He drummed his fingers on his desk and looked at his open email. He hadn't typed anything yet, wasn't sure if he wanted to type anything. He glanced over to his half-eaten lunch, still sitting in the sad looking plastic container. Pasta salad. The conversation had started over pasta salad, well, that and a good cup of coffee. His mind wandered as he thought back to that moment, that had happened only minutes ago.

"Chief, I would appreciate if you could write up your report and send it to me before the end of the day," he'd heard and turned slightly in his desk to view the interaction. He'd decided to eat lunch at his desk after Captain Raydor had come down to see the chief. Most of the time, he ate in the break room, but he was hoping he might get a chance to speak to her. What he would say, well, that, he didn't know. It's not like they were going to have a long chat, especially with the prying eyes of the team wandering in and out of the office, but he had been hopeful he might get a simple word or two in after the captain met with the chief. So, he'd opted to eat at his desk, where he needed to give off the vibe that he did have plenty of work. Provenza had told him he was an idiot for not sitting down to lunch. Thankfully, Provenza hadn't picked up on Andy's reasoning for eating at his desk. Andy had blown it off by explaining that he had to return some texts and emails to Nicole and Sandra about a few wedding questions, things he needed to research on his computer. The office was quiet as he worked. Most were at lunch. It was a slow day; no one had been murdered, at least no case had been assigned to them. While Andy ate and pretended to work, he continually glanced toward the chief's office where the meeting seemed to go on forever. Finally, she stepped out, and that had him glance her way.

"I'll be in my office awaiting that report, Chief," she said again, and Andy stole a quick glance before he focused on his pasta salad. He had grabbed a hot cup of coffee while in the break room, and while it tasted terrible to him, that cup of coffee seemed to do the trick; he was noticed.

"Afternoon, Lieutenant," he heard and turned his head up to see her walking toward him. She'd left from the chief's main door, not the side door, like he'd hoped, but with a stack of paperwork in her arms, she took a few tentative steps toward him. "I must say that coffee smells delicious."

Andy shook his head and started to chuckle, "It's all a ruse," he looked up at her and smiled. "I'm almost convinced the better the coffee smells, the worse it tastes. It's terrible today. Avoid the break room, and I'm not just saying that because Provenza is in there eating lunch."

"Oh, I see," Sharon held back a smile as she crossed her arms, "and what would your excuse be for avoiding your best friend over lunch and eating at your desk?"

He gestured toward it, "I do it sometimes, but I'm working on a few wedding requests from my daughter and ex. While I could get some very interesting wedding information from Provenza, the team's wedding record holder, I'm going to do my own research."

"Ahh," Sharon nodded. "What have they asked you to research?" Sharon gestured to the computer screen, where Andy had a browser tab open, but otherwise, there was nothing displayed.

"Avoiding it too," he nodded. "All of my lunch seems to be an avoidance, of Provenza, wedding research, all of it."

"And, I seem to be disturbing your lunch too," she nodded. "I'll let you get back to work, Lieutenant. Thank you for the warning about the coffee."

"No, I mean, it's fine," he sighed, glancing up to her with a small smile. "I don't mind the distraction at all, not from you."

"Oh, I, ahh," Sharon said, slightly surprised. "I will say your lunch looks much healthier than that of your chief. She's having a Ding Dong and Hershey bar for her lunch."

Andy started to laugh, "That's Chief. I don't know how she does it. I guess I just try to envision my bland pasta salad as something else, anything else. Chief definitely enjoys her sweets."

"If memory serves," Sharon paused, as if she was almost trying to remember something, "you seem to enjoy sweets too, cheesecake if I remember correctly."

"I really enjoyed our late dessert a couple weeks ago," he said quickly, giving her a small smile. "I enjoyed everything about the evening. The symphony, I told Nicole I wanted to take her soon. I think that evening was the last time I had a good cup of coffee."

Sharon chuckled and looked down to her feet, her arms still crossed. She met his gaze, "I had a nice time too. Coffee and cheesecake after the symphony might be a better idea than Gavin's usual wine bar," she said with a slight grin. "Gavin likes to stay out late on those evenings, and well," she shrugged slightly, "like I said, I had a nice time too."

"So you did eat that cheesecake?" Andy grinned and winked at her. Sharon shook her head and looked away quickly. "I knew that even if you weren't hungry, you might enjoy that later." The two had gone for coffee at a local coffee shop and bakery after the symphony. Even though Sharon hadn't had dinner, she hadn't been that hungry. Andy had been hungry, and he'd offered to share his cheesecake. Sharon had resisted the urge to eat any, and as they were getting ready to leave, the waitress dropped off a to-go container of cheesecake he'd ordered for her.

"That cheesecake was about the only edible thing in my refrigerator," she said with a slight roll of her eyes. She met his, "Thank you again for that. I did eat it, and it was delicious."

"Anytime, but it was just a small dessert, a small thanks for everything you've done," he added.

Andy glanced to the door and saw Mike making his way back to his desk. Sharon glanced that way too, her arms still crossed and files in them. "I owe you a lot more than a piece of cheesecake for the friend you've been."

"Other than you showing up in the middle of the night looking for my estranged husband, it has been nice," she nodded. "Perhaps we will have to get coffee another time. I need to get going," she said as she looked at her watch. "Enjoy your pasta salad," she said with a warm smile. She turned toward Mike, "Lieutenant Tao have a nice afternoon."

"Sure, same Captain," he said with eyebrow raised. Andy waved his hand at Sharon, and she walked out of the office. Mike looked over at Andy, and Andy just gave a small shrug.

"I think my lunch looked better than Chief's," he grinned.

Now, as Andy sat at his desk, over an hour later, he continued to stare at his blank computer screen and half-eaten pasta salad. He sighed and closed out his email. He really needed to focus on work, but first, he needed to clean up his stood and gathered his container, aware he was being watched by the team. He gestured with the container, "I'll be back." Andy wasn't even to the break room when his text message went off again. He was going to kill Provenza. The guy always did that just to annoy him. He'd deal with that later.

10 minutes later, after a small break and a fresh cup of coffee, Andy returned to his desk, smirking at Provenza along the way. He saw a new stack of files on his desk and groaned at the sight; Provenza flashing a grin at him as Andy glanced toward him again. Andy gestured at him, and Provenza just pointed to the pile. The two did this constantly throughout each day. He sighed and sat down, intent on finishing this stack before the end of the day. His phone alerted him to another text, and since he could see Provenza wasn't sending him a message, he pulled it out to check it. Andy was surprised to find that there was no message from Provenza, but two from Sharon.

"I already know Gavin will be out of town in two weeks for a conference. The symphony plays again, a different concert. It's their opening weekend for it, a Pops style concert. If you are interested, I do have tickets," the first message read. Andy smiled at his phone and quickly changed his stance. He didn't want to deal with Provenza asking about his text message. He glanced at the second message.

"Of course, you are welcome to both tickets if you like. I know you want to take your daughter. You can have them both or nothing or even one of the tickets. Sorry to bother you," she stated.

Andy paused a moment before he replied, his finger to his mouth, trying to craft the right response. He knew what he wanted to do, but he wanted to thank her for her kindness, her generosity with him, "I would very much enjoy another evening at the symphony-with you. I don't know what a 'Pops' concert is, but I'm anxious to learn. I'll only agree to it if you allow me to take you to a real dinner after as a small token of my thanks. It's the least I can do."

He waited a few moments, hoping she would reply. When she didn't, he put the phone on his desk and started on his paperwork. He almost jumped on the phone an hour later when she did reply.

"Dinner isn't necessary, at least not for me. The tickets are Gavin's, as I said. Perhaps you should thank him with dinner?" Sharon pointed out to him.

He chuckled to himself and quickly glanced around to make sure he wasn't being watched. Quickly, he typed another response, "Possession is 9/10 of the law, as we always say in our line of work. You possess the tickets, so I'm going with that. If you don't agree to dinner, I might just start sending you entire cheesecakes to your office. Your choice; either is a win-win."

Andy held back a smile as he waited for that answer. She was an odd person, one he'd probably misjudged over the years. He certainly had not pegged her as one interested in the arts, and he didn't know why. He wasn't into it, so really, he didn't think about others in that light. He was into baseball, and yes, as he nodded to himself, he got another idea.

Sharon's reply had him looking at his phone again, "Dinner would be fine, but nothing extravagant. I feel badly taking you up on a free meal when the tickets were gifted to me as well. Maybe we can eat somewhere simple that is a compromise between a murder scene location and a five-star restaurant?"

"I know just the spot," he replied, a big grin forming. He turned to his paperwork, something that would wipe that smile right off his face. It would be a great evening; now, he just had to count down the days.