The park was busy, but it was a place where Molly could relax because it was full of normal people. She had seen her fair share of cop things spilling over into the park, but those were always easy to avoid. She was sitting on a blanket in the middle of the area where it was mostly people doing Tai Chi or yoga on mats. It was calm and what she wanted.

Molly heard a small commotion and looked over at the small dog that had escaped from its harness. She watched as it dodged around the hands that were trying to snag it. She watched as a few people fell on their faces, right until a guy ran up and scooped the dog up. She smiled at the way that the dog gave up in the man's hands. She could see the dog better now and could tell it was a Chihuahua, and it was tiny in that man's hands. The man carried the dog over to the couple and messed with the harness for a few minutes. It looked like it had broken. He tied something tight and then nodded, talking a little more.

When he stood up, Molly's breath caught in her throat. Donovan Rocker. She had a crush on him back when she had started to come around S.W.A.T. HQ after she had come back after college, only to find out he was married. Then they had been at the same spin class for a while, talking some, but never too deeply beyond the fact that she knew he was separated and they were working on a divorce. Val was making it harder than it should be, according to Donny, but he was enduring having to take days off for court or at least mornings. He had talked about the judge with his case, understanding that he was the team lead and, therefore, getting days off was harder, especially since there were so many. As a result, a lot had been done with just his lawyer, but an incident made him late. Val tried to paint it as the issue and why she was divorcing him, but if it had happened shortly after Mumford had retired, there would be more of it.

Donny thought that she was cheating, but didn't want to hire someone to follow her and find out if she had been before the papers. After the papers had been given, he had made her understand that he considered them divorced from that moment, and there was nothing that would be considered cheating that would happen if he went on a date.

Molly laughed as she thought about the look on his face when he had told her about it. Talking about the divorce with Molly and a few other ladies in class had turned into just them talking. He wasn't really dating because it had never been his scene before. He had downloaded a dating app and hadn't even gotten through the account creation before he had deleted it.

After a few minutes of watching Donny run, Molly turned back to her book. She was enjoying the sun.

Molly lost herself in the book and listened with barely an ear to what was going on around her. She heard the kids playing, the adults who were having fun, and the sound of people just living their lives.

It was a little while later that she realized someone was watching her. She could just feel it. Putting the bookmark into the book, Molly looked up to see Donny sitting on the grass a few feet away from her with an indulgent smile on his face. He was so handsome when he smiled like that. She would love to do something like kiss him and get these stupid feelings done with. Either he returned her feelings, or her crush was just going to die a horrible death. There was nothing left for them to really do much of anything but give in to what they wanted, if he wanted the same thing. If there was nothing there from him, Molly was going to switch spin classes because she wasn't sure that she wanted to see him all the time and not be able to give in to what she wanted.

"You are beautiful," Donny said.

Molly tucked her hair behind her ear as she sat up a little straighter. "And you are handsome."

Donny laughed, and he got to his knees and waved at the blanket. She nodded that he could join her. He knee-walked over to where he could sit down with her. He looked at the picnic basket she had packed. There wasn't nearly enough of anything in there for them to share. It was just snacks.

"Just snacks, mostly water." Molly opened it and pulled out some water for him. It wasn't so cold that it started to fog as soon as she pulled it out, but it was cool enough to feel good. She handed it over to him.

Donny cracked it, and he drank nearly half of it before stopping. "Thanks. I could be talked into a meal then..." The trail off let Molly know that he was letting her make the choice or not. A date or not. A turn down or an acceptance of the offer.

"You are on," Molly said. She slipped her book into the backpack, and she started to dig out a few of the snacks that she knew Donny would like. They could share them and talk before heading out to a meal. "Are you done with your run?"

"I am. I was nearly done when I saw Albert escaping. I told them three weeks ago that the harness was frayed enough to snap. I've been carrying stuff to repair it if it finally snapped."

"Albert is the name of the Chihuahua?"

"Yes."

Molly laughed as she tossed the snack cake at him. He caught it and ripped it to bite off half.

"They let the kids pick the name in their apartment building. One of them was obsessed with that show that had a character named Albert. They ran a campaign for a while to have the rest of the kids vote for it. The only other vote that was done was for Fairy."

Molly laughed so hard that her side started to ache. She hadn't laughed this much on a date in a long time. She waited for Donny to finish the story before she pulled out the next snack. There was no way to share it, so Donny scooted even closer to her. He smelled of sweat, but it was fresh sweat, not days old—the kind of smell she was used to from visiting her father so much.

"So, back when I started to visit more, I developed a crush on you. Even when you were being a dick to 20-squad."

"Well, they give as good as they get," Donny said. He laughed when Molly chuckled. "I thought you were beautiful, but I never thought more than that. Not until you were there in that spin class looking at me like I betrayed you for being there."

"Well, a guy I crushed on was there looking sweaty and hot. What else was I supposed to do but glare at you?"

Donny shook his head, and he looked at her like he wanted to kiss her, so Molly tipped her head to the side, hoping that Donny got that she wanted that kiss as well.

It only took a few seconds for him to lean in and press his lips to hers. It was a good first kiss, and she hoped that it led to something even greater between them with time.

The End