Chapter Text
Mindy awoke again to her phone ringing , glancing at it she saw it was Gwen.
"Ugh, Gwen, can we cancel this stupid boat tour thing. I'm so exhausted." Mindy said answering the phone, head still resting on her pillow.
"Are you seriously still in bed? The boat leaves in an hour! Anyway, I've got some bad news. Carl had the shrimp last night, even though it never agrees with him. Something I reminded him about last night, and hes got food poisoning. So its just gonna be you and Danny on the boat."
"Come on Gwen. You're making me get up early, go on some boring boat tour, and you're not even going to be there!"
"Yeah, but Danny still is. It'll give you two another full day to spend together. Which I'm sure you're happy about."
"Well, yeah, but you're still ditching me. Is Carl even sick, or is this some ploy for you to get Danny and me closer together?"
"Yes, he is. That gagging you hear in the background, no one could fake that. Plus you two got together on your own , without my help. You like this guy Mindy, don't self sabotage. I know you, make sure you give him a real chance."
"What's that supposed to mean? Of course I'm giving him a real chance. He's sweet, hes hot as hell and I can be myself with him.
"But? There's always a but, either you think you're not good enough for a guy. Or that hes not good enough for you, he's secretly a loser who's gonna cheat on you like Tom, Josh and Cliff."
"But,nothing."
" Come on Mindy, we've been best friends forever ,I know you, you're never this sure about a guy."
"I know. There's just something different about Danny. I know I've only known him for like four days ,but... they're aren't any but's. Unless you count his cute little white butt...sorry. The point is, I like him and so far things have been really great." Mindy said.
"Alright, well go get ready. Danny is meeting you in the lobby in thirty minutes."
"Okay, I'm getting up as we speak."
"No you're not, you're still laying in bed."
"OK, fine, I'm actually getting up." Mindy said dragging herself out of bed.
"There you go. I gotta get back to Carl, have fun today."
"Ok, yeah, bye." Mindy said hanging up and dragging herself to the bathroom.
"Our plan is working even better than I thought. Great job on the fake gagging." Gwen said hanging up the phone and turning into Carl who was sitting next to her on their hotel bed.
" I just hope it all turns out better than it did the last time you tried to set one of my friends with Mindy. lest I remind you of the Dennis situation."
" First of all it was you're idea to set them up ,and Dennis wasn't exactly the worlds greatest catch. Second, I think Mindy really likes Danny. I haven't heard her talk about a guy this way since Casey. "
"Yeah, you're right, Danny seems to be pretty into her. His ex-wife messed him up pretty bad. I could tell he wasn't really happy with her , the times that I had dinner with them."
"See, perfect match. " Gwen said with a smirk.
Mindy showered, got dressed and headed down into the lobby to meet Danny. She felt nervous, which was weird because she was only ever nervous on first dates. This would technically be her and Danny's second date, now that it was just going to be the two of them on the boat tour. She thought about her chat with Gwen and decided she would just go with the flow. No sabotaging. They'd already slept with each other. They'd also gone on a first date and he still wanted to hang with her. That was a good start.
"Hey." Danny said walking up to her.
"Hi." Mindy said back.
Again they weren't sure how to greet each other. Mindy took the initiative and kissed him on the cheek.
"So, Carl told me the boats leaving from the dock off the beach here at this hotel. We should probably head over there."
"Right, yeah." Mindy said .
"So how'd you sleep?" Danny asked as they made their way toward the dock.
"Good, I could of used a few extra hours, didn't get much sleep the night before." Mindy said with a smirk.
" I usually get up early, get a workout in at the gym before work then head into work. Yeah,but the other night exhausted me too, in the good way." Danny said then added the last part when he realized Mindy was flirting. Things were so easy yesterday, today he sounded like a mook.
"Right, yeah, me too." Mindy said, wondering how they got to this forced small talk. Things were more natural between them last night. This morning, they were just weird. She wondered if it was because she hadn't let him in her room after their date. Was he no longer interested in her?
"How about you?" Danny said. Asking Mindy a question about something she clearly missed.
"What? Sorry , I got distracted by the beauty of the island, the uh trees and fresh air." Mindy said.
"Uh, that's ok. I was just asking if you'd ever been on one of these tours? It'll be my first." Danny said.
"Um yeah same here, unless you count the ferry to the statue of Liberty. Or the couple of booze cruises, not that I've been on a lot . It, was basically two. " Mindy said, she mentally face palmed herself.
They were both silent the rest of the way to the dock. They spotted a sign for the tour Gwen and Carl had signed them up for ,and were greeted as they walked up.
"Welcome to Le Nageoire dolphin tour, I'm your capitaine Jacques Monsignor." A man dressed in a white uniform, with the hotels logo on the breast pocket, said.
A woman wearing a similar uniform checked off their names and motioned for them to help themselves to coffee and pastries. Danny grabbed a coffee and Mindy resisted the urge to pile her plate with food. Choosing instead to grab two large pastries before taking a seat next to Danny.
" We'll be leaving the dock momentarily, please enjoy the complimentary refreshments." A voice said through overhead speakers.
"You sure you don't want anything to eat, they've got a ton of variety." Mindy said to break the silence.
"Nah, I'm more of a corn muffin kinda guy. Everything else is too sweet." Danny said.
" Ok."Mindy said then focused her attention on her bear claws.
They sat there neither saying a word ,Danny sipping his coffee and Mindy eating.The boat disembarked from the dock and the tour began. The tour guide wasn't very charismatic . As Mindy looked around she noticed that though the boat was sizable ,the amount of passengers was small. It made sense once the guide started talking about seaweed and the other type of creatures local to the waters.
Leave it to Carl to book an educational boat tour. Mindy thought it was gonna be more of a whale watching type thing. She turned and saw that Danny looked equally bored.
"How lame is this tour." Mindy said.
"Yeah, a whole twenty minutes on seaweed, he's no Ken Burns."
"Who? I don't think anyone is listening. Like look at those two, Dick and Mary. Mary clearly dragged him here, and Dick's interest lies down the shirt of the chick sitting next to him, and every other chick on this boat." Mindy whispered.
"You know them?" Danny asked.
"No, you idiot, its called people watching. You know when you go to a public place and make up stories about the strangers you see, based on your observations of them."
"Oh, yeah, that sounds stupid and a waste of time."
"Says the person who probably has never tried it. What about those two ?" Mindy said pointing to a couple sitting in the seats in front and to the right of them.
"Ok, um, do I gotta give them names?" Danny said.
"You can, but It's not like a rule or anything." Mindy said with a smirk.
"Um, ok I'll give it a try. Well the guy is in trouble with the girl, they probably had some kind of argument the other night or maybe this morning. You can tell by the distance between them, shes sitting at least a foot away. Plus every time he tries to get closer , she moves away. The guy probably has no idea what he did wrong. How was that?"
"Terrible and depressing, the story is supposed to be funny. You're kinda bad at this but A for effort." Mindy said.
"Uh, thanks I guess."
"Let me show you how its done." Mindy said then singled out a passenger who was by himself.
The two continued on with the game, bantering back and forth the tension and awkwardness melting away. Mindy even got a couple of crooked smiles out of Danny. By the end of the tour, they couldn't stop laughing. The other people on the boat probably thought they were insane , and the boat crew that they were extremely rude. Mindy and Danny didn't care though.
They boat docked and the walked off grinning. They then walked back to the hotel, standing outside the main doors.
"You wanna grab lunch?" Danny asked as they stood in the lobby.
"Yeah, sounds good I am starving."
" Really? You had like three bear claws on the boat."
"It was two and a half and it's rude to comment on how much a woman eats. Not that I care cause I'm a dainty bird, with hips of an eleven year old boy." Mindy said proudly.
"I'm gonna brush right past that. How about the buffet, and I promise not to comment on your food intake." Danny said with a smirk. Mindy playfully slapped his arm before following him inside.
They ate lunch and after taking a short stroll, they decided to hit the pool. Danny bought a pair of trunks from the hotel boutique, after he went into a rant about why borrowing a pair from Carl was unhygienic.
After a couple hours swimming and sun bathing, they moved to the jacuzzi. Luckily for them no one else was around so they had the jacuzzi to themselves. Benefits of traveling to the island in a non-summer month.
"Danny?"
"Hmm."
"Can I admit something to you?"
" We're the same age, I know."
"How dare you, we are not even in the same generation." Mindy said splashing him.
"Hey, that got in my mouth!"
" Serves you right, I'm trying to have a serious moment with you.."
" Sorry, what did you want to admit."
"Well I'm usually like this super confident person when it comes to men, dating etc. I have no problem slaying dudes and taking numbers. But you, I don't know how to act around you. I know things were a little awkward this morning. You're probably wondering why, after things got all hot and heavy, I didn't invite you in. This connection or whatever we have after three days it scares the crap out of me. This trip is half way done and, I don't want this to just be about sex. A wise friend of mine reminded me that I can sometimes sabotage my relationships,not that I'm saying that's what this is. I guess my point is I don't want to screw this up, cause I really like you. Ok, shutting up now, just forget everything I just said." Mindy said when she couldn't read Danny's expression.
"You're kind of cute when you rant. "
"That's all you're gonna say?"
No, there's more if you'll give me a chance to talk."
"Oh, ok, sorry, talk." Mindy said.
"I admit I was disappointed you didn't invite me in last night, but I meant it when I said I wanted to get to know you. I really like you too, and this, isn't just about sex. I don't want to screw this, whatever it is, up either. "
" Good ,I'm glad we're on the same page."
"Yeah."
"So I think this calls for drink."
"it's 3 o'clock in the afternoon."
"If this is going to work Danny, you'll have to get used to my rock and roll lifestyle."
"I could get used to that."
"Really?"
"Yeah." Danny said, then kissed her.
That's all the confirmation Mindy needed, the drinks were forgotten as they made their way to Mindy's hotel room.
Later they lay on the bed in Mindy's hotel room, Mindy curled against him, sleeping soundly. Danny's phone buzzed and he hit ignore. His phone dinged signaling a message 'We Need to Talk ' followed by 'You can't avoid me forever' 'It's Important' and 'Call me back '. Danny turned off his phone and wrapped his arms around Mindy.
"Everything, ok?" Mindy said feeling him tense.
"Everything's perfect." Danny said, he only hoped it would stay that way .