Open Heart One Shots (Choices)

Happiness is...

Summary: The sound of laughter from across the room captures his attention and makes him wish for something he can't have. This is a super short drabble set on the first day.

The first time he heard Cassie Valentine laugh was the first day he met her. Before that fateful day, he hadn't given much thought to a woman's laughter.

Ethan Ramsey had known some that giggled (was there anything more annoying?) and others that guffawed (how gauche was that?). But that night, as he sat at his usual seat at the bar watching Reggie pour his favorite scotch, he heard it clearly ─ like the sound of a babbling brook on a summer afternoon ─ drifting over the din of bar as if to tempt him with what he couldn't have.

He wanted to turn around and watch her; just watch as she found mirth in whatever held her interest. But he couldn't. She deserved to be with her friends ─ with someone who could make her happy. He wanted to be that person. He wished he could be. Why couldn't he be?

When she had confronted him earlier that day and refused (with an adorable smirk and mischief in her sparkling green eyes) to reveal how she'd known to appease Barb, he knew that he had met his match. He walked away, bemused at the chocolate bar she'd handed him, but he hadn't stopped thinking of her.

Later, he had been needlessly harsh on her with the misdiagnosis. She had deserved it for getting it wrong, argued the attending. Yes but, the man in him countered, it was her first day and he himself had made plenty of mistakes early in his internship.

If he let her, she would break down the walls he'd built around himself. And that's why he couldn't be that person. He was a closed book in a dusty library, and she was a picture book that brought happiness to all those that read her.

He was getting maudlin, he thought, and it was time to head home. Before he did something stupid like invite her to have a drink with him. But first he wanted one last look and then he'd be done. He deserved it, he rationalized.

He turned slightly and instantly his blue eyes connected with hers. Was this what made him happy? As he slowly sipped his drink, wanting to prolong his stay in her presence, he decided that yes. This was what made him happy.