Snapchat from Morgan: Bro's Night Shots Off! We're ALL winning!
The crystal clear Katy Perry ringtone cut through Mindy's sleep almost instantly.
"Katy," Mindy groaned in agony. The music signified a non-work-related call. This was one of the few times she could ever imagine the sound of her favorite singer's voice pissing her off so much. She snatched the phone off of her bedside table and not only noted the ridiculously late time (2:27 a.m.), but one of the last names she wanted to see scrolling across her caller ID. She answered the call in a huff.
"Morgan, dammit, why?" she mumbled sleepily into the receiver. "Why are you calling me right now? Did you guys get into a fight? You have a copy of the list of bars to avoid when Danny's with you, right?"
"No, Dr. L, we did not get into a fight," Morgan replied. He sounded like he was quite bothered, himself. "And yes, we all have a copy of that list on us at all times."
"Then what?" she snapped impatiently.
"Danny insisted that I call you and tell you that he is crazy wasted and that he, along with the rest of us drunk slobs, will be crashing at Peter's place since he lives close by."
Mindy rubbed her eyes, trying to wake herself up. " 'kay, but you know we don't, like, live together, right? I mean, I'm thrilled that he's an open book, but couldn't this have waited until breakfast?"
"That's what I said, but he insisted," Morgan emphasized. "He kept talking about how keeping an open line of communication with you was soooo important. In fact, he's been talking about you all night, which is a direct violation of the Bro's Night policy. No talking about our women! Jeremy can't talk about Betsy, I can't talk about Tamra-"
Mindy, warmed after hearing of Danny's devotion to their relationship, perked up at the sound of possible gossip. "Wait, you and Tamra are a thing?"
There was hesitation on the other line before Morgan clarified, "Well, it's in process. We'll see what happens when she finds the kitten in her desk on Monday. Point is, Danny would not shut up about you after having, literally, only half a drink and then it just got worse from there. By the way, he let us in on that swastika scar you've got on your back and I know that's not a reflection of your benevolent nature, so if you'd like, I know a guy that can give you something to even that out or, if you happen to be allergic to even trace amounts of sulfuric acid, you and I can sit down and workshop some design ideas and I can get a lit match and –"
"GOD, NO, Morgan! Geez!"
"A simple 'no' would have done it," he huffed. "Point is, everything that came out of that guy's mouth was about you. It was all 'Oh, Mindy's so incredible' this and 'God, I'm so in love with Mindy' that. It's been fairly disgusting and a real buzzkill. No offense, obviously."
"Um, I'm not sure how I'm supposed to take anything but offense to that," she fired back hotly. Then she paused to absorb something that Morgan had mentioned in passing.
"Hey, did he really say that he was in love with me?"
There was a silence on the other line – well, silence from Morgan, since she could hear the other men obnoxiously whooping in the background – before he replied, "Well, uh, yes. Yes, he did say that he's in love with you, but that's not the important thing to take away from this. The important detail here is that he ruined Bro's Night –"
Mindy could suddenly hear squabbling and the sound of Danny's voice asking loudly, "Are you talking to Min?! Is that Mindy?!" before hearing the distinct sound of a phone being wrestled from its owner. There were a few seconds of muffled scratching, then the sound of running feet and Morgan's voice from far away calling someone a "tiny maniac." Finally, a new person's voice came clearly through the earpiece.
"Min, baby, is that you?" Danny said breathlessly. His voice had the raspy, slightly slurred quality of somebody who'd been drinking a sizable portion of the night. Despite the change, his voice had the same heart rate-accelerating effect it had always had on her.
"Danny, are you okay?" she asked, though she was sure he was fine, albeit quite drunk. She just didn't know what else to say, or how to approach the topic of him actually admitting that he was in love with her.
He had never said it before; not to her, at least.
She hadn't really been looking for him to declare it anytime soon; they had only really been dating for about five weeks. Sure, she knew that she was very much in love with him, too, but she had learned from her past relationships not to rush progress too quickly. While they had an incredibly special friendship prior to getting together, she always assumed that his failed marriage still left him somewhat guarded. The last thing she wanted to do was push him away with her tendency to fall very hard, very quickly.
Thankfully, he decided to tackle the issue on his own.
"Did Morgan tell you I was in love with you, Min?" Danny asked, much louder than necessary.
"Uuuh," Mindy stalled, then attempted to sound casual. "Well, he may have touched on the subject-"
"Dammit, I'm so sorry," he groaned. "I'm so sorry; I definitely didn't want you to find out this way."
With a hard swallow, Mindy took a moment to process this revelation. She knew he cared – cared a lot, even – that was never a question. In love, however, was different. This was exciting. This was really exciting.
Mindy's elation was brought to a screeching halt when she remembered that Danny was very drunk. She can get pretty truthful when she's had a few drinks, but could the same be said for Danny? Maybe he just gets especially emotional when he's wasted. God, it can never be simple with us, Mindy commiserated silently.
"Danny," she said softly. "Look, forget about it. I know you were drunk and probably just felt a little giddy-"
"I wasn't drunk."
"Really?"
"No, I wasn't drunk at all. I mean, I'm drunk now. I'm definitely drunk now," Danny assured her. "But I wasn't even close to drunk when I told the guys that I'm in love you."
Okay, now she was excited.
"I also didn't mean for someone else to blurt it out for me," he continued, sounding extremely regretful. "I had this whole thing planned and…I was going to tell you tomorrow. I was nervous, that's why I kept talking about it." The pathetic tone of his voice made Mindy want to reach through the phone and hold him close. This level of vulnerability from him was very new and it made her feel a combination of a few things: excited that they had reached this new area of expression in their relationship, sad that she wasn't with him to comfort him, and fearful that he would freak out and start to emotionally retreat.
"Babe, I love you," Mindy replied sweetly. She could hear his sigh of relief. How could he have ever doubted that she felt this way? "I love you so much! I thought you might have already known that."
"I did…I do. I just knew that once I said it, there was no going back. Not that I'd ever want to go back, but…I don't know what I'm saying. I was just scared, alright? You mean everything to me, Min."
Feeling very swept away with emotion, Mindy struggled to hold back her tears of joy, as well as the urge to run through the streets of Manhattan and find her love. She took a steadying breath and hoped that he wouldn't be able to detect her tears over the phone.
"So!" she exclaimed in an overly cheerful tone. "Had something planned for tomorrow, eh? I thought you said you just wanted to go wallet shopping."
"Yeah, that was a lie," he confessed softly. "I planned on taking you on this tour of some of the places filmed in When Harry Met Sally – "
"Seriously?! A tour about one of my favorite movies?!" Mindy cooed.
"-and I memorized that speech at the end of the movie that Billy Crystal says to Meg Ryan," Danny continued. "I mean, I was going to adjust it a little – that part about the sandwich really doesn't apply to you- and I wasn't going to yell it at you the way he does to her. Anyway, that's what I was planning. And I know you're gonna say 'Oh, Danny, you don't have to do all that'-"
"No way!" Mindy denied swiftly. "This could be one of the most romantic things to ever happen to me! I totally want all of that!"
"But how? The surprise is ruined."
An idea presented itself almost instantly. "Okay, Danny, hear me out. What if this call never happened?"
For a moment she could only hear the shuffled footsteps of her boyfriend before he countered, almost in a whisper, "But it is happening, Mindy."
"I'm aware," she replied patiently. "But what if we just pretended it never happened? You told Morgan to let me know that you were crashing at Peter's, which he did, and then he and I hung up so that I could get some rest in preparation for a very, very long and uneventful day of wallet shopping."
The line was silent and Mindy feared that Danny may have missed the point once again. She geared herself up to explain her position once more when she finally heard him ask, "So…we didn't speak tonight…we didn't admit anything relationship-defining…and we're going wallet shopping tomorrow?"
"Right," she confirmed firmly.
"Morgan told you we were staying with Peter and then you two hung up without any further discussion?"
"Exactly."
"…Okay, that works," Danny agreed softly, sounding somewhat grateful. "So, I'll see you tomorrow?"
"Yeah," Mindy agreed gently. "See you tomorrow morning."
"Alright." There was a pause before he warned, "Remember: I don't love you."
Mindy might have felt very hurt had she not been able to detect an evident smile in Danny's voice. Instead, she laughed and took that as her cue to reply, "And I don't love you."
Danny chuckled lightly. "I don't love you …so unbelievably much. G'night, Min."
A/N: Hey, thanks for reading! If you've been reading this collection since it started, then thank you for sticking around! If you've just gotten around to checking it out: thanks for giving it a chance! I appreciate anyone who takes the time to read my work.
And I'm happy to finally include Morgan! His misguided sweetness is always a real treat to write. I definitely want to explore this in the future, either within this collection or as a separate story.
Confession: I don't particularly ship Jetsy, normally. I explored the option for this installment alone out of convenience. In all truthfulness: I'm not sure I fully get the appeal. If someone can shed some light on why this is a ship to look out for, I'd appreciate it. :o)
Stay tuned and please leave a review, if you'd like! Have a good night and Hollaatchyagirl,
Phunky
