Page 29 of Broken Hero
“Every year, there is this firefighter event - everyone goes apart from the ones that have to operate the fire station – skeleton staff. Anyway, I've never gone because it's not my thing, so I've always stayed at the station, but our lieutenant will be retiring soon and a lot of guys think I should go for the job. I don't know whether to go for it or not.”
“That's great! Why would you not want to go for it?”
I shrug. “If it ain't broke, don't fix it.”
She scrunches her face up. “I guess, but it would be more money, I bet, more responsibility, and your co-workers want you to do it - you must have their respect, and that's a big thing.”
“I know, part of me wants to do it, part of me wants to carry on as I am. So I'm gonna go to this thing. I wondered if you wanted to come with me?”
“To a party?” She perks up, looking excited. This girl likes to party.
“Not exactly...it's a full weekend. The Fire Chief, the one who makes all the decisions, he’s getting old and still thinks it’s the 1940’s. He wouldn’t give the lieutenant job to a single guy.” I hold my hand up before she speaks because I know what she's about to say. “I know, it’s fucking ridiculous, but that's the way he is. He’ll be retiring soon, but for now, that's how it has to be, and everyone is too scared of him to say something about it.”
“Who thinks like that in this day and age? It’s 2021, for God’s sake.”
“I know. So I was wondering if you wanted to come and maybe pretend to be with me? You’d be doing me a big favour – he’d think we were a couple if he saw us together. We wouldn’t have to lie, just let him add two and two and get five.”
My throat feels tight as I watch her think about it. It would help me out if she would come plus, I like her company. She’s relaxing to be around...comforting even. She looks on the bright side of everything - she is the yin to my yang - we couldn't be more different. Sometimes when I feel like I'm suffocating, she's a breath of fresh air.
“When is it?”
“Weekend after next.”
She winces. “I’m not sure I’d be able to get time off at the pub. I've only been there a few weeks. I can ask Tom if he’d be willing to swap around shifts for me - he does all the scheduling.”
“Would you want to, come I mean, if you get the time off?”
She nods and smiles. “Yeah, it sounds like fun. I’m not doing much of that at the moment. Plus, it will be full of gorgeous firemen like you, right?”
How is it possible to feel pissed off and happy at the same time? Happy that she said I'm gorgeous but pissed off that she’ll be looking at other men.
“I’ll message Tom now and see what my chances are. Will I need to get dressed up?”
“Friday night is casual. Saturday, the girls normally do something beautifying or some shit, and the guys go paintballing or something. There’s a party on Saturday night - yeah, I guess we need to get dressed up for that. After breakfast Sunday, we head home. It's in Wiltshire - around an hour and a half drive from here.”
“Oo, this sounds good - I'm excited - though I like the sound of paintballing more than beauty shit! But I will suffer in a spa if I must.” She laughs.
I sigh, relieved. I've been dreading asking her, scared she was going to say no. I had no one else to ask, but I wouldn't want to go with anyone else but her anyway.
