The Firefighter and the Girl From the Coffee Shop Read Free

with someone
already. Strange, she never mentions him, but that doesn't mean
it's not true."
    "Did you ask
her?"
    "Nah, hinted
about the fireman's ball though."
    "No
bites."
    Evan shook his
head. "Not even a nibble." Evan thought back to the previous night
he'd hinted towards asking her to the ball and she didn't even
appear to be interested in going with him. He then brought about a
situation where all she had to do was meet him halfway. She just
needed to move a fraction of an inch towards him and it would have
enough motivation he needed to make the move he'd been aching to
make from the first day they'd met.
    Instead, she
ran off as fast as she could to serve the asshole in the cab. That
should have told him everything he needed to know, but the problem
was that he felt the connection between them. Maybe he was crazy,
maybe it was all in his head. He’d just moved to Portland a month
ago and hadn't been on a date in a number of months. Perhaps he was
starting to get rusty and was reading the signals wrong. Maybe he
was mistaking her kindness for something more than just friendship,
when friendship was all it really was?
    "Do you think
maybe your past couple of relationships may be keeping you from
pursuing this one?"
    Evan frowned
and snorted at Ralph. "What? When the fuck did you become Dr.
Phil?"
    “Well the
truth hurts brother”
    Evan ran the
scenario quickly through his mind. His two previous relationships
had ended in almost the same way. The women had gotten annoyed with
his long work hours and so they decided to take on extracurricular
activities - with other men. The second one even had the nerve to
take her other boyfriend to their house and fuck him in his bed! Yes, Ralph could probably be right; maybe he was being
slightly standoffish with Alyssa. But it was with good reasoning,
after what had happened between him and these two women, he would
be damned if he let another woman hurt or betray him. It almost
seemed like he was on a roll with these failed relationships. A
roll he wasn't overly eager to continue.
    But Alyssa was
different. His gut told him she was and he was inclined to believe
it. But still... Yeah, maybe the Cuban Dr Fucking Phil standing
beside him had a point.
    He didn't have
much time to ponder it further because the alarm inside the
firehouse sounded and there was a flurry of shouts and activity
inside. Without hesitation both men rushed into the station and
began to get ready. Within a couple of minutes the fire truck was
in motion and all men - Evan included, were on their way to put out
a fire in an apartment building several blocks away.
     
     
    ****
     
    Alyssa awoke
to an ear piercing buzzing and smoke filling her lungs. She coughed
violently as she opened her eyes and sat up. The room had gotten
incredibly hot and a thick cloud of smoke lined the air.
    Oh-my-God.
Fire! Alyssa stumbled from the bed, again being overtaken by
another violent bout of coughing, causing her to drop to her knees
on the floor. Need to get out! Looking down at herself
wearing an extremely sheer pink lacy teddy she very briefly
considered changing her clothing, but screams coming from the floor
below her prompted her to start moving, crawling towards the
bedroom door as quickly as she could managed, reasoning that she'd
rather be seen partially naked by the neighbours than dead.
    As she quickly
made her way out of the bedroom and into the living room she
gasped, seeing that the bathroom attached to the living room was
already up in flames. "Oh God, oh God." She said in a panicked
voice, rubbing her fingers viciously against her smoke burnt eyes.
She stumbled to her feet frantic to get out and was hit with
another fit of coughing that brought her back down to her knees.
The stiffening in her lungs got more intense causing her to grip
hard onto her chest, as she tried desperately to breathe through
the heavy mass of smoke. It was so hot that her sweat was causing
the thin material of her teddy to cling to her