The Firefighter and the Girl From the Coffee Shop (2 page)

Pulling open
the door, Alyssa slipped inside giving him a small wave as she
locked it behind her. She watched him turn and saunter off across
the street, her eyes admiring his broad, muscular back and tight
ass. She could only imagine how amazing his body would look naked.
In fact, she imagined it frequently whenever she lay in bed
pleasuring herself.

"The
ass
man
wants a BLT," Jenny called out to her as she made her way
back behind the counter.

"The
ass
man
." Alyssa groaned as she put her hair back up in a bun and
put her headset back on. Just who she wanted to see, the ass man.
The ass man was a taxi driver who was infamous for openly ogling
the women at the coffee shop. His favourite trick was to wait until
he got to the window and then request something the coffee shop
girl would have to bend over to get so he could get a good look at
her rump.

"That's a BLT,
on wheat please."

Hustling over
to the sandwich bar she began to put the sandwich together. "I'm
not letting him look at my ass tonight."

Jenny laughed
and gave Alyssa a wink over her shoulder. "I'll let him look at
mine instead. Better?"

"Much.
Thanks."

With her back
to the drive-thru window Alyssa didn't see his smirk, but knew he
was wearing one as the Ass man's cab pulled up to the window and he
greeted them with his usual 'how's my fine girls tonight.' She
didn't have to look to know his eyes were inspecting her ass as she
made his sandwich.

"Hey, Alyssa
honey, you want to bend down there and get me an extra creamer from
the cooler."

Alyssa gritted
her teeth. "Sure Richard, not a problem at all." Bending over she
slid the cooler door open and grabbed a couple creamer packets from
inside.

A whistle
sounded from the window. "Looking mighty fine tonight Alyssa
honey."

Her blood
boiled as her pink face turned bright red with anger, she had to do
something to help her calm down. Alyssa took a deep breath in and
released it, counting backwards from ten slowly in her head.

Straightening
up she took a moment to daydream about chucking the creamer at his
perverted little head as she wrapped up his sandwich and thrust it
into a paper bag. By the time Alyssa made it to the window Jenny
had already finished the rest of his order and had taken his
payment.

"Enjoy."
Alyssa tossed the sandwich at him with a little too much force. It
slammed into his chest and then fell to his lap.

"Oh, she's
feisty tonight isn't she?" he turned his attention over to Jenny
for confirmation and grinned; not in the slightest bit concerned
that she'd just tossed his food at him or that he may have offended
her.

"Yeah, she's
got some issues she's working on."

With a curt
nod, Richard put the car into gear and sped off, promising to see
them again later.

Can't
wait
, Alyssa thought as she watched the taillights of his car
disappear around the corner and out of sight.

Planting a
hand on her hip, Jenny turned and glowered at Alyssa. "You are a
thousand shades of pathetic you know that?"

"Huh?" Alyssa
frowned as she turned to face her friend.

"I saw what
happened out there with Evan."

"You were
snooping?" A look of disbelief swept across Alyssa’s face.

"I was
evaluating
so I could help, and what I saw was..." she shook
her head in disgust. "Do you
want
to be single the rest of
your life?"

Alyssa’s frown
deepened. "What do you mean?"

"The man was
pretty much
begging
you to kiss him and you just brushed him
off."

Alyssa gulped.
"Jenny, come on."

"Don't you
know a hint when you hear one? Maybe if I'd been listening to you
two all along, you guys would have been together already." She
sighed, shaking her head. "I don't know what you've said to him
over these past few weeks, but ten to one he thinks he doesn't have
a shot with you, but bless his sexy ass he's trying."

"But he just
mentioned
the firemans' ball and I
did
have flour on
my chin!" She protested as Jenny gave her one more disgusted look
and brushed past her. "And that was kind of mean of you , by the
way!"

"Tough love
baby. I’m just calling it like I see it," Jenny responded
disappearing into the kitchen to continue with her cleaning.

"I did have a
smudge..." She grumbled as she grabbed a stack of cups from the
under counter cabinet, removed the plastic covering them and thrust
them violently into cup dispenser. "A thousand shades of pathetic
my ass."

As much as she
hated to admit it, Jenny was right.

"Alyssa not
working tonight?" Ralph asked as he and Evan stepped outside for a
breath of cool night air.

It was another
slow night and it seemed even slower without Alyssa next door at
the coffee shop to visit every couple of hours to help break up the
night. Evan leaned back against the cold brick of the firehouse
wall and sighed. "Nah, she took the night off. Had something to do
that was going to take most of the day, I guess." He shrugged.

"So why
haven't you asked her out?" Reclining next to Evan, Ralph chuckled
"Or have you asked and she rejected you?"

"No. She
hasn't
rejected
me. I haven't asked. Well, not really
anyhow. I'm waiting for the right moment."

"Bah, maybe
you need a little of the Latino charm, brother."

"Hmmm, didn't
your wife just leave you the other day?"

Ralph grinned.
"Oh, I didn't tell you? She came back this morning, was waiting for
me when I came home." He gave Evan a wink. "She couldn't stay away
from her Cuban stallion."

"Oh really, I
was wondering why your mood was so good tonight."

"So why
haven't you made a move for the coffee house girl."

"Well, we
never talk about it, but I heard she was involved 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 ivory skin.

Her eyes
perused her space trying to find an opening to make her escape. She
had the worst feeling ever, would this be her end. Her thoughts
were stopped short with the sudden sound of banging at her door.
Then a male voice called out to her, but her throat was now so sore
she could barely speak. Her coughing felt like razor blades were
ripping her throat apart from the inside out and she was beginning
to feel dizzy and extremely faint. She noticed her purse and
snatched it from the side table as she once more stumbled to her
feet.

A whooshing
sound came from her bathroom and she yelped as the fire overtook
the bathroom completely and began to creep into the kitchen. Alyssa
stumbled another few feet and collapsed just as her front door came
crashing in and a couple of firemen came rushing in.

"Oh Jesus!
It’s Alyssa!" she heard a familiar voice say just as the
light-headed feeling took over once more and she found herself
giving into the darkness as she clung to the strap of her brown
leather handbag...

****

She wasn't
sure how long she was out, but when she came around she was on a
gurney in the back of an ambulance. "Where, what?" She tried to sit
up, but her head felt as though it had been hit with a sledgehammer
and her throat burned with such intensity that she could not even
speak a word.

A large,
strong hand took hers bringing her attention to the person to the
left of her. A smile touched her lips as she noticed Evan sitting
next to her. He was suited up, soot smeared across his face and
clothing and looking sexier than she'd ever seen him.

"Y-you
s-saved." she managed to get out, then coughed and groaned lying
back onto the gurney and closing her eyes.

He gave her
hand a slight squeeze. "You're going to be okay, you just need to
rest a little while, and here..."

She slowly
opened her eyes to see him passing her a glass of water.

"Come on. Take
a drink."

He helped her
into a sitting position, keeping a hand between her shoulder blades
to keep her steady as he brought the glass to her lips. Covering
his hands with hers, she drank a couple of swallows and pulled away
as another fit of coughing overtook her.

"Thank you,"
she managed to squeak out as she looked over at him, just in time
to see where his eyes had been. Frowning, she looked down and
realized that combination of sweat with the already sheer material
had made it virtually transparent; her large beige nipples were
tight and completely visible through the teddy. She grabbed the end
of the blanket covering her and pulled it up to her chin.

"I ummm."
Despite the soot covering a good portion of his face, she was
amused to see him flush, from being caught sneaking a peek.

Taking the
water from him once more she took another couple of sips and was
relieved to find the soreness was lessoning - slightly. "Was anyone
hurt?"

Evan shook his
head, "Nah, we got everyone out in time and I think you're going to
be fine. Is there someplace I can take you? Family member," he
paused, "boyfriend?"

Alyssa shook
her head to both suggestions, and thought she saw a look of flicker
in his green eyes. "My family is from Bangor and right now isn't
the best time anyhow my aunt passed away. Today was the
funeral."

Evan frowned,
as he leaned forward bracing his elbows on his knees and lacing his
fingers. "So no boyfriend?"

A soft smile
touched her lips as she shook her head. "None." She shrugged, "I
just got paid and have a few dollars in the bank... Rent is due
tomorrow, but I don't think I'll be paying it so I can just go to a
hotel until I figure something better out."