4/10
Rusty looked up from his iphone and gestured towards the parking-lot to command Provenza's attention.
"Sharon's doctor's appointment finished early. She says she's going to come here and have breakfast with us after all."
The old man grumbled something under his breath as he gestured for the waitress. Rusty only understood when he repeated it, his voice still somewhat muffled.
"She okay?"
Rusty grinned to himself, amused by the notion that Provenza still didn't like to advertise the fact that he had come to be quite protective of Sharon.
"Yeah, just a routine check-up with her dentist. She never gets around to scheduling one during the week."
"What dentist in their right mind works on a Saturday?" Provenza shot back, his voice now loud and clear again.
"When is she going to be here?" Flynn asked. "Should we order for her, too?"
"Probably. She says she isn't going to be long."
Rusty watched Provenza eye the waitress's legs with some appreciation before he adopted an expression that was probably meant to be charming. "I'll have bacon and eggs on toast please," he told the young blonde in a voice that sounded grandfatherly rather than flirty.
"I'll go with the french toast," Rusty added and opened his mouth to place Sharon's order when he heard Andy's calm voice reciting his already. Before he could try to interject, Flynn had already resumed.
"And we're expecting someone else. She'll have the pancakes with strawberries. No cream and only one pancake, please."
The lieutenant shut the menu and drummed his fingers on the table, completely oblivious to Rusty's pointed look and Provenza's pursed lips. He only looked up when Rusty cleared his throat.
"What?"
"You know her favorite breakfast," Rusty said, his voice still neutral. Provenza cocked his head with obvious interest as to how things would develop.
"Er-" Flynn said less than eloquently.
"Last week you brought her ginger biscuits," Rusty added, watching Flynn's face intently. "She tries to hide that little addiction even from me." There was silence, Flynn's face frozen. "And the week before that, you told Detective Sykes to buy tulips for her birthday because they are her favorite flowers."
"And what is the inevitable conclusion?" Provenza asked in a deliberately bored voice. "I mean, apart from the fact that he has no life?"
"You didn't just happen to be in the neighborhood in the previous day's clothes last Saturday morning, did you? You were there all night." The realization that he had been fooled by the stupid excuse was painful to Rusty.
Flynn didn't even try to deny it.
"And Sharon didn't accidentally knock a lamp over the night before, did she? That noise had something to do with-" Rusty didn't finish his sentence and pulled a face. "Old people are not supposed to have sex," he stated earnestly. "Not one's parents, anyway."
Provenza choked on his coffee.
There was a stunned bout of silence during which Andy and Rusty stared at each in other in mutual shock, mouths agape. Then Andy awkwardly patted the boy's arm like the father figure he had just disovered he was to him.
Nobody, including Provenza himself, knew whether he was laughing, crying or retching.