An Accidental Date [V-Day Challenge] by Samj Chapter 1

Republisher’s Note: This is a lost scene during the fake marriage.

Author’s Note: Just a few notes: 1. This is first six months, somewhere between a courtship, a date and I am a man. 2. While I was mapping this out, I honestly forgot that Jesse was an artist (what can I say, it’s been a while), and I think this story works better if the reader forgets that as well. 3. I wasn’t watching during Michelle’s blindness story, so I just made up what I wrote about it. 4. I think the kiss at Millennium before Danny goes to see his grandmother is highly underrated. 5. I wrote this in a rush.

I forgot to ask my continuity question (and I apologize if this was a subject of discussion back when it first aired, but I wasn’t on the boads – or even watching Manny – back then): Does it strike anyone else as strange that Michelle starts her psychology class with her new, tough professor, sometime after Thanksgiving, and close to Christmas? Just what kind of weird grading system is Springfield U on? Just curious. (I made the class carry over into the New Year.)

“Isn’t that just an incredible piece? I especially love the use of the Vincenzi technique, don’t you?”

“I don’t actually know that much about art,” Michelle confessed with a bit of embarrassment, her eyes still fixed on the photograph in front of her.

“I’d be happy to teach you,” the guy offered in what he apparently considered to be a seductive voice. “I’m Jack, by the way. And you are?”

“Married,” Michelle answered with a syrupy smile, coolly walking away.

Overhearing the conversation behind him, but not recognizing Michelle’s voice, Danny couldn’t help but think, Man, what a loser.

And you’re not? the voice in his head mocked. You can’t even get your own wife to give you the time of day.

His wife. He certainly didn’t feel married and not just for the obvious reasons, like the fact that he’d had to sleep on the floor for almost a week before Michelle finally let him back into their bed. He just felt like, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get Michelle to really see him, to see him as anything other than a cheap thug.

Michelle had suggested a date. No, a courtship, he corrected with a laugh. She wanted him to court her.

So why couldn’t he shake the feeling that she was up to something?

Give it a rest man, he chided himself. Just try to enjoy the pictures you can worry about this crazy arrangement later.

That proved easier said than done, however, when Danny walked into the next room and discovered Michelle admiring a photograph of a child eating an ice cream cone. “Michelle?” he called, grabbing her attention. “What are you doing here? I thought you had classes today.”

“Um, hi,” she answered, startled by his sudden appearance. “I had a really bad class this morning, so I needed someplace to get my head back together. What about you? I mean, what are you doing here?”

Danny tugged at his tie a little. “I kept hearing how great this exhibit is, and it closes tomorrow, so….”

“Playing hooky in the middle of the day, huh?” Michelle teased. “Well, I guess that’s one of the perks of being your own boss.”

Danny’s entire demeanor changed as he bit out, “Yeah, well, I do a lot of work at night.”

Michelle mentally kicked herself for making such a careless comment. Hadn’t she been thinking, just before Danny showed up, that the two of them desperately needed to reach some sort of understanding? Bringing up the Family Business certainly wasn’t the way to create a truce between them.

Danny finally broke the silence with a cough. “I uh, I hope you get things straightened out,” he offered as he turned to walk away.

“Where are you going?” Michelle asked in confusion.

“I don’t want to intrude,” Danny explained shortly. “I’ll see back at the house for dinner.”

Michelle sighed. “You’re not intruding,” she assured him. “Look, I’m sorry for being cranky. I have another hour before my next class, so what do you say we look at the rest of the exhibit together? It could be fun.”

Danny’s mind raced with pros and cons, suspicions and hopes, but in the end he simply wanted to spend time with her. Sure, lets look at some photos.

Tags: An Accidental Date, Danny Santos, GL, Guiding Light, Manny Fanfic, Manny fanfiction, Michelle Bauer Santos