"Could you hand me that file?"
Danny sent her an unimpressed look, and crossed his arms.
"… please?"
"As you wish." He winked at her and reached out for the patient file on the table, giving it to her, and turning back to his own work. There was a moment of complete silence, which normally Danny would enjoy, but when he looked at Mindy, she was staring back, mouth agape and eyes opened wide.
"Min? Are you okay?"
"Did you just quote The Princess Bride?!"
"The what?"
Her look of complete awe went away, and was replaced by one of annoyance. Danny couldn't quite stop grinning though, a thing that was unfortunately more and more frequent, when he dealt with Mindy.
"Seriously, Danny. You have GOT to be kidding me!"
"What? What did I do wrong?"
"The Princess Bride? Danny. It's only one of the best romantic movies ever. And there's like giants and swords and a princess and Cary Elwes before he got old and ugly."
"Cary Elwes. Why does that sound familiar? Wait. Wasn't he the guy who played Robin Hood in that movie you forced me to watch?"
"Ugh, you're the worst."
She rolled her eyes and looked down on her work, clearly indicating that she could not deal with his lack of pop culture knowledge anymore. God she was beautiful like that. All annoyed and concentrated. Her hair in a loose ponytail, one lock having escaped the rest, and now making its way towards her face. He felt the need to reach out and push it behind her ear, but as usual he restrained himself. The one time he'd let himself do exactly what he'd wanted, it had come back to bite him in the ass, when she admitted she had gotten back together with Casey. He was not going to create yet another perfectly romantic moment, only to have it ruined by the man of the month. She deserved so much better. And now, the man of the month was Cliff. Only, the month had become 3 months, and Danny was beginning to feel he was losing his chance. Suddenly she looked at him, a puzzled expression on her face, her lips moving.
"Earth to Danny?" He shook his head, trying to gather his thoughts.
"Do I have something on my face? Oh god, I knew I shouldn't have bought that foundation! But Beyoncé uses it and HELLO! Beyoncé!"
"It's, uhm. It's not your foundation. It's just. I. Mindy…" Her eyes were searching his face, clearly trying to figure out what just happened.
"Seriously Danny, are you okay? You seem a bit shaken up. Wait, there isn't something wrong with your brain, is there? Oh god, Danny! I mean, you're at that age where…"
"There's nothing wrong with my brain, Mindy! And I'm barely older than you."
"You're like 40, and I'm in my late 20's, so don't even start with me, grandpa Castellano"
"I'm 39, and 34 is not late 20's, it's mid 30's."
"You're ruining my mojo old man." She said, gathering her files and standing up. "I will see you later. If you survive the night. I mean, people at your age do tend to just… Slip away!" And with that, she shot him a smile and slid out of the door.
He just sat there smiling like an idiot, trying to figure out what on earth had possessed him to fall in love with such an infuriatingly annoying woman.
Okay, don't even try to laugh at this Castellano, but, uhm… I locked myself out of my apartment.
Danny laughed to himself, and started to compose a response when
No seriously
Locked out
A lot
Danny. I'm wearing a towel. What the hell am I going to do!?
He'd barely read the last text when his phone rang.
"Who on earth leaves their apartment wearing only a towel and brings nothing but their phone?!"
"I couldn't get a signal in my apartment, okay?"
"And who were you calling straight out of the shower?"
"None of your business, Castellano. Just come over and save my ass."
He tried not to picture her wearing only a towel, but the mention of her ass made it a lot more difficult.
"Can't you call Cliff?"
The other end went silent, and for a moment, he thought he'd lost her.
"Min?"
"Yeah, I'm still here. Uhm, I… I can't call Cliff. I'll explain later, just. Could you please come get me?"
"I'll be there in 10."
"And Danny? Could you maybe bring some pants…?"
Exactly 12 minutes later, he was standing in the lobby of Mindy's apartment building, holding a pair of pants and a sweatshirt. He was sweating buckets, and apparently the elevator was out of business, so he had to take the stairs.
When he reached her floor, he yanked the door open and was met by the sight of an almost naked Mindy. If he was sweating from the run, it was nothing compared to what the sight of her clad only in a tiny towel did to him.
"Danny! You're my hero." She threw her arms around his neck and hugged him close, crushing Danny's arms between their bodies. "You came!"
"Of course I did. I couldn't very well let you stand half-naked in your hallway for the rest of the night."
She smiled at him sincerely, and he couldn't help the smile that crept onto his face as well.
"Plus, you'd probably keep on pestering me about it, if I'd ignored your call."
She punched him lightly on the shoulder, but her face still bore a smile.
"Danny, I… Thank you." Mindy reached out for the clothes in Danny's hands, and held his hand for a bit. He reveled in the feel of her hand in his. It felt horribly right.
"Could you?" She motioned for him to turn around, which he did, and 2 minutes later she was out of the tiny towel, and into his old sweats.
"They look good on you." he blurted, without even thinking, his face growing red. "I mean. Uhm… Better than the towel?"
"Don't even try, Castellano. I know you enjoy having me in your clothes." And without even thinking he nodded, his face flushing a deeper red color, than it already was.
There was an awkward pause, but then Danny cleared his throat, and motioned for the stairs.
"We should…"
"Right. Yeah. Let me just…" She turned around as if to go back and grab some stuff from her apartment, but seemed to remember herself as she laughed and turned around. "I guess I'm ready."
An hour later they were planted on Danny's couch. Mindy's feet on his lap and his concentration nowhere to be seen. All he could think about was running his hand over the sliver of exposed skin at Mindy's ankle. An ankle was becoming distracting to him. He was so far gone, it wasn't even funny anymore.
"So, uhm… What's the deal with Cliff?"
This 'blurting-things-without-thinking-thing' was getting to be a bit of a problem, but before he could even begin to backpedal, Mindy was sitting up straighter, looking at him.
"I decided he was not the man for me."
"But I thought you had a crush on him?" He cursed inwardly at how insensitive he was being.
"I did. Until he told me, and I quote, that that dress would look a lot better if you were skinnier."
"He did WHAT?"
"Yup. So, I decided Cliff and I were not meant to be, and to be honest, I don't even really miss him."
"Oh." Wow! So eloquent Danny.
"Oh?" Mindy was smirking at him, clearly aware of some of the struggles going on in Danny's head.
"I mean, shit. Mindy. What an idiot!" He'd gotten up from the couch at this point, and was now sort of striding across the floor. "You deserve so much better, than that douchebag. Where does he live?" He was walking towards the door now, his blood boiling. He didn't even know what he was planning on doing, he just knew that there was no way he was going to let Cliff get away with talking to Mindy like that.
"Danny, no, come on!" Mindy had followed him to the door, and was now yanking him back towards the couch. "Violence will solve absolutely nothing, although I would kind of like seeing you guys fight over me."
Her words got through to him and he looked at her questioningly.
"… over you?"
"Yeah, come on Danny. It's like every girl's dream. To have the man who wronged her, and her crush fight over her. It's the perfect rom-com moment."
"Then why don't you want me to… Wait… Her crush?"
She was just standing there, in the middle of his living room, smirking at him.
"Don't act so surprised!"
"I… But you… With Cliff?"
Mindy walked over to him, and put a hand on his shoulder. "You didn't know?"
"That you had a crush on me? No."
"Are you freaking out on me right now, Castellano?"
"No! I mean. Yeah, a bit. But not for the reason you're thinking. I mean. Why didn't you tell me?!"
"I am telling you. Right now. And Danny, don't forget I'm just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her."
He narrowed his eyes at her. "Isn't that from a movie?"
"Duh, it's from Notting Hill! Please say you've seen Notting Hill?"
"Min…"
"Oh god, I'm beginning to regret this crush-thing. I have so much to teach y…" but she didn't get to finish, before Danny had reached forward, grabbed her face, and brought his lips to hers.
The kiss started out chaste, but quickly evolved into something much more heated. He pulled her closer, wrapping an arm around her to hold her tightly against him, and letting the other tangle in her hair. He bit her lip gently, eliciting a whimper from her and making her open her mouth, so he could tangle their tongues together. Her arms were wrapped tightly around his neck and she was kissing back with all her might. Danny swore he could feel both their hearts beating frantically and soon he had to pull back from lack of air.
"Nice boys don't kiss like that!" Mindy beamed, letting her hands fall to his shoulders.
"Oh yes they fucking do." He said, moving his hand to her ass and squeezed gently.
"You do know that was a Bridget Jones' Diary ref…" but before she could finish he'd pulled her back to him, kissing her enthusiastically.