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I whistled and patted one of the rolls of fabric we had moved. “Good thing we sold all of this.”
“And for a higher price than I ever expected. I have you to thank for that.”
“Happy to help. All of us are.”
She gave me a quick hug. It felt normal, natural. Like we’d been hugging as lovers for a lot longer than two days. I was still getting used to the feeling of having her in my arms throughout the day… and in the evening. She’d spent the last two nights with me, rather than out in the guest house.
If I had my way, she’d never stay in the guest house again.
After the buyer picked up the fabric, me and the boys headed to the fire station to begin our shift. Alyssa stayed back at her store to finish up some things, then arrived at the station an hour after us. She had printed out photos from the big apartment fire and was sharing them with us and the other crew at the station. There were a lot of good action shots, angles that we rarely got to see while we were busy fighting fires.
“This is definitely going on my Tinder profile,” Ellen said, tapping one of the photos on the table. It was a close-up of her picking up her helmet, frozen in the motion of putting it on her head. Her eyes were determined and the features on her face were striking in the combined glow of the setting sun and the apartment fire.
“Who would do that?” Liam teased. “Have professional photos taken for their Tinder profile?”
“It seems awfully silly,” Ellen agreed. “I would have never scheduled something like this ahead of time, of course. But it’s nice to have now that I’ve seen them.”
A few of our teammates patted Mateo on the back and playfully teased him. He raised a hand and gave the room an emphatic middle finger.
“All right, all right, show-and-tell is over,” our station lieutenant announced. “Those of you whose shift just ended: go home. Those of you who just got here: there’s a list of chores in the engine room.”
“I’d better get out of your hair,” Alyssa said, kissing me on the cheek.
“Actually, can you stick around a few?” I asked. “We wanted to talk to you about something.”
I could see the concern spread across her gorgeous face. “Yeah, sure.”
We led Alyssa into the break room kitchen, and closed the door. Anyone could walk in, but this was the closest thing to privacy we had.
“We wanted to talk to you,” Liam said, leaning against the door and crossing his arms. “To talk about us.”
“All of us,” Mateo added.
Alyssa swallowed heavily. “Okay…”
I tried to appear relaxed so Alyssa wouldn’t feel like we were ganging up on her. I leaned against the fridge and shoved my hands in the pockets of my fireman overalls. Mateo sat in a chair. Alyssa decided to stand, swinging her head between all three of us.
“So. What do you want to talk about?” Alyssa asked quietly.
She thinks this is going to be bad news. At least she would feel relieved momentarily.
“We’ve talked about… everything,” I said. “And we’ve come to a decision. We want to try a long-distance relationship.”
“It is not very far,” Mateo said. “Less than a three-hour flight.”
“Compared to the flight I take back to New Zealand, three hours is downright quaint,” Liam added.
“We don’t want this to end,” I continued. “None of us do. I don’t know how we’ll work out which of us you date, but we figure that’s your decision to make. We want to try, if you’re up to the challenge.”
I saw the sympathetic look in Alyssa’s eyes. She was touched, but didn’t want to do it. My stomach sank.
“Long distance…” she said, trailing off. “I’ll be honest. I don’t think a long-distance relationship can work. In any context. It’s not just about you three. I really care about you all, and have loved the past week…”
“We might move there!” I quickly interjected.
Liam and Mateo shot me a look. We had agreed that we were open to this, but weren’t going to say anything to Alyssa yet. But I knew we had to offer her more. All the cards on the table, nothing held back. A woman like Alyssa deserved the whole truth.
“We’re willing to move to New York,” I explained. “For you.”
