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Cornelia catches his eye from across the table and he notices the smirk on her face. He freezes like a deer in the headlights and slowly lowers his glass below the table.
Her lips curl around her teeth as though to hold in a laugh, and she doesn't break eye contact.
Dan fishes out the now soaking and purple stained piece of bread from his drink and drops it onto his plate with a thud.
This breaks her.
Cornelia lets out a high-pitched, sputtering laugh as she tries to keep it in and her hand flies to cover her mouth.
The four Lester heads spin to look at her with confusion crossing their faces. The aggressive motion is what breaks Dan as he lets out a loud barking laugh. Both of them spinning into a fit of laughter.
"What is happening?" Phil asks, his voice is laced in a questioning tone.
Dan can't even begin to try to speak. His head is in his hands and he's laughing so hard, there's no longer any noise coming out.
"What has gotten into you two?" he hears Kath's voice from across the table.
"They've officially lost it," Martyn quips.
His breathing settles slightly after what must be minutes and he wipes the tears away from his eyes, bringing his head up to face the rest of the table.
"She caught me--" he catches eyes with Cornelia again and can't finish his sentence before more laughter is flying from his lips, completely out of his control. Cornelia slips off of her chair onto the floor and almost sounds as if she's starting to hyperventilate.
It's been a long time since he laughed this hard, his stomach is beginning to cramp.
He's blaming the second bottle of wine that Nigel insisted they open before they were even done with their first round of food.
"I can't --- I can't," Cornelia breathes heavily from the floor. "Excuse me."
And with that she's stumbling out of the room in another fit of laughter.
"You fucking broke her mate," Martyn laughs and takes another drink from his glass.
He sees Phil beside him, looking at him like he's lost his mind.
"Sorry, sorry," Dan tries to get his breathing back to normal and takes a sip of his water.
"It's not even funny," he thinks back to the look on her face when she caught him with his fingers in his drink and he has to stop talking, his voice going higher, threatening to turn into a fit once again.
Deep breath, deep breath.
"I was pulling apart a piece of the loaf and a small bit flew over my plate and into my glass," he breaks to breathe again, forcing himself to swallow another laugh.
"I thought I was being subtle and stuck my fingers in to get it out and then I realized Corn was watching the whole thing."
"That's what caused all that fuss?" Kath asks, deadpan.
"You should have seen the look on his face when he realized I caught him, it was too good. And that soggy purple bread," Cornelia walks back into the room, more composed than she was when she left but a huge smile still on her face.
"You two are weird," Phil shakes his head and turns his attention back to his plate of half eaten food.
Dan laughs, "You're just sorry you missed it."
Phil rolls his eyes at him but he doesn't miss the small smile playing at his lips.