Amy and Wes walked back into the murder room after depositing their suspect in an interview room. Wes was glad to get rid of the dirtbag; the guy had yelled slurs at them the whole way back to the station. He was just glad he didn't have to do a lot of questioning with this guy, and in fact, the situation was sort of a miracle. Once they gotten the guy situated in the interview room, he'd had a spontaneous confession. They'd already read him his rights at his house, but once the guy was seated and told to wait, he spilled everything. Julio played tag team with the two, saying that he'd take his turn with the guy as he wrote out his confession. That left Wes and Amy time to get some lunch and start their reports.
"Hey, who left all the doughnuts on my desk?" Wes asked as he looked around at the semi-empty room.
"Ahh, Emily brought them by for everyone. We all got our doughnuts. There's some there for you and Amy. We couldn't leave them on Amy's desk-too close to Provenza," Tao simply stated.
"Hey, I resent that!" Provenza yelled. "Now, why would you think I'd eat the rest of the doughnuts?"
"Maybe because you can't stand the diet your wife has you on now, Provenza. Come on, we see you dump your salads everyday, wasting all that food. You'd think you would be the one passing out in the office, not me," Andy chuckled.
"Flynn! Not a word about my lunches," Provenza pointed his finger at Andy. "At least my wife doesn't take the salt packets from me out of the takeout bags!"
"Hey, if the shoe fits…" Andy replied and turned back to his work. "Plus, what Sharon doesn't know, doesn't hurt her…not a word, but I have a stash of salt packets in my bottom desk drawer."
"Used to, Lieutenant. She found them and removed them while you were out on medical leave," Amy stated matter of fact. "Well, I'm going to dig in; I'm starving," Amy exclaimed as she grabbed a couple doughnuts.
Shaking his head and lifting his hands, Andy just remained silent, except for the utterance everyone heard him barely mumble, "Good thing I love her so much." Everyone quietly chuckled.
Wes looked at the box; Emily had brought those. She'd been here-and he hadn't. Ugh! He'd missed her again. He stood there, in thought, staring at the doughnuts. Andy took a quick glance and saw Wes just standing there, looking glum, deep in thought. "Bingo," Andy thought. "Just as I thought-doughnuts on his desk did the trick. It's definitely him, and he's definitely thinking of Emily." Andy decided he'd clue Sharon in on it later when they left work.
It took a couple hours, but their suspect was finally taken away for booking. Julio left the room, now tired, "Man, he took forever! I never thought he'd finish writing out his confession. Good think that's over."
Wes had been patiently working on his paperwork after he'd finished his two doughnuts and the pack of crackers he had in his desk-awesome lunch he thought to himself.
"Hey, lieutenant-next time you are going to throw out your wife's healthy lunch, send it my way," Wes broke the silence in the office. "I'll eat it. I mean, no reason for it to go to waste."
Provenza looked up from where he was writing on a form, "You sound like Flynn. What's up with you guys and this healthy stuff? How do you eat it?"
Chuckling, Wes said, "Well, lieutenant, when you live alone, most anything sounds good. Besides, I've been eating way too much junk lately; I need to eat better. I've been told the same too," Wes said as he thought back to a conversation he'd had with Emily last week.
"As much fun as I'm having eating all this junk, I really will have to start eating better when I get back home," Emily had smiled over their pizza one night. "What's your excuse? You can't eat like this all the time. You've got to take care of yourself."
Wes had told Emily that for the past five years, taking care of himself had meant keeping himself alive. He was always watching his back, worried his cover would be blown. Now that the assignment was over, he was trying to get his life back on track in many areas, and that even included food. He smiled, thinking about that conversation with Emily.
"Well, if you think I should eat better, then I will. You can teach me all about the crazy salads, pitas, wraps, and all," Wes had smiled at Emily.
"It's a deal," Emily tried to get out, as she had a mouthful of pizza.
"Yeah, lieutenant, I'll take your healthy stuff. Even when I eat out, it's hard to eat healthy stuff like that," Wes stated.
"If you like a good salad and all," Andy added, "you should try this place Sharon and I love. It's called Angelinis, and they have great 'healthy stuff' as Provenza would say."
"Really? Is that near the PAB?" Wes asked, now intrigued. Any of the food he'd seen the Captain and Lieutenant Flynn eating at work always looked good.
"No, it's near our condo, maybe 10 minutes from it. Funny thing-the boys hate it. Rusty won't even go in the place because they don't sell burgers, but rumor has it, Gus dragged him in there. Ricky said the salad looked like grass, but Emily loves it too," Andy added for extra measure.
"It is grass, Flynn! I don't know how you and the Captain eat that junk!" Provenza yelled.
"Hmm, really, good to know. Thanks, Lieutenant Flynn. I'll look it up and try it. That's not too far from where I live, I believe," Wes said.
Andy definitely noticed Wes perked up when he mentioned that Emily had liked it. Another clue in his favor. Come to think of it, maybe Sharon would want to eat there after work?
Wes rose from his chair, "Well, all this talk about food, I'm still hungry and thirsty. I'm going to the break room. Anyone need anything?"
"Umm, actually, I'm in need of a cup of coffee," Julio said. "I'll get it though," as he rose to follow Wes.
The two walked toward the breakroom when Julio said, "Psst, Wes, so you missed Emily."
Wes turned as he opened the door to the breakroom to see Julio right behind him.
"Maybe that was a good thing. She refused to answer my text and my call last night," Wes flatly said.
"No, actually she didn't," Julio started. "She was here, and she was definitely looking for you."
"Crap! She said that?" Wes questioned.
"No, you idiot, she didn't. She's not dumb. I followed her to the elevator. So, she told me about you not responding to her and then she didn't respond to you. I can't believe I'm going to say this because I know I sound like the lieutenant now, but you're both idiots," Julio shook his head.
Wes' eyes got big, and he said, "Wait. What? Why are we idiots?"
"I'm tired of being in the middle of this. It sounds like you are both terrible at communicating. Put the phones down and just talk to each other, or I'm going to have to start calling you names publicly like Provenza does," Julio warned.
Shaking his head, Wes admitted, "Okay, okay, you're right. We are awful at this. So, she wasn't mad?"
"No, the opposite, she wanted to talk to you. Why do you think we got doughnuts?" Julio smiled.
"Okay, I'll see if we can meet for dinner. Thanks, man. I appreciate it. Lieutenant Flynn and the Captain don't know about all this, do they?" Wes inquired.
"No," Julio said shaking his head, "the captain was in her office, and Flynn was busy with financials again. Just end this craziness, please, for the sake of our friendship. I'm getting a headache thinking about it."
Emily had spent the afternoon practicing her ballet routine. She still knew the owner of the studio she'd practiced in while growing up, and the owner was more than happy to let her prodigy spend some time working on her routine. Emily was glad to get back into the swing of things. She had just a couple more days left in LA before heading home. Once she finished at the studio, she gathered her things to head home. She stopped and almost dropped her bags as she read the message on her phone:
"Dinner, please? Tonight, Angelinis, 7:00. I heard a rumor you love the place. And, to make sure that this message doesn't get lost, I will be there for dinner. If you aren't there, I'm going to be at Mack's Diner for breakfast at 7:00 tomorrow morning. Take your pick-but show up somewhere."
Emily smiled at the message. She'd missed the banter with Wes, and yes, somehow things had gotten messy the last week. Emily thought carefully as to how she wanted to reply. She DID want to reply this time-no forgotten phones, no unanswered calls.
"Fine," she simply wrote, smiling. Wes wouldn't get the joke, but she still laughed at that word. She'd given her mom so much grief for answering Andy's first date plea (in their eyes) with "Fine." Aside from arguing with her mom that their dinner date to Serve was FAR FROM a first date, she remembered some of that conversation, "FINE! You answered the guy with FINE? Mom, that's terrible. Poor guy! He's been after you for years, years Mom! You've spent every waking minute the last two years alone with Andy, and don't deny it. You're always with him, and we all agree, you're always flirting with him. The guy finally adds the word 'romantic' to dinner, and you come up with fine? Mom, you're lucky he still wants to take you."
"What? Do you think he'll cancel?" Sharon had asked, now nervous.
"Would it matter if he did, Mom? You said he's just a friend, so why would it bother you," Emily had snickered.
Sharon had remained quiet for a few seconds, "I will have no comment on this matter. I'll clarify with him I'm looking forward to it."
"Oh, that sounds nice and businesslike-'I'll clarify I'm looking forward to it. Geez Mom, he's your boyfriend, and he wants to take you to a super romantic restaurant. Mom, LET him in! Don't believe me-okay. Clarify you are looking forward to it. You do that Mom," Emily chuckled. "Poor guy deserves an award for being so patient, and you tell him fine. Just please don't answer that way when he finally proposes to you."
"What? Emily we are not-Emily we're going to dinner. Nothing more," Sharon stated.
"Okay, Mom, but umm, just to let you know, we kids all have bets on everything. We all agree, it's not if, but when, so go ahead and believe your delusional self," Emily smiled into the phone.
"Emily! I can't believe you! What do you-why would you,"
"It's okay Mom. It's taken you several years to get to this point. You'll catch up and realize the guy is hopelessly head over heels for you. We all like him. Time you figured out that you do too" Emily laughed. "Until then, this nervous tone, the stuttering and acting like you have no clue, it's cute."
"Emily, please stop," Sharon pleaded. "Why did I even tell you?"
"Alright, alright, and that had ended the conversation, but Emily felt it was the perfect response for tonight. Someday, maybe if she and Wes could patch up their friendship, she'd tell him that story. For now, she had to get ready for dinner.
Emily drew a slow breath out-what was she going to wear? She had to wear just the right outfit to convey the right message, but what was that outfit, and what message exactly did she want to convey?
Wes sat back in his desk chair, phone in hand, grinning. Emily had finally gotten back to him, and they were meeting for dinner, or so he hoped. They were meeting sometime. She's said, "Fine," to his request to get together for food, and while he'd suggested dinner or breakfast, he was hoping that she'd come to dinner. He was excited, much more excited than he had been for his speed date outing. That should probably tell him something.
"Now, why are you sitting there grinning like you just won the lottery? Get your report finished," Provenza told Wes as he scowled. "I don't want to be here late tonight, and I can't leave until you finish. So finish!"
The rest of the office chuckled at Provenza's exasperation. Wes looked over at Provenza, "Sorry, lieutenant. I'm almost done, and don't worry, I've got plans, so I don't want to be here either."
At that, Andy perked up and casually glanced over at Wes. With eyebrows raised, he took note of Nolan's demeanor and figured that by now, he had an idea of his plans for the evening. Andy stood up, walked over to Sharon's door, and opened it without knocking, "Hey, so, about dinner tonight…" he started.