Thanks for all the reviews! The sentence that inspired this all was: "Fine, do you do solemnly swear that if a bear attacks this tent in the middle of the night that you will throw your body in front of me, sacrificing yourself so that I might live?" It came to me while writing my first Mindy/Danny story (probably because of the finale) and it obviously didn't fit in there so I decided I would simply need to write a whole new series!
A knock came at his door at 10:14 PM. Danny smiled and shook his head because he knew exactly who was standing on the other side. It had become an odd routine of sorts for them. This was the third Saturday in a row that Mindy was going on a first date and apparently this one went in the same direction that the other two did, ending up with her bringing over her dessert to share. He yelled from the kitchen for her to come in and she did, kicking off her shoes at the front door as naturally as if she did it every day. Danny had grabbed a couple of forks from the drawer and they stood at the counter hovering over the dessert, as had become the pattern.
"So, what went wrong this time?"
"He told me that he was surprised I was a doctor because I didn't appear that smart."
"Wow, that's bold."
"Right, I mean who in his life actually told him that insulting your date is a great way to get a second date."
"And remind me what was wrong with the other two guys?"
"Well, the first guy Brad seemed nice but he was literally so frightened of being on a date that he didn't say a word for like 45 minutes. That's the last time I ask my mechanic to set me up."
"Why would you ask your mechanic to set you up?"
"I was desperate. It's OK. I gave the guy a referral to a good therapist."
"And the second guy…Trevor, was it?" Danny laced Trevor's name with disdain because despite his feigned ignorance, he knew exactly why that situation did not work out.
"Oh yes, Trevor the frat guy who basically assumed within 15 minutes that I would sleeping with him that night."
"Well, at least we got a cheesecake out of him. I mean, your date with Brad only gave us apple pie."
"Oh, Danny, you are going to be so excited! On today's menu is chocolate molten lava cake."
They broke open the container to reveal a decadent chocolate cake. Mindy moaned upon the first bite of cake.
"Um, relax there, Lahiri. Or do you want to be alone with the cake?"
"I kind of do, actually. Do you mind going to your bedroom and leaving me out here with the cake?"
"Alright, cake hog. Pass some over here."
"I'm beginning to think I should take a hiatus from dating. The whole idea of having random people set me up is not working so well. I should focus on myself or something like that."
"Yea, I'm sort of on a break myself. After things ended with Christina again, I decided to take a step back from that scene. You know, figure out what I want and all that other crap that people spout when they're single. It's actually been alright so far."
"I should make this the 'Autumn of Mindy'? You know, spend time with friends, hang out with Rishi more, go the movies alone, stuff like that. I'm tired of the dating world. I think I need a break."
"Sounds like a good plan," Danny said, laughing at her subtle attempts to stick her fork into his side of the cake, which she thought was not noticeable. He gave her a stern look. She pouted and he gave in and let her steal the whipped cream from his side.
"OK, Danny, which romantic comedy are we watching tonight?"
"Remind me why exactly you brought over a whole box of them last week."
"I had a feeling I would end up here after yet another disastrous date night and they would never have fit in the clutch that matches this outfit!'
"Right, of course, makes total sense."
"Ooh, how about this one," Mindy said with excitement as she held one of the movies up.
"No way. You are not Notebooking me. I've heard about this. It's not going to happen."
"But it is like the greatest love story ever made. Well, second only to the actual relationship between Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams. They will find their way back to each other someday, I promise you."
"Sorry, try again."
"The Wedding Singer? It's the 80's. Billy Idol makes an appearance."
"Fine. I guess that's acceptable. One of these movie nights, let's watch something that involves a car chase or something blowing up or subtitles. I don't know if I can handle this particular genre of film too much longer."
"Aw, Danny, that's cute. It's like you think you have a choice."
"You know, I usually at least get to have sex after I'm stuck watching these types of movies."
It was a quick statement said without thinking it through first, but the awkwardness that set in between them put an immediate stop to the conversation. The thing was if they had both never thought about what that would be like with the other person in that way, it wouldn't have been awkward. But since there was a feeling of awkwardness when that topic was mentioned, that probably meant that they had both thought about it. Luckily, as evidenced by previous events of inadvertent hold-holding and potential kisses, these two were experts at pretending something didn't exist between them. And so, the tension shifted after just a few moments back to the status quo of friendship. Danny pressed play on the remote and Mindy was excited to realize that the DVD actually had karaoke as a special feature and naturally implored Danny to sing with her after the movie was over. He half-heartedly protested before ultimately agreeing, but mostly because it was sometimes just easier to agree with Mindy.