009: Delectable

"So," Martin said on Monday morning as he approached Angela's desk with a grin on his face.

"So… what?" she replied as she tore away from her computer which was currently cross checking hotel registrations and flight manifests.

"How was your weekend?"

Angela raised her eyebrow at him as she folded her arms and looked at him. There was something that he wanted to know, and she knew what it was. But Martin wasn't the kind to come right out and say it, so she decided to play his game.

"Pretty good. I caught up on some sleep. What about you?"

"Nothing… interesting happened?" he asked, not taking notice of her question. His grin was steadily growing bigger.

"No, not really," she said, knowing that she was driving him out of his mind.

"You didn't… go out to dinner?"

"Oh, right," Angela said as if she had just remembered. "I think I did once…"

Martin waited for her to tell him about it, but she just sat there and stared at him. He finally gave up.

"Are you going to tell me about the dinner that you and Danny went on or not?"

"Not," she smiled as she turned back to her computer.

"Angela…" he begged. "Please?"

"What are you so interested for?"

"Because I just am. And because I know you like him and that he likes you and it's about time that you two just—"

"Hey, watch it there, Fitzgerald," Angela said as she turned to face him again. "You'd better watch what you say or else there are going to be some slanderous rumors going around."

"Are you denying it?"

Angela narrowed her eyes playfully. "No."

"Aha! So I was right!"

"But I'm not confirming it either. So you'd better let us figure this out on our own. Ok?"

"Fine. But the dinner was nice?"

"It was great."

"Are you guys going out again?"

"I don't know."

"And did you—"

"Martin," she warned.

"Fine. Give me that cross reference information when you get done, ok?"

"Alright. Now shoo. Go do your job."

After Martin left, Angela was filled with small butterflies. Yes, she liked Danny. And she hoped that they might go out another time, but she tried not to get her hopes up. The truth was she had heard about this nice Thai restaurant over the weekend, and she thought that she might ask Danny to dinner this Friday. If she could get up the courage.

"Did the phone records come in?"

Danny was all of a sudden behind her, looking at her computer with one of his hands on the back of her chair and one on her desk. His sudden appearance had completely thrown Angela off.

"Oh, um, let me check."

She pulled up the records on her computer, although she may have seemed pulled together on the outside, her insides were shaking like mad with nervousness.

"Yeah, here they are."

"Would you print those for me? Please?"

"Of course. I'll give them to you after they print."

"Alright, thanks."

As he left, he put his hand on her shoulder and gave her a small smile. The courage that she had been looking for finally came to her.

"Hey Danny?"

He stopped and turned to look at her. "Yeah?"

"Listen, over the weekend I heard about this Thai restaurant, and it's supposed to be really good. And, I don't know, I thought on Friday or sometime if you wanted to go, we could, um… we could go."

Danny paused for several moments, and Angela froze in fear, wondering if she had just made a mistake. She had really been dreaming if she thought that Danny would ever say yes to a dinner with her. What was she thinking? How could she have been so—

"That sounds good," he said with a small smile. "We'll go after work on Friday?"

"Uh, yeah," Angela stuttered, in complete disbelief at his answer. "Sure, whenever."

"Good."

The two stood there staring at each other for a few moments before they heard someone clear their throat to their left.

"Ahem," Martin said, trying his hardest to keep a straight face. "Angela, are those cross references done?"

"Oh, yeah. Sorry." She stole one more glance at Danny who was turning away, but a grin was still on his face. "Martin, you are—"

"Always right, I know," he said happily.

---

The week seemed to drag by after that as Angela waited impatiently for Friday to come around, but it finally came. She and Danny left together and took a cab down to the restaurant. Once again, she was afraid that things would be awkward between them, but as before they carried on a conversation without much unease.

While they ate, they swapped stories from their days on the field. From Danny's chasing down a van on the back of a motorcycle to Angela's bursting into a room filled with illegally imported snakes, the two shared quite a few laughs that night.

"That was actually pretty good," Danny said as they left the restaurant and called a cab. "I never thought I'd like Thai food."

"Whatever it was you got looked pretty good," Angela agreed as they both slid into the cab.

"122nd and Highland street, please," Danny told the driver, scooting next to Angela. "Yeah, it was good. Except that questionable green stuff," he laughed with a disgusted look on his face. "That stuff was just nasty."

"I can't believe you actually tried it," she chuckled.

"I've never been one to not try something on my plate. There was this one restaurant… oh, what was it called… I think it was Brooks and Hines or something like that. The food looked a little debatable, but it was actually really, really good. I think that should be our next destination. Don't make any plans for next Friday."

Angela thought that Danny was just teasing, and she laughed. "So now we're going to go all over New York to visit different restaurants? Some FBI agent you are."

"Oh, come on," he grinned. "Let's see, we can go to Brooks and Hines next Friday. And then to that Mexican one on the corner of 135th the next week. And then…"

"The soup and sandwich place down the street from the office."

"Yeah, that one the week after. We'll know all the best places in town."

Angela just laughed. "You're nuts."

Danny grinned and leaned back in the cab seat. "I know." He paused for a while. "So Brooks and Hines next week?"

It was only now that Angela realized that he was serious. She was surprised that he hadn't just been kidding, but now that she knew that he wasn't, she felt her cheeks begin to grow pink with pleasure.

"I'll be there," she smiled as the cab began to slow down.

"Good."

When the cab stopped, Danny made no movement to reach for the door. He just sat there and looked at her. Angela could feel her heart begin to beat faster as they sat in the car.

"I'll see you Monday then," he said softly. Before Angela knew what he was doing, he leaned in close to her and kissed her gently on the cheek. Simply being that close to him without either one of them in a breakdown was enough to make her absolutely melt. He smelt so good, and she didn't want him to move at all.

After what seemed like a blissful eternity, Danny turned and got out of the cab. And without another word, the cab pulled away from Danny standing on the sidewalk with his hands in his pockets, watching the car until it turned the corner and he could see it no more.

A/N: Yay! Tuesday! I love update days. They make me really happy. Anywho. I hope you guys like this chapter. It's kind of a cute little thing, with some Martin-teasing thrown in. Gotta love Martin. Such a cute guy.

And Danny KISSED HER! Ok, so it was just on the cheek. But still. That's definitely something considering that it's Danny. But what's that spell for the next chapter? Well, I know. But it's for you to find out on Friday. :)

Anyways, keep leaving me those WONDERFUL reviews! They really brighten my day! Have a great rest of the week, and look for that update on Friday. Things might begin to take a small turn of events!

-Laura