This Love

3

The dinner date went smoothly. Miranda had to admit it was one of the better dates she had ever been on, and she would go as far as to say that it was the best one.

Even though their meals were just a few takeouts, Ben provided some red wine for them to drink to establish a sense of elegance.

At the beginning, things were a little awkward between them. The dining table was too formal for their taste, so Miranda suggested they eat at the living room instead.

Ben had tidied up and moved his furniture around so they could enjoy themselves in front of the fireplace.

As they enjoyed their food, they talked with each other, laughing, bantering about any and everything. They quickly found out that they had a lot of common interests, and it only heightened their desire to get to know each other better.

A few touches from Ben and a couple of innuendos later, Miranda was all riled up. She couldn’t help but think about the first kiss they had shared back at the hospital. It lit her whole body on fire, and they hadn’t even had sex yet. It was nothing compared to her ex-husband who only cared about himself.

Ben broke the silence between them. “So,” he started, “are we going to talk about it?”

Miranda cleared her throat, sipping on her wine to buy herself some time. She knew he was also thinking about the kiss. Making a hasty decision, she tried to act coy. “Talk about what?”

The tension between them was now palpable. They had been dancing around each other since he’d tried to play her with her choice of words, but now, the tension was just underneath the surface, wanting to introduce itself and pull the two of them together.

Ben smirked. She wanted to play that game? He could play that game. “You know what I’m talking about, Miranda Bailey.”

He made sure to pronounce every syllable of her name in a low voice, and it didn’t escape his notice that she shuddered at the sound of her name coming from his mouth. He scooted closer to her on the couch. As he moved, his hand hovered near hers. She didn’t move away, instead, she looked down and moved her fingers an inch, making their pinkies touch.

“I don’t, Dr. Warren. You have to be more specific.” Her voice was only above a whisper now.

Ben chuckled. “Really? Am I that forgettable?”

Miranda moved closer to him this time. His thigh hit hers, and her body warmed at the contact. She suddenly felt bold and smirked. “I don’t know, why don’t you come here and remind me? Maybe it’ll jog my memory.”

He smirked and moved closer again. The space between them was slowly decreasing, and Miranda was going crazy. One more move, and their lips would meet. If she could just--

Beep! Beep! Beep!

They jumped apart as both of their pagers went off. As they stood, they kept glancing at each other. Their almost kiss was filled with so much hidden meaning and unspoken desires. Quite literally, it left them both breathless.

×+×+×+×

Apparently, a nearby building caught on fire and at least two floors were reached before the firefighters took control. Webber called for an all-hands-on-deck, seeing as a lot of victims were being rescued by the minute.

Ben swerved and parked sloppily to the space as Miranda hurried to open the door. The sound of the sirens from the ambulance were pretty close, and they needed to get inside to help with the onslaught of victims.

“I’ll see you in surgery?” Ben asked and she confirmed with a nod before heading out of the car.

The day was over and Miranda felt like a ton of bricks were resting on her back. A couple of her patients had internal bleeding due to the debris that had fallen on them, which was easily solved by a couple of surgeries. A few more had arrived in the ER after that, so she took it upon herself to help with managing the residents.