Mindy decided the best time to tell Danny about her news was after they had another baking lesson. They'd organised for them to make something else, and this time it was Mindy who got to decide. She'd picked what she'd originally wanted to make, which was a chocolate cake. Danny picked up all the ingredients, and she headed round his place with some wine and a cute outfit on.
They greeted each other simply when Danny opened the door, and Mindy was happy to see all the ingredients on the worktop. Danny hadn't measured anything out yet, but he had greased up two cake tins and the oven was warming. Mindy put down her purse and rolled up her sleeves.
"Right Castellano, what's first?" And Danny explained about measuring out ingredients. Mindy didn't really bother being exact with anything, she just followed Danny's instructions. She kept spilling things out onto the counter so Danny had to keep cleaning up after her. She laughed at how fussy he was about his apartment. Mindy held some flour in her hand.
"I've always liked when they did the cooking in movies." Mindy sighed.
"Why? They always ended throwing things at each other. Like that's romantic." Danny huffed. He never quite understood her love for romantic movies, or the plotlines.
"I think it's romantic. Playful." Mindy turned away from Danny and he couldn't resist. He took a handful of the flour he'd been putting away, and threw it over Mindy's head. She tensed up and squealed as Danny got a second handful that he threw at her face when she turned around. She brushed it viscously off her face and Danny thought she would leave, but she didn't. Instead she stole the bag from his and emptied it out over his head.
"Oi!" Danny said as flour sprayed off his face at his breath. Mindy looked around, seeing mostly the white on her eyelashes and saw the spatula was still in the chocolate icing she taken a taste from. She spooned out some of the chocolate icing and smeared it onto Danny's cheek, but as he moved away some of it went on his shirt. They continued to waste ingredients like this for a minute or so until Danny finally took the spatula out of Mindy's hand so she could do no more damage.
He couldn't believe how beautiful she looked right now. The curve of her face, the smoothness of her lips, the white flecks decorating her eyelashes as she blinked, covering up her stunning deep eyes for brief moments. He realised he'd been staring at her intensely for too long. He cleared his throat.
"See. Not romantic at all. Stupid movies. Implanting daft ideas in your head." Waving his arms around he glanced up at Mindy who was looking at him like he'd done something wrong.
"Yeah. You're right, like always Danny." She dismissed the feeling in her gut that reminded her of kissing Danny on the kitchen worktop when she was dreaming. She'd had the desperate need to renew that feeling with a fresh one. Right here, right now. With Danny's face coated in chocolate icing and herself with flour and everything else. Mindy wanted to feel closer to him, as close as she could get.
But she couldn't.
"I got us a double date. Tomorrow night, if you're interested?" Mindy blurted out then felt the need to explain herself. "You know, if you actually want to feel romantic with somebody." Danny did not reply for a few moments. Mindy expected a snide comment about her taste in men. Anything about how stupid double dates could be. She almost wished he'd say something like that. But he didn't.
"Sure." He shrugged. "What's the worst that could happen?"
What was the worst indeed?
I know this chapter is very short, but the next one is quite long, so they counter balance each other. I know it's been a while, I've had no access to a computer really so it's been tricky. Please review, favourite and follow, it means a lot. Thanks for reading!
