Page 13 of Drive Me Crazy
I pulled into the fire station and was greeted by an eager and smiling Jose standing next to his Camaro. He was the last person I wanted to deal with today.
“Hey, Grady. I need to get your picture for the website before breakfast.”
“Who put the rookie in charge of the website?” I asked as we walked through the parking lot and into the station.
“Hey, I have degrees in web design and computer science.”
“Seriously?” I looked over at him and raised my eyebrows. “How’d you end up here?”
“My grandpop was a fireman. He passed away a few years ago, thought this would be a good way to honor his name. Besides, I’m no geek who wants to sit behind a computer all day long.”
“Nice. I need a cup of coffee and then I’ll be ready.”
The day hadbeen long. A quiet day at the station had left too much time to sit and stew. By the time I’d gotten off work and stopped by Naomi’s, her Jeep was gone. I knocked on the front door just in case she’d parked down the street to make me think she wasn’t home when she was hiding out, but no answer. I stayed put until half past eight and still no sign of her. I navigated to the Wet & Wyld website on my phone, but Princess Peach was offline. Where was she? I should have been glad she was offline, but I felt awful. This wasn’t the way I had wanted it to happen.
I drove to the bar adjacent to the fire station, hopeful that a few beers would dislodge the giant boulder in my stomach. The dive bar was already busy. Jose and a few of the other guys had gone straight after work and still wore the navy shirts with our fire emblem on the chest. Usually, we were the main attraction in the bar — women loved to hit on us to fulfill some sort of fantasy and we ate that shit up. Tonight, though, even Jose was sitting down and watching across the circle bar to the other side where a lot of commotion and noise was taking place. My eyes followed and I stopped dead in my tracks, seeing red.
Naomi wore a black dress that showed a generous amount of cleavage. Her hair was loose and hung around her shoulders, face free of the bright colors she usually wore on her lips and eyes when she was on camera, but there was no mistaking her. It seemed the crowd hadn’t been misled either.
One particularly obnoxious guy stood at her side while his friends watched off to the side. I couldn’t hear his words, but her face told me everything I needed to know.
I reached her just in time to hear his slurred words. “Princess Peach, what’ll this get me?” He held up a dollar bill and placed it on the bar in front of her.
“It’s enough for an ass-kicking.” I stepped in between her and the smiling jackass.
He looked me up and down and then as if deciding he was in over his head, held his hands up. “Didn’t mean any harm. Can’t blame a guy for asking.”
He shrugged off, and I took his place.
“Oh, like you’re any better. Ninety-nine more dollars and he’d have paid as much as you,” Naomi spat and then stood, wobbling on her feet.
I placed my hands on her waist, feeling the same shock I always got when I touched her.
“I don’t need you to save me. I can take care of myself.”
She pulled out her keys and I grabbed them, holding them tight in my palm. “Yeah, that’s clear. Come on, I’ll have Jose follow in my truck.”
I held her elbow and guided her toward the exit. She didn’t resist, but I could feel her annoyance.
“Rookie sober?” I asked the guys as we approached the other side of the bar. They all nodded and Jose pointed to the water glass in front of him.
I tossed him my keys and motioned toward the door. “Follow me in my truck.”
Jose looked like an awe-struck teenager, but he kept his mouth shut as I got Naomi in the passenger side of her Jeep.
“You so much as put a scratch on my truck and I’ll kick your ass,” I called out to him and got behind the wheel.
“I’m sorry about last night,” I said when it was clear she wasn’t going to be the first to speak. “I wasn’t paying you for sex. I was just trying to make up for the time you missed. I know how important your job is to you, and I don’t want to screw that up for you… even if I do hate what you’re doing.”
“I never intended to go online last night. At least not while you were there. I made that decision before you ever stepped foot into my apartment so you can stop feeling guilty for costing me an hour of work.”
“I don’t understand. You said you needed to —”
“I know what I said. I thought if I could show you that I’m a woman now, you’d stop treating me like a child.”
“Sweetheart, I stopped seeing you as a child years ago.”
Her eyes went wide in surprise.
