CH 11
The elevator doors opened to a darkened office. Mindy slowly poked her head through. The quiet kind of creeped her out. She'd never been at the office this late before. Usually if she had paperwork to do she just took it home. She found herself tiptoeing out of the elevator like a child sneaking into her parents' bedroom.
She realized what she was doing when she reached her office door and felt like an idiot. She walked over to her desk and flicked on one of the lamps. Too dim. She flicked the other one on. Still dim, but better. She had no urge to bask in the fluorescent overhead light, so unflattering, so she left it off.
Just as she'd told Maggie, her desk was covered in a huge stack of paperwork. Surely it hadn't grown since she'd left at five? She kicked her heels into one corner of her office and began rummaging through the files on her desk. There really were too many of them.
She turned around with a stack in her hand and began arranging them in a semicircle on the floor. The eerie quiet of the office began to get to her. Every time she heard a noise she would jump. What did people say that was? The building settling? Not reassuring.
After all the files were arranged on the floor she popped her phone onto the dock on her desk and tried to find something to listen to that would make her feel better, after a few minutes she settled on ABBA's Greatest Hits. Retro pop was strangely soothing to her after a bad date.
She settled down in the floor surrounded by the files and set to work. When Gimme Gimme Gimme came on she groaned and flopped back into the floor, settling the file folder over her face. This was a bad idea.
Danny juggled his takeout in one hand and the box of files he'd retrieved from the hospital in the other. Doing paperwork late on a Friday night. He needed to get a life. The elevator dinged and the doors whooshed open. The second he stepped through, he knew the place wasn't the same as when he'd left half an hour before.
He saw the light glowing underneath the door to Mindy's office and heard muffled music coming through it. What the hell was she doing?
Earlier, when she'd been running around getting ready for this blind date, his level of irritation had been through the roof. She'd continuously popped her head in his office to ask his opinion about this or that, then pointedly ignored everything he'd said. That was why she'd walked out of the office in a clingy blue dress and sky high heels.
She'd popped in and said, "How about this? Good for a casual date at a bar?" She'd gestured to her figure with her free hand.
The desire that had coursed through him had taken his breath away at the same time jealousy clutched at him. He'd felt the perspiration on his forehead and the heat pooling in the pit of his stomach. "You really shouldn't dress like that around here. Our patients will think we do pro bono work for hookers." Damn. What a dick.
She'd only rolled her eyes and put her hand up to her hair. It was in a cute little top knot. "What about the hair? Up or down?"
The hair was comparatively demure so he'd looked away and said, "Up." Then she'd immediately grasped the tie holding it and pulled it out, letting the silken wave cascade over her shoulders.
She'd smirked at him. "Thanks Danny, always helpful." When she'd marched to the elevator, the heels doing amazing things for her figure, the thought of her clinging to another man dressed like that punched him in the gut.
So he was jealous. What now? She clearly had no inkling of their being something between them. He'd gritted his teeth and watched the elevator doors close in silence.
Now, a sudden thrill of relief coursed through him. She was here at the office and not wrapped around some burly fire fighter. He set his file box and takeout down in the floor by the secretaries' desks and tread quietly to her door. He didn't know why he was being so stealthy. The closer he got the door, the louder the ridiculous music got.
He touched the handle, hesitating only for a second before swinging it open. He was prepared for a startled look from Mindy, and had a quick explanation on his tongue, but what he saw took the wind out of his sails.
There she was, lying in the floor completely surrounded by files, one folder open and lying over her face. A warm glow cast across the room by her two desk lamps. It was possibly the most ridiculous thing he'd ever seen. The icing on top of the ridiculous cake in front of him were the words currently issuing from the speakers on her desk. Gimme gimme gimme a man after midnight.
He couldn't help it, he burst into laughter. "Mindy what are you doing? Trying to open a portal to 70's music hell? Because I think you need to make a Pentagram with the files and not a semicircle."
She shot up without removing the folder from her face. It fell with a flutter to her lap. "Ugh, it's you."
The tears streaking her face immediately made Danny regret his joke. He moved quickly over to her side and knelt down. "Hey, what's going on? Did that guy do something?" His breath was caught in his chest, his voice gruff on the second question.
She dramatically flopped back to floor. "You know what? This is all your fault. It could have been a great night. It could have been a spectacular night. You ruined it."
Taken aback somewhat, Danny leaned back on his heels, his hands resting on his thighs. "What are you talking about, Lahiri." The tone of his voice quickly going from concerned to exasperated.
She tossed her arm across her face. "There he was. A Norse God. My very own Thor, doing sinful things to an FDNY t-shirt, looking down at me from an amazing height, with an expression that said, 'I will eat you up, little lady doctor.' There he was nuzzling my neck and grabbing my ass in a totally flattering and not demeaning way, and NOTHING." She moved her arm back to her side and propped herself up on her elbows glaring at Danny. "And, it's all your fault."
Danny ran the gamut of reactions as he was listening to her. In the space of a minute he'd felt perplexed, then insanely jealous, then pissed, then completely confused again. He gaped at her. "Please speak English, Mindy. I have no idea what you're trying to say."
The music was starting to get on his nerves. He got up and stepped over her to turn it off. The sudden silence in the room unnerved him. He could hear the beating of his heart and her heavy post-crying breaths. She sat up again and looked up at him. "Why did you take me out? I don't get it, you've been treating me like Typhoid Mary since that night. What's your deal, Castellano?"
Danny was dumbfounded. He didn't know what she was asking him. Or rather, he did and it freaked him out. He just stood there staring down at her. She rolled her eyes and threw her arms up in the air. "Help me up, I'm not used to you towering over me like this, it's weird."
He silently grasped her hands and hauled her up off the floor. She had planted her feet a little too close to his. They were standing toe to toe, and she was very nearly pressed up against him. "Danny, did you even have a good time at Ed's?" Her voice was abnormally quiet. She didn't release his hands.
His senses were overwhelmed. He could smell the mint on her breath as it mingled with whatever flowery shampoo she used. Plus there was that musky perfume that made him want to growl at her. The warmth that radiated from her body quickly permeated him. He was overheated in a matter of seconds.
He stepped back, slipping his now slick hands from her grasp. He crossed his arms and stared at her. "It was nice, I mean… it wasn't the worst night out I've ever had," He cleared his throat. "There were parts..." He uncrossed his arms and ran one hand through his hair. Something occurred to him and he glanced at her curiously. "Wait, did you have a good time?"
There was a slight edge to his voice. He hoped it covered the note of uncertainty underlying the words. She turned away from him, toeing one of the files on the floor in front of her. She mimicked him, "Oh, I don't know, not the worst night ever." She had her lips pooched out and her hand gesturing in front of her like a cartoon version of an Italian, doing her Danny impression, shrugging her shoulders.
The weight on Danny's chest lifted and the breath rushed in. His face relaxed into a half smile. He couldn't even pretend to be annoyed with her totally inaccurate impression of him. And it was inaccurate. He didn't shrug like that, did he? He rolled his shoulders back.
This always happened. He found himself being drawn closer to her even though he was physically in the same space. That night at Ed's he'd felt that closeness, and the moment he left her immediate sphere of influence he began to overthink it. It had started to freak him out. Pushing her away seemed the easiest path, but here she was pulling him back in. He was powerless to stop it. He slipped back into that flirty camaraderie again. "Alright, Lahiri, I had a good time, and I know you did too. What the hell happened tonight though?" He gestured to the files scattered across the floor. "This isn't exactly where I thought you'd be right now."
She sighed. "He ordered my drink for me. It was disgusting. He didn't want to dance. He immediately wanted to move things back to my place. For a second there I thought Maggie had set me up with a…. what would you call him? A lady of the night?"
He felt the laughter bubble up unbidden and couldn't stop it. "Well, it wouldn't be the first time." She took two steps toward him and slugged him in the shoulder hard. "Ow!... Hey, you're the one who brought it up." He rubbed the spot where she'd laid it on him, the grin still plastered across his face.
She huffed out a resigned sigh. "Anyway, the night just wasn't going the way I thought it would, so I left. He had the audacity to imply that he was doing me a favor by feeling me up. Then he immediately started hitting on the red headed bartender he'd been eyeing the entire time." She had her hand on her hip, daring Danny to agree with Thor the firefighter.
This time the smile did fade from his face. "He sounds like a dick, Min. Is that why it's my fault? Because I told you to stop putting up with that crap?" Danny tried to say the words in an offhand manner, but felt they must have sounded a little too wistful.
She rolled her eyes. "Please Danny, give me a little credit. Even I could tell he was a dick." She walked back to the center of her files and sat down. "Now, I have to get some of this done." She glanced up at him, a confused look darting across her features. "Wait, why are you here this late?"
Danny gestured toward her door. "I stayed late to do paperwork too. Only, around eight I realized I was starving, so I went and picked something up, and I stopped by the hospital to pick up some patient files."
Her eyes widened a bit. "You have food?" The enthusiasm in her voice caught her by surprise. She reigned it in. "Ahem… I mean, food, yeah, that's a good idea." She stared up at him with pleading puppy eyes.
Danny wasn't going to give in. She'd have to ask. After a few seconds she gave up. "Come on, Danny. I'm starving, I didn't eat anything at that questionably decorated bar, that redhead probably would have spit in it anyway." He still didn't say anything. Just leaned back against her desk with his arms crossed.
He smiled. "Don't you ever say please?"
She batted her eyelashes at him. "Please? Wouldn't a 'real man' just be chivalrous and give it to me?"
Sure. He caved. "Fine. You win. It's Chinese, so we'll have to go family style and share." He stepped over her and exited her office to retrieve his food and files.
