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“You look…well rested,” I observed, looking at Kendrick.
He smiled. “I spent the night here in my bunk,” he said. “You get more sleep. I don’t lose time going all the way back home.”
“You can afford to do that,” Mel said. “You don’t have a family.”
“How is the family, by the way?” I asked Mel.
“Janine is fine,” Mel nodded. “Running around with the kids most days. And in her free time, she’s usually nagging me for some reason or the other.”
I smiled. “Do you deserve it?” I asked as Ryan and Kendrick laughed.
Mel smirked at me. “Most days I do,” he admitted. “It’s just hard to make every piano recital, play, and ball game with this job. I miss a lot.”
Kendrick smacked him on the back. “Which is why I won’t ever get married.”
“You say that now,” Mel said. “Just means you haven’t met the right girl yet.”
As the boys went back and forth about the merits of a committed relationship versus the single life, I found my mind wandering.
I had really liked meeting Megan the other night at Brent’s apartment. She was nothing like her brother. She had a certain quiet confidence about her, combined with obvious maturity and a soft-spoken nature. She also happened to be beautiful.
She had blonde hair that looked like spun gold, but her roots were a soft, earthy brown. Her eyes were a light and piercing hazel that held little flecks of gold that matched the color of her hair. She had a heart-shaped face, a small nose, and lips that reminded me of a bow. I had been strangely obsessed with those lips when I had met her that night. Every time she spoke, my eyes focused in on how her lips moved. I wondered what it would be like to kiss those lips.
Instantly, I shook off the thought. She was Brent’s sister, and I needed to be respectful of that. But more importantly, I had a full-time job that was demanding at the best of times. I had no room in my life to accommodate a new relationship.
And yet… I couldn’t get my mind off her. It was nice to have someone to talk to outside of the fire station. I loved Ryan, Mel, and Kendrick but somehow talking to them just wasn’t the same as talking to Megan.
“Earth to Phil,” Ryan said, waving his hand in my face.
“Oh…sorry.”
“Zoned out, huh?”
“Yeah.”
“What were you thinking about?”
Before I could come up with a plausible lie, the alarm went off and the four of us jumped to our feet. “Let’s go,” Mel said, in a completely different tone. “Apparatus bay in two minutes.”
Putting my game face on, I pushed all distractions from my mind and headed out.
That night when I got home, tired but satisfied with what we’d accomplished during the day, I headed straight for the shower. Once I was clean, I walked to my room and collapsed onto my bed. I was tired, but I wasn’t ready to go to sleep just yet. What I really wanted to do was speak to Megan again.
I had casually mentioned spending some time with her as friends. She’d seemed up for it, so I figured it wouldn’t be the worst thing to just call her up for a chat. I had taken her number just before leaving Brent’s the other night.
I pulled up my phone and scrolled through my contact list. When I found her name, I paused for a moment, wondering whether I was getting myself into a situation that would complicate my life in the future.
In the end, my need to speak to Megan overpowered any reservations, so I hit her name and waited for her to answer.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Megan,” I replied, hoping to sound casual and friendly. “It’s Phil.”
“Phil,” she said, and she sounded happy to hear from me. “How are you?”
“I’m good.”
“You sound tired,” she said immediately.
