Hey all! I can't begin to thank you all enough for the reviews that you have given me. It is so encouraging to read all of the comments about how much you like the story. It boosts my self-esteem as a writer. Anyway, this is the beginning of the more important of chapters. I have to work from 8am-2:30pm tomorrow (who even goes to the grocery store at 8am anyway?) so this is my last chapter until tomorrow afternoon/evening. Read and review and enjoy!

Chapter Seven: The Plot Thickens

There's a boy who works at Starbucks, who is very inspirational.
He is very inspirational because of many things.
I come in at 8:11, and he smiles and says: "How are you"
When he smiles and says: "How are you?" I could swear my heart grows wings.

I felt my headphones being tugged out of my ear, away from the land of Kristin Chenoweth and "Taylor the Latte Boy". I was tugged away by Danny, nonetheless.

"Hey, Messer, I was taking a break, you know," I said irritated. I don't like being pulled away from my music: especially not when I am on a break and drinking a nice, hot cup of coffee.

"I need help, and you're the only one not busy right now," he said. I rolled my eyes, set down my coffee and stashed my iPod in my purse.

"This better be important Messer, or I swear that I will kill you."

"Down girl," Danny replied with a smile. I merely glared at him. As it turns out, Danny was stuck on his case. There were strange markings on the back of his male vic that he couldn't seem to identify.

"Magnify the picture again," I said, staring at the markings. Danny magnified it, and he bit his lip in concentration, and leafed through his case file. Suddenly, it dawned on me.

"Did your vic have a relationship with anyone?" I asked curiously. Danny scanned through his file.

"Yeah, some woman named Julia Hines. Wait, Price, where are ya going?" for at that moment, I walked out of the room and headed back towards the break room. Digging through my purse, I found what I was looking for and grinned. Rushing back to where Danny was, I handed him my eyelash curler. He looked at it, eyebrows raised.

"What's this for?" he asked, turning it over. I rolled my eyes. Danny knew nothing about women.

"It's an eyelash curler. See those marks on the back of your vic? You found him face-up, right? Well, these," I said pointing to the indentations on the picture, "were made from an eyelash curler. So unless your vic has some kind of issue, I believe that a woman must have dropped this at the scene before he was murdered."

Danny's eyes widened. "Oh! You know what Price, you might be onto somethin'…" he trailed off, studying the other pictures. I glanced at my watch and tried to silently back out of the room. Unfortunately, Danny noticed.

"Hey, where ya goin' Price? I thought you might be able to help me in case I got stuck again…"

I looked at him sheepishly. "I, uh, actually am meeting someone for lunch."

Danny raised his eyebrows at me, a grin playing on his lips. "Who's the lucky guy?"

I scuffed my feet along the floor. "Well, it's not a date or anything…"

"Out with it Price," Danny said, truly amused at my embarrassment. I could feel my cheeks redden slightly.

"Uh, well, I'm actually supposed to be meeting Flack…"

Danny grinned. "So, you and Flack, eh? Cute."

I knew that my cheeks were red by now, as I felt the heat radiating off my face. But I was learning to be a tough New York girl, and lifted my chin up, staring him right in the eyes.

"Alright, size me up if you will Messer, but I can easily do the same to you. What about you and Lindsay, huh?" I asked with determination. I watched as Danny adverted his eyes from mine.

"Go out to lunch, Price, will ya?"

Oh, that was it. I was ticked now. "No way. You size me up, I size you up. I asked you a question Messer, just like you asked me one. No different, no lies. So spit it out."

Danny lifted his eyes and locked them on mine. "There's nothing to tell," he admitted, though I felt he did so with sadness. I tilted my head and sighed.

"You really care about her, don't you?" I asked. Danny dropped his gaze yet again. "Hey, Messer, look me in the eye and tell me that you don't care about her." He looked up at me, blue eyes meeting green.

"I can't," he said with a shake of his head. He looked around the room and outside the door to make sure there were no witnesses besides myself. "But you better not tell anyone, 'cause I don't want everything leaking out to the lab."

"I won't," I said honestly. I studied his face, his sad yet determined face, and in that instant, I truly felt pity upon Danny Messer. Here, he had fallen for this girl, and didn't know how to deal with it. I pulled up a chair and sat down beside him.

"Look, Danny, I don't know how to go about this…" I began. He held up his hand to silence me.

"What's there to do? You heard her before: she has a boyfriend. One that she's crazy about, apparently." Maybe it was just me, but Danny sounded dejected. I resisted the urge to hug him.

"But I know that she cares about you," I said with determination. "Everyone here knows that you two have chemistry together."

Danny perked his head up. "What do ya mean everyone knows?"

I smiled and rolled my eyes. "C'mon, Danny. You two act like a pair of high school students when you're around each other. Sid even told her before that the reason you call her Montana is because you have a crush on her."

Danny cursed. "What made me tell Sid, I will never know…"

We laughed together. I let out an exasperated sigh, wheels turning in my head. I must have been grinning at the moment, because Danny asked with curiosity: "What? What is that look for?"

"Nothing," I replied innocently. But my mind was stuck on Elsie, my best friend who lived next door to me in my apartment building. I think she was going to love what I had in mind.

"Well, I better get going if I still want to meet Flack," I said, standing from my chair. Danny looked at me and nodded, waving me off.

"Have fun," he said with a small smile.

I waved a hand at him as I walked down the hallway. I caught Stella and Mac lingering at the end of the hall, close to the elevator.

"Hey! Mac, Stella, wait up…I need to talk to you both for a second…"