"Captain?" he called out to her as she stood in the doorway of the coffee shop. She was busy looking down at her phone, and he could see she had some sort of earbuds in as well. He waved his one hand slightly in her direction when she started to glance up. Sharon jerked her head back in slight surprise and walked toward his table.
"Lieutenant Flynn, what are you doing here? This is my local coffee shop," she pursed her lips.
"Meeting my daughter," he informed her, waving his hand around in the air. "My daughter wanted to meet here. Her own apartment, well," he frowned, "she has a roommate, but her apartment isn't too far from here. She picked the place, not me. I guess you're out for a walk?"
"Run," she corrected him quickly and gave a firm nod. "I just finished a run, and I wanted to grab a cup of coffee to take home with me."
He raised an eyebrow, "You run? Sorry, you don't strike me as the running type."
She scowled at him and rolled her eyes, "Of course, I run. I am a police office for one. Contrary to popular belief, FID is a regular department of the LAPD, and we have to meet the same standards as everyone else. I'm not a huge runner; I prefer swimming, but right now," she gave a small shrug, "I'm running."
"No need to jump all over me," he chuckled and held up his hands in defense.
Sharon scowled slightly and rolled her eyes, "I'll resist the urge."
Andy glanced at her and rolled his eyes, "I didn't mean it like that. Just calm down. You have never mentioned running, so I didn't see you as a runner."
"We don't exactly run in the same circles," she smirked, "no pun intended."
"Anyway," Andy gestured, trying to change topics, "sorry to bother you. I don't mean to barge in on YOUR coffee shop," he said with emphasis.
She shook her head, and her ponytail started to move as she nodded. Andy grinned at that, and she made a face at him, "What is so funny?"
"Your hair is just moving a lot as you shake your head. I haven't seen you wear it like that at work," he told her.
She rolled her eyes and sighed as she started to shake her head again, and as she did, she stopped quickly realizing her hair was doing the same thing again. She gestured at him with her hand, "That is precisely why I don't wear it up at all during work. I need to keep a professional look. If I'm in uniform, it's obviously up per regulation, but not like this. I'm running," she nodded. "People put up their hair to run."
"Just makes you look younger," he told her and then, a look of panic came over his face. "Oh, not that you look old," he gestured toward her. "You don't look old. Your hair up just makes you look not as old."
Sharon narrowed her eyes at him and crossed her arms, "I think I'm going to get my coffee and get going. Have a nice visit with your daughter. I'm glad to hear you two are getting together."
"Thanks," he gave a slight smile. "Enjoy your weekend." He watched as Sharon got in line and waited for her coffee. The shop was busy at this time of the morning; it was almost 10:30 now, and people were enjoying their time with coffee and pastries. Andy glanced toward the door again, hoping to see Nicole, and when she didn't appear, he glance back toward the line and noted she hadn't moved much; there was still a small line in front of her. He felt himself staring and looked back to his own coffee rather quickly. He looked down at his newspaper again, trying to focus. Andy found the article he'd been reading in the sports section and continued with that.
A few minutes later, he glanced up as he caught the captain walking by out of the corner of his eye. He looked up again and met her gaze. She had an annoyed look on her face and threw him a quick wave as she walked by, "Have a good weekend Lieutenant."
He frowned slightly, trying to figure out what he'd done to irritate her now, and it was then he noticed she didn't have her coffee. Andy stood because she was moving quickly and called to her, "Captain?"
Sharon paused as she reached the door and turned to him, her lips pursed, "I don't have any cash. I had cash in my pant pocket," she patted her side, "but it must have fallen out as I was running. I've never had that problem; it is what it is. I'm slightly irritated, so before I say something I regret later, I'm going to go home. Have a good day," she said with a firm nod.
"Let me buy you your coffee," Andy offered, gesturing toward her with his hand. "It's no trouble, and I can't have you mad all day. Somehow," he chuckled, "I'm sure your irritation will be directed at me just because I was here in the coffee shop. I promise," he leaned toward her slightly and said with a joking tone, "I didn't take your money."
"No, but thank you," Sharon gave a slight smile and nod. "I'll just make something at home."
"Least I can do," he offered again. "I remember drinking quite a bit of coffee at your place."
"I'm fine," she said, letting out her breath. "I hope your daughter shows soon." With that, Sharon gave him a small smile and opened the door. Andy watched and after she was out of sight, he walked back to his table to wait for Nicole. Hopefully, Nicole would let him buy her a cup of coffee.
After returning home, Sharon showered and dressed for the day before she settled in to pay bills. It was not her favorite activity, but it always needed to be done. She sighed at the stack of bills; this was just not her ideal day. She really wanted to do almost anything else, shopping, to be exact, but before she could shop, she needed to figure out how much money she had left after her bills were paid. After Jack took off years ago, she'd really buckled down with her finances, and she had been financially secure for years.
She'd barely started going through her online accounts when her a knock at her door interrupted her. Sharon walked to the door and was surprised to find Andy Flynn on the other side of her peephole. Sighing, she opened the door and crossed her arms again, "Lieutenant Flynn seeing you once today might have been a coincidence, but twice," she pursed her lips, "is certainly not."
Andy narrowed his gaze at her, "Wow and to think I came with a peace offering."
"What is it Lieutenant?" Sharon sighed.
Andy held up a bag and cup, "I'm sorry you lost your money. I brought you a cup of coffee, a muffin too."
Sharon raised her eyebrow at him and slightly shook her head, "Wait, what? You brought me coffee?"
"Darn, you lost the ponytail," he frowned. Sharon stopped moving her head quickly and narrowed her gaze at him. "I'll take the coffee and go, but if you will let me, I wanted to repay you for all that coffee the other night with this and share a little good news."
"Ahh, thanks," she said, accepting the coffee, still eyeing him. "Good news? What's that? I'm paying bills so unless you are here to tell me I won a million dollars, well," she shrugged slightly and gave a low chuckle as she looked to the cup of coffee.
"I wasn't sure if you wanted a black coffee, something in it, one of those speciality coffees, whatever," he explained and threw up his hands. "I know we had just basic coffee the other night, so it's just black coffee. The muffin just looked good, was good," he corrected himself. "Nicole and I both had one."
"I see," she said and gave him a small smile. "Good news? Is Provenza finally retiring?"
"Haha, funny one now," he smirked. "No," he grinned, "my daughter is engaged. That's what she wanted to tell me. I just met with her and her wow," he sighed, "fiancé, Dean. I've met him a couple of times before now, but I had no idea they were engaged. He proposed on New Year's Day."
"That's exciting," Sharon said with a small nod. "Congratulations."
"Yeah, sorry," he waved again and turned. "I don't know why I felt the need to tell you. I'm really excited for her, happy for her, and I just wanted to do something nice and even tell someone," he nodded to the coffee. "We talked for a long time; she has a lot of ideas about the wedding, everything that adds up to big bucks. It's okay, though. You do anything for your kids, right?"
"That I do understand," she smiled warmly and looked to the floor. "Thanks for the coffee, but it wasn't necessary."
"I just felt bad, even for you," he said quietly as he leaned in slightly. "Starting the day without coffee is no way to start any day, especially if you then spend the afternoon paying bills. Good luck with that. I'm going to go home and do the same now, considering I have this wedding to fund. It's like a mix of everything wonderful and everything awful all in one. I'm so happy for my daughter, but her wonderful day means I have to part with my hard-earned money, which I'll do for her, but even worse, I have to now deal with my ex more and more, at least the next year and a half. That's how long of an engagement they are planning,"he sighed. "Leave it to my detail-oriented daughter and her well-laid plans to wait it out that long, but whatever she wants to do. It's going to require all of my self-restraint to talk to my ex constantly."
"Listen," Sharon said, clearing her throat, "if you want to talk about it, if that would help, I suppose I could offer an ear."
Andy raised an eyebrow, "Wow, really? Wait, you aren't going to force feed me a tuna casserole, are you?"
"No tuna," she shook her head, hiding a small smile. "I'd rather do anything than pay my bills right now, and I promise I'm all out of tuna."
"Ahh, thanks?" Andy questioned, not sure if that was a real compliment to him. "I don't want to bother you."
"That's not entirely true," Sharon pointed out to him, "or you wouldn't have brought me a cup of coffee. Tell me, what was the plan if I wasn't home?"
"It's just a cup of coffee, Captain. No ulterior motive. I would have just taken it home," he told her. "Just a kind deed."
"As is lending an ear right now," she nodded. "My daughter is still years from getting married, so come in and tell me all about these plans. Maybe I can offer you a few tips in dealing with your ex. I don't exactly have one of those, but I am well versed in dealing with difficult people, or so I'm told," she smirked.
