Page 26 of The One She Can't Forget

As she enjoyed the view, I started unpacking the picnic fixings, careful to tuck any stray trash back into one of the plastic grocery bags.

“I feel like I need to get to know you,” Monica said. “I mean, I sort of feel like I know you. But then I try to think of specifics, and I come up blank.”

I swallowed a bite of my sandwich. “I’m an open book. Ask me anything.”

Monica raised an eyebrow. “Really? Anything?”

I nodded. “Yeah. I’ll be surprised if there is anything I haven’t told you before. So, I don’t mind telling you again.”

She shook her head. “This is so weird. Let me think about it for a second.”

After a few moments, she turned back to me. “Okay, here we go. Why did you become a firefighter?”

As I suspected, we had talked about it before.

“Well, it probably won’t surprise you that Bryce had a lot to do with it.” I looked out over the quarry, remembering. “We got close during the last few years of high school. He never had any doubts about what he wanted to do.” I chuckled. “I don’t think I could explain how much I envied his sureness about that. When my dad died… I was just desperate for something to ground me. College sounded terrible,” I said with a laugh. “So, I signed up for the academy with Bryce. Turns out, I ended up being pretty good at it.”

I shook my head. “I know people put all thesenoble herolabels on us, but it doesn’t feel like that. I didn’t sign up because I wanted to be a hero. I wanted to be part of something respectable. I liked the challenge. And the adrenaline,” I added with a crooked smile.

“I don’t know how you guys do it. It seems so intense from the outside. People’s lives are on the line.”

I shrugged. “Sometimes, but it’s not so different from what you do. The ER isn’t exactly slow-paced. Why did you become a nurse? And why the ER?”

As much as I wanted Monica to learn about me, I wanted her to have the full experience of sharing about ourselves.

She grabbed an Oreo and waved it through the air as she talked with her hands. “Somewhat the same reasons as you. I liked the challenge that medicine offered. Of course, I like helping people, but the emergency department held a special kind of challenge. It’s always different. You never know what to expect. I might go stir-crazy if I was doing patient intake and giving kindergarten shots at Dr. Pike’s clinic.” She quickly added, “Not that they aren’t amazing nurses. It just wasn’t for me.”

I laughed. “Don’t worry, you won’t offend me. I get it. Sometimes even my job gets a little slow. Which is a good thing, right? Because it means people aren’t getting hurt and places aren’t on fire. But shifts with no calls–or even one call–seem to go on forever. I even considered moving to Indianapolis at one point. Join a busier district for a bit more action.”

Monica nodded. “I know! I don’t want to wish for more people at the ER, but it certainly makes things more interesting.”

“Exactly! You hear these crazy stories of how firefighters turn into arsonists. Like, I kind of get it!” I laughed. “Sometimes, I just want to put out a fire.”

“So now I know who to point the finger at if someone goes on an arson spree in Minden,” Monica said, her smile beaming.

“I’d lock myself up before I’d do that,” I reassured her.

“Same. The idea of hurting a patient makes my skin crawl. I remember every mistake I’ve ever made,” she said. Then her voice got quiet. “Well, maybe not anymore.”

“I’m sure if anything happened, it wasn’t major.”

“How do you know?” She sounded worried.

“Well,” I said, “for one thing, you didn’t tell me about anything.”

“Would I really have told you?”

I nodded. “Yeah, you really would have. I know it’s hard to imagine–wanting to talk to me every day,” I deadpanned.

She giggled, and I knew my sarcasm had hit the mark. “I didn’t say that,” she objected. “I’m trying to imagine how we got that close.”

“Well… it started a bit awkwardly.”

“Oh?”

“Yep. You were a little distant with me at our first small group meetings. Avoiding me, actually.”

She shut one eye in a dramatic wince. “I’m sorry. I considered doing it again, but you didn’t really let me,” she explained.

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