"You're cooking?" He hoped that the gulp wasn't too audible.
"Hmmm, mmmm." She started tossing a head of ice berg lettuce, a tomato, green peppers... all onto the counter. "There's the salad. Do you really think that there's a pizza place that delivers within a ten mile radius of here?"
Abashed, he ceased his covert search for a phonebook. She had a point.
She started checking the cupboards, for what he didn't know...
She peered over her shoulder at him, "Are you just going to watch all night?
When I'm alone
With my fancies,
I'll be with you.
Even romance is
Making believe they're true.
He studied the chicken, salad, and rice on his plate. It certainly looked edible. The chicken appeared golden and crisp on the outside, juicy on the inside. Just the way he liked it. Of course, this was Michelle, whose attempts to cook during the two years they had lived together, he could count on one hand, and of those attempts....
Cautiously, he prepared to saw at the breast... and in its tenderness, the white meat fell from the bone on contact.
Startled, he glimpsed Michelle, watching him from over her own plate, hiding a smile behind a glass of Chablis. "I think it's already dead, Danny."
Savoring the flavorsome meat, he had to agree. "When did you learn how to cook?"
"In medical school." Her obvious delight at having surprised him radiated from across the table. "I did have to feed myself for the past ten..."
He could see the glow drain from her face.
"Things change in ten years, Danny."
"I guess they do."
Give me a kiss to build a dream on
And my imagination will thrive upon that kiss.
Sweetheart, I ask no more than this,
A kiss to build a dream on.
He was still watching her. She didn't know how with his back turned as he fiddled with the antique radio in the parlor, but he was watching her nonetheless. She readjusted her legs underneath herself on the couch, making believe she was reading all the while.
She was watching him too.
Give me a kiss before you leave me
And my imagination will feed me hungry heart,
Leave me one thing before we part
A kiss to build a dream on.
The static on the old-time standards station abated, and she felt his presence drift across the room, reading the spines of books, straightening picture frames, pushing in chairs... toward her, before pausing before the couch.
He dropped to his knees before the couch, taking the moment just to memorize her presence and put another mental photograph in the album of Michelle he carried with him wherever he went, a picture of her the way she was now, the unruly honeyed hair, the lines underneath her eyes, the wrinkled dress with the 1, 2, 3, ..... 18, 19, 20 buttons down the front.
When I'm alone with my fancies,
I'll be with you,
Even romance is,
Making believe they're true.
He stayed a respectful distance from her, but she could still feel his breath upon her.
She sighed, closing the book. Openly and directly, she met his gaze, looking on him as he did her.
"Michelle?"
Give me your lips for just a moment,
And my imagination will make that moment live.
Give me what you alone can give,
A kiss to build a dream on.
"Yes."
______________________
Elle writes: The song, of course, is "A Kiss to Build a Dream On" by Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby, and Oscar Hammerstein II. Kalmar and Ruby wrote many, many wonderful songs, including "Thinking of You," "Three Little Words," "I Wanna be Loved by You," to name just a few. Oscar Hammerstein II was one of the giants of American musical theatre, writing book and/or lyrics to far too many shows to name here, but of course, was most famous for his collaborations with Richard Rodgers. But I digress (as everyone here knows I am far too wont to do)... "A Kiss to Build a Dream On" has been recorded by many, many great artists, the most famous one probably being the one by Louis Armstrong, but the one to which I was listening when I wrote this piece of the fanfic was by cabaret and jazz singer Paula West on her album "Temptation" which I highly recommend.