, Frasier, not this again. I've known you for what, seven years now? We've had this conversation at least 10 times. It's getting a bit tiring, really."
"No, I'm serious now. I just had an epiphany. I'm never going to settle down with someone the way I want to, so why bother?"
She rolled her eyes at him. "Look, Frasier, you're going to find someone. Lots of someones, actually. Seattle is full of women who would go crazy to date you."
"That's the point, Roz! I don't want to date people. I want to love a person, and be loved back. I love... love. You know?"
She bit a straw, looking serious. "Frasier, you over-think things. Just put yourself out there, like I do. Someday you'll find something. And while you don't find it, at least you'll be having some fun."
"I'm done having fun. I want a relationship, not a series of encounters. I can't put myself out there like you, because you want the opposite of me, Roz."
"What do you mean?"
"Oh, c'mon. You don't want a relationship. You're afraid of them, so you go from guy to guy." He tried to say it carefully, but the damage was done.
"I do not!" She said, offended. "I just haven't found someone that I really can see myself settling with, you know?"
She took a sip of her coffee, as the attendant brought her boss his order. An awkward silence followed them for a few moments.
"Okay, maybe I have been escaping from serious relationships", she finally spoke. "Damn it, Frasier, you're putting me in a funk, too."
"You always find trouble and break up before giving the guy a chance." He pointed out.
"Well, I might be scared of commitment, but you're the one who scare women with your love for commitment."
"I do n... Okay, you're right." He sighed, sipping his expresso. "And that's why I'm giving up."
"Just like that? Wow, Frasier, are you the same guy who told Betty from Spokane that she should try to change to achieve her dreams?"
"Her dream was to be a brunette, Roz." He said, annoyed. "That's quite different from my situation."
"Look, we're on the opposite sides of a spectrum of screw ups. We might suck at love, but It doesn't mean we should stop trying at all. We should just... try to learn how to correct our mistakes."
"Oh yeah, how?", he said with a mocking tone. "Dating each other? Yeah, that would stop the trainwreck."
She didn't answer immediately, which made him turn to really look at her. That was absurd, he was sure of it. She avoided his eyes, taking the last sip as slow as possible. She cleared her throat before explanning.
"No, not date each other. Not for real. But as we're both single, we could do an sort of experiment... as friends, you know. Go through the dating process, seeing what are our most common mistakes and notify each other, so we can try to avoid them in the future."
"You mean, doing this as cientifically as possible? That could... work. If we report everything, and get someone professional to analyze us... this could really work, Roz!"
His voice got more excited as hers got more careful. "Pro-professional? I was really thinking about you know, a date and that was it."
"No, no no! We could do the whole experience! 40 days." He took a paper from the table, and started to look for his pen on his suitcase. "You see, I assume we're both charming and galant on our first dates, cause getting a second one isn't so hard. It's the later that is the problem, isn't it?"
"I suppose."
"As you said, we're both single. We're friends long enough to be comfortable telling each other what's really wrong. I guess we could make this work!"
She almost immediately regretted giving him the idea. It sounded wrong. Frasier was... well, Frasier. But she didn't want to spend the rest of her life going from meaningless to meaningless relationships. Alice was growing up, and it would be nice to have a father figure around. God knows Rick made his entire life in Paris... and while she'd like to say otherwise, she did listen to Frasier when he spoke up about her crap, and she knew that he did the same.
"This is... crazy, Fras. This is really crazy. And dangerous. We could ruin our friendship."
"It will be all circunstancial, Roz. See, it's perfect. It's our chance to get over or problems!" His face was lit with the excitment. "It's crazy, but adventurous. And new."
She was finally sold.
"So, how would this work? Should we make rules?"
He wrote on the paper, with a flourishing calligraphy: '40 Days of Dating'. She laughed at his girly action, but did not comment on it. "Rule number one would be that we should see each other every day", he said as he was writing.
"That sounds reasonable" Roz said. "We do see each other everyday at work, so it wouldn't be so difficult."
"Rule number two... we should go to two dates a week."
"Two? That's not usually what happens in my life." She pointed out. "Make it three, to be more realistic."
"Okay, three dates a week." He risked the number two, and fixed the paper. "Let's see.. well, we gotta see a professional once a week."
"You mean, a couple's therapist? Is that really necessary, Frasier?" She didn't like to be analized.
"We can use Niles, he's good. And not a stranger. We need someone to push our boundaries, a person to have a professional opinion on our personal growth."
"Fine, we'll use Niles. As long as he doesn't mock my love life anymore. I won't take it."
"I'll be specific about that when I talk to him, but you can be certain that he won't. He's a professional, after all. Next. Rule number four... we should report everything. You know, so we can compare the thoughts over the process."
She rolled her eyes. "Ugh, this is going to be so boring. I didn't write diaries even when I was in high school. But okay, we can try that. What else?"
"The correct thing would be for us not to date anyone else in the period. Not see, date, hookup, or have sex with anyone else. But I know this isn't usually your style..." She looked at him, pissed. "...no judgement, but let's be honest, it isn't. So, it's up to you."
"Exclusive for 40 days. Talk about a challenge.. okay, accepted."
"And we should go on a trip in the last weekend of the experiment. The final barreer."
"Fine. Anything else, mister?"
He finished writing and made two lines at the end. He looked at her, pensative. This was really a crazy idea. Smiling, he signed, and passed to her. She hesitated for a second before signing it too. They shook hands.
"I feel good about this, Roz. It's going to be a fun experience. And you know, no consequences. What could possibly go wrong?"