Mindy Lahiri was the person who flashed into his head when he thought of the last person he would see before he died. Mindy Lahiri, the annoying co-worker and a 'woman of colour' was now the love of his life. It had all come to him so sudden. Mindy had asked him the question the day after she had asked Jamie that same question at the Empire State Building. Back then, he thought of Christina simply because he didn't want to die with a cold broken heart. Now, thinking about it again, he couldn't believe the one person he thought was the downer of his life was the one who made him look forward to life.

As he stared after her running out of the room, he looked back at the couple with their new-born triplets. They were so happy and they had said yes at life, even though they didn't expect it. So what did Danny have to lose?

Danny was reading his newspaper at 3:24 am in the doctors' lounge, yet all he could think about was the new realisation he had made. He thought back to when he had first met her. They were both in residency and he had thought she was self-absorbed, desperate and just plain irritating. He did find her attractive though, but that was always pushed to the back of his mind. When he found out he was working with her at Shulman and Associates, he was so angry and couldn't believe his bad luck. Now, she was the light in his life. She brought him happiness, whether it was her casual insults at him or just her general bubbliness. He had loved their intimate moments, and couldn't forget when he held her hand on the flight back to New York. He had wanted to protect her even though he was also scared of turbulence, but at the same time, wanted to hold her for the first time. Her reaction was not of repulsion, but of wariness. He knew from then on, what he had with Mindy was something neither of them had ever experienced.

A figure came into the room and he had only known too well who it was. He wanted to tell her everything, but the closed off person that he was prevented it. Instead, he tried to pretend he had somewhere to go.

'I'm gonna go-'

He stared at the person in front of him. It was in fact Mindy Lahiri, but had short hair. Her beautiful long hair that he thought made her authentic was gone.

'Oh my God, what'd you do to your hair?'

Mindy smiled. 'I cut it!' She had seemed proud of it which Danny couldn't fathom.

'Oh I hate it so much.'

'That is very rude. It's short now; you can't just say you hate it.'

Danny was shocked. 'Wow, only three women can pull off short hair, like Audrey Hepburn, Halle Berry and Ellen DeGeneres.' He had noticed how he missed out Christina, but he wanted to get her out of his mind. 'Guys are not gonna go for this, I'm telling you they're not.'

'Alright, then it's a good thing you're not my boyfriend.'

'Yeah, it is a good thing.' He didn't mean it though.

'I like it.'

'It might grow on me; we have the same haircut now.'

They both laughed and he felt an impulse of worry. He knew he had to do something, to show her his feelings for her.

'I told Christina that I wanted to slow things down, so, I think that's…'

In actual fact, he hadn't talked to her. He had no interest, because she did nothing for him. Her presence did not make his heart beat double its pace. She did not make him sweat when the air was quiet around them. Her smile did not send him shivers along his spine.

Mindy was quiet. She said nothing and just looked at him. He wanted to know what she was thinking. Just like that, everything was quiet. No one was around, talking about troublesome patients or work hours. It was just air. He looked at her, observing every single detail. Her new haircut which he was getting used to, her eyes that were deep with a shade of brown, the corners of the small mouth, her square framed glasses that complemented her face. Now was the time.

He reached for her glasses, touching the sides of her soft face. 'You got something…' Danny stared at the glasses, pretending to be all interested in clearing an invisible speck of dust when he was wondering whether he was crazy in what he was about to do. Sitting up to face Mindy at the same level, he placed them back onto her face, staring with longing. He wanted to kiss her so badly, not because of desire but simply to express his love for her. One kiss would tell her how much he meant to him.

'There was just a little schmutz…'

Mindy looked back at him, as if she knew what he was thinking, as if she felt the same as he did. Her cheeks tinted a slight red and she stared back, looking at his hollow eyes and down to his lips as well. It was everything he would have wanted. He could have forced himself onto her but he wanted to savour this moment. Their first kiss.

Suddenly, Mindy looked away and back and began to open her mouth.

'Casey and I got back together.'

His eyes were about to sting with tears and his heart was sinking literally, he felt. Their moment was ruined but more importantly, she was gone. Any possession he had had over her disappeared in a blink second. He had no grasp over her and was nothing. He was nothing and would always be nothing.

'You did?' Danny struggled to even get the words out. He smiled the smile of a broken heart, the smile that he had when he saw Christina with another man. It was his luck. He would never find love and if he did, that love would be taken away from him.

'Yeah, so I'm gonna go to Haiti.'

The pang of being lost hit him hard. He would never see her again – well that was how he felt. A year could expand to forever; no one knew what love would bring. He didn't know either.

'Good for you.' He looked away and sank down to the couch, or rather, rock bottom. Taking his newspaper that he had never even read, he stared blankly at the black and white print. The woman next to him was just a blur now. He wanted to run out of there and into black space. Danny Castellano felt that he had nothing left to give.