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“You left me a valentine,” I say. “I’d like to find out why.”
She breaks into the sweetest laugh that’s ever graced my ears.
“Fair enough,” she says. “It’s apartment 2B. I’ll buzz you in.” She disappears from her window, then immediately reappears. “Actually, would you mind waiting a couple minutes before you buzz? I need to tidy up real quick.”
“Don’t tidy up,” I say, unable to stop it from coming out like a command. I clear my throat. “What I mean is, you don’t need to.”
“It’ll take me two seconds!” she calls, already gone from the window again. As I hear things being shuffled and thrown around, I check my watch, impatient for her to finish.
“Okay!” she calls, poking her head out again, flashing me a smile this time. “Come on up!”
She buzzes me in and I step into the tiny lobby of her apartment building. There’s a fake potted plant shoved into a wicker basket in the corner and cracked tiles on the ceiling. I climb the stairs up the second floor and try to ignore the fire hazards I spot as I make my way down the hallway to her apartment.
The door of her apartment looks all the same as the rest, aside from the wreath hanging on it. The wreath is heart-shaped and covered in a bunch of little white, pink, and red pompoms. I knock on her door and the wreath sways as she opens up.
“Hi,” she says, answering with flushed cheeks. The pink in her cheeks is from her rushing to tidy up just now, but seeing her like that makes me think of her being out of breath for other reasons—ones I shouldn’t allow myself to think. She’s fucking gorgeous, this woman. She looks more like a goddess than a human being.
“Sunny,” I say, wanting to feel her name on my tongue again.
She laughs. “Yep, that’s me. And you said your name is Thorne, right?”
I nod.
“Well. It’s wonderful to finally meet you, Thorne.”
I study her. “What do mean by that? Have you been watching me?”
“Oh—um, well—” As she stumbles over her answer, her cheeks grow pinker. “Yes. I have. I just think it’s amazing, what you do as a firefighter.”
“That’s why you made me that valentine?” I ask.
She breaks into a smile. “Did you like it?”
Instead of answering, I study her some more. I’ve never seen red hair as pretty as hers. It’s fiery red, falling over her shoulders in relaxed waves, and looks incredibly soft to the touch. Her skin looks so fucking soft, too.Everythingabout her looks soft. There’s nothing hard or angular about her. Or tiny. She’s a plus-size girl and I can barely handle how much I like that.
But the part I really can’t get over is how at ease she is right now. Women don’t act like this around me. Ever.
“You’re not afraid of me, are you?” I ask her.
She gives me a curious look. “No. Should I be?”
“It’s what I’m used to,” I say.
“Really? That’s horrible. I’m sorry, Thorne.”
I like it when she says my name. I like it far more than I should. It’s wrong of me to want her as much as I do, isn’t it? She’s tooyoung for me. And too sweet and wholesome. I would just ruin her lovely life.
“Why didn’t you make those hearts for the rest of the crew?” I ask.
“They’re not you,” she says simply.
I frown at her. “You don’t know me, Sunny.”
“But I’d like to know you.”
This can’t be real life. I must have hit my head while on a call, fallen into a coma. She’s too incredible to be real. I step forward, as if to test if she’s just a figment of my imagination. As I move closer to her, I get a whiff of her shampoo. It smells like roses.
“What do you want to know about me?” I ask.
