Chapter 1: The First Steps
It all started in the club. The offices club night was the first time she glimpsed the real Danny, the one hidden underneath the anger, distrust and loneliness, the Danny before Christina. There had been that brief, but significant, moment when she'd approached him on the dance floor. Even after a couple of hours she was still impressed by the way he lit up the dance floor.
Despite all the gorgeous women around him,including Shauna. He'd asked her ,if she wanted to grab a drink. She had declined ,her sights set on the VIP area. She had been so focused on meeting someone new, she'd missed the quick flash of disappointment on Danny's face and in his voice, before he quickly recovered. He'd gone back to dancing, eventually hooking up with the curly haired brunette, and she started her trajectory toward the disaster that was her relationship with Josh.
Then came his very brief stint as her gynecologist . The first time he'd denied any un-lamp like feelings for his slightly eccentric co-worker. Danny had gone into that situation certain he could prove Mindy Lahiri wrong, that she was nothing but an annoying over sharing co-worker, but in the end he'd lost . Yes ,she was all those aforementioned things, but he couldn't completely deny that she had started to affect him personally , that some how she'd started to slip past his defensive barriers.
Months passed and slowly their friendship started to develop, hidden underneath the back and forth banter that seemed to happen anytime they were near each other,even in passing . Christmas rolled around and Mindy announced that, that year she and her boyfriend Josh would be hosting the Shulman and associates Christmas party. Danny had no intention of going. No one in the office had met Mindy's latest boyfriend, and even if the guy did exist he didn't want to meet him.
Somehow, as Mindy always managed to do, he found himself giving in to her ,by not only attending, but contributing with a homemade lavishly decorated ginger bread house. He had planned to drop off the ginger bread house then head off , but again she convinced him to defer from his plans. He was finding it harder and harder to resist her undeniable 'charm'.
He had started to feel a little uncomfortable after the infamous Josh made his grand appearance, impressing everyone , himself not included, and knew that it was time for him to make his exit.
Heading into Mindy's bedroom in search of his jacket, she suddenly appeared in the room with him. After a little small talk, him admitting he was also seeing someone , Mindy interrogating him about it, the party took a turn. It turned out Josh wasn't the amazing boyfriend he seemed to be , in fact he was a big fat liar and a cheater.
Again Danny's plan to make a quick exit were deterred. A part of him was being pulled toward his plans with his current girlfriend, but the other just couldn't leave Mindy alone to deal with Josh. She wasn't thinking clearly and a blow up with Josh, especially in front of everyone she worked with, wasn't the way to go.
Taking her outside to calm down didn't work. In fact it made things worse, when he'd accidentally dialed the number of the woman Josh was cheating with, from Josh's phone. Everything seemed to calm down and Danny was ready to again be on his way, but he just couldn't leave , not yet. He went back inside coming to the rescue during Mindy's hostess Christmas speech.
Just when it looked like everything was looking up, in burst the woman from Josh's phone and everything went to hell. The ending result was a drawer and water on the kitchen floor,a broken microwave door, a handcuffed Heather, a slightly bruised, embarrassed and heartbroken Mindy, and a partially destroyed painstakingly built ginger bread house.
In the end, Danny, and her other friends came through to cheer her up and he never did make his other plans, but he should have figured out the minute he'd arrived that he wouldn't be leaving. Mindy had managed to push a little bit more through his barriers and it was getting easier to do.