The Taste Test
She watched Danny from the doorway, Gail gulping at his dangling finger.
"Get your hand out of there!"
She held her breath for a moment as Danny hit the rim of the bowl in his rush to comply.
He stood, nearly knocking over the chair, and turned, his face competing with his hair in the colour stakes. "Hell, CJ. Don't do that. You trying to kill us?"
CJ closed her door, before walking past him and shifting Gail's bowl to a safer location in the middle of her desk. "I'll be resuscitating my fish first."
"Good to know my position on the totem pole."
She lowered herself into her chair. "What do you want?"
"I wanted to spend some time with Gail," he replied, pointing at the bowl as he resumed his seat. "I've missed her."
"Lucky she only has a short term memory."
He frowned. "She didn't pine for me?"
"No. Sorry."
Resting his chin on her desk, he stared into the bowl. "Maybe she doesn't remember me because this is the first time I've met her."
She raised her eyebrows in question. "You suggesting I killed her?"
"It has been a few years."
"I can assure you she is the one and only Gail."
He grinned. "That's good to know."
She tried to hide her own smile. "I've got work to do."
"Okay." His gaze dropped to her lips.
"Danny." She felt a blush heat her cheeks.
"Yeah?"
To hell with it. She stood and leaned across her desk, capturing his lips with her own. His shock quickly gave way to passion.
She pulled away reluctantly after a heated minute. "You'd better go."
"Yeah."
He kept glancing back as he crossed to the door.
"Bye, Danny." She waited until he'd closed the door behind him, before dipping her finger into the fishbowl. "I don't know what you think, Gail, but your dad tastes the same to me."