amop-series #56
/STAR TURN/
Finding himself in desperate demand of caffeine, Andrew Flynn headed for the Major Crimes break room in an upbeat stride that was as much compensation for the exhaustion that was slowly setting in as it was for quickly procuring a cup of warm coffee. Provenza was on his tail in a hurried waddle that would no doubt look comical if Andy deigned to turn his head and look back but being singularly determined on getting coffee Andy relied on the sound of his puffing partner instead. The sound told him Provenza would very soon complain about the tempo with some grumpy criticism surely meant to raise hackles.
They rounded a corner and the hallway came to a full view to the break room - otherwise occupied.
Through the glass Andy covertly watched Gavin Q Baker the third lean conspiratorially towards Sharon Raydor and whisper something that made her snort uncharacteristically loud, the noise detectable through the open door into the break room. The snort was immediately followed by a shocked hand in front of her mouth and eyes that widened for a fraction of a second.
“Just our luck,” Provenza grumbled behind Andy’s shoulder when he likewise noticed the invasion. “Betcha they’ve stolen the last of our coffee, or emptied the pot without making a new brew. It would be just the sorta thing your devil friend would do - out of spite.”
Andy rolled his eyes, “If that’s the case, we’ll just go upstairs and steal I.A’s coffee, no biggie.”
“Ha,” Provenza gave a low laugh, “imagine the look on her face if she caught us stealing their coffee.”
“Priceless,” Andy agreed, “damn priceless, for sure.”
“Oh she would have a field day,” Provenza shook his head in amusement, hesitating on the threshold as his eyes narrowed in on the couple.
“She would serve our balls on a platter, is what she would do,” Andy pushed his partner inside - he did not have time to linger in doorways, “and then out of spite force us through enough seminars to last us a lifetime of regret.”
Provenza huffed, annoyed at being shepherded into break room.
Gavin leaned sideways to make a comment, a hand gesture in accompaniment. Andy was hard pressed to say what could prompt Sharon to yet again to respond with a badly concealed snort seeing he only caught the low murmur of voices, too indistinct to make out words.
What caught his attention however, was the dead silence that suddenly descended when Provenza and Andy came fully into the room.
Andy was pretty certain that the whispered thing had something to do with Provenza and him then. Both Sharon and Gavin looked as if they had been caught red-handed and choking on the proverbial canary, cunning cat like expressions in place well under a second. Spy worthy masks, Andy thought, if only they had not surreptitiously looked at each other and nearly broken out in laughter.
“It’s a little early to be drunk, isn’t it?” Andy commented out loud to Provenza, well aware Sharon and Gavin would hear it loud and clear.
Provenza shook his head, “I think it’s just the condition of their disease. I would stay clear of them if I were you, could be contagious.”
Andy arched an eyebrow when the two comrades crossed their arms in sync and pretended to look casual.
“You’ve OD'ed on superiority, is that it? You’ve finally succumbed to megalomania, huh?” Andy flippantly asked the two, his lips parting in a smug smile.
Provenza clucked.
“Lieutenant Flynn and Provenza,” Gavin greeted with a complacent smile that seemed to be permanently stuck on the attorney’s face no matter the circumstances, “what a singular delight.”
“It’s disaster one and disaster two,” Sharon tittered, her voice just shy of a giggle that she compressed by flattening her mouth.
“Indeed,” Gavin agreed with her, humor light in the attorney’s expression.
The two looked at each other and this time they broke out in soft chuckles.
Andy raised an eyebrow, “Is this about what happened yesterday with that idiot sergeant from Vice?”
They shook their head in sync as well.
“Then what is it?”
“It’s nothing,” Sharon tried to appease him unsuccessfully; her hand in the air with a gesture that only told him she was once again on the verge of a laugh.
“Nothing,” Gavin agreed in a light voice that in no one way reassured Andy.
They had without a doubt been talking about him then.
Andy crossed his arms, “Aren’t you just two peas in a pod.”
“If peas were inclined towards delusions of grandeur,” Provenza added with a sly smile.
“You know what else is green?” Andy asked Provenza, his eyes on Sharon with a lifted eyebrow.
Provenza shrugged, doing a bad impression of exuding ignorance. They both knew where this was going.
“The wicked witch,” Andy drawled, “green from top to toe.”
“I think a green complexion would suit you dear,” Gavin told Sharon with a smirk.
“A broomstick would complete the picture,” Provenza snickered.
Sharon only laughed good-naturedly, her teeth shining white and her eyes crinkled, “Don’t you two ever update your repertoire of jokes? This one is getting old if not ancient.”
Andy shrugged, “Why change something that works perfectly and gets the point across?”
Sharon shrugged back at him and he was sure had it just been the two of them she would have stuck her tongue out.
“So, what’s the deal?” Provenza asked with a suspicious look as he took the two smiling idiots in, edging around them in a curve to get to the coffee machine, “why are you two skulking around on our floor, after hours?”
“Twizzler?” Sharon offered instead of answering the question, snaking her hand into her purse that lay on a table nearby. She heaved out a bag of red twizzlers that had once upon a time been full. There was only three of the sugary sticks left.
Gavin snickered behind a hand.
It explained a lot Andy thought as he shook his head in resigned amusement.
Provenza stared mouth agape at the candy.
Andy quickly reached out and took the whole bag from Sharon’s hand, blatantly ignoring the look of outrage that flittered across her expression at his presumptuous greed.
“I think you two have had enough candy, hmm. You’ve obviously been chomping down candy all afternoon, haven’t you?” he shook his head once again, keeping the candy bag under his arm and taking a step back when Sharon looked on the verge of stepping forward.
The two idiots once again gave each other a conspiratorial look with a shared smile between them.
Provenza faked a shudder, “Oh woe, this is eerily similar to a nightmare I once had.”
Sharon crossed her arms and bestowed a soft glare at Provenza, “You have nightmares about me?”
“Who doesn’t?” Provenza deadpanned.
Gavin shrugged and then confessed to Sharon, “I once had a strange dream with you in it, darling. You were quite, what is the word - ,”
Sharon lifted up a hand, dissuading further information, “Please don’t elaborate - for the sake of our friendship.”
Andy put out with a wolfish smile, “I will refrain from sharing my dreams then, huh.”
She narrowed her eyes at him, the threat in her pursed mouth not to mistake.
Provenza pretended to look disgusted, a cough that sounded more like a choking noise, “Don’t even start. I mean it. No one - and I mean NO ONE - wants to be informed about your explicit dreams, Flynn.”
“I wouldn’t mind,” Gavin piped up, a hand in the air.
Provenza’s expression darkened, “Your opinion doesn’t count in this building, counselor.”
Gavin gave in a to high laugh and then the attorney leaned his shoulder against Sharon’s shoulder, his eyes on Andy and Provenza with a gleam, “We should have invited these two along much earlier in our endeavor to entertain ourselves. Maybe we could have lessened our consumption of candy, hmm. I have a feeling these two provide enough entertainment to power a Capital in Europe.”
“Gavin was bored,” Sharon exclaimed in a cheerful tone as if that was explanation enough for their giddy behavior, “and there is only so many times you can watch a mother confess to murder on video before it gets dull.”
“Exactly,” Gavin sighed dramatically, his hand once again waving in the air, “This dull building you fine fine officers work in may offer a wide range of murder galore when you are on duty but I must confess that your happy hour festivities after solving a case leaves much to be desired.”
Sharon slapped his shoulder with a fake affronted pout. “Gavin,” she reprimanded and then she directed her attention back to Andy and Provenza, “Dear, dear Mr Baker here decided to steal that bag of Twizzlers from your electronics room in an attempt to amuse himself. I felt it was in our best interest to eat the evidence, so to speak.”
Provenza looked gleeful, “Can I get this in writing? Sharon Raydor stealing candy at work, my my, it will short-circuit the whole gossip pool.”
Sharon pursed her mouth, “I hardly think something so trivial will do anything to the circulation of gossip, lieutenant.”
Andy grinned, “Oh, you are so wrong. Salacious information about the head of F.I.D carries its weight in gold when it comes to gossip.”
She blew out a resigned breath, “Oh well.”
Gavin clapped his hands together, the movement catching every one off their guard, “Right. I think coffee is in order.”
“Is that really helpful when you’re on a sugar high?” Sharon wondered out loud, her eyes far-away as she pondered it for real.
Andy rolled his eyes, “Probably not.”
Provenza shared a meaningful look with Andy and then said, “I for one am in dire need of coffee, if only to balance out this very weird conversation.”
“You are low on coffee beans,” Gavin pointed out, finger at the nearly empty coffee bean bag that lay haphazardly on the counter next to the machine.
Provenza rolled his eyes, the motion fully visible for everyone and their grandmother, “Which is why we have a secret stash hidden away - so nosey outsiders like yourself don’t end up fully raiding our supply.”
Provenza made motion with his index finger, “Now, turn around and close your eyes.”
Sharon and Gavin looked on the verge of laughter but they complied with the request, turning around and Sharon even went as far as to stick a finger in each ear, her lips parted in a gorgeous smile.
Andy watched his partner alternate between rummaging through one of the drawers and looking over his shoulder to make sure no one saw the secret location.
“You can look now,” Andy said when Provenza finally found a new bag of coffee beans and started pouring the bag into the grinder on top of the coffee machine.
Sharon turned around in a spin and then approached Provenza, looking over his shoulder as she hummed well aware it would annoy the hell out of Provenza.
Andy grinned as he watched his partner grumble and grumble, Sharon humming and pointing out that they needed more beans. Then they proceeded to bicker about who got to pour the remaining old coffee out into the sink.
Andy could only smile because heck they reminded him of two pre-adolescent siblings.
Gavin cleared his throat and Andy looked up and caught the attorney giving him a strange look.
“What?” Andy asked with a lifted eyebrow, immediately clued in on the tension in the counselor’s expression.
Gavin faked a smile and then inclined his head away from the coffee machine.
Andy followed the man across the room; neither Sharon nor Provenza noticed that they moved away, both too preoccupied by ordering the other around.
Gavin studied his nails and then when the attorney was sure no one was giving them a second thought, he hissed at Andy under his breath, “Smile, you idiot, and pretend we are having a cordial conversation.”
Andy furrowed his brow in confusion but he quickly put on a smile, trying to come up with something he had done to annoy the attorney. The smile felt strained but it was the best he could do under the circumstances, what with being verbally assaulted out of thin air.
Sharon briefly looked over her shoulder, her gaze questioning but Andy merely shrugged and gave her a well-meaning eye roll. She smiled and then went back to squabbling with Provenza about who got to fill the coffee pot up with water.
“Well, now I know sugar makes you grumpy beyond compare,” Andy commented to Gavin, his eyebrow quirked at the rather uncharacteristic behavior from the otherwise cheerful man.
“Oh, this has nothing to do with a high intake of sugar,” Gavin told him in a no nonsense tone, the smile that grazed his mouth seeming condescending from Andy’s viewpoint, “It’s simply a little chat, lieutenant. Just between the two of us.”
Andy crossed his arms in defense, because shit that sounded remarkably ominous, “About what, Counselor?”
The attorney pretended to look thoughtful for a second but even though the man tried to disguise the direction of his gaze it was no secret it landed on Sharon.
Andy sighed, “Is this one of those, you better take good care of her or else talks?”
Gavin smirked, “You are not as thick-headed as I would have thought.”
“You are exactly as slick and lawyerish as I remember,” Andy retorted back.
Gavin pursed his lips, amused even if there was something tensile about his gaze, “And just like every lawyer with their client, I have privilege when it concerns one Sharon Raydor.” The man paused, teeth glistening in a threatening smile, “who do you think she pours her heart out to when she's upset? Hmm? I get all the gory details over a couple of mojito’s.”
“So this is you warning me?”
Gavin smiled with a dangerous look in the depths of his eyes that betrayed the otherwise mirthful expression, “Yes. Don’t put your foot in your mouth, is all I’m saying.”
“Are you threatening me?”
“No, no,” Gavin shook his head with a wry smile, “we are having a cordial conversation, remember.”
Andy looked at the ceiling for a brief second trying to gather some patience, “Oh really, because it sure sounds like you are threatening me.”
“Call it whatever you like, lieutenant. A piece of advice - a warning - a threat, whatever.”
“Whatever,” Andy gritted out between his clenched jaw, his arms even more tightly crossed.
Sharon chose that exact moment to interrupt, her arms crossed as she approached, “Lieutenant Provenza is abysmal when it comes to sharing the workload of making coffee. He insists on making it himself, without any input from someone who does not even know good coffee if it bit her in the ass.”
She shook her head in wry amusement but then stopped, her eyes narrowing as she caught unto the tension that lingered in the air between Andy and Gavin. Her eyebrow raised in question, “What’s wrong?”
Andy quickly buried any annoyance he felt and turned a soft smile in her direction. “Nothing,” he said, taking a step closer to her, feeling a need to be close.
“Nothing?” she repeated not believing it.
“We had a friendly disagreement about baseball,” Andy chuckled and he saw Gavin agreeing with a nod.
Sharon arched an eyebrow at both of them, her expression full of disbelief. “Gavin has no interest in baseball,” she said in a sweet tone that told him she did not give a lot for the obvious lie.
“Exactly,” Andy grinned and he tugged a strand of her hair behind her ear, “what our disagreement revolved around - Mr. Baker’s complete lack of interest in baseball.”
It seemed enough to pacify Sharon, her lips parting as she shook her head.
Gavin shrugged good-naturedly and Andy kept his smile wide as well, his hand now on the dip of her waist, bringing her closer.
“Stop being touchy-feely,” Provenza grouched from behind, joining their little circle, “it makes me nauseous.”
Andy rolled his eyes, “Go drink your coffee.”
“When it’s done, idiot. But until then hands off!” Provenza snarked back.
Everyone laughed.
…
=)
Finding himself in desperate demand of caffeine, Andrew Flynn headed for the Major Crimes break room in an upbeat stride that was as much compensation for the exhaustion that was slowly setting in as it was for quickly procuring a cup of warm coffee. Provenza was on his tail in a hurried waddle that would no doubt look comical if Andy deigned to turn his head and look back but being singularly determined on getting coffee Andy relied on the sound of his puffing partner instead. The sound told him Provenza would very soon complain about the tempo with some grumpy criticism surely meant to raise hackles.
They rounded a corner and the hallway came to a full view to the break room - otherwise occupied.
Through the glass Andy covertly watched Gavin Q Baker the third lean conspiratorially towards Sharon Raydor and whisper something that made her snort uncharacteristically loud, the noise detectable through the open door into the break room. The snort was immediately followed by a shocked hand in front of her mouth and eyes that widened for a fraction of a second.
“Just our luck,” Provenza grumbled behind Andy’s shoulder when he likewise noticed the invasion. “Betcha they’ve stolen the last of our coffee, or emptied the pot without making a new brew. It would be just the sorta thing your devil friend would do - out of spite.”
Andy rolled his eyes, “If that’s the case, we’ll just go upstairs and steal I.A’s coffee, no biggie.”
“Ha,” Provenza gave a low laugh, “imagine the look on her face if she caught us stealing their coffee.”
“Priceless,” Andy agreed, “damn priceless, for sure.”
“Oh she would have a field day,” Provenza shook his head in amusement, hesitating on the threshold as his eyes narrowed in on the couple.
“She would serve our balls on a platter, is what she would do,” Andy pushed his partner inside - he did not have time to linger in doorways, “and then out of spite force us through enough seminars to last us a lifetime of regret.”
Provenza huffed, annoyed at being shepherded into break room.
Gavin leaned sideways to make a comment, a hand gesture in accompaniment. Andy was hard pressed to say what could prompt Sharon to yet again to respond with a badly concealed snort seeing he only caught the low murmur of voices, too indistinct to make out words.
What caught his attention however, was the dead silence that suddenly descended when Provenza and Andy came fully into the room.
Andy was pretty certain that the whispered thing had something to do with Provenza and him then. Both Sharon and Gavin looked as if they had been caught red-handed and choking on the proverbial canary, cunning cat like expressions in place well under a second. Spy worthy masks, Andy thought, if only they had not surreptitiously looked at each other and nearly broken out in laughter.
“It’s a little early to be drunk, isn’t it?” Andy commented out loud to Provenza, well aware Sharon and Gavin would hear it loud and clear.
Provenza shook his head, “I think it’s just the condition of their disease. I would stay clear of them if I were you, could be contagious.”
Andy arched an eyebrow when the two comrades crossed their arms in sync and pretended to look casual.
“You’ve OD'ed on superiority, is that it? You’ve finally succumbed to megalomania, huh?” Andy flippantly asked the two, his lips parting in a smug smile.
Provenza clucked.
“Lieutenant Flynn and Provenza,” Gavin greeted with a complacent smile that seemed to be permanently stuck on the attorney’s face no matter the circumstances, “what a singular delight.”
“It’s disaster one and disaster two,” Sharon tittered, her voice just shy of a giggle that she compressed by flattening her mouth.
“Indeed,” Gavin agreed with her, humor light in the attorney’s expression.
The two looked at each other and this time they broke out in soft chuckles.
Andy raised an eyebrow, “Is this about what happened yesterday with that idiot sergeant from Vice?”
They shook their head in sync as well.
“Then what is it?”
“It’s nothing,” Sharon tried to appease him unsuccessfully; her hand in the air with a gesture that only told him she was once again on the verge of a laugh.
“Nothing,” Gavin agreed in a light voice that in no one way reassured Andy.
They had without a doubt been talking about him then.
Andy crossed his arms, “Aren’t you just two peas in a pod.”
“If peas were inclined towards delusions of grandeur,” Provenza added with a sly smile.
“You know what else is green?” Andy asked Provenza, his eyes on Sharon with a lifted eyebrow.
Provenza shrugged, doing a bad impression of exuding ignorance. They both knew where this was going.
“The wicked witch,” Andy drawled, “green from top to toe.”
“I think a green complexion would suit you dear,” Gavin told Sharon with a smirk.
“A broomstick would complete the picture,” Provenza snickered.
Sharon only laughed good-naturedly, her teeth shining white and her eyes crinkled, “Don’t you two ever update your repertoire of jokes? This one is getting old if not ancient.”
Andy shrugged, “Why change something that works perfectly and gets the point across?”
Sharon shrugged back at him and he was sure had it just been the two of them she would have stuck her tongue out.
“So, what’s the deal?” Provenza asked with a suspicious look as he took the two smiling idiots in, edging around them in a curve to get to the coffee machine, “why are you two skulking around on our floor, after hours?”
“Twizzler?” Sharon offered instead of answering the question, snaking her hand into her purse that lay on a table nearby. She heaved out a bag of red twizzlers that had once upon a time been full. There was only three of the sugary sticks left.
Gavin snickered behind a hand.
It explained a lot Andy thought as he shook his head in resigned amusement.
Provenza stared mouth agape at the candy.
Andy quickly reached out and took the whole bag from Sharon’s hand, blatantly ignoring the look of outrage that flittered across her expression at his presumptuous greed.
“I think you two have had enough candy, hmm. You’ve obviously been chomping down candy all afternoon, haven’t you?” he shook his head once again, keeping the candy bag under his arm and taking a step back when Sharon looked on the verge of stepping forward.
The two idiots once again gave each other a conspiratorial look with a shared smile between them.
Provenza faked a shudder, “Oh woe, this is eerily similar to a nightmare I once had.”
Sharon crossed her arms and bestowed a soft glare at Provenza, “You have nightmares about me?”
“Who doesn’t?” Provenza deadpanned.
Gavin shrugged and then confessed to Sharon, “I once had a strange dream with you in it, darling. You were quite, what is the word - ,”
Sharon lifted up a hand, dissuading further information, “Please don’t elaborate - for the sake of our friendship.”
Andy put out with a wolfish smile, “I will refrain from sharing my dreams then, huh.”
She narrowed her eyes at him, the threat in her pursed mouth not to mistake.
Provenza pretended to look disgusted, a cough that sounded more like a choking noise, “Don’t even start. I mean it. No one - and I mean NO ONE - wants to be informed about your explicit dreams, Flynn.”
“I wouldn’t mind,” Gavin piped up, a hand in the air.
Provenza’s expression darkened, “Your opinion doesn’t count in this building, counselor.”
Gavin gave in a to high laugh and then the attorney leaned his shoulder against Sharon’s shoulder, his eyes on Andy and Provenza with a gleam, “We should have invited these two along much earlier in our endeavor to entertain ourselves. Maybe we could have lessened our consumption of candy, hmm. I have a feeling these two provide enough entertainment to power a Capital in Europe.”
“Gavin was bored,” Sharon exclaimed in a cheerful tone as if that was explanation enough for their giddy behavior, “and there is only so many times you can watch a mother confess to murder on video before it gets dull.”
“Exactly,” Gavin sighed dramatically, his hand once again waving in the air, “This dull building you fine fine officers work in may offer a wide range of murder galore when you are on duty but I must confess that your happy hour festivities after solving a case leaves much to be desired.”
Sharon slapped his shoulder with a fake affronted pout. “Gavin,” she reprimanded and then she directed her attention back to Andy and Provenza, “Dear, dear Mr Baker here decided to steal that bag of Twizzlers from your electronics room in an attempt to amuse himself. I felt it was in our best interest to eat the evidence, so to speak.”
Provenza looked gleeful, “Can I get this in writing? Sharon Raydor stealing candy at work, my my, it will short-circuit the whole gossip pool.”
Sharon pursed her mouth, “I hardly think something so trivial will do anything to the circulation of gossip, lieutenant.”
Andy grinned, “Oh, you are so wrong. Salacious information about the head of F.I.D carries its weight in gold when it comes to gossip.”
She blew out a resigned breath, “Oh well.”
Gavin clapped his hands together, the movement catching every one off their guard, “Right. I think coffee is in order.”
“Is that really helpful when you’re on a sugar high?” Sharon wondered out loud, her eyes far-away as she pondered it for real.
Andy rolled his eyes, “Probably not.”
Provenza shared a meaningful look with Andy and then said, “I for one am in dire need of coffee, if only to balance out this very weird conversation.”
“You are low on coffee beans,” Gavin pointed out, finger at the nearly empty coffee bean bag that lay haphazardly on the counter next to the machine.
Provenza rolled his eyes, the motion fully visible for everyone and their grandmother, “Which is why we have a secret stash hidden away - so nosey outsiders like yourself don’t end up fully raiding our supply.”
Provenza made motion with his index finger, “Now, turn around and close your eyes.”
Sharon and Gavin looked on the verge of laughter but they complied with the request, turning around and Sharon even went as far as to stick a finger in each ear, her lips parted in a gorgeous smile.
Andy watched his partner alternate between rummaging through one of the drawers and looking over his shoulder to make sure no one saw the secret location.
“You can look now,” Andy said when Provenza finally found a new bag of coffee beans and started pouring the bag into the grinder on top of the coffee machine.
Sharon turned around in a spin and then approached Provenza, looking over his shoulder as she hummed well aware it would annoy the hell out of Provenza.
Andy grinned as he watched his partner grumble and grumble, Sharon humming and pointing out that they needed more beans. Then they proceeded to bicker about who got to pour the remaining old coffee out into the sink.
Andy could only smile because heck they reminded him of two pre-adolescent siblings.
Gavin cleared his throat and Andy looked up and caught the attorney giving him a strange look.
“What?” Andy asked with a lifted eyebrow, immediately clued in on the tension in the counselor’s expression.
Gavin faked a smile and then inclined his head away from the coffee machine.
Andy followed the man across the room; neither Sharon nor Provenza noticed that they moved away, both too preoccupied by ordering the other around.
Gavin studied his nails and then when the attorney was sure no one was giving them a second thought, he hissed at Andy under his breath, “Smile, you idiot, and pretend we are having a cordial conversation.”
Andy furrowed his brow in confusion but he quickly put on a smile, trying to come up with something he had done to annoy the attorney. The smile felt strained but it was the best he could do under the circumstances, what with being verbally assaulted out of thin air.
Sharon briefly looked over her shoulder, her gaze questioning but Andy merely shrugged and gave her a well-meaning eye roll. She smiled and then went back to squabbling with Provenza about who got to fill the coffee pot up with water.
“Well, now I know sugar makes you grumpy beyond compare,” Andy commented to Gavin, his eyebrow quirked at the rather uncharacteristic behavior from the otherwise cheerful man.
“Oh, this has nothing to do with a high intake of sugar,” Gavin told him in a no nonsense tone, the smile that grazed his mouth seeming condescending from Andy’s viewpoint, “It’s simply a little chat, lieutenant. Just between the two of us.”
Andy crossed his arms in defense, because shit that sounded remarkably ominous, “About what, Counselor?”
The attorney pretended to look thoughtful for a second but even though the man tried to disguise the direction of his gaze it was no secret it landed on Sharon.
Andy sighed, “Is this one of those, you better take good care of her or else talks?”
Gavin smirked, “You are not as thick-headed as I would have thought.”
“You are exactly as slick and lawyerish as I remember,” Andy retorted back.
Gavin pursed his lips, amused even if there was something tensile about his gaze, “And just like every lawyer with their client, I have privilege when it concerns one Sharon Raydor.” The man paused, teeth glistening in a threatening smile, “who do you think she pours her heart out to when she's upset? Hmm? I get all the gory details over a couple of mojito’s.”
“So this is you warning me?”
Gavin smiled with a dangerous look in the depths of his eyes that betrayed the otherwise mirthful expression, “Yes. Don’t put your foot in your mouth, is all I’m saying.”
“Are you threatening me?”
“No, no,” Gavin shook his head with a wry smile, “we are having a cordial conversation, remember.”
Andy looked at the ceiling for a brief second trying to gather some patience, “Oh really, because it sure sounds like you are threatening me.”
“Call it whatever you like, lieutenant. A piece of advice - a warning - a threat, whatever.”
“Whatever,” Andy gritted out between his clenched jaw, his arms even more tightly crossed.
Sharon chose that exact moment to interrupt, her arms crossed as she approached, “Lieutenant Provenza is abysmal when it comes to sharing the workload of making coffee. He insists on making it himself, without any input from someone who does not even know good coffee if it bit her in the ass.”
She shook her head in wry amusement but then stopped, her eyes narrowing as she caught unto the tension that lingered in the air between Andy and Gavin. Her eyebrow raised in question, “What’s wrong?”
Andy quickly buried any annoyance he felt and turned a soft smile in her direction. “Nothing,” he said, taking a step closer to her, feeling a need to be close.
“Nothing?” she repeated not believing it.
“We had a friendly disagreement about baseball,” Andy chuckled and he saw Gavin agreeing with a nod.
Sharon arched an eyebrow at both of them, her expression full of disbelief. “Gavin has no interest in baseball,” she said in a sweet tone that told him she did not give a lot for the obvious lie.
“Exactly,” Andy grinned and he tugged a strand of her hair behind her ear, “what our disagreement revolved around - Mr. Baker’s complete lack of interest in baseball.”
It seemed enough to pacify Sharon, her lips parting as she shook her head.
Gavin shrugged good-naturedly and Andy kept his smile wide as well, his hand now on the dip of her waist, bringing her closer.
“Stop being touchy-feely,” Provenza grouched from behind, joining their little circle, “it makes me nauseous.”
Andy rolled his eyes, “Go drink your coffee.”
“When it’s done, idiot. But until then hands off!” Provenza snarked back.
Everyone laughed.
…
=)