Anger Management

Date Night

Hi guys. So unfortunately I'll be taking a break from Anger Management for the next while. I've been pretty busy with school and life and such and I think it'd be a good idea to focus on my studies and various oneshots I'm working on.
When I feel the time is right, I'll continue with AM but that time isn't now. So I hope y'all enjoy the chapter, and thank you for all your effort. I had a lot of fun writing this fic, and thank you for joining me for the ride.

**

The date hadn't even officially started and everything was already ruined. As Toby rushed to clean his apartment, he made a list of things that had gone wrong already. First, the grocery store had been closed. And he didn't go to any old grocery store, no, he went to a specific tiny shop not to far away because the owner had always been friends with his parents. So he had to brave throngs of people and babies wailing for a toy they wouldn't get and not that he wasn't up to trying new things but he really liked the old grocery store and now he was mind-babbling.

When he got home, he realised something he probably should've realised before: it wasn't very wise of him to invite Happy over with the promise to cook for her if he hadn't actually cooked in years. Long days spent meeting with patients had left him rather lazy, and his usual dinner routine was to order from the Chinese place down the street or snack on leftovers.

Obviously that wouldn't do for tonight.

He decided to make tomato soup for a starter, cacio e pepe spaghetti as a main and chocolate mousse for dessert. After Googling some foolproof recipes and making sure he'd bought the right ingredients he began to cook.

A few hours, a few skipped recipe steps and a change of clothes later, things were ready. Or as ready as they could be.
Just then, the doorbell rang. Toby glanced at his watch: 19:00; she was perfectly on time.

As he opened his front door, he couldn't help but take all of her in.

The first thing he noticed was that her hair was up, showing off the slim curves of her neck. Her makeup was done to perfection: minimal and highlighting her eyes and lips. Her dress was beautiful and black and - God, had he ever seen that much of her legs? He quickly lifted his eyes to her in time to see her stifle a laugh.

He felt a smile break out across his face and he managed to stutter out a "You look amazing, Hap."

A flush spread from her cheeks to her neck and Toby decided that he really liked her hair up.

He showed her in and to his living room. She sat down and they started chatting about trivial things. The whole time Toby kept willing his racing heart to slow down, his bouncing leg to stay still and his mind to stay attuned to her speech.

Halfway through their debate on whether sports cars or motorbikes were better (Toby basically stumbled through that topic,) Happy's nose crinkled up. Trying his best not to laugh at how adorable she looked, he asked what was wrong. She hesitated before asking, "Is something burning?"

Toby ran to the kitchen where he saw their spaghetti had burnt. Okay, he knew he was bad at cooking, but to burn spaghetti?

What was he going to do? He couldn't serve burnt spaghetti on their first date. God, he was such an idiot.

Just then he saw the mousse on the counter. Or rather, half the mousse. The neighbour's cat must've found its way into his kitchen again. Toby ran his hands through his hair and groaned in frustration.

Gathering himself, he walked out into the living room and sat down calmly.

"Happy. How about we go to a restaurant. There's this really fancy Italian place a few blocks over."

Happy frowned and shook her head. "No, where would the fun in that be? Besides, you promised to cook Italian for me. You've been going on and on about your cooking skills so there's no backing out now."

He groaned, an exasperated sound in the back of his throat, and swallowed his pride.

"Well, you see... I just went to check on the pasta and it seems," he whispered the next words, "I've burnt it."

"Excuse me? I didn't catch that."

"I burnt our pasta."

She slapped her hand over her mouth and widened her eyes. "Is that even possible?" She whispered from behind her hand.

"Yes. And the neighbour's cat ate our mousse. And quite frankly, I'm too scared to check on the tomato soup."

Happy burst out into laughter. Toby waited until her giggles had subsided before saying, "It's not funny."

"You've been bragging for the past week about how good your cooking is and how I should prepare myself for Chef Toby and you've just burnt the pasta. It's pretty funny."

"Whatever. It's been a while."

Happy shrugged. "We can order Chinese from that place down the road. I hear they have great sushi."

**

Toby was sure the employees at the Chinese takeaway place would be too surprised to help them. He knew Happy looked gorgeous and he knew he made an effort with his appearance, so surely the employees would be shocked to have customers that looked as though they should be going out rather than ordering takeout at 8 in the evening. But no. They barely batted an eyelid.

Once they got home, Happy kicked off her heels and took off the leather jacket she'd brought with. This drew Toby's attention to her skin, and he wondered if it was as soft as it looked. She cleared her throat, startling him so much that he neatly dropped their food.

Blushing furiously, he handed her her sushi and sat down on the couch to eat his chow mein. She sat down next to him and took the remote from him to put on the TV. Toby glanced at her and wondered if she was this dominant in other situations too.

After putting on a rerun of How It's Made, she sat back to eat. Toby tried to fix his attention to the show that was on but he couldn't help but be aware of her. Her tiny movements and her gentle breathing and the movement of her throat as she ate. He had to practically tear his eyes away from her to eat. Needless to say, he failed miserably.

She was all wide eyes and small bites and quick glances and he couldn't get enough of her.

He felt an overwhelming urge to lean in and kiss all the awkwardness out of her. He saw her glance at him, watched her eyes flicker down to his lips. He knew she was thinking the same thing as he was, and thought "What the hell?" Before leaning in to kiss her.

Her eyes fluttered shut but he couldn't seem to close his. He kept them focused on the slight furrowing of her eyebrows, the whisper of her eyelashes on his cheeks and felt himself give in to the kiss.

Her lips were small and soft and moving tantalisingly slow he kept thinking that she was beautiful and maybe he wouldn't mind spending the rest of his life kissing her. He wouldn't mind it at all.

For the first time in a very long time, he was content. He realised that she relaxed him and tied his stomach into knots all at once.

He pulled their lips apart and saw her open her eyes in confusion. She was frowning, almost as if she was hurt that he'd stopped kissing her.

He smiled before leaning in to her again, and for the first time in forever, he felt happy.