The Date	  The Date

 by Kali Sandison

  

 

 Disclaimer: Harding and Sherry don't belong to me. They're property of
Alliance. Oliver's is my favorite bar/restaurant. I just transported it to
Chicago and Dave, the owner knows and is okay with that for the purposes
of fiction only. 

 Author's Notes: Marilea thought it was worth a fic but wouldn't write it.
So I wrote it and she beta'd it. Thank you kindly.

 Story Notes: 

 

 

 Harding Welsh stood at the bar of Oliver's and tried not to appear
nervous. Even though his divorce had been final for six months, and the
marriage effectively over for much longer than that, he still felt he was
being unfaithful to his ex-wife. He knew that the split had been as
amicable as possible for such things, and that Janice would never consider
him a traitor for going out on a date now but that's how he saw himself. 

 He took a long pull from his bottle of Budweiser and wondered what had
possessed him to ask Sherry O'Neill out for dinner. She was his commanding
officer and although there were no written rules against fraternization,
he knew that no good could come of pursuing any kind of relationship
outside the office. However, she'd agreed to this dinner and she was just
as aware of the unwritten rules as he was. She wouldn't have gotten to the
position of Commander if she wasn't. 

 He looked around nervously and tried to think of a graceful way out. He
couldn't claim he'd gotten caught at work since she knew the precinct's
caseloads as well as he did. 'Family emergency' came to mind but he
couldn't manufacture a realistic one and lying didn't come easily to him
anyway. It was the waiting that was killing him. Why had he arrived so
early? He'd told himself that he wanted to get a beer under his belt
before dinner to relax but now he realized that this wasn't the best plan.
It simply gave him more time to stew. He took a deep breath, swallowed
some more beer and tried to calm down. 

 The lieutenant looked around and took in the surroundings. He'd chosen
this restaurant specifically because it was nice but still casual. He was
dressed similarly to the other patrons in a sport shirt and khakis. His
choice of beer was unremarkable, but still he felt that he stood out in
some way like a sore thumb. Another deep breath, another drink of beer and
his nerves began to settle a bit. 

 He glanced at the television and watched the White Sox game. They were
ahead but just by one run. Taking another drink, he began to get caught up
in the game. The Tigers were at bat and the Sox's pitcher seemed to be
losing his arm. Harding wondered how long it would be before the coach
realized this and put in a relief pitcher. 

 A light touch on his shoulder returned his attention to the bar. Managing
not to spill his beer, he turned around and saw Sherry standing next to
him. 

 "Sorry I'm late," she said. "I, uh, had a family thing come up and..."
She let the sentence die weakly. 

 "Yeah, I know how those things happen," he said with an easy grin,
suddenly feeling better. "Let's go tell the hostess that we need a table."


 Sherry turned to walk back to the front door and Harding watched her. It
dawned on him that he'd never seen her other than in uniform or in a dark,
professional suit. Today she wore a denim skirt and pale pink blouse. Her
legs were bare and she'd slipped her feet into flat strappy sandals. Then
he noticed that her toenails were painted a bright bubble gum pink. 

 He stood to follow her and then realized that the front of his pants had
become very snug. "Oh dear," he said. 

End The Date by Kali Sandison: kalerian@yahoo.com

Author and story notes above.