And So It Begins
Pt 3/2
(yes, part 3 of 2)

It was almost four hours later when Sharon sank on her couch. She closed her eyes, dropped her head down over the headrest and let her back stretch. It had been a long week and a long night, at least emotionally. She didn't know what was wrong with her and why the evening was such a clusterfuck.

And why was she starting to sound like Andy? Not a new development; she had already noticed the trend.

Well, never mind that. The issue remained. Sharon couldn't understand her behavior nor could she excuse it. What could have been such a nice, relaxed, and even romantic, outing never got off the ground due to her being stupid. She did loosen up a little as the night went on, but couldn't shake the awkwardness and the disappointment of the first part of the evening.

For a few brief moments of the Olive Garden dinner Sharon did manage to forget. Overall, it had been almost nice. She didn't even mind the downgrade to the dinner, though Andy had grumbled some. Sharon had to admit to herself that his pasta wasn't that good, at least based on the bite she had swiped from his plate. Overcooked and a little gelatinous, not even close to best Olive Garden could do. Still he had been fairly good-humored and given the server a huge tip while he thought she wasn't looking.

Which could have had something to do with the fact that they'd hogged the table for over two hours. She'd even heard him apologize and told their server to take another table when they were starting to look like they were putting down roots.

After dinner they had somehow reached the unspoken decision to call it a night without any of the options he had thrown about yesterday. He had driven her home, walked her up to her door.

The last hour and a half they had spent in hushed conversation outside her front door, paying no mind to the neighbors and never even considering that she had a perfectly good living room waiting just on the other side of two inches of wood. They were both tired but not willing to say goodnight.

Sharon hadn't realized how drained she was. She was on the edge of falling asleep right here on the couch but didn't feel like moving quite yet. It was nice to wind down, not having to think about anything or feel like she should be starting on her nightly routine.

She heard a door down the hall open followed by soft pads of feet coming closer. At the corner the sounds moved to the kitchen and then her lids turned red thanks to the light flooding from behind her. Some rummaging later the lights turned back off and the footsteps headed her way. A glass was placed on the table and a body landed on the armchair nearest to her.

"So how was your date?" Rusty asked after a moment of silence.

Sharon winced and took a pillow to hug.

"That bad." Rusty waited in silence for any elaboration. "On a scale of "slightly awkward" to "appenciditis"...?"

She raised her head and looked him seriously in the eye. "Head cold." Now it was his time to wince. "My thoughts exactly."

"So you not gonna go out with him again?"

"Are you asking... or hoping?"

"Asking." Rusty shrugged. He genuinely thought he was just asking. Despite this thing between Sharon and Andy being relatively new, it somehow seemed like a staple in his life. "Like I said, it's you who has to calm him down when Provenza's calling him in the middle of a night, asking for a ride after he's had a fight with an ex and drunk himself stupid." Sharon snorted. "You know that's going to happen."

"Probably," she agreed with a smile. She could picture it, him waking up all grumpy and frustrated, trying to convince Provenza to get a cab, but getting up and out anyway. And she could hear the rant... Suddenly her head snapped up. "Who am I kidding? It's absolutely going to happen." She should prepare herself. Though in all fairness there must be something wrong with her as she kind of liked him all bothered and enjoyed his rants. So in some small part she was already looking forward to it. Forward to making it up to him... The small creak of the armchair returned Sharon to the presence of a teenager. With a guilty smile she turned her attention to Rusty. "Are you sure you're fine with this? With Andy and me?"

"Honestly? I'm trying to be. He's cool. I know him and all but... It's just weird, OK?" He flashed her a sheepish grin. "But you don't get to use me as an excuse to dump the guy after one date. Are you gonna?"

"No, Rusty." Sharon laughed and shook her head. The fact that he even thought of that! "Of course not. More than anything we're friends and... We'll figure out this dating thing. One bad night is nothing."

"Look on the bright side. At least now you got a great story to tell the grandkiddos of how gramma and grampa really really really messed up their first date and look at them now, all disgusting and sappy and telling lies to grandkids." He paused to give her the widest grin ever, which made Sharon nervous. Rightfully so, as he added, "You know, like as if that was your actual first date."

"And who is going to be giving us those grandkids, hmm? You?"

Rusty sputtered and jumped back. "You've got the ballerina and the other one for that! Harass them! Better yet, Nicole's already done the deed, isn't that enough?"

"They're Andy's grandkids," Sharon said all too sweetly. "I want my own."

"I thought there was no such thing as "my kids, your kids, our kids". What happened to loving all of us equally?"

He was kidding, of course, but the way Sharon's face fell told him for whatever reason she wasn't in the right head space to allow for his brand of teasing. Despite all that, he wasn't going to be derailed from his mission of making her smile.

"Rusty..."

"And don't you dare to cry!"

"But, honey —"

"No! No, you don't get to be all emotional with me. You've got a boyfriend for all that sappy, feely, emotional stuff," he said with a disgusted emphasis, "time he did his part."

Sharon let out a sound that was a mixture of a laugh and a sob. "I do love you, you know that, right? Right?"

He heaved on an all-suffering sigh, "Yes, Sharon."

"Come here." She nodded and motioned him closer for a hug. He acted reluctant but was in her space before she could get on her feed or even drop the pillow from her lap. "Just like your brother and sister, okay?"

He grunted, and begrudgingly responded to her hug.

"Yeah, okay. Mom."

Sharon let him go and raised a hand to her lips, sobbed with a smile in her eyes.

"Okay, stop that," Rusty commanded with a roll of his eyes. When she was showing no signs of complying, he did another theathrical sigh. "God, Sharon, get a hold of yourself. It couldn't have been that bad a night."

She laughed softly through her tears. "No, not all of it."

"Save me the disgusting details," he said and mimed gagging on his fingers.

Sharon swatted at his shins. "Rotten child."

"Aim to please," he said grinning like a mad person.

They well quiet but for the final sobs from Sharon. While she dabbed at her eyes, Rusty leaned over and took a sip of his drink. He pulled out his phone, scrolled through something online.

When she got herself under control, she realized Rusty had settled in for a wait but hadn't turned on the tv or brought anything but his phone with him. And it was already late.

She cleared her throat. "Did you need something, Rusty?"

"Um..." He paused in a way that told Sharon he did have something on his mind. "It'll keep. Nothing important."