Danny smiled the whole time he was shopping, figuring he'd get ingredients for something easy and that Mindy couldn't burn unless see really tried. He picked up ingredients for a quick lasagne for himself and all the things he'd need for a chocolate cookie base cheesecake. Even if Mindy burnt the cookies, the cheesecake would taste good.
He returned back to his apartment and checked to see if Mind was home. As she was pretty loud, he could just stop and listen at her door.
"Come round in 20?" He yelled through the door and Mindy agreed by yelling back. Danny smiled and went hastily into his apartment so he could start on the lasagne. By the time he'd finished it so it was ready to go in the oven, Mindy was at his door in some jeans and a faded blue t-shirt.
"You look nice" Danny commented off handedly, wishing he'd got changed instead of just being in what he went to work in.
"Thanks. So, what are we making?" Mindy glanced into the kitchen to see if she could spot the ingredient to chocolate cake and was mildly disappointed when she didn't see them.
"We're making chocolate chip cookie cheesecake. We'll have to start with just cookies though." He began taking the already measured out ingredients and passing them to Mindy. She seemed very happy with what they were making, but couldn't quite get the hang of mixing anything.
"Min, you're just pushing the spoon in. Mix!" Danny tried to explain.
"I can't do it!" Mind threw her arms up in despair "You know, I always had this fantasy of my kids coming home and arriving to me, a still young, hot woman, and a plate of cookies for them. I always wanted that, to be able to cook all this sweet stuff and be the mom every kid wanted. I wanted to send my kids off with cake in there lunch and everything like that." Mindy explained, still frustrated and trying to push the mixture of cookie dough around the bowl.
"Well that's stupid." Danny said bluntly and got shot a look from Mindy. " Your kids would be fat." He laughed quietly, not sure if his joke had helped at all.
"At least they'd be my little chubsters." And she thought for a moment. " You'll just have to make my kids cookies Danny. You can come over every Sunday and make my kids cookies and have dinner."
" I'd like that." Danny smirked and began to explain again to Mindy how to mix properly because no matter what she said, Mindy Lahiri was no quitter, and she was not about to give up any time soon. she eventually made the cookies, and was extremely proud of them. With the cookie mixture left over, she rolled it up into small lumps and mixed it in with the cream and cream cheese. Danny slowly melted chocolate by himself then helped her mix it into the topping. He let Mindy add as much sugar as she wanted into the mixture, which was quite a lot, but her reasoning was 'the more sugar, the nicer it is'.
When the cookies were done, they smashed them up together and Mindy said she would have to do it a lot more often. They added them to butter, and (Despite Mindy eating several cookies, and Danny having one too) they had enough to make the base of the cheesecake. Mindy carefully finishing adding the topping to it before throwing her hands up in a loud cheer. She took hold of Danny's hand and jumped up and down. Eventually he joined in too.
"We did it! We did it!" She chanted as Danny laughed. She took a couple of deep breaths to calm herself, then placed the cheesecake in the fridge so it could cool down. Danny got the lasagne out of the oven and dished it out for them both.
"Thanks Danny. This has been a great evening. What are we making next?" She took her plate and they both went and both sat down at the island in the kitchen.
"What do you wanna make?" Danny asked.
"Chocolate cake?" Mindy asked and he nodded.
For the rest of their dinner, they talked about the practice and nothing most in-particular. Mindy was still trying to convince Danny that Betsy and Jeremy would make a great couple if they got together, but Danny did seem to think so. Eventually Mindy dropped the subject but with the promise to talk to Betsy the next day.
Mindy got out the cheesecake after about an hour an a half of being in the fridge, and immediately took a spoon for the side and took a scoop.
"Mmmh." Mindy grinned and Danny gulped. That sound was not a sound he wanted to hear right now. It was far too...inappropriate. It made his mind go to places it was forbidden to go to. Danny quickly spooned out a bite of cheesecake too and understood why Mindy had made that sound. He'd never made the recipe before, but dam was it good.
"You're clearly a natural baker. This is good." Danny complimented and he meant it.
"Thanks. You're right, this isn't half bad. I figured it would be terrible. Maybe I won't need you to bake stuff for my kids after all Danny. I might be able to do it all by myself."
"Yes, but I'll still have to be there to make dinner. You still can't cook actual food." He ate another spoonful of the dessert while Mindy had a moment to think.
"Well maybe I could just feed them dessert. I mean, this has cream cheese in it, that's healthy. And I can put lemon in it too. That's some kind of fruit or vegetable." Mindy looked proud if herself as she figured out her future life, so Danny just let it slide that she didn't know what category of food a lemon was in.
They both sad down on the couch, talking about little things until the subject of high school came up.
"What were you like in high school?" Mindy asked, sipping her wine and eating cheesecake which Danny was sure was a great mix and if he kissed her…
He cursed inside his head and stopped his thoughts. He did not want to kiss Mindy. He shook his head slightly, trying to remember what she'd asked him.
"Oh. I was popular, handsome… and great with the ladies." He winked slightly, making it a joke.
"Even though you called them ladies and clearly were in love with yourself?" Mindy giggled as Danny raised his eyebrows at her.
"Fine. I had a few friends from the island. I was never that impressive in the knowledge department or the ladies department." Danny took a gulp of his wine and Mindy continued to giggle.
"That surprises me. You were such a catch in med school. Shame you were married, lots of girls would have snapped you up."
"Oh yeah, would you have?" Dannys voice lowered slightly and he looked down at his glass. He wasn't sure he wanted to hear the answer to that.
"No, sorry Danny. I was in love." Mindy chirped, like she didn't have a clue about the impact of her answer. Danny had no idea whether to be glad or sad about the answer. It was neither good or bad.
"So how about you Min, would were you like in High School?" He quickly changed back to the original subject and Mindy just told him what he expected to hear; that she was a sweet, innocent girl who worked hard, watched romantic comedies and have a small circle of close friends.
They stayed up for a couple more hours, finishing off the cheesecake and chatting. Mindy liked that about Danny, although he may complain about what she talked about, he was nearly always willing to talk about what she liked. As long as it wasn't about his social or romantic life he didn't seem to have a huge issue about it. This made him perfect for a gossip actually, as he just agreed with Mindy usually. He was always great for a good story. Growing up where he did meant he saw a lot of mischief and had some killer (In some cases literal killer) stories. She noticed how when he spoke about his past growing up, his accent got a lot thicker.
After Mindy yawned twice, she decided it was time to go to bed. They agreed that they would meet in the morning to travel to work on the subway together, and Mindy returned to her own apartment. Danny got dressed, brushed his teeth and got into bed. He looked over at his book which was still on the side, and decided against reading it without Mindy, just in case she wanted to read it with him again. Danny turned the light on and closed his eyes, trying not to dwell on the lack of warmth in the bed he'd felt last night.
Sorry about the late posting of this chapter, hope it was okay in the end. A huge thank you to you for reading this so far, and an even bigger thank you to everybody that's reviewed, favourited and followed, it's a huge help knowing what you guys think and it tells me if you're enjoying. I'm sorry for any spelling/grammar errors, some of this is written on my phone where I have pretty bad spell check so if there are serious errors please let me know. New chapter will be up asap. Have a nice day!
