The Towers:
Danny studied his soon-to-be ex-wife over his wine glass. She was talking, laughing. He watched her give her order to the waiter and enchant him, sip her wine, push her curls over her ear.
He smiled.
"Oh, my God," Michelle thought. "He thinks I'm a babbling idiot." It had seemed like a good idea earlier that day. They had been standing outside the courthouse with nowhere to go when the words had popped out of her mouth.
"We should celebrate."
The words had hung in the air between them, almost with a life of their own. She had desperately wanted to snatch them back, when Danny had salvaged her pride once again.
"We should," he said, and then almost immediately turned on his heel and stalked off.
He must have regretted it immediately, she thought. He must regret it now.
She sighed inwardly as she turned to concentrate on her dinner. She could only hope to give her future patients half the attention she was giving the chicken breast on her plate. She sawed some more.
He'd said something. "What?" She watched in horror as the chicken breast went flying across the table.
Admirably, the waiter attempted to deflect the projectile as it arced its way towards Danny. Unfortunately, he still held the wine bottle he had been pouring. Horrified, Michelle watched a $200 bottle of wine soak the front of Danny's $2500 suit.
"Oh, my God," Silverware clattered as she leaped up and started dabbing at the front of his suit with her napkin. "Are you okay, I'm so sorry, I know it's your favorite suit, you should sent me the bill..."
"Michelle, Michelle, MICHELLE," he gritted his teeth, as she kept dabbing at his chest. "It's fine, it's fine, it's just a suit, it needed to go to the cleaners anyway." He stood up. "I'm just going to go the bathroom. I'll be right back.. Sit down. Enjoy yourself."
Michelle watched, as he turned around and walked away. When he disappeared into the restroom, she put her face in her hands, and moaned, "This is a .."
The Towers Men's Room:
"... complete disaster." Danny looked at himself in the mirror as the washroom attendant attempted to repair the Versace suit.
"I've dated more beautiful women than Michelle, more sophisticated women than Michelle. This will be okay, I will go in there and turn on the Santos charm, and it will be fine."
He thought of Michelle. Perhaps the Santos charm was not such a good idea, he amended.
The Towers Dining Room:
Michelle watched as Danny emerged from the men's room, crossed the dining area, and came to a stop directly in front of her.
"This is it," she thought, "He's going to end his torture and take me home. I'll never see him again."
The thought depressed Michelle immeasurably.
Danny took a deep breath.
"Michelle Bauer, would you like to dance?"
"I would love to," Michelle genuinely smiled at him, and Danny felt his heart grow warm. For a moment, he forgot where he was and then she placed her hand in his own.
He led them onto the dance floor. She placed her left hand on his shoulder and her right in his left, it was all very proper, but it felt comfortable, and when she placed her head on his chest, she thought she heard a sigh.
She allowed a little voice in the back of her head to whisper, "This could work."
Slow, slow, quick, quick, slow, slow, quick, quick, he maneuvered them around the dance floor. Sister Elise would be proud of him, he thought, as he remembered the elderly nun who would beat the counts out with her cane, and he began to chuckle until...
Michelle felt her muscles of his shoulder tense beneath her fingers. She tried to ignore it, but his shoulders kept rising as they worked their way across the floor.
"What's wrong?" she asked quietly.
"Nothing's wrong" he replied, forcing a smile.
"Danny Santos," she raised her voice, "I know you, and I know when something's wrong. What it is?"
Better not cause a scene, he decided. "Well, it just feels like people are watching us."
It was her turn to force a smile, "Well, it's not everyday a girl is cleared of homicide."
"No, it's more than that," he insisted. He spun her around. "There's the couple in the corner who have been watching us since we came in."
She took a look. Matt and Vanessa. "My mother's best friend and her husband. Actually, he's my cousin also."
"There's the couple next to them."
Phillip and Harley. "My brother's best friend and his wife."
"The two ladies at the bar."
Holly and Blake. "My father's ex-wife and her daughter." She decided to leave out the parentage issue.
"The couple who have joined Buzz and Selena in watching us."
Josh and Reva. "That one's complicated."
"Oh, and I think I see your brother and his wife coming in right now. Where's Aunt Meta?"
"She must be babysitting everyone's kids," she muttered into his chest.
Michelle was mortified. He was right, and he hadn't even noticed Ross and India, Jim and Beth, and the others. "Why are they watching us?"
"Isn't is obvious?" His eyes were inscrutable for a moment. Then he leaned down, touching his forehead to hers, and grinned, "They want to make sure that big, bad Danny Santos takes good care of Michelle Bauer."
The little voice in the back of her head was growing louder. "Kiss me now!" it hissed.
But the moment passed, and he looked up. "We should have gone somewhere else, somewhere quiet, somewhere discreet..."
"Somewhere not the only restaurant in Springfield?"
Danny looked down at her again, surprised.
Then, for the first time in a long time, Danny Santos laughed from his center.
Meanwhile, at the far table:
Rick Bauer was failing miserably at trying to inconspicuously hide behind a menu.
"We shouldn't have come," Abby told him yet again.
"I know, I know," Rick tried to move the centerpiece further in front of his face.
"They're going to be fine. Look they're out on the dance floor, ' she tried to move the centerpiece back. "They're even laughing."
"I know, I know," he sighed. "It's just that she's my baby sister, and he's, he's..."
"He's totally in love with her."
He sighed, "I know. But..."
"But what?" she asked.
He put the menu down and looked at her, taking her hand. "But I'd still like to have dinner out with my wife."
Back on the dance floor:
For Michelle, the snooping crowd dissipated in the face of Danny's laughter. And then a thought hit her.
"I know where we should go." She took his hand and led him off the dance floor, across the dining room, by the maitre d', pausing only long enough to sign the check, and out the door.
"Well, I guess that's that." Abby said.
To be continued....