Mindy took her 'kidnapping' as poorly as Danny envisaged she would. He'd hoped she would readjust her priorities a little bit and see the importance of staying with him, but she was still as determined as ever to get back to New York as soon as possible. Though not entirely surprised by this, he was disappointed that Cliff still ranked ahead of him. He came second to a guy who would dump her for simply seeing her ex-fiancé.

Cliff didn't seem to 'get' Mindy at all. He didn't understand that she was impulsive and she sometimes did stupid things, but was ultimately fiercely loyal and caring. She was the last woman who would cheat on her boyfriend.

If only Cliff knew the lengths she'd gone to just to be with him in the first place, and how much she yammered on about him every day at work, he'd have no doubt about her. It begged the question – if it was so obvious to Danny and everyone around Mindy how much her relationship with Cliff meant, why couldn't Cliff see that for himself?

Danny never imagined that thoughts of Mindy would be distracting him as he settled in for dinner with his father for the first time in over two decades. He wasn't sure if was a reflection of her personality or his own neuroses that she troubled his mind as pervasively as she did. It was probably a little of both.

'Danny?' Mindy shook him gently, as if to illustrate the point.

'What?'

'I was just talking about how you're a successful Manhattan doctor and was like "right, Danny?" but you were all glazed over like you were having one of those absence seizures again.' She turned to their hosts, 'I mean, he does that a lot, but he doesn't have seizures. Or at least we don't think he does, have you ever got that checked out Danny?'

He smirked at her babbling.

'I'm not epileptic, Min, don't worry. And yeah, I guess we're pretty successful. We have the practice, it does well.' Danny said conservatively. He didn't really feel like boasting about how great his life was. Not when he was supposed to be making his dad feel guilty for messing him up.

'Danny always short-sells himself. He's a really great doctor. I even let him be my doctor once,' she gave him a sideways glance, 'but given our line of work that got weird real quickly.'

Dani giggled. Apparently their Dad's parenting style hadn't rendered her completely naïve.

'I was doing a good job until you chickened out,' he defended.

'I don't remember it quite going like that…' Mindy smiled. 'But that's besides the point.'

'It sounds like you've got a great life out there. You've really done well for yourself,' Alan commented. 'I'm proud of you, son.'

Danny bristled. His father had no right to say that. What did he have to be proud of? What, was he going to claim that the trauma of abandonment was what spurred young Danny to work hard at school and get into an Ivy League college? As if.

Mindy, noticing her friend's discomfort, placed her hand on the fist he was clenching under the table. The gesture was out of the other pair's sight, and Mindy didn't break her gaze from her food as she offered it. She felt Danny's hand relaxed a little, grazing his thumb over hers just briefly. She gently pulled it away, shooting him a little look of encouragement. She wasn't entirely sure what possessed her to calm him that way, but it had seemed to work.

In a sense, it had worked. Danny was no longer consumed by anger and frustration at his father. That had been replaced by longing and lust for the woman sitting to his right.

Fuck, he needed a drink.