It was finally date night and Danny was incredibly ready for it. He was cool, calm, collected, and most importantly: confident. He loved the thrill of turning her on at the office and come on, he was Daniel Castellano for crying out loud, he could win her over in his sleep. He had made a reservation at a really nice restaurant in the city, somewhere he knew they both could eat (she wasn't good with Indian food and he avoided seafood because he didn't want mercury poisoning). He was wearing his dark navy jeans with a black button-up shirt; somewhere along the way he remembered someone telling him he looked good with dark colors, so he wanted to look good for Mindy. He topped it off with his brown leather jacket. He knew that she always checked him out whenever he was wearing it. He threw himself a sultry look in the mirror and decided he was ready to go to pick Mindy up. Tonight was going to go his way, he was determined.

He rode the elevator up to Mindy's floor, still feeling pretty good. Knocking on the door, he braced himself for whatever colorful sparkly outfit she was probably wearing. He laughed a little to himself remembering all the times he'd given her outfit advice, and every time she ended up taking it. After a few minutes the door opened and he stepped inside, glad her apartment had the heat turned on. Then again…

Mindy was wearing a light green long-sleeved dress that was ..tight. Very tight. And short; it came to above her knee. The color was a great match to her skin-tone and she looked absolutely breathtaking. In that moment his suave attitude was gone, and he could feel himself sweating through his jacket. Was in hot in there or was it just her?

And it only went downhill from there.

"You called her fat!?" Morgan yelled, looking like he was going to lunge at Danny and punch him in the face. They were sitting in Danny's office early the next morning after the date. He called them when he got home and enlisted their help to fix it.

"Not fat! Phat! You know.. phat!" Danny tried to explain.

"Danny you do realize you keep repeating the same word?" Jeremy asked, trying very hard to not look amused.

Danny sighed angrily. "I meant phat, like cool, I don't know I heard it somewhere and I didn't want her to think that I was old I was trying to be relevant I don't know it got away from me.." he rambled on.

"Doctor C nobody has used 'phat' since like 1995. You are old," Morgan said, in a very reassuring tone, as if he thought he was helping Danny out with this.

"Yeah, well. I messed that up."

"Then what happened?" Jeremy prodded, now curious because it could only get better from there.

Flashback;

Mindy knew that Danny had meant 'phat' but she was still a little irritated with it. She was so nervous about the date and for the first time she was actually trying to impress him with her outfit and then it just kind of.. came crashing down. She could tell he was sweating, which made her feel a little better because he looked almost more nervous than she felt.

"Where are we going?" she asked when they were in the elevator. It was so awkwardly quiet, and unlike usual she couldn't think of anything to say.

"I made a reservation for us at Felipe's," Danny replied. And then.. couldn't think of anything else to say either.

They were walking along the sidewalk and Danny was struggling with himself whether he would try to hold her hand, or put his hand on her back, or stand closer, or do something. He was sweating more just thinking about it. They were walking quietly for a while, and he finally berated himself enough to actually say something.

"I've heard a lot of good things about the restaurant," he tried.

"I'm sure it will be delicious," she responded sweetly.

He smiled. A large crowd was walking towards them so they had to move closer to the edge of the sidewalk to get by them. He liked being alone but he also liked that the city was so full of life all the time.

"Can you imagine being that young again?" he said with a chuckle and looked over at her. Only she wasn't there. He stopped in confusion and looked around. Did she ditch him already?

"I'm okay, I'm okay, get off me!" he heard coming from behind him; there were a few people hunched over something in the street. He recognized the green dress and started running towards her.

"Mindy! Are you okay!" he asked, bending down and checking her for injuries.

"Ah! I think I sprained my ankle. That group of people pushed me off the sidewalk," she said, trying not to cry at the pain. She sat up a little and looked at her ankle.

"Yeah well maybe if you wore normal shoes and not these things you might have kept your footing," Danny muttered.

"Are you kidding me Danny? These shoes are amazing. It's not my fault groups of people insist on taking up the whole sidewalk!" she was practically yelling at him now. He made her so mad sometimes.

"Why don't you stop yelling at me and get out of the road," he replied, grabbing her hand and helping her up. He put her arm around his shoulder and supported her back onto the sidewalk. "We should get you to a hospital."

"I don't want to go to a hospital! Let's just go get food I'm starving," she knew she was sounding petulant but this was probably one of the worst dates she had been on.

Danny tried to not get angry with her but it was so hard sometimes. "Seriously? You can't walk, especially not on those things!"

;Flashback ends.

"Wooow," Morgan slowly let out. "You guys are awful together."

"Morgan that's not.. that's dramatic," Jeremy said, trying to look reassuring.

Danny put his head down on his desk. "We didn't stop arguing. It's like everything she said was wrong and everything I said made her angry. We finally just decided to get a hot dog and I took her back to her apartment. And then I think I sealed the date as the worst thing ever."

"You didn't kill her did you Doctor C?" Morgan asked, getting worked up again.

"Jesus Morgan, no, calm down."

Flashback;

They rode the elevator up in silence, him still supporting her because of her ankle. As soon as they got in the elevator he felt a shift in the tension between them; it was angry before, but it was like right when they got alone he just wanted to release all of that tension and push her up against the wall. They were standing so close, and he could feel her breathing next to him. She smelled unbelievable. They hobbled towards her front door and she turned to face him and made him hold her purse so she could go through it to look for her keys.

"This was uh.. a fun night, thank you Danny," she said, not looking up.

"Min.. I'm really sorry. I wanted tonight to go so well and I just. I'm sorry," he said, and she finally looked up at him. She started to move towards him, prompting him to lean in as well.

"Ow!" she yelled as their heads bumped together. She smacked him on the shoulder. "I was trying to hug you what are you doing!"

"I'm going to go home now. This was a bad idea. I'm sorry." He shoved her purse back in her hands and pouted back to the elevator. What a disaster.

;Flashback ends.

"You just left. Like that?" Jeremy asked. Morgan was too busy laughing to feel sorry for him.

"Yeah.." Danny said, ashamed. "So now what do I do?"

"Do you still want to make it work?" Jeremy asked.

"I really do. We're great together normally I don't know what went wrong."

"Well then try again. Make it work." With that Jeremy got up and dragged Morgan out of the office with him. "I'm sorry it didn't go well," he said before shutting the door behind him.

Danny looked at the time and noticed that everyone else should be getting into the office soon. He had to fix this soon because there was too much time for negativity to fester and it got too awkward between them. He got up and opened his door so he could be sure to hear when Mindy got there.

Mindy was dreading going to work. The date had gone so wrong and she felt so embarrassed for falling in her heels she didn't know how to face him. She was able to sneak into the office without anyone saying to her, and she sighed with relief when her door clicked shut. She knew she had to face him eventually but for now she wanted to be left alone.

About an hour later she had engrossed herself completely in her patient's file that the light knock at her door made her jump a little. Oh god.

"Come in.." she said, not really meaning it.

Danny poked his head in and smiled at her.

"Hey.. Min… can I have a minute?" he asked, looking less nervous than the night before but he was still sweating pretty bad. She nodded her head and didn't know if she should stand up and go to him or just sit at her desk. Well, her legs weren't working so she just stayed where she was.

"I just wanted to apologize for last night-" "No Danny it's really not-" "Just let me finish. I'm sorry. I promise I had a really romantic evening planned and as soon as I saw you I.. you took my breath away. Every time I see you it's like I've forgotten how beautiful you are and I'm seeing you for the first time."

Damn. Mindy didn't say anything in opposition and he took that as a good sign and started walking around her desk.

"I would really like a chance to make it up to you," he said quietly, trying to look her in the eye but she wouldn't look up at him. He bent down and put his hands on the arms of the chair, essentially forcing her to look at him.

"I can't do this anymore, Min," he whispered, leaning in and kissing her.

Her mind completely stopped; all she could think about was the kiss, how soft his lips were, how she could feel it all the way down to her toes. She reached up and ran her fingers through his hair and pulled him closer to her, but he broke it off and stepped away with that cocky grin.

"That's just a preview. For when you give me a second date," he said.

"Alright Castellano," she said, finally able to speak and look at him again. "But you better hold up your end."

Let me know if you want to keep going or end it here. I feel it could go either way.