Ch5: Go Big or Go Home: Home it is!

Since Mindy couldn't get into her apartment and change out of her "backdraft" dress, they decided to go to Danny's and she changed into his tee-shirt and sweatpants. He did the same, for camaraderie, of course. He whipped up an impromptu dinner. Danny hadn't gone to the grocery store, so they had scrambled eggs and french toast for dinner. Breakfast for dinner. This date could not get any weirder. As Danny was cooking, Mindy opened up cabinets to find the coffee mugs and made the coffee. They both ate eagerly, realizing they were really, really hungry.

"Danny, you can cook!" Mindy said eating up the scrambled eggs. "How did you make them?"

"My ma taught me how to make cold-start scrambled eggs, and I paid attention," he said nonchalantly. He was actually a really good cook, but he never really told Mindy that. Just another thing she would find out about him in time.

"These are seriously some really good eggs. So fluffy and light. When I make eggs, they turn out all wrong. You'll have to teach me sometime," Mindy said as she stuffed in another bite of eggs.

"Didn't you tell me you were banned from cooking when you were at home?" Danny said, not sure he wanted to take on an apprentice sous chef that would ruin his chef's kitchen.

"No, Danny, I told you. I was afraid of getting hot oil splattered on my arms so I wore oven mitts to make eggs, but accidentally caught the mitts on fire," she replied.

"Uh, huh. Why don't you stick to making the coffee and I'll make the eggs?" he offered.

"Okay, deal," she said.

They moved over to the living room with coffee mugs in hand and plopped down next to each other on the soft leather couch and put their feet up on the coffee table.

"I can't believe we got pepper sprayed on our first date," said Mindy leaning her head back on the couch.

"I can honestly say I've never been pepper sprayed on a date until I met you," Danny said and nudged her side with his elbow and smirked.

"Hey, did you see that harvest moon tonight?" Mindy asked. "Weird things happen on full moons. Like our date from hell tonight," she said shaking her head in disbelief.

"Definitely a weird night, that's for sure. Was it worse than your date with Morgan?" he asked.

"Yep, God, it was definitely worse," she said suppressing a smile.

"Yessss, go big or go home," Danny said with a smirk.

"What do you want to watch?" he said as he flipped on the TV. Mindy and Danny had an unspoken understanding. There was not going to be any hanky panky tonight. They were not going to tempt fate. Or Karma.

"Sex and the City?" Mindy suggested.

"Can't watch that show now or ever. How about the Ken Burns documentary?" he countered.

"How about Game of Thrones?" she countered back.

"Deal." They watched the show together, and Mindy stole a glance at Danny. He looked relaxed, comfortable, and content. He looked over at her and smiled.

"What?" he said.

"Just thinking. I'm glad I met you in my 30s instead of my 20s. When I think back, I didn't know much about life or myself, but I didn't know it then. Just too busy trying to get through med school, residency, and not getting murdered…." she trailed off.

"Is that like a recurring nightmare or something?" Danny asked. She certainly had some morbid fear of getting murdered, which he realized on one late night in the doctor's lounge when she wore that crazy scary mask.

"Actually, it is. Sometimes I wake up in a cold sweat. That's why I can't watch horror movies. Plus, I have a fear of haunted houses. What about you, do you have a recurrent nightmare?" she asked.

"Yeah, rogue waves," he said. "That's why I find it strangely fascinating to watch The Deadliest Catch. I kind of wanna see that rogue wave. But, I know what you mean about us not meeting earlier in life. I know it's hard to believe, but I had no idea what I wanted out of life back then, either. Hell, I didn't even know Pluto got de-listed, which by the way, I am going to google right now…" he got up and went over to his bedroom to get his laptop.

Mindy followed him to the bedroom. She stood with her cup of coffee in hand, counting down in her mind….3…..2…1….

"Son of a….really?" he said as he got his answer, looking at the screen. He was absorbed in reading about how this happened and when.

Mindy looked over at his open night table drawer where he kept his laptop. She noticed a rosary next to a stack of envelopes with her handwriting on it. Hey, Danny kept her letters that she wrote to him while she was in Haiti! She wasn't the only sentimental one. Mindy smiled at the thought…Danny had a bit of a romantic side to him. A quiet romantic. She wondered if she should say something, and maybe tease him about it, but decided not to as she looked at his face, brows knit in concentration reading the screen.

Maybe this date wasn't so bad after all, she thought. She looked out of his bedroom window at the harvest moon glowing in the sky, and smiled. The wheels in her head started turning…