Oh hello, new fandom. Title from the Neko Case's "Night Still Comes"
It was a good kiss.
It was a very good kiss, actually. Good enough so that all the buzzing feelings she had yet to deal with receded a little into the background, giving way to the smallest flashes of detail she would later remember. The sting of ice at her ankle. The tag of Cliff's coat catching on a fingernail. The sugar still dissolving on her tongue, all the while.
Tomorrow, she thought. Tomorrow she'd hide in her closet and admit to herself that the only truly perfect moment of the night had already been tarnished, cheapened somehow by a quiet rejection and her own expectations.
But this moment, with this man and his Christmas-cookie-vulnerability – is very, very close.
What Mindy hadn't counted on was Cliff sticking around. He seemed to genuinely enjoy her crazy, which baffled her. She spent the first six months running hot and cold, and woke up every morning convinced that today would be the day he got tired of indulging her. She spent the next six months terrified, because she was easily in the best relationship of her adult life, and she didn't know if she'd be more devastated if it ended or if it didn't. Because certain things were constants in her life, and failing at relationships had become one of them.
Danny used to be one of her constants, too, but Danny wasn't speaking to her much these days. Oh, they still needled at one another and talked about work, but while the heat was still there, the warmth was gone. She used to think that she and Danny were the kind of people who just weren't good at finding the right people to love, but it's getting harder and harder to believe that when she goes home to a pretty great dude every night. She thinks maybe that's why they can't really talk anymore, because they can't relate.
It's just that…maybe part of her always thought they were just failing relationships until they could get it right with each other. She wonders if she's more surprised that she and Cliff are making it, or that she and Danny aren't.
Danny touches her less. He stops putting his arm around her when they cross a street, though he'll reach out sometimes and stop awkwardly halfway. She's caught him once or twice, but acts otherwise. She misses him, but the weight of all the things they've left unsaid is starting to take its toll, settling between them inexorably.
Cliff asks her once if there was ever anything between her and Danny, and she tries to be truthful. He doesn't seem surprised, but he kisses her hard, and tells her he loves her. She can't figure out if there's a difference between a right choice and the right choice, but she's been in love enough times to know better than to take it for granted.
There's actually a wedding this time. They're both feeling a little traditional, so they have an awesome mixed ceremony with the groomsman wearing tuxedos and turbans with matching glitzy pocket squares, and the bridesmaids in saris with up-dos and backless blouses.
Danny arrives with a woman she doesn't know, and she's relieved that it doesn't sting to watch him place a hand low on her back and whisper in her ear. Cliff squeezes her hand and kisses her temple before leading her away to cut the wedding cookie-cake, and she wonders again what on earth she did to deserve being this lucky.