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“Are you sure you are ok?”
I smiled at Shelly’s concern. “Yes, I’m fine. I had the medic take a look at me. I’m just fine.”
“Good,” Shelly said. She smiled sweetly at me through the screen. “I didn’t get a chance to really ask you and check on you at work. I thought it might give people the wrong idea.”
“Understood,” I replied. “I appreciate the concern.”
When I got home that night, I called up Shelly on face time. I really wanted to talk with her. I’d been thinking of her all day, much more so since the fire. Just thinking that I might have died without ever really being with her was unbearable. Of course, I didn’t tell her any of this. I didn’t want to freak her out or seem forceful in my feelings for her. I knew she was trying to stop our burgeoning relationship in its track.
“Of course,” Shelly said. “I heard what you did. That was really brave. It was borderline insane and suicidal, but it was very brave. That girl wouldn’t have made it out if you’d followed protocol.”
I sighed. “Yeah. I know. That’s the thing about the job they don’t tell you. The rules are meant to keep everyone safe, but sometimes the rules will get someone else killed. That isn’t the way I do things. I’m sure I’ll catch holy hell from the chief about it tomorrow.”
“He didn’t talk to you today?”
“No, since things went well, he usually gives you a day or so to enjoy it and recover from the shock. It lets you know you did a good job, but you’d better never do it again.”
Shelly shook her head and laughed. “That’s crazy. But it’s different from station to station.”
“Right,” I said. “He’s a good guy. But it’s his jobs to enforce the rules. Even if he doesn’t always agree with them.”
“Have you ever thought about making a play for the chief’s job? I know he is getting close to retirement,” Shelly said.
“I’ve toyed with the idea, but I think I’d miss the action too much. It would have to be a really good reason to go for it. The money isn’t that much more. And I’m not sure I would feel as comfortable sending guys out there who aren’t as capable and experienced as I am to handle bad situations. But that’s the job. I’d have to learn to live with that.”
“Well, that’s something to think about anyway,” she said. “For the future.”
“So, what are you up to this evening?” I asked. “You just hanging by your lonesome?”
“Well, a few of the girls invited me to go out with them dancing tonight. There’s a club called the Nip. I don’t know. It doesn’t really sound like my thing.”
“You should go,” I said. “You might have fun. Get out of the house and live a little. I’m not staying home.”
“Really? What are you up to?”
“Well, I’m heading to the dojo in a bit. Charlie and I are going to do some sparring after class. Until then I might play a little guitar and try to put together a healthy dinner.”
“Speaking of which, I was thinking I might want to learn to play the guitar. I’ve always wanted to.”
“Really? Well, I could definitely teach you. I used to give lessons a while back.”
“Why did you stop?”
“Too many people just won’t practice or work on it. They expect it to happen by magic. Learning a musical instrument takes patience and hard work. There is no shortcut about it.”
“I figured as much. Well, I’m willing to work hard if you’d have me,” Shelly said.
“For you, I’ll make an exception,” I replied.
“Well, thank you so much,” she said. “This sounds like fun. When shall our first lesson be?”
“How about Saturday at noon?” I asked.
“That sounds perfect.”
Yeah, it really did sound perfect. I was shocked she’d brought it up. But now we would see exactly how this whole thing unfolded.
This was going to be interesting to say the least. After finishing the face time call with Shelly, I warmed up some chicken and veggies and sat down with a beer to wash it down with. Saturday seemed very far away. I would have fun teaching Shelly how to play guitar, but I had a feeling that we were going to be distracted, and I could definitely see how we would both interrupt the lesson to do other activities.
