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“What is that supposed to mean?” I asked. I knew what he was getting at though. I’d heard it the entire time I’d been a firefighter.
He grinned. “You know, since you don’t actually need a paycheck. You can just decide to leave if you really wanted to.”
I got a bit testy when he said that. It was kind of true, but it was insulting to know that they thought I would just abandon my post like that.
“Funny,” I said. “But I don’t see half of you putting in the effort to train like I do. I don’t see you taking the risks that I do out there in the field. I give this everything. Put my life on the line for you just as much as you do for me. I would never just up and leave it.”
“Look, rich boy,” Neil said
. “Don’t get so defensive. You have to admit I have a pretty good point here. Be honest, you get off on all the cowboy antics that put yourself and the rest of us in danger.”
“I’ve never put any of you in danger. And the only time I put myself in danger is to save someone else. That’s bullshit, man. I’m not sure why you’re trying to talk down to me today, but it’s wearing thin.”
Neil stood up just then. The prick. He had been busting my balls ever since I started with this ladder two years ago. We’d almost come to blows several times, but he always backed down. That was a wise decision on his part. But he seemed to constantly forget what a bad idea it was to poke the bear.
“Or I’m going to kick your ass,” I said stepping across the lounge room towards him. Neil stepped forward ready to throw down. I was already clenching my fist. I was so ready to clock this fool. I’ve never put up with shit from anyone in my life. I didn’t care if I thought I could win the fight or not. If someone wanted to mess with me, they would regret it quickly.
“Guys. Knock it off. You’ll both get canned for fighting, remember?”
Tony Squier was standing between us now. Neil used it as an excuse to back down and go back to eating his breakfast, which looked like some fake, fast food garbage. Good for him.
I went back to my coffee and relaxing against the counter. I continued to stare in Neil’s direction. I’d seen the fear in his eyes when he had stood up ready to fight me. It was the last thing he wanted. But his mouth was so good at writing checks his ass couldn’t cash that he constantly found himself in trouble. The guy was a borderline alcoholic and got in at least one drunken barfight every week. Mondays he would come into work with a new shiner, like clockwork.
After a few minutes of staring at him, he finished his food quickly and then left the room tossing his trash in the bin next to me. He grunted at me as he walked by. I had to chuckle. What a goon.
“Why do you get him so wound up like that?” Tony asked.
“Because he’s an asshole,” I said. “And he started it.”
“But he has a point. You know that never having to worry about money makes all the struggles of this job much easier to take. If you depended on this for your bread and butter, I think you would feel differently.”
I shrugged. “I doubt it.”
It was true that I was rich. I was rich beyond my wildest dreams, and I had not done much to really earn it. It was something I was not at all proud of, but it was what it was. My father was a very successful businessman. He’d made the bulk of it in real estate and had parlayed that success into the world of investing. He had invested in well over a hundred very lucrative corporations. One day, his fortune would be passed down to me.
I was living in a house that used to belong to my grandfather, a wealthy businessman in his own right, and much of the money I lived on was paid as a monthly stipend from my father. But I had the feeling that he was getting tired of that handout. He wanted me to go into the business with him, and I had no interest. I didn’t care for business. I did what I loved for a living, but my father thought I was wasting my potential doing something that would probably get me killed at an early age.
He kept hoping I would outgrow it and come around. But I was twenty-seven, happy, and I had no interest in changing anything about my life.
“You totally would,” Jamie Devers said as she walked in. I’d barely noticed her, even though she was quite beautiful and often flirted with me. I was not about to date a woman I worked with, even if it wasn’t against company policy. I’d trained myself to ignore her. But she kept trying…
I slowly glanced at her. She smiled and turned her head away a bit, trying to expose her long, slender neck to me. She was damn hot. I’d be blind not to notice such a thing, but I had rules in every area of my life. Don’t shit where you sleep, you know? Not gonna happen.
“What makes you think that?” I asked.
“There are days that are boring, that frustrate you and are hard to deal with. But, being anywhere when you don’t need the money, and don’t have to be there, takes all the pressure of “having to go to work”. You have to admit that.”
I sighed. “Ok, I’ll buy some of that,” I said as I looked over at her. She was sitting down with her breakfast and looking a bit tired. “So, what did you get into this weekend?”
I was a little curious, but mostly I just wanted to change the subject -off myself. The enthusiasm I had for what we did sometimes got to the rest of these guys and I tended to forget that. Yeah, if I did have to depend on the forty grand a year salary to pay my bills, there were bound to be aspects of the job that might get to me. But I knew my love and passion would always override that, regardless.
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” she said.
“I asked, didn’t I?”
She took a bite of her breakfast sandwich and washed it down with a bit of coffee before responding. “I played in a golf tournament with a few friends.”
“I didn’t know you played golf,” I said.
