A multi-chapter story in which the last chapter will have a warning, for it will be rated M.
I do not own the characters, just borrowing for pure entertainment.
Oliver's divorce had been finalized for a few weeks and the remaining belongings of Holly's were out of his house. Oliver took a deep breath as he entered the bathroom. He was still getting used to the emptiness. There had been more space; he hadn't realized how much she left behind. Everything was finally over. The wondering, the waiting, the is she or isn't she still in love, the final papers and the goodbyes. He wasn't happy that he had an official failed marriage under his belt, but this day, he knew would be brighter. It was most definitely time to move on. He had in some ways; he had time to process his new reality, but needed to have it official to the world.
While shaving, the piece of gold caught his eye, he put the razor down on the side of the sink. With his face full of shaving cream he took another deep breath, twisted the ring off his finger and walked into the bedroom and put it next to her wedding band. Oliver had told Holly to do what she wanted with the engagement ring, he would sell both the wedding bands since there was no reason to keep them, it would only remind him of her. He went back into the bathroom to continue shaving, only having to stop again to see the slight discoloration on his left finger. He sighed heavily; he looked into the mirror with his newly naked finger and knew it would be a frightening, but new beginning.
He walked into work that day and immediately Norman sniffed out something different on Oliver. He and Rita began to take turns guessing. Shane walked in with coffee for Oliver and a latte for her. She looked at him inquisitively and then nodded her head in the direction of her coworkers, who were still at their guessing game.
"They're trying to figure out what's different with me. Apparently something is askew."
"Well I'm sure they'll figure it out, they are postal detectives after all."
She smiled, gave him his large steamboat Americano and walked over to her desk. As she sat down, she took a sip of her latte and looked at him out of the corner of her eye. She drew up her own theories of what was different about him, until he ran his fingers threw his hair. His ring, she said to herself. She knew, they all knew that his divorce had been finalized weeks ago. He had even taken a personal day the day after the final signing, something that was unheard of for him.
In order to end the guessing game between his colleagues, Oliver asked Norman to pick a dead letter. Of course Norman was in shock because it wasn't his birthday or any other special day, so he carefully chose a letter and started to analyze it while looking at Oliver to make sure he still wanted Norman to look it over. As Norman assessed the hand writing and possible age and gender of the addresser, Oliver put his hand up to his mouth and tapped his lips, as he did while thinking.
"You're not wearing your wedding ring, Oliver! That's what's different!"
Rita's exclamation caused Norman to jump back with fear and drop the letter onto the floor. Oliver looked at his hand as he took it away from his face, he looked at Shane. She was looking at the letter on the floor and not at him; in that moment he knew she knew before Rita. Shane and Oliver went to pick up the fallen letter, as their hands touched, they looked at each other. Shane looked away first, smiled and as they both rose with the letter still in their hands, she let go. Oliver opened the letter and they began to find out to whom the letter was intended for.
As lunch time approached, they decided to go to the Mailbox Grille and were able to sit at their usual back corner booth. They all gave ideas and bounced thoughts off each other as to where to go from here with the dead letter. When nothing left but to go back to the DLO, Rita and Norman started walking towards the door, still were shooting ideas at each other, Oliver grabbed Shane's arm as she got out of the booth.
"Ms. McInerney, I was-" He paused; the words just couldn't come out.
Looking down at her arm where he had a hold of her, she couldn't help but get the goosebumps, followed by a quick flashback of when he did the very same thing, but ripped her costume in the hospital. She half-heartedly laughed and smiled.
"Oliver, what's the matter."
He took a few seconds to study her face, as he did in the past and even more so since practically declaring his love for her around Christmas time.
"I was just wondering if you would-" he looked down, then back into her blue eyes and smiled. "If you would do me the honor of accompanying me to dinner sometime this weekend?"
She still had a small smile on her face while she searched his blue eyes; hers broke away from his, but only for a moment, just to meet his eyes again.
"Mr. O'Toole, it would be my pleasure to join you for dinner."
She smiled brighter than she had in a while. She sighed sweetly as he held the door for her. She made her way through and turned around to thank him. He smiled at her and nodded. He was always doing those gentlemanly deeds, that was his nature, but this time Shane felt different. Whether she was thinking that way or he had become impossibly more gentleman like. As they walked to the Post Office just far enough behind Norman and Rita, they agreed on Friday at seven.
Friday had eventually came around as Shane had been hiding her excitement all week long, but today the birds sang sweeter, the sky was more blue then she realized, and time stood impossibly still. The letter they had been working on looked as if it were about to hit a dead end. In not wanting to start a new letter this week, Oliver suggested that the team take a second glance at some other dead ended letters in hopes that fresh eyes would help in leading to a different direction they had not yet thought about. He casually walked over to Shane's desk and whispered so as to not let Rita or Norman hear their conversation.
"Ms. McInerney, may I pick you up at your house this evening?"
"Yes, Mr. O'Toole that would be nice." She smiled. "Where are we going?" She asked while trying to look busy just as Rita looked over at them.
"I was thinking the Brown Palace Hotel, they have a wonderful restaurant, and I've been thinking about that couple whose letters we found in the bank-"
"Jonathon and Katherine Walker."
He looked at her, smiled and nodded, "Yes, they have been on my mind as of late" he paused and looked in the direction of his coworkers. He turned back to her, "and so have you." He smiled as a small blush washed over Shane's face. "I was thinking maybe a walk in the park after?"
"That sounds perfect Oliver." She tried to hide the remaining blush that suddenly crept over her face again. She sighed lightly, smiled and resumed working.
Throughout the day Oliver and Shane shared a few quick glances at each other. Shane watched the clock, five, four, three, two she said to herself as she got up from her desk.
"Well everyone, it is five o'clock and it is the weekend." She said gathering her things and started walking towards the door.
"Well, Yes, I guess we should blow that end of the work week whistle and set off on our separate ways." Oliver said as he shuffled a few papers on his desk and reached for his coat on the coat rack.
"Oliver, do you have any plans this weekend?" Rita asked as she adjusted her coat. Shane stopped dead in her tracks, turned around and faced him.
"Well Rita, if you must know, I plan on doing a few things I haven't done in quite some time." He put on his coat and started to walk towards the door.
"Ahh, like clean out your junk drawer?"
"No Norman. I don't have junk, nor do I have a drawer to put junk in." He walked up to Shane and turned to face Rita and Norman who were following close behind. "I'll be rereading one of my favorite books, possibly dinner out, maybe a walk in the park." His eyes flashed to Shane's quickly with a small side smile and he turned on his heels, wished everyone a good night and a safe weekend.
Rita and Shane walked to their cars together as Rita asked Shane what her plans for the weekend were. Shane had told her that she had a few things to do, cleaning, laundry, shopping, a few errands to run and hopefully catching up with her DVR. That answer seemed to satisfy Rita who then told Shane she'd see her bright and early Monday morning. Shane snickered and waved as Rita drove away. She took a deep breath, smiled and got into her car.
After her shower, Shane poured herself a good sized glass of wine. While drying her hair and listening to some music, she sipped gingerly on her wine. She did her makeup and slipped into her dress, retouched her makeup and was ready to go just as the doorbell rang. She quickly spun around, downed the rest of her wine and fixed a few loose hairs that weren't cooperating. She opened the door. There he stood, looking more dapper than ever. Shane's eyes lit up and she smiled.
"Ms. McInerney, you look so beautiful, breathtaking really." He had his hands behind his back and rocked on his heels. "These are for you." He held out a bouquet of flowers.
"Oh Oliver! That's so sweet of you!" She quickly turned to run into her kitchen to put them in a vase. When she got back to the door, she said thank you for the flowers and the compliment, then told him that he looked very dashing. She turned to close the door and locked it.
Oliver waited on the few steps, held his hand out and escorted Shane down the stairs and to the car, where he opened the door for her, helped her in and closed the door.
Breathe Shane is all she could say to herself as Oliver got in the car. They looked at each other and smiled. "Oliver?" She looked away sheepishly, then back at him. "If I forget to say it later, I had a really good time."
"Well, thank you, as did I. Although we might never know what the night holds for us until we start it." He smiled his wonderful smile that always managed to make Shane's heart melt. All she could do was mimic his smile back.
When they arrived at the Brown Palace Hotel, Oliver parked the car and jumped out to open Shane's door for her and helped her out of the car. The doormen opened the doors for them. They walked up to the hostess desk.
"Hello, I placed a reservation for two under the name O'Toole."
"Yes, your table is waiting, please follow me."
Oliver stepped aside to allow Shane to go first. The hostess put the menus on the table and told them their waiter would be with them shortly. Oliver helped Shane take her coat off and then pulled her chair out for her.
"Thank you."
"You are very welcome Ms. McInerney." They smiled. "Might I add you truly look beautiful tonight?"
"Oliver, thank you, but you've said that already."
"Yes, I know that, but it doesn't make it any less true, and it doesn't mean that it shouldn't be said more often."
She smiled as her heart fluttered from the compliment and his smile. The waiter came over and they ordered drinks, red wine for her and a gin for him. They enjoyed their drinks and as they ordered and waited for dinner, Oliver cleared his throat.
"Shane, I wanted to discuss with you the privacy of this date. I think that we should keep this from Rita and Norman, unless you've already told Rita."
"No, I haven't told Rita yet. I thought we should wait and see where this went. No need to say something it if didn't…" She trailed off not wanting to finish her sentence and looked down at her lap. She took a deep breath and looked at him, "Don't worry Oliver I am not about to go all 'Renita Hayweather; Frontier Dutchess' on our date."
They laughed together. Oliver lifted his glass.
"To the first of many dates."
She smiled as he put her curiosity to rest and obliged his toast.
They continued the rest of their dinner and shared a dessert with conversations of their childhoods and a few family traditions. They had already gotten the usual first date questions out of the way when they went out investigating dead letters. There was a lot of laughter and much intrigue coming from their table, to them it seemed like they were the only table in the restaurant. They seemed almost surprised when the check came to the table. Oliver paid and pulled out Shane's chair for her and assisted her with her coat. He opened the door for her and they walked toward the park.
Their walk through the park was a little quieter, not that they didn't laugh, it was that the two were enjoying the silence, the company and just being alone together. They walked around the park and walked back to Oliver's car. He opened the door for Shane and closed it for her. She smiled to herself as she watched him go around the front of the car to the driver's side. He got in and buckled up and turned to Shane.
"Buckled in, Ms. McInerney?" He smiled as she clicked the seat belt in.
"Yes I am." A small blush rose in her cheeks. Lucky for her it was dark that he couldn't see.
"Good." He said as he turned the car on, looked toward the road, and one more glance over at the beautiful woman that was next to him, he started to drive to her house.
Shane watched Oliver get out of the car and open her door and help her out of it. He walked her up her walk way, up the steps and to her door.
"Do you want to come in, for a night cap?"
"A night cap, Ms. McInerney? I believe my old fashioned ways are rubbing off on you." They laughed.
"Perhaps. Maybe I've always had it and you just bring it out in me."
"That would be something, wouldn't it?" They laughed again and Shane unlocked her door.
"Do you want-"
"I think I will kindly decline and take a rain check on the night cap. Thank you though." Shane nodded and forced a smile.
"Well I had a very good time Mr. O'Toole." Shane said and turned to him.
"I did as well; you could even say I didn't want it to end." Shane smiled brightly. He took her hand and kissed it. "Thank you, Ms. McInerney for one of the best nights I've had in a very long time." With that he lowered her hand back to her side, let go and turned to leave.
Shane was in awe and couldn't bring herself to say anything as she didn't know what to say that wouldn't ruin that moment. She went inside her house, closed and locked the door. She immediately felt the butterflies in her stomach and pain in her cheeks from smiling so hard. This was the start of a beautiful new beginning.
