A/N: So, this chapter gave me quite a bit of hell and I ended up rewriting it. Still not sure if I'm completely happy with it, but I wanted to move the story forward. Enjoy!
Chapter 3: Angels and Demons
It was Friday night and Sharon had closed the bookshop up around nine in the evening.
Since her kids, Emily and Ricky, were both spending the evening at friends houses, Sharon decided to grab a bottle of wine from her stash that she kept in the upstairs apartment above the bookshop and drive to the beach.
When she got there, the sky looked rather threatening, but the rain hadn't started yet.
She loved when it stormed at the beach.
The air was breezy and it smelled like rain was about to fall.
Sharon found a spot in the sand far enough away from the water that she wouldn't get wet from the waves when they came up.
She uncorked her bottle of red wine and began drinking it.
She thought about the last few weeks and how her and Andy had been fighting like cats and dogs in class.
They'd become academic and professional rivals during that time.
Then, the other day in class during a heated argument she'd called him Jack by mistake.
How mortifying.
At least he had no idea who Jack was.
At least not for the time being.
Every time she tried to serve Jack divorce papers, he seemed to have either moved or simply apparated without leaving a forwarding address.
She guessed that's what happened when your life was so unstable like his was….or she assumed it still was.
His excessive drinking and instability as both a husband, but more importantly, a father, had led her to file for legal separation nearly three years ago.
She'd kicked him out after finding Emily, then six years old, and Ricky, just four, alone in the living room with Jack passed out drunk in what was once their marital bed with an empty bottle of vodka next to him.
Needless to say, she'd gotten rid of both her husband and that bed soon after.
As she was deep in thought and on the verge of crying for how messed up her life was and had been, she took another swig of wine before hearing footsteps coming up behind her.
"Whoever you are, I have a heavy wine bottle in my hand and I know how to use it," Sharon told the stranger.
"Sharon?" asked the all of a sudden familiar voice.
"Great. What do you want?" Sharon asked the familiar man whose voice she instantly recognized as Andy's.
"Nothing. I didn't even know it was you. I was just about to tell whoever you were that it's about to rain and that they should take cover," Andy told her honestly.
"What if I like the rain?" asked Sharon snarkily without turning around.
"That's your business I guess then," Andy told her as he was about to walk away.
"Wait. Are you on duty? Because if you're here to arrest me, just know I have two kids who will need me tomorrow," said Sharon.
Nope. Just like when it storms on the beach. Seems like you do too," commented Andy.
"Something we can agree on I guess," Sharon told him as she took another swig of wine.
"We both like poetry too," said Andy.
"You remembered that?" asked Sharon as she finally turned around, clearly surprised given their current animosity.
"Sure. You said your favorite Yeats poem was "When You Are Old," Andy told her, referring to one of their conversations in the bookshop.
"Yeah, well it's all bullshit anyway," said Sharon as she turned back around.
"Why do you say that?" asked Andy.
"Because love & romance are dead," stated Sharon.
"Then why do you read romance novels?" asked Andy.
Sharon turned around, clearly again surprised that Andy had picked up on such a subtle detail.
"I don't know. Escapism, I guess," Sharon told him.
"Isn't that why we all read?" posed Andy.
"Sure, I guess," said Sharon as she took another sip of her wine.
"What are you running from, then?" asked Andy.
"What? What are you talking about?" asked Sharon.
"Well, between sitting here alone drinking on the beach and believing that love is dead, I'd say that you're running from someone or something," Andy pointed out.
"And how would you know this?" asked Sharon icily.
"Because I used to do that a lot myself," Andy told her.
"What? Drink on the beach?" asked Sharon.
"Not always on the beach, but the drinking part, yes," Andy told her.
"What were you running from?" asked Sharon, genuinely curious.
"That's kind of personal, don't you think?" asked Andy.
"Well, yeah, but you're the one who walked up to me on the beach and started talking to me," Sharon pointed out.
"True. Well, I guess I don't mind sharing with you that I'm a recovering alcoholic who became an alcoholic by trying to run away from his problems, both at work and eventually at home too. It snowballed into an addiction I could no longer control," explained Andy.
"I can relate to that last part," said Sharon.
"Let me guess: Jack," said Andy.
"What? How do you even know that? Did you look him up in the system or something? Cause that would be a huge violation of the rules," Sharon pointed out the obvious.
"I was tempted to after you called me by his name in class the other day, but no. Who is he anyways? An ex-husband?" asked Andy out of genuine curiosity.
"I wish. No, we're legally separated and have been for almost three years now," explained Sharon.
"Why aren't you divorced then?" asked Andy.
"Isn't that kind of personal?" asked Sharon, echoing Andy's earlier question to her.
"Yeah. You're right. No need to explain," said Andy.
"If you must know, he disappeared from LA about two years ago, was living somewhere in Las Vegas after that, and seems to evaporate or change addresses without a forwarding address every time I try to serve him divorce papers," replied Sharon.
"Wow. That must be hard," replied Andy in an attempt to get Sharon to open up more around him.
"Yeah," replied Sharon, getting slightly choked up.
Andy sat down next to her, but far enough away to give her personal space, as he set his hand on her shoulder in comfort and said, "Hey. I didn't mean to upset you. We can totally talk about something else."
"Like what?" asked Sharon tearily.
"Tell me about your kids," suggested Andy as he took his hand off her shoulder and smiled a friendly smile at him.
"Well, as I told you before, Emily's nine years old. She loves ballet. She's always telling me she wants to be a professional ballerina when she grows up. Ricky's seven years old. He loves taking anything and everything in the house apart. Just last week, he took apart the toaster and couldn't get it back together. Needless to say, we had to get a new toaster after that. He's very curious in that way, which I think is a good thing as long as he directs it towards positive things. He also loves computers. I always joke that he'll either become an engineer or a computer programmer," Sharon told Andy proudly.
"Sounds like they have their lives figured out. Just like their mother," said Andy as he smiled at Sharon.
"My life is far from figured out, Andy," admitted Sharon.
"Newsflash, Sharon, nobody has their lives a hundred percent figured out. We all struggle with one thing or another," said Andy.
"Yeah, I guess you're right," said Sharon as she looked up and smiled at Andy.
"Look, I know I come off as an ass sometimes in class. I think a lot of that has to do with who I've chosen to surround myself with in the past. I guess I haven't quite let go of that attitude yet," confessed Andy.
"You? Have an attitude? Never," Sharon joked sarcastically.
Andy laughed at that before he said, "It's true though. My superiors don't love that about me sometimes either."
"I bet they don't. You seem like the type of guy to get into all kinds of trouble," said Sharon.
"I did tend to get into all kinds of trouble as a kid back in New York," said Andy.
"You lived in New York?" asked Sharon, genuinely curious.
"I grew up there and in Jersey," Andy told her
"What kind of trouble did you get into as a kid?" asked Sharon.
"The usual troublemaker kid stuff. Stealing candy from the grocery store, lifting a couple bikes with my childhood friend, hell we even boosted my uncle's car once and went joyriding in Jersey when we were about twelve," explained Andy.
"So, how did you go from being a criminal to a cop, then?" asked Sharon.
"Well, after we boosted my uncle's car, he and my mom got together and called a family friend of theirs that was a cop. He came by the house and scared me straight. Told me that if I would've been six years older, I could've been tried as an adult for grand theft auto and been in prison with a bunch of dirtbags you don't wanna be around," said Andy.
"Ah, so that's where the term dirtbags came from," noted Sharon.
"Yeah," replied Andy as he smiled at Sharon.
"So, if you don't mind me asking, where was your dad during this time? I noticed you only mentioned your mom and uncle," Sharon pointed out.
"Probably getting drunk in a bar somewhere or passed out in bed. He was an alcoholic too. A pretty violent one if you weren't careful," said Andy.
Sharon made a mental note to mention to Andy one day that he probably also became a cop to help people too, given his home life.
"I can relate to that first part. Found my husband passed out in bed one night with an empty bottle of vodka when the kids were six and four. Needless to say, he and the bed were both gone within the week," explained Sharon.
"Let me guess. That wasn't the first time you caught him drinking or passed out like that," said Andy.
"Unfortunately, no. Though that was the first time he involved the kids in his reckless behavior though and I couldn't have that," said Sharon.
"Well, I'm sorry you had to go through that. It also gives me a little perspective on what my ex-wife must have gone through. Though, I will say I did the majority of my drinking either in secret or out of the house. Doesn't make it any less affecting though. It still managed to tear my marriage apart. So, obviously I wasn't doing right by my family. I'm doing my best to change that though. At least with my kids. I wanna be the kind of father they can be proud of," Andy told Sharon.
"Well, judging by our first meeting, you're on the right track to doing that," admitted Sharon to him.
"Thanks. I still have a long way to go though," replied Andy bashfully.
"I think we all do. There are always things we can do better as parents. I'm not proud of what I do when my kids are at their friends' houses. I tend to self-destruct because I can do it then," said Sharon.
"I think there's a difference between letting go a little and major self-destruction. Should you be drinking copious amounts of wine on the beach alone? Probably not. I have no room to judge though," said Andy honestly.
"Well, I appreciate that," Sharon told Andy as she smiled to herself.
"No problem. Listen, you're probably still a little too impared to drive home yet. How about we throw the rest of that bottle of wine away and walk across the street to get some coffee and talk some more?" asked Andy hopefully.
"Like a date?" asked Sharon.
"No. Just helping a friend out by offering a listening ear," Andy told her.
"So, we're friends now?" asked Sharon.
"I mean…yeah. After everything we shared with each other tonight, I'd say that qualifies us as friends, however tenuous," said Andy.
Sharon laughed at that last part before she stood up and said, "Friends then."
Sharon threw her bottle of wine away as her and Andy walked towards the twenty-four-hour diner across the street.
As they made their way across the street, Sharon couldn't help thinking about how funny life was.
Here she was actually willingly socializing with Andy Flynn.
Their first meeting had been nice and they were getting along so far tonight and she'd shared parts of herself that she never let anyone in on.
That still didn't change the fact that they were sworn enemies in the classroom and would eventually be again as their careers came to fruition.
Would that change their friendship for the worse?
Would it completely crumble?
As they sat down at a table in the diner, Sharon shook those thoughts away.
Maybe they could teach each other something in the meantime.
Maybe they already had.
A/N: Hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you didn't, please feel free to offer constructive criticism or if you did enjoy it and would like to leave a nice comment, either would be welcome.