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I gave him a look and started to tell him how wrong he was, but as I thought about it, the kid might have had a point.
“Well, that’s hurtful,” I teased. I pretended to cry into my beer. The guys gave it a good laugh.
We turned our attention to the baseball game that was starting. The Cubs were off to a rocky start this year, but we all had our hearts set on them having a winning season. We weren’t sure if it would be a pennant winning season, but if they could pull off a decent record that would work for me. I’d loved the game of baseball since I was a kid, and I’d even played throughout high school. In fact, if I hadn’t injured my pitching shoulder during one of the last games my junior year, I might have had a shot at playing college. And if I had continued to improve, maybe even a shot at pro ball.
But it wasn’t in the cards for me. That was life. You had to roll with the punches and try not to take too long licking your wounds. That didn’t do much good for anyone. It just made those people in your life who cared about you sad.
So, I dusted myself off and floundered around a bit until I found firefighting. This was where I was meant to be. I had no doubt about that. It was a job that not many people stayed in for the long haul. Either the stress got to you, or the fire beat you and you were gone from this world. I hoped to defy those odds and make it through, but maybe one day I would move up the ladder to be a Chief somewhere. Then I’d be able to do my part to help others by staying out of the blaze.
But I had to wonder if I would ever be happy with that. There was a rush that grabbed me when I was in the thick of it. It was me against the fire and so far I had always come out on top. We were a strong team together. And I loved being part of a team.
After the game I went home. It had been a fun night hanging with the boys, but a lot about what they’d said stuck with me. I had been thinking about Shelly basicall
y nonstop since I’d met her. I hadn’t felt so strongly attracted to a woman in quite some time. With her it was more than just the physical. There was an emotional component to it. I felt warm when I was around her, as if I already cared for her when I knew next to nothing really about her.
I decided that had to change. Even though I felt a bit creepy about it, I decided to pull her up online and see what I could find out. It was perfectly acceptable nowadays to use modern technology to your advantage.
I grabbed my laptop and sat down on the couch. After doing a few searches in a search engine, I moved on over to social media. It wasn’t long before I found a few accounts of hers. The accounts were pretty old, as if she never really used them. The last posts were from over a year ago. They were pretty bare. The privacy settings were set to high, so there was very little I could find out about her from this little searching expedition of mine. Bummer.
I turned off the laptop and turned on the television. It was late, but I had tomorrow off, so I thought might binge watch a few of the horror movies in my streaming queue. Since I was a kid, I had been a big fan of low budget, cheesy horror movies. They were always good for a laugh.
I was only about ten minutes into Microwave Massacre when I heard the noises from the apartment next door. Kenny and Chelsea were at it again. But come to think of it… Kenny was out of town. He was a truck driver and I’d seen him leave for a job that morning. I hadn’t noticed his rig in the parking lot when I came home either. Wow… Chelsea was a busy girl. I had that impression about her the few times I’d met her. She was always flirting with me, sometimes right in front of Kenny who seemed perfectly clueless. He was a really nice guy and I hated to see him get dogged out like this, but in the end it wasn’t my business.
But I could laugh at the noise anyway.
Seeing things like this could make you see how a guy like Charlie had some valid points. He would never be in that position like Kenny. Nope.
But then again, being afraid to love because you were afraid of getting hurt was no way to live either. It could be a messy world, especially when you let your feelings get strong for someone.
I wanted so badly to get to know Shelly better. She seemed so sweet, and interesting, but I could also see that there was a sadness to her, like life had done her wrong a time or two. I wanted to know about her pain, her sadness, and what gave her joy.
But she had just got here. I didn’t want to suddenly come on strong and get her worried that she might lose the job she’d just started because some guy she didn’t really know had the hots for her. Maybe down the line something would happen between us, but if it did then it had to happen organically. It had to happen in such a way that we both wanted it and there would come a time where our guards would be let down. Then we would just give into it. We would surrender to our darkest desires.
I had to laugh at the romantic in myself. I was getting a bit carried away. Hell, I had no idea if Shelly was really that attracted to me, let alone that we would have some romantic, intense scene in our futures that would resemble something from a Nicholas Sparks book. But it was fun to dream about.
I listened to the sexual romp next door for a minute. “Yes! Ah! Yes! Right there!”
I laughed and turned the television up louder. Did she not know that the entire floor could hear them? And maybe the others might not be so inclined to keep their mouths shut about this to her doting husband?
I felt a bit guilty about not saying anything to Kenny, but I didn’t really know him well, he probably wouldn’t believe me anyway, and it would just cause chaos where there wasn’t any.
I tried to lose myself in the movie, but I couldn’t stop thinking about Shelly and what would happen if I just asked her to have a drink sometime.
If I made this move, it would have to happen on the down low, maybe outside of work.
Maybe one day. But for right now, I just had to keep my feelings simmering under the surface.
Chapter Four
Shelly
I swung the backhand hard and felt the racquet connect solidly with the ball sending it flying against the wall. The speed with which my strength propelled the ball through the air surprised me and in a flash it was ricocheting back at me like a bullet bouncing off a piece of steel.
April stepped up front and swung her racquet hard towards the ball. I thought she was going to miss it at first, but the edge of the racquet connected hard with the small ball and sent it bouncing off the wall once more. I tried to pull the adrenaline through my body to connect with my tired, aching muscles and I ran towards the direction the ball seemed to be moving. I was pretty sure it was going to miss it, but somehow as I lunged for the ball I was able to bring my racquet up just in time to connect with the ball once again and send it back towards the wall.
I tried to take a deep breath, but my chest was aching, my body was tired and hurting, especially in the legs. I’ve always been pretty active and athletic, but I’d only played racquetball a few times in my life, and it was the most intensely aerobic sport that I’d ever tried. I could feel that I might give up at any moment and just let the ball past me just so we could grab a quick break.
But luckily my last shot was enough and April missed her chance as the ball rocket launched past her causing her to almost stumble to the hard floor beneath her feet.
