Ch 8
Mindy was standing in the elevator alone surrounded by two weeks' worth of laundry. She had spent the last two hours sorting, washing, and drying the laundry that had been lying all over her bedroom. There was a ding and the doors in front of her swung open.
She lugged the totes out of the elevator and started heaving them down the hall towards her apartment. Danny was coming over tonight for their impromptu cooking lesson, and Mindy had begun to feel a little self-conscious about the state of her apartment.
She finally got the totes lugged back into her apartment and headed for her closet. She started the monumental task of putting away everything. There was so much here, and she hadn't even worn any of her nice dry-clean-only stuff since she'd been back. She pulled out the pair of black yoga pants from this morning. She smiled. Danny had noticed. She noticed him noticing.
Walking into the kitchen this morning, Mindy had come upon Danny with his back to her. He was busily whisking something over the range. He had on a fitted button up with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and a pair fitted denim jeans. He looked so relaxed. He deftly whisked the clarified butter into the egg yolks. The movement had caused the material of his shirt to stretch across his shoulders.
Mindy remembered the feel of Danny's arms around her when he was carrying her. She remembered the feel of his shoulders when she slipped her arms around his neck. No one had ever carried her before. It was a surreal experience. It was one of those things that happened in the movies she loved, but never in real life. Casey had never done anything of the sort and the man was twice her size.
She had tried to make her romance with Casey an idyllic fantasy, but every time they were in a situation that was supposed to be romantic, it had turned sour very quickly. He always thought he was being funny, but there were times when Mindy just wanted that Nora Ephron moment.
He picked up a lemon and squeezed some of it into the bowl. Mindy's curiosity was piqued. She'd been standing on the edge of the kitchen watching him for more than five minutes. She had only ever seen him this relaxed yet focused in one other place. The delivery room. He was such a confident doctor.
The first time Mindy had ever seen Danny had been in an operating room. He had been assisting the attending surgeon with post caesarian complications. Mindy had been perched in the observation gallery gazing down at the procedure. She remembered Danny's dexterous and unhesitating assistance. When the danger had passed, the attending had let Danny complete the procedure and close the patient. The other med students had left the gallery once the potentially life threatening complication had been corrected, but Mindy had stayed. Danny was a stranger at the time, but she had felt inexplicably drawn to him.
When he had finished and left the patient in the care of the post op nurses, Mindy charged down to the scrub room where Danny was cleaning up. She'd done the same thing she had done in the kitchen. She had watched him surreptitiously, only that time he'd heard the tell tale squeak of her sneakers on the linoleum. He had abruptly twisted around to look in her direction.
There had been that characteristic half smile that always graced his features when he was genuinely pleased with himself. He had glanced back at her. "Like what you see?"
Mindy had flushed at the comment. She'd been caught staring. It wasn't like her to not have something to say, but she was still at a loss for words.
"In the operating room? Impressed?" He turned around and grabbed a handful of paper towels to dry his hands. "You could learn a lot by watching a real man operate. Of course, you'll need to get rid of that cutesy manicure."
Her nostrils had flared at that comment. Her momentary speechlessness was cured. "Excuse me? I had come down here to compliment you on your steady hand, and I wasn't going to say anything about your suturing needing improvement." She walked up to him and intentionally invaded his personal bubble. It was a technique that often worked with macho men. They usually became uncomfortable when strong intelligent woman wasn't afraid to look them in the eye and rebut their stupid comments. "If you must know, I do believe a tighter suture would have left less noticeable scarring. It's probably just your hesitance when making the knot." She had tapped her index finger on his chest to make a point.
Instead of backing away uncomfortably, like most men did when she employed this method, Danny had reached up and grabbed her wrist. He'd gently pushed it to the side and looked down at her. "Typical vanity, worrying more about the scar than anything else. I don't know what I expected." He shoved past her and stopped at the door. "And you and I both know, that suture was perfect."
That initial meeting had set the tone for their constant bickering. But the bickering wasn't bad. She'd enjoyed it. It had helped her get past the initial nervousness in his presence. It helped her get over that initial magnetism he'd had.
But standing there furtively watching him once again, she'd begun to feel it creep back up. It was almost as if it had never left.
Danny had set down the bowl he was whisking and was methodically opening and closing cabinets. He was looking for something. Mindy didn't know what, since she had no clue what he was cooking. She crept up closer, her bare feet silent on the hardwood. He had stopped by her coffee pot and was spinning the spice rack around.
Leaned over the counter, she could see the muscles in his back defined through his shirt. She slipped up behind him and placed her hand in the hollow just above his belt. The warmth spread through her fingers and triggered a familiar tingling sensation in her skin. She had a brief and confusing sense of déjà vu. "I wouldn't use that if I were you. It came with the spice rack and I bought it years ago when I moved into this apartment."
She felt Danny still under her touch, and knew she had to remove her hand, but was reluctant to do so. The rest of their conversation was a blur. She remembered looking for the cayenne she'd stowed away after a failed diet. She'd found it on the top shelf in one of her cabinets. Danny had been looking at her strangely when she'd finally gotten it down.
She'd decided to just quit overthinking this and just get some juice and sit down and eat. Mindy was once again at a loss for words when she opened her fridge. She'd been expecting to find a half-spoiled jug of milk and a decanter of hopefully-not-spoiled orange juice, but when the door had swung open the fridge had been fully stocked. The words about to spill from her mouth about something trivial were suddenly suspended. She looked back at Danny and flitted over to the pantry. When she'd seen that it was full she'd felt tears sting her eyes.
It was the most thoughtful thing anyone had ever done for her. Yeah, it wasn't that big of a deal, but it was the kind of thing people just never thought to do for Mindy. She tried very hard to project an aura of independence and was usually so successful that people often treated her like an island. Danny must have seen through it all. Her throat was closed up. The tears that were hovering close to the surface threatened to break the dam. She'd turned towards Danny and when no words came to her she just went in for a hug.
Originally she'd only meant to cover her emotional state, but she quickly became hyper aware of Danny. He smelled like her body wash. A faint scent of pink grapefruit mixed with something organic, something Danny. She'd felt that same sense of familiarity from before.
She swiftly regained her composure, mumbled into his shirt and stepped away.
Danny had a slightly questioning look in his eyes, but said nothing. They ate companionably for a while and discussed cooking lessons. She was quite happy with the way the morning had went, and was anticipating the coming evening before Danny had even left.
Mindy hung the last of her clothes up and looked around her neatly organized closet. Her apartment was now spic and span. She had a few hours to get relax and get ready for her evening with Danny. This morning had been something of a revelation for her. She'd forgotten about that initial spark between the two of them. Perhaps Danny himself had never felt it, he'd had Christina then, but was never someone to back down from a challenge. Tonight was going to be interesting.