Page 56 of Unbelievable You

I wouldn’t say that. I’d say that you have a very soothing reading voice. If the firefighter thing doesn’t work out, you might get into audiobooks or podcasting or something. Hunter replied.

You can’t say things like that to me. I’m going to start blushing. I sent the message with a picture of me covering my cheek with one hand and tilting my head in a bashful pose.

I’m supposed to be working but you’re distracting me. You’re much more interesting than doing admin. she responded.

I liked that I was a distraction for her. That meant she was thinking about me when we weren’t together.

You know the best way to get me to do something more is to tell me to stop doing it, right? I sent.

Fuck, now I was the distracted one. Hunter and I traded messages back and forth until I had to go out on a call. Thankfully just a fender bender. The passengers were taken to the hospital as a precaution, but no one was seriously injured. We were just wrapping up from that call when we had to rush to help with someone who had a medical emergency in a grocery store and then it was just one of those days. Third call was a guy who’d been trying to cut down a tree with a chainsaw and managed to drop the tree on himself and get stuck. The last call was a potential missing kid who we managed to find hiding in the bathroom in a store.

By the time I got home, I was absolutely beat. All I wanted to do was shower, eat, and lay on the couch until I passed out.

There was a new message from Hunter that I read as I was stripping out of my clothes and heading for the bathroom.

Is your shift over? I hope you didn’t have to deal with anything awful.

I didn’t answer until I was clean and wearing a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt and laying with Buck on the couch. I was definitely ordering something. Even pulling something from the freezer to heat up was too much effort.

It was busy, but not too bad. How was your day?

A warm feeling took up residence in my chest as we spoke about mundane things until I decided to call her.

“Hey,” she said, but she didn’t sound annoyed.

“Hey. I’m too tired to type tonight. So if you want to talk to me, this is what you get.” My voice was tired too, but not as much as everything else.

“You do sound exhausted. Have you eaten?”

I sighed. “No. I’m so hungry I think my stomach is currently digesting my spine. I’m going to order something, but I hadn’t gotten around to it.”

“Okay. What were you going to order?”

“Hmmm, let me think. Birria beef tacos from Casa Julia and queso and chips and churros and tortilla soup. I think that’s it.”

Hunter was silent for a moment. “So, the entire menu?”

“Yeah, basically. Ugh, I need to order.”

There was silence on the other end, and I thought the call had dropped.

“No, you don’t. I’m going to pick it up and I’ll be there in, say, thirty minutes? Can your stomach hold out until then?”

I sat up, jostling Buck, who glared at me.

“Wait, really?” Did she think she had to pay me back for last night?

“Yes. Don’t make a big deal out of it. I’m simply feeding a public servant. Or something. Aren’t they supposed to feed firefighters at the station?”

I explained to her that ours was so small that we didn’t really have the space or the budget for that. Small department.

“I still think they should feed you, but for tonight, I’ll be in charge of it.”

Fuck, the authoritative tone of her voice was doing it for me. I knew she didn’t want to be a lawyer, but if she used that voice in a courtroom? She’d come out on top every time.

“Okay fine, you win,” I said, as if I was going to put up a fight.

“Hey, don’t fall asleep on me before I feed you,” she said, and I snapped awake again.

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