A/N: I'm having fun with this fic. (weird direction? idk) Please comment if you want to leave suggestions or criticisms. I love it when I get feedback.
Ch 5
Danny glanced down at the delicate fingers curled around his bicep. It took a moment for his brain to register Mindy's question. He angled himself toward her, his gaze traveling from her hand up to her face. "Don't worry, Min. It's not some kitschy sports bar, although I was tempted, just to see the expression on your face, but it's definitely not some swanky restaurant with harps and what have you."
She raised one eyebrow and squeezed his arm a bit. "You say swanky like it's a four letter word. Sometimes swanky is what a girl wants. A little fine dining experience could be just the thing to set the tone."
Danny suppressed a shiver as the cab slowed to a stop. Mindy looked out the window at a nondescript brick edifice home to various businesses, the windows all dark at this time of night. She leaned across Danny's lap to get a better view. "Is this how you're going to break it to me?"
She had dropped her hand down on his knee for support. The scent of her perfume wafted up to his nose. An earthy sweet smell. The meaning of her words slowly infiltrated the fog in his brain. "Break what to you?"
She sat back, still turned toward him. "The fact that you're a serial killer, and I'm probably going to be your next victim." She gestured to the building. "Seriously Danny, what is this place? There's no one here."
He leaned forward, pulling his wallet from his jacket. After he paid the cabbie he looked back to Mindy. "Relax, Lahiri." He reached up and brushed her cheek with his palm, lightly sweeping the skin under her eye with his thumb. "I already have lampshades in this particular skin tone." He grinned and reached for the door handle. He adroitly slipped from the cab, gracefully turning back and extending his hand for her to take.
The contact on her face was brief, but Mindy found herself touching the spot where his fingers had grazed. Danny was being so playful with her, she wanted to pinch herself. For a minute she'd had that feeling in the pit of her stomach. The one you got as a kid when you went really high on the swings and there was a moment, at the apex just before the decent, when you were weightless.
She gathered her scattered thoughts back together and plastered on her flirtatious confidence again. She scooted forward and reached out for his hand, grasping it firmly without hesitation. She felt the slight sheen of perspiration against his palm. So he wasn't as cool as he seemed. Good to know.
He reached behind her and shut the cab door. The cab receded into the evening and Mindy and Danny were left to themselves standing under the yellow light of the streetlamp. It cast one half of Danny's face in shadow. Mindy suddenly felt like the femme fatale in a noir film, but Danny was menacing in an altogether different way right now.
She tossed her hair over her shoulder and slipped her arm t cast Danny a sidelong glance. "Are you going to even give me a hint?" His merely smiled in response, giving her a look Mindy would have classified as smoldering. She was grateful for the cool night air.
Still silent, he began to lead her down the sidewalk in front of the building she'd seen through the window. Once they reached the end of it, Danny turned into what looked like an alley. They were heading toward a set of stairs that plunged downward into what had to have been a basement area.
A smug smile settled on her face. "I knew you would take me to a dive bar. Real men must have such a hard time impressing women."
He paused, pulling Mindy closer to him than necessary. He leaned closer to her face. "Oh, I don't know, I never seem to have much trouble. This place we're going to has something that those generic restaurants and flavor of the month clubs don't."
He was a hair's breadth away from her lips. She started to say something, but an uncharacteristic shortness of breath caught the words in her mouth. An embarrassing squeak issued from her mouth, and she quickly cleared her throat to cover it. "Ahem, and uh, what exactly is that? Chalk outlines?"
He smiled for what seemed like the hundredth time tonight and leaned back on his heels, looking at her with a self-assured expression. "Character."
Her arm still locked in his, he continued down the alley toward the steps. There was a group of three men standing at the head of the stairs chatting amiably and smoking cigars. The oldest of the trio, a man looking to be in his late sixties, squinted questioningly at them for a moment, then suddenly a wave of recognition filled his features and he beamed at them. "Danny! I haven't seen you in ages."
The man reached forward and clapped Danny on the shoulder, turning his scrutiny on Mindy. His pearly grin widened further. "And who is this? Some poor girl you've tricked into accompanying you here?" He turned and wiggled his eyebrows at Danny and feigned a whisper. "Quite a looker too, she got a sister?"
Mindy found herself once again gaping at the picture in front of her. Who was this man? Who was Danny even? She was looking at him like he'd just stepped out of a spaceship. "You going to introduce me?" She piped up with more confidence than she felt.
Danny withdrew his arm from hers, placing his hand at the small of her back. "Mindy, this is Ed Calloway, jazz pianist extraordinaire." He turned back to Mindy. "Ed, this is my colleague, Dr. Mindy Lahiri. She doesn't think I know how to show a lady a good time, so I'm out to prove her wrong."
Mindy had trouble paying attention to the words being spoken in front of her. Danny's hand was meandering up her back, twisting the dangling locks of hair brushing against her skin. The manners ingrained by her parents saved her from embarrassment. She reflexively offered her hand in greeting.
Ed grasped it warmly. "Be sure to look me up if he doesn't prove you wrong." Ed returned the cigar to his mouth taking a short pull on it. He gestured to the stairway with his free hand. "Well, go on down, I'll be starting my set shortly."
Danny pulled Mindy down the stairs behind him. There were gleaming neon lights attached to the reddish brown bricks in the stairwell. Floating little blue musical notes cast a blue glow to light their path. When they reached the bottom, Mindy began to hear the muffled strains of soft music tinkling out into the night.
Danny pushed the door at the bottom of the stairs open and motioned for Mindy to enter. She stepped through it into a dimly lit entryway. She could hear the music more clearly now. It was some sort of jazz. A bit formless and meandering, but nice nonetheless. She could make out the tat-a-tat of the high hat and the dexterous plucking of the bass. She would never have pictured Danny here.
She turned to him as he followed behind her. "You've never mentioned any of this to anyone at the office." She waved her hand around, a gesture that encompassed her surroundings. "Since when are you into Jazz? Who is that man? What exactly are we going to do here?" In spite of the genuine confusion she was feeling, Mindy began to feel a smile form. "Who are you, and what have you done with Daniel Castellano?"
Danny came up to her and captured his hand in his, barely pausing in his forward movement, he pulled her along behind him toward an area where tables were clustered together. She sat down wordlessly at the little table. There was a candle flickering gently in the center of it, casting strange shadows in front of her. Danny didn't sit down. "I'll be right back, I'll get us something to drink, and then I can play twenty questions with you."
Left alone for a minute, Mindy was able to stop and asses what she'd just learned. She'd been speechless, probably for the longest period of time in her entire life, and she didn't like it. If this were a competition, Danny would be winning at the moment. Unacceptable.
She sat her clutch on the table in front of her. Pulling the compact out she quickly touched up her makeup, making sure she didn't look as confused as she felt. Done with it, she flung it back in the clutch and sat up straight, smoothing down the front of her dress. She smiled to herself, it was early yet. It's time to get your head in the game, Mindy.