Danny and Elise Ch. 05

It was almost midnight and still Elise laid wide awake in bed. She had been flopping around like a fish for a good hour, unable to get her mind to turn off. She played the night's events, or conversations, rather, over and over in her head.

She felt like they had learned an insane amount about each other for one evening, yet there was still an entire lifetime-sized void of knowledge left to learn.

Elise hadn't realized it until he called her out.

"You're staring," a sideways smile formed on Danny's face.

"Sorry," she blushed, shaking her head slightly. "I've never seen you without a hat on. You were going on about how different I look, but you look pretty different yourself."

"Yah, I guess I probably do," he chuckled.

She cocked her head slightly.

"What is it?" he laughed nervously.

"Your hair. It doesn't have much gray in it. Like your beard, I mean," Elise buried her face in her hands as Danny laughed.

"It's ok," he said. "Not like I don't see myself in the mirror every morning," he ran a hand across his short black hair.

She found herself wanting to run her own hands through it as well

"How...old are you, anyways?" she risked sticking her foot in her mouth even more. "Neither of us have said."

"I turned 32 in August. The men in my family tend to gray early. The facial hair is always first to go," he shrugged. "And you?"

"No. All of the men in my family seem to go gray in their 60's," she joked.

"Ah, there's that wit again," Danny smiled.

"Sorry. Couldn't resist. I'll be 25...tomorrow."

"Are you serious? Your birthday's tomorrow?"

"Yah," Elise blushed.

"Well happy birthday. If I had known that we could have gone some place fancier," he laughed a little.

"No, this is perfect. I love pizza. It's my usual Friday night meal...I'm just glad to not be eating it alone this week," she smiled sincerely. "Oh," she didn't know why, but she felt an overwhelming desire to tell him this. "I like the gray, by the way. In your beard," Elise wanted to reach across the table and touch his face. If nothing else, she hoped he would realize it was her way of letting him know the age difference didn't bother her.

"Yah?" he chuckled good-naturedly, raising his eyebrows. "Remind me to never introduce you to my dad then," they both laughed, though Elise felt her cheeks begin to burn.

"So," Danny tried to change the subject, seeing that she had gotten embarrassed by his last remark. "What kind of music do you like?"

"Not death metal," she responded, not missing a beat. "Sorry," she laughed. "That scared the crap out of me."

Earlier, when they had started pulling away from her apartment, Danny had turned the music on in his truck, forgetting that he had some fast, very loud, death metal playing.

"I usually only listen to it to help me wake up and get ready for the day, ya know? Before work?" he had insisted. Elise had nearly had a heart attack.

"You didn't turn it on on the way home? Or the way here?" she had asked.

"No. Too lost in thought, I guess. Didn't even think about it."

"Thinking about what?" she couldn't resist. Danny hadn't looked at her or answered her as he continued driving, but she could see the slight smile forming on his lips.

They talked and talked, long after they were full on pizza and chicken wings. It didn't take long for them to fall into a comfortable repartee, as if they were old friends catching up. It felt like they were old friends catching up...Except for the part where they knew nothing about each other and everything was new. Elise caught herself several times throughout the night not focusing so much on what he was saying, though she was listening, but became fixated on the sound of his voice.

Unlike her odd attraction to his graying beard, she didn't find Danny's voice particularly sexy or anything. It wasn't annoying or squeaky or anything. It was a nice voice. It had to do more with his tone and the way he involved his whole body when he spoke, especially about certain topics.

His voice almost always had a jovial quality to it, as if he were always in a good mood, friendly to everyone. The fact that he became animated over certain things and spoke with his hands even more made him that much more endearing to her.

Danny got especially expressive when they continued their conversation about nature excursions from earlier in the week at work. As it turned out, that was the main thing they had in common. They both loved spending time outdoors; camping, hiking, you name it, they both enjoyed it. Having never been, but wanting to, he promised to take Elise kayaking when it got warmer out.

"That's assuming we're still friends by then," she teased. It was late October and, other than a few odd days here and there throughout the winter, it would be months before it was warm enough again for water sports.

"Friends," he drew out. "Right," he smiled and winked.

Elise willed herself not to blush, but her face didn't listen.