A/N: This is a short chapter. It was supposed to go with chapter 6, but that one got too long.

7.

"Come on, you can do better than that!" Fernando shouted, sitting on the edge of the couch with his brow deeply furrowed. "What's that even supposed to be? Give me something else."

Sharon chuckled quietly into Andrea's arm, but Andrea let her laughter fill the living room as she counted the last few seconds off in her head with her phone. When the beep sounded, Anthony dropped the dry erase marker down on the coffee table and sighed heavily.

"Sylvester Stallone!" He pointed to the last pictures he'd drawn on the board. "Those are rocks. Rocks. Rocky. Rocky Balboa. Ring a bell?!"

"And I was supposed to get Sylvester Stallone from a bunch of circles?"

"Rocks! They were rocks," Anthony growled, flopping down beside Morales and shaking his head with disbelief.

"Yeah, Morales, those were obviously rocks," Andrea said through another fit of laughter. She'd been doing a lot of that the past hour. He and Anthony might have made a good couple, but they were terrible at being teammates.

"Oh, hush up."

Sharon lifted her head from Andrea's shoulder and swatted her arm lightly, holding in the laughter that Andrea could still feel vibrating in Sharon's chest. "Be nice."

Andrea sobered up quickly and reached for the notepad where they were keeping score. "All right, you scored two points for your final round, which puts you one ahead of us. So... Sharon and I only need two to win the game." She nodded, knowing they could definitely win. "You ready?" she asked the woman beside her.

Sharon nodded and untucked her legs from beneath her and let her feet fall down to the rug. "I'm drawing and you're guessing?"

"Yes, ma'am," Andrea answered, stretching her arms back and rolling her neck, getting ready.

"No verbal clues, no gesturing, and none of that hinting with your eyes things you two like to do," Morales warned with a pointed finger.

She took his grouchiness to mean he already knew he'd lost, and she couldn't help but grin a little in satisfaction. They were both extremely competitive, and neither of them liked losing. Andrea had grown up in a house full of males who always wanted to one-up the other, and Andrea's need to best them all had turned into a lifelong need to be the best at everything she did. Growing up: top of class, best schools, fastest sprinter on her track and field team. Now: game night champion! She and Sharon were dynamite together, and Andrea could not ask for a better teammate.

"Okay, pick your topic," Anthony said, mixing up the folded Post-it notes in the colorful glass bowl.

Sharon reached in and took out a blue square, and after receiving the nod from Anthony, she unfolded it. A smile slowly grew on her face as she lifted her eyes from the paper and looked at Andrea. "Literature. We've got this," she said confidently.

"Great," Fernando mumbled as he fell back against the sofa.

Anthony gave the other man a quick look, patted his thigh, and then rolled up the sleeves of his deep green shirt. "Ready?" When both she and Sharon answered that they were, he set the timer to start counting down. "You've got ninety seconds, starting... Now!"

Sharon uncapped the marker and glanced at the folded paper once more. Written on the Post-it note was a topic and six different choices for them to pick from. The goal of the game was to get as many as they could done, each of them worth one point. Andrea and Sharon had filled one bowl for Fernando and Anthony to pick from, and they guys had filled the other for them. She was actually surprised to see 'Literature' as one of the topics after having the game full of topics that she was less familiar with, but it only made her feel more confident.

Sharon started drawing on the board with her red dry erase marker, and Andrea watched silently at first. She didn't throw out useless answers when she knew it distracted Sharon, and she could always think better when she took in the drawing without focusing too hard on the goal but instead on exactly what was being drawn. It would all come to her if she was patient and trusted her partner.

Circles – no, eyes – a small nose, whiskers... Maybe a cat. A plus sign. A stick figure.

Sharon glanced over her shoulder, brow lifting.

"Cat and..." Sharon started adding details to the cat, making it– "Not a cat, a mouse." Sharon grinned and tapped the plus sign. "Mouse– Mouse and uhm...uhm..." Andrea tapped her fingers against her thigh, her blood rushing in her ears. "A person. Uh... Oh! Of Mice and Men," she shouted with excitement.

Sharon nodded quickly, already working on the next drawing.

"Little Women," Andrea guessed right away after Sharon drew three stick figures with skirts and arrows that pointed to the smaller ones. "You're doing great. Give me another."

Sharon hummed as she drew, a low sound that helped keep Andrea focused and relaxed. Andrea watched Sharon's hand move across the board in fast strokes and smooth lines. She listened to Sharon hum, and she didn't let the excited buzzing in her head distract her.

She made several guesses that all turned out to be incorrect, but then Sharon drew music notes next to the crude drawing of the caged bird and the answer came together. "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," she called out just before the timer went off.

Sharon spun around and clapped her hands, and Andrea jumped up from her seat. "And that is how you win! It's all about great teamwork," she said, pulling Sharon to her so she could hug her from the side. "Maybe you should try being kinder to Anthony when he's trying his best."

Fernando rolled his eyes and chucked a pillow at her. "Don't you have a home to get to?"

Andrea, who had caught the pillow before it could reach her, threw it back at him. "Yeah, I do, but not until you tell me I'm the champion of game night and stop looking at me like I just stomped on all your dreams by beating you."

He laughed a dramatic, sarcastic laugh. "Do you want me to set up the guest room for you, or is the sofa good enough? Because that won't be happening."

It was Andrea's whose eyes rolled this time. "You almost suck all the fun out of beating you. Almost."

"Are they always like this?" Anthony asked, starting to clean up the coffee table.

"Almost-childishly competitive?" He nodded. Sharon laughed, eyeing both Andrea and Fernando. "Sadly, yes. The only way to avoid it is by putting them on the same team. I don't give up my partner that easily, though. I prefer winning with her."

"Next time we'll have to invite more people over so we can have larger teams, then," he said, and Andrea heard Sharon agree.

. . .

Sharon's hands were deep in her jacket pocket as she and Andrea walked to her car. It was late in the night and the air was cool against her face. Fernando and Anthony had already headed back inside the bungalow after seeing them to the front door and telling them to get home safely, leaving the two of them alone in the dark night. Sharon had parked a few cars away from the house, and Andrea was around the corner because there hadn't been any closer available spots when she arrived. Sharon had offered to drive her around the corner so she wouldn't have to walk alone in the dark, so they both climbed into Sharon's car when they reached it.

When the doors were shut and Sharon settled into her seat, she turned to look at Andrea. "So what did you think about Anthony?"

"I liked him," Andrea said with a genuine smile. "I was a little worried before I met him. Fernando seems to be ready to move things along – they're already spending weekends together and planning for things months in advance. Before I met Anthony, I admit I was worried this would turn out to be a repeat of the disaster his relationship with Chris was. But, it doesn't seem that way."

Sharon hummed and started her car. "From what I could tell, I think Anthony's just as serious as Morales is. He doesn't' strike me as the kind of man who would give false hope to someone to gain something out of the situation."

Andrea agreed. "You two got along well, too. I don't have to worry about being replaced anytime soon, do I?"

Sharon bit back her first response as her stomach twisted into uncomfortable knots that made her look away. Andrea was irreplaceable, in every possible way, but she decided not to say that. She'd gone the entire night after dinner without thinking about Andy and their relationship, but he popped into her head as soon as Andrea brought up being replaced. He wouldn't replace Andrea either, she knew, and then frowned at herself for even forming the thought.

Andrea brushed her hand over Sharon's, her knuckles rolling over the back of Sharon's hand as it rested on the gear shift. Sharon loosened her grip and smiled, slowly looking over to the woman who made her skin feel alive with just one touch. Worry flecked her greyish-blue eyes, but she smiled a slow and beautiful smile that made Sharon's heart skitter. She could get lost in that smile, in the curves of Andrea's lips and the emotions that played across her face. She had gotten lost in it many times, and sitting there in her car, with the light of the full moon shining through her windshield to caress the edges of Andrea's face, Sharon felt herself doing so for what she knew would not be the last time.

In the beginning, Sharon had been certain it was just a matter of getting used to the changes in her life as she started dating Andy. Transitioning, she had explained to herself, was not the easiest thing to deal with. One could not simply go switching everything in their life when their life, and themselves, were so intricately intertwined with another.

She had accepted that Andrea was content with their relationship staying as it had been for the past decade, and she had told herself that it was okay to see what there could be between her and Andy. She had loved Andrea for years as her friend, and she would continue doing so. But as more time passed by, the changes she was expected to get used to started becoming changes she didn't want to happen. It was not a matter of getting used to new things, it was trying to find a way to keep what she had grown to love while allowing more into her life.

Andrea slipped her fingers into the spaces between Sharon's, into the places that had become their home, and curled them into Sharon's palm. Warmth spread through her chest, her stomach, her entire body, and she knew that nothing would ever feel as right as this did, nor as perfect. She cared about Andy a lot, but a part of Sharon knew she wouldn't have anything remotely close to this with him. The connection she felt to Andrea was like nothing else she had experienced, and she knew she would never feel it with another. While that saddened her at times, because she did want things to work out with Andy, as they sat in the car, their hands together in a simple sign of everything they were, it made her smile with gratitude for the other woman. She may never have such a strong, meaningful bond with anyone else, but she had it with her. She had it with Andrea.

She had Andrea.

Sharon cleared her throat and looked away from Andrea's smiling lips, bringing her eyes to their hands instead. She didn't say anything, but she hummed and covered their hands with her left one, holding Andrea's between her own. There was nothing to be said that she hadn't already told Andrea countless times in the past, and for a moment, simply holding Andrea's hand between her own was enough.

. . .

Kiss her, Andrea's heart said as it fiercely pounded away in her chest. She could feel the familiar pull as Sharon stroked the side of her thumb where it was sensitive with one of her own fingers.

Kiss her, Andrea's brain whispered as Sharon looked up into her eyes again. There was something there that Andrea couldn't put a name to, some type of longing that made her breath catch in her throat as she stared back into Sharon's eyes in the moonlit car. But longing for what, she wondered. What did Sharon want that she didn't think she already had permission to take?

Didn't Sharon know she would do everything in her power to give her the world if she asked for it?

Andrea felt like her throat was tightening and her lungs were working extra hard, and for a few seconds there was a strong possibility that her heart would cause itself damage from how quickly it was pumping. Sharon removed her top hand from Andrea's and brought it to Andrea's face, hesitating, hovering in the air before she let the tips graze her cheek. Andrea swallowed as her mind filled with questions she couldn't ask because she couldn't find her voice beneath her shallow breaths.

Sharon was thinking about something, that much Andrea could figure out on her own, but she did not know what. She only knew that she'd only seen the look Sharon was giving her a handful of times in the past. The longing in her eyes, the open expression of her face that was like a book written in a foreign language that Sharon was giving her to read but Andrea could not understand, the slight apology that mixed into it – Andrea had seen it all before. But she couldn't remember when, and she had no idea what to do next.

Kiss her, the voice in her head whispered again when Sharon caressed her cheek like she meant it this time, following the curve of her face like she was memorizing its shape. Sharon pursed her lips and closed her eyes, but she let her hand linger on Andrea's face. Andrea stayed perfectly still, only watching Sharon, waiting, wondering. Thinking: Kiss her.

. . .

Sharon's fingers trembled as she slid them away from Andrea's face, her eyes still closed. She was making a mistake, and she needed to stop before she couldn't undo the damage she was bound to cause to one of the relationships in her life. There was a constant pull in her that made her want, want Andrea, want to be able to touch her and hold her and show the other woman how much she meant to her. But there was also a voice in her head that reminded her that she couldn't do those things. Andrea had said she needed some space between them, and Sharon didn't want to take too much because she worried about crossing new boundaries whose locations were unknown to her. And until she spoke to Andy, she didn't want to do anything that she already knew made him uncomfortable. She had made up her mind about what she would and wouldn't give up, but she demanded honesty in her relationships and would give him the same. The want that burned inside her was a part of her that she knew wouldn't go away, for it had been there for many years. But to act on that want when her current desire was to be one with Andrea, a concept that was beautiful in its complexity, did not feel honest to her.

Reluctant but sure it was the right thing to do, Sharon untangled their hands and placed both of her own hands on the steering wheel as she exhaled a long breath. She thought maybe an apology would be fitting for the moment after catching the confusion in Andrea's eyes, but she would not apologize for something she was not sorry for. She was not sorry for touching Andrea, nor for wanting to. She was not sorry for the way she felt for Andrea, nor would she ever be.

If she were to apologize for anything, it would be for taking so long to reach the place she was at now. But, again, she was not sorry for that. She wished things had happened differently, but she could not be sorry for taking however long she needed to be ready for another relationship. Andrea had told her once that everyone healed at their own pace, that she didn't have to be ready until she felt like she was. Andrea understood better than anyone else how badly Sharon was hurt by Jack – she had loved him deeply, so of course his dishonesty and abuse of her trust would cause a pain that ran just as deep – and Sharon knew Andrea wouldn't allow her to apologize for something like that if she were to try.

An apology might have been fitting for the moment, but Sharon chose to clear her throat and offer Andrea a reassuring smile instead. "We should probably leave before Fernando comes out here to see why we're still parked outside of his house."

Andrea looked deeply into her eyes for a moment, like she was searching for something. Sharon simply allowed her, not breaking eye contact. When she appeared satisfied, she nodded her head and straightened up in her seat. "I'm to the right, four or five cars down."

Sharon put the car into drive and went the short distance, glancing out the corner of her eye at one point to see Andrea watching her. She was used to Andrea silently looking at her when she was trying to figure out what kind of mood she was in or if something was wrong with her, so she did not say anything to Andrea. At Andrea's car, she stopped and let out a slow breath and loosened her hands around the wheel.

Andrea hummed thoughtfully as she brushed Sharon's hair behind her ear and rolled her thumb over it. Sharon slowly turned to look at her. "Relax," Andrea whispered. Sharon looked into Andrea's eyes and reached for the hand that laid against her shoulder. "Whatever just happened that is making you all tense, either let it go or talk to me about it if it's something you need to work through."

Sharon gave Andrea's hand a long squeeze and then brought it close to her mouth. "I'll be okay," she said surely, letting the words blow against Andrea's skin before giving her hand a small kiss. "Let me know when you get home."

Andrea slowly slipped her hand from Sharon's grasp, and Sharon let her hand fall down to her lap as she watched Andrea get her car keys out. "I'll text you," Andrea said, as she always did.

"If you're not too tired, you can call," Sharon said after a small pause, hopeful.

"I'll call," she said as she leaned across the console. Her eyes flicked up to Sharon's quickly before a warm hand cupped her face and pulled Sharon towards Andrea. "I can provide a listening ear tonight if that's what you need."

Sharon shook her head, her eyes closed as she reveled in the feeling of the gentle kiss that was brushed against her cheek. "I just want to hear your voice again before bed," Sharon whispered honestly.

Andrea hummed and pressed another, longer kiss to Sharon's cheek, her lashes fluttering against Sharon. Sharon exhaled loudly and reached up to stroke the side of Andrea's face. Andrea smiled against her, and Sharon's pulse jumped excitedly. "I can give you that, too. Whatever you want."

Sharon laughed in her throat. "How many times do I have to tell you you shouldn't offer to give me whatever I want when you don't know the extent of my desires?"

Andrea pulled away and rubbed her lips together, shrugging her shoulders a little. "You're stuck saying that until you realize that I really do mean it. I wouldn't say it if I didn't."

Sharon's stomach twisted a little as she tilted her head towards Andrea's car. "Hmm. Drive home safely."

Andrea lingered for another second or two and then the left car, saying, "You too," just before shutting the door.

Sharon waited for Andrea to get inside of her own car and pull off before she let her head fall down to the steering wheel for a brief moment. She exhaled a loud breath and pressed her fingers to her cheek.

Whatever you want.

It was painfully obvious to her what she wanted in that moment. She wondered if maybe there was a chance that she could actually have it. Her. She wondered if there was a chance, a small possibility, that maybe one day, if she were no longer dating anyone else and Andrea knew what Sharon wanted, that she could have the life she wanted with Andrea. Would Andrea want that?

to be continued...

A/N 2:

I know you guys want to know what's going on with Andy, but you have to understand that so far I've only actually covered the rest of Friday and Saturday. I wanted to show the back and forth in Sharon's thoughts, what makes her make her decisions, and I wanted her relationship with Andrea to be understood. What was most important to me writing this fic was their unique connection and the layers of their friendship.

Her decision to date Andy was made after coming to the conclusion that Andrea was not interested in more than the friendship they already had. She accepted that, just as Andrea originally accepted that she was not ready to date anyone a decade ago. But Sharon's feelings didn't magically disappear because of this, so she's been trying to learn to live with them while also seeing where her relationship with Andy is going. There's a big struggle when you're aware you have feelings for someone you aren't dating but you also care for the person you are dating, and I wanted to try to give the reader a good look at how that's been for her. I also wanted to do this without writing Sharon as a cheater, because this situation is more complex than that and Sharon isn't a cheater.

In order for me to feel as though I was getting the story out the way I wanted, I needed to take the time to explain a few things. I didn't want it to feel rushed, because that felt wrong for Sharon's character. I think she would give this a lot of thought, and honest communication would play a big part in her decisions. Anyway... Andy will be returning in the next chapter, and they will finally be having the conversation I've been mentioning the last few chapters. (Things will be picking up after that talk!) All three of them in the same room, however, doesn't happen until after Sharon and Andy have their private conversation. Chapter 8 you get Andy, and chapter 9 you'll get all of them.

Thanks for reading/reviewing/messaging/following... thanks for being awesome!