Work Text:
“D. Moss?” He questions, lingering near her desk outside his office.
“Yes?” She looks up, unsure of precisely what he’s asking but she can practically hear the question mark hanging in the air.
“You sign your name D. Moss,” he clarifies, pointing towards the bottom of a page where her signature is scrawled somewhat haphazardly.
“I do.” She clarifies, glancing over towards where he’s pointing.
“Why?” He’s curious now, he supposes, but only slightly. He’ll use any excuse to spend a bit more time talking to her.
“It’s shorter,” she shrugs, not giving her answer too much thought. It was the truth, and how she’d been signing her name for the better part of 5 years.
“Because the extra 4 letters in Donna were just too much to handle?” He smirks at her, enjoying this little banter that’s emerging between them.
“My full name isn’t Donna, it’s Donnatella,” she informs him somewhat timidly, immediately wondering what possessed her to give him that piece of information. She really dislikes her unique given name, and she’s heard every joke already.
She arches an eyebrow in anticipation of his response. She sees the moment his eyes light up with this new information, a soft smile crossing his face. She briefly wonders what it means that she gets butterflies in her stomach when her boss leans on the side of her desk, but she pushes that thought away for now.
“Really?” He asks with a shy smile.
“Yes. Donnatella Maria,” she tells him with a sigh as she anticipates a humorous remark about her Italian mother. She’s somewhat surprised when he doesn’t make one.
“Donnatella.” He practically whispers her name and it stops her in her tracks. His voice flows over her with a warmth she’s never felt before, and she swears that his simple use of her full name is the sweetest and most sincere term of endearment she’s ever heard.
She thinks she’s probably blushing slightly, but the sound of her name on his lips is more intimate than she’d imagined was possible.
He’s silent for a fleeting moment, an anomaly for Josh, before he awkwardly shifts his weight between his feet, trying to figure out what to say next. He opens and closes his mouth, as though he’s navigating unfamiliar territory in his mind, but opts to say nothing for another moment, taking a few more steps towards his office.
“It’s a beautiful name,” he states gently from a few feet away, as though he didn’t want to miss the chance to tell her so. “You shouldn’t hide from it, Donnatella.”
And with that he lightly taps the door frame and disappears into his office.
She can’t help the hint of a soft smile that lingers on her face, or the feeling of affection that’s building inside of her at his use of her full name.