(no subject)

[beyoncepadthai]

It's not as if Mindy's forgotten that Danny's little brother has a doppelganger in the city, it's just that it's been pushed to the back of her mind to make room for everything else: for new motherhood, for new singledom, for balancing a medical practice on top of it all.

So when she spots him in the park her heart starts to beat a little faster. It's not like she knew Richie all that well, beyond meeting him once or twice and Danny's constant comments about how well he was doing, but that part doesn't really matter. It's still a reflection of a connection to a guy that she's trying so hard not to miss so damn much.

"Richie?" she says, then, in spite of knowing better. She practically collides into another passerby, she's that caught up in not!Richie's appearance. It's only been a month and a half, but it brings grief to the surface all over again, and she finds herself grateful that Leo isn't around this time to see her fall apart. 

Or, at least, to try not to. 

Comments

[wasblindbefore]

Sympathy isn’t something Elvis has ever been much good at. He can fake it a lot of the time, dealing with people at work, or at least come close to it, knowing how to handle grieving people, but in general, it’s not something that comes easily to him. He’s been through too much himself for that. So while he can guess that the disappearance of the man in question is one that affected her, he’s not really sure what to say about it, if he should say anything at all. "I only saw him the once," he says, shrugging. "It wasn’t too big a deal."

[beyoncepadthai]

Mindy has no idea how that can not be a big deal, but she's harassed this random guy enough that she decides not to press. Which is so very much not her (a quick glance at her criminal record back in New York reflects that), but she figures that she's changed some in the wake of Danny vanishing. "That's cool," she says, glancing down and knowing she should really go. "That he didn't keep bothering you. I thought maybe he might have."

[wasblindbefore]

"Yeah, no, he didn't," Elvis says, shaking his head. This might have been a slightly different conversation if that weren't the case, but as it is, he's pretty glad not to have run into that guy again, the whole thing too uncomfortable for him. He's got more than enough baggage of his own. The last thing he needs is to take on someone else's problems, or hear about the life this guy who looks like him had. "Might not've seen me anywhere again or somethin'."

[beyoncepadthai]

"That's good," Mindy says, uncharacteristically kind of awkward. This whole thing is awkward, though, the fact that this random guy's face can mean so much to her and hers literally nothing to him. "Sorry to, you know, have bothered you?" she offers, knowing the whole interaction has been kind of selfish. "I'll let you go. But, uh, for the record... I'm Mindy. Former girlfriend of the brother of the guy who looks just like you."

[wasblindbefore]

It probably shouldn't be very surprising. If anything, it explains a lot, how weird this has all seemed to be in a way he hasn't quite been able to put a finger on. That, and why he's felt like he should apologize or something when she'd mentioned the guy having disappeared. Even having it put into words, though, Elvis doesn't do so. Instead he just nods. "It's okay," he says. "You didn't bother me." It's about as generous as he gets with people who aren't his girlfriend.