Page 36 of A Sudden Response

Wincing when the muscles in his right shoulder protested in agony, Eric grabbed the two bags of takeout out of his truck and shut the door. Thanks to Greg, he’d fucked up his shoulder when the little bastard lied about being able to lift a hundred and fifty pounds.

Then again, it was possible that he’d been telling the truth and the patient simply startled him when he’d started seizing on their stretcher. If it hadn’t been for Brian, the paramedic who filled in for Joe, the stretcher would have tipped over, but thankfully, he’d jumped in and grabbed the stretcher and righted it just in the nick of time. It hadn’t saved his shoulder, though. It hurt like hell, but nothing some ice and a bottle of Advil wouldn’t fix.

He had the next two days off and he planned on spending them with Joe. He had a game plan to not only make her forgive him but one that would get the ball rolling on her getting a new job. It would take time, but he was pretty damn sure that he’dhave her convinced that this was a great idea. He just had to find the right moment to approach the subject.

“So, you want me to quit working on the ambulance, huh?” Joe asked casually as she stepped out of her house and leaned a hip against the small porch railing.

Apparently, there was no time like the present.

“Do you think we could go inside and discuss this while we eat?” Eric asked as he raised the bags of takeout in his hands.

“Sure,” Joe said, taking him by surprise.

He’d expected a fight, but he wasn’t going to complain. He was too tired and hungry at the moment to question it. Without another word, he followed her inside and placed the bags on the table.

“I’ll be right back,” Eric said around a yawn as he walked down the long hallway towards her bedroom. He could have used the guest bathroom, but he preferred hers.

On the way to her bathroom, he grabbed a pair of his grey boxer briefs out of her bureau. He stripped out of his clothes and jumped in the shower, wishing he could take a long shower to work the strain out of his muscles, but he wanted to get this over with.

Five minutes later, he walked into Joe’s kitchen, feeling slightly better. He just wanted to eat and get this conversation out of the way so that they could focus on finding a way to keep her safe. Joe was just starting to fill their plates when he walked into the kitchen and made his way to the fridge.

He grabbed an ice pack for his shoulder and thought about grabbing a couple of beers, but he didn’t want her to drink just in case she needed a painkiller. So, instead, he grabbed a couple of Cokes. He placed one by her plate and sat down across from her at the small kitchen table.

Other than a murmured “Thank you,” she didn’t say anything to him as they ate, for which he was immensely grateful. Hewas so damn hungry. They’d had back-to-back calls all night and the only thing he’d eaten was the stale packet of peanuts he’d managed to wrestle from a vending machine at two in the morning.

“You want to tell me why you’re trying to get rid of me?” Joe asked when he finished his third helping.

“I’m not trying to get rid of you, Joe,” Eric said as exhaustion threatened to knock him on his ass.

“That’s what it sounded like to me,” Joe said, leaning back in her chair as she crossed her arms over her chest. “From what I heard, you tried to unload me on Nathan,” she said casually, letting him know just how pissed she really was.

Shit.

“This isn’t the way I planned on doing this, but I’ve been thinking that it was time for you to move on and do something else with your life,” Eric explained. When she only sat there glaring at him, he decided that perhaps he needed to explain the situation a little better before she decided to go for his balls.

“Well,” Eric said, clearing his throat and feeling a little uncomfortable under that glare, “you knew that you couldn’t do this forever.” She cocked a brow at that announcement, so he added, “Could you really see yourself doing this job when you’re sixty?”

“Yes,” Joe said with absolutely no hesitation and made his job of convincing her that this was a good idea more difficult. He decided to get rid of the bullshit pleasantries and get to the point.

“There’s no way in hell that you’ll be able to do this job when you’re sixty, Joe, and if you think so, then you’re crazy. Besides that, you deserve to have a life and you can’t do that with a job that constantly fucks you over,” Eric said, noting the way that her eyes narrowed dangerously on him.

“I have a life,” she shot back defensively.

“Oh, really?” Eric asked, cocking a brow. “When’s the last time you went out on a date?”

“I have no idea,” Joe said, shrugging it off like it was no big deal, “it doesn’t mean anything.”

“And when’s the last time you got laid?” Eric asked, silently daring her to lie to him. He knew it had been at least a year and a half.

“It’s none of your business!”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought, Joe,” Eric said, pushing his plate away. “You don’t date. You don’t have a life outside of work. Hell, I can’t remember the last time you turned down overtime. You’re thirty years old, Joe, and if you keep this job, you’re going to be forty and lonely and wondering how life passed you by. You need to find something else that’s safe and will allow you to live your life. You-”

“What about you?” Joe suddenly demanded.

“What about me?”

“You don’t have a life. You don’t date and I doubt you’ve gotten laid in a couple of years,” Joe announced, and he had to grind his teeth as he forced away the memory of why he hadn’t gotten laid in too damn long to be normal. “Are you going to be looking for another line of work?”

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