AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Man, did you see how good she looked today?” Devon asked.
Shawn Wyatt laughed. “Yeah, she is so beautiful. But I think she puts on a tough face, just to keep people away.”
“I’ll bet,” Max said. “She is probably doing it to make sure morons don’t try to hit on her and get fired. She is doing everybody a great service. But I do wonder who she’d be interested in if this was not a problem. I don’t know much about her, but from what I can gather I think she would like a guy in a sports car. I only believe this though, if he can find a way to be tough and manly at the same time.”
“And guys who drive sports cars can’t be tough and manly?” Devon asked.
“No,” Max replied. “Those guys are into flashy and being seen. They just want to be popular. Real tough guys don’t care about that.”
Devon rubbed his chin. “I can see that. Hey, Gary what do you think?”
I pretended to not have any idea what they were talking about. “What’s that?” I asked.
“You’ve seen the new trainer, Shelly. What do you think? If she was able to go out with someone here, who do you think she would choose?”
I had to work hard to hold a straight face with them. “Well, I think it would be you Max, most definitely.”
Max smirked. “Yeah, that’s funny, but I would be the ideal candidate. With all my skills and my ambition, how would I not be the guy?”
I laughed and tried to cover my mouth with my hand.
Max gave me a serious look. “What’s so funny?”
“You are delusional,” I replied. “You think every woman out there wants you. There are some women who have a specific type and you are not it.”
“Handsome and charming is everyone’s type. You’re bound to have seen this.”
I could tell Max was getting angry about it. I wasn’t sure why he was getting worked up. It was just a joke. He had a tendency towards anger sometimes, but he’d never even tried to get mad with me. He knew better. I had established this relationship with the guys. They respected me and I respected them if they acted worthy of respect. But sometimes guys got into fights about silly things. I always did my best to avoid that sort of nonsense, but it did happen at the station sometimes.
“Well, Shelly isn’t going with anyone. She is well aware of policy as we all have. So, let’s drop it. This is a stupid discussion,” I said.
I realized as I said it that I might have been taking up too much for Shelly, or at least more than was reasonable. If someone wanted to test me, they might be able to make it through my cover and realize that I had some strong feelings for Shelly. But I didn’t lend any more weight to it than was necessary.
I slid back under the bar and began to pound out my last set. As I hoisted the heavy weight, I thought about Shelly and I wished that we could just be a normal couple. I wanted so badly for us to be together like a regular couple. We could make it work, but the policy dictated rigidly that we had to follow this silly format.
After finishing up the workout and hitting the showers, it was time for a training session with Shelly. I was looking forward to it. This gave me an excuse to actually be near her without having it look awkward. But every man in that training room was thinking the same thoughts about her. She was a ravishing beauty. We had several attractive, wonderful women who were a part of the crew, but Shelly had them all beat by a country mile in the looks department, and she had this amazing spark inside of her that was so contagious and so moving that it automatically made you just want to hold her and be near her all the time.
As I stood there in class, watching Shelly work her magic and teach us all about the importance of assessing the level of the victim when we found them, I felt myself growing hotter and hotter inside. I wanted to run over to her and grab my beloved in my arms, hold her, kiss her, and completely ravish her body until I was physically unable to do anymore.
I was starting to sweat, despite the cool air conditioning. This was so difficult. Just knowin
g what we’d done together, the love, and the beautiful affection and lust we’d experienced together, made standing there watching the training going on almost impossible. I felt my heart racing. My body was compelling me to make a move, especially as Shelly walked past me. She barely glanced in my direction. Wow, she was doing so well here. I loved to see the way she had taken ownership of the situation. I now felt that I was the one who might crack and reveal everything. If that happened, I would lose Shelly forever. I would lose firefighting. I would lose most of anything that really meant anything to me.
I could barely pay attention as Shelly ran over the types of victims and what to look for, assessing the need, et cetera. My mind was in so many different places that I could hardly think straight on anything. My mind was all about Shelly. I needed her with me all the time. I was sure that if Shelly did agree to us, if she did care about me, I’d gladly give up firefighting if it meant being by her side always.
And that was ludicrous. What was I saying? I had never been that close to another person in my life. Why was I going to start that now? I loved Shelly. I was determined to be the best version of myself possible for her, but I was never going to compromise my ideals and allow myself to become dependent in any way on anyone else.
I got through the training and left the room fairly quickly. It was almost time for me to head home, and I was getting crazy hungry. I didn’t eat breakfast and not much lunch. I occasionally skip breakfast, as I’m usually not that hungry first thing in the morning. But I wasn’t sure why my appetite hadn’t been there for lunch. That was a little odd for me.
I was starting down the hall towards the lounge when I heard a commotion going on behind me in the training room.
I turned back and through the crowd of others jammed in the doorway trying to get out of the room, I saw Max and Ian going at it. The two guys were engaged in an old fashioned fistfight. This was ridiculous. But I had predicted that someone might get in a fight that day. There was something in the air. It was no big surprise that this someone was Max. He’d been agitated that day, but I wasn’t sure why. Sometimes he could get a very hot head. That was always in his nature. It had become so much better. And now he was really going for it.
And Shelly was trying to break it up by herself. What in the world was she doing? I quickly rushed back through, trying to get through the crowd that was still somewhat oblivious that this was really happening. I made it through the line just in time to see Ian swing wildly and collide with Shelly’s arm knocking her to the ground.
The fire of anger roared to life within me. I could see nothing but red in that moment. I had to get it together. I knew this was the very thing that could get me fired and get us caught. But I was beyond control at this moment.
My feet lunged ahead and my body got in between Ian and Max. Ian was charging ahead, almost completely unaware that I was even there. He was hell bent on killing Max and beating him to a bloody pulp, but Max was not a slouch. Ian was already bleeding from his lip. A shiner was starting to settle around his eye as well. It served him right.
