A Tactical Kiss
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Danny seizes control with a passionate kiss, bypassing C.J.'s procedural approach.
Post-kiss banter confirms mutual attraction while maintaining professional facades, with C.J. nearly taking Gail.
C.J.'s uncharacteristic clumsiness (bumping into the door) betrays lingering exhilaration as she exits.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Deliberately controlled with underlying vulnerability — anxious to neutralize attraction yet relieved and slightly flirtatious after the act.
C.J. enters her office, frames the interaction as a calculated experiment, initiates the idea of a single kiss to 'get past' her distraction, physically kisses Danny, takes Gail with her briefly, then returns the fishbowl and exits smiling; she controls tone and exit.
- • Purge a distracting romantic preoccupation quickly and discreetly.
- • Re-establish professional focus so her work won't suffer.
- • Preserve workplace decorum while testing boundaries without creating scandal.
- • A brief, contained physical act can resolve an emotional distraction.
- • Maintaining control over personal impulses is necessary to perform her job well.
- • She can manage the personal-professional line without long-term fallout if handled pragmatically.
Eager and amused but respectful; uses levity to normalize intimacy while being satisfied and cooperative after the kiss.
Danny waits in the office playing with Gail, listens as C.J. frames her plan, responds with easy humor, accepts the kiss, initiates the physical grab and reciprocation, then offers a casual question about the fish and the exit — balancing pleasure, professionalism, and a reporter's urgency.
- • Help C.J. achieve emotional closure so she can return to work.
- • Maintain rapport and discretion to avoid creating workplace complications.
- • Keep professional obligations (his paper) on course by gently steering the encounter's length.
- • A short, consensual kiss can settle ambiguous feelings without upending careers.
- • He can be personally involved without letting it derail professional responsibilities.
- • He and C.J. share enough mutual understanding to keep this permissible and contained.
Gail is handled tenderly at the start and again at the end of the beat: briefly taken by C.J., placed …
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The office doorway mediates the encounter: C.J. calls in, opens the door to enter, and later exits through the same threshold. On her exit she awkwardly bumps into the door, a small physical stumble that punctuates the emotional release and the return to public composure.
The side table functions as a staging surface for Gail's fishbowl. It anchors the domestic detail that C.J. uses to temper the kiss—she warns Danny about rocking against the bowl, briefly takes Gail from the table while exiting, then returns the bowl to the table. The table frames the intimacy and the comic defusion of the moment.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Mandy's confrontation with C.J. about her cold demeanor towards Danny foreshadows C.J.'s later awkward attempt to address their romantic tension."
"Mandy's confrontation with C.J. about her cold demeanor towards Danny foreshadows C.J.'s later awkward attempt to address their romantic tension."
"The lighthearted exchange about Danny's appearance contrasts with his later passionate kiss with C.J., both highlighting underlying romantic tension."
"The lighthearted exchange about Danny's appearance contrasts with his later passionate kiss with C.J., both highlighting underlying romantic tension."
Key Dialogue
"C.J.: "I thought what I'd do is kiss you, you know, on the mouth, then I'd just get past it... I'd just get past it, and I'll be able to give my work the kind of concentration it really deserves.""
"C.J.: "Be careful of the fish.""
"DANNY: "How's that?""