Page 1 of Four Firemen For Christmas

1

EMMA

“I’m sorry, Emma.” Doc Warden hesitated. “We have to let you go.”

“Are you shitting me?” I slapped a hand over my mouth. “Sorry. Sorry. I didn’t mean to say that.”

Butshit, really?

The old doctor sighed and leaned back in his seat, causing it to squeal. “We wanted to wait until after the holidays but it’s looking like we won’t reopen at all once we close for Christmas.”

What was I supposed to do now? Nodding numbly, I shook his hand and headed across the hallway and into the tiny cubicle where I’d been working for the last year.

I started to sit down but what was the point? Within minutes, I had everything I needed thrown into my purse and was out the door after saying goodbye to the one other person still in the office.

Coffee. I needed coffee, some loud music, and time by myself to sort this out. Surely there were other places out there in need of an administrative assistant. How hard could it be to find another job right before Christmas? I snorted and grumbled under my breath.

A couple approaching me looked at each other and crossed to the other side of the street.

Great, now I’m frightening people.Way to go, Emma.

Tightening my grip on my purse, I yanked open the door to my favorite coffee shop and stepped inside. Something about the smell of freshly ground coffee beans and steamed milk turned any bad day right side up. I closed my eyes and breathed it in.

“Hey, Emma, quit blocking the door.” Lacy, the barista who’s taken my order twice a week for the last year, doesn’t bother being polite. “Grab a seat and I’ll bring your coffee.”

“Thanks!” I forced my eyes open and weaved through the crowd until I reached the back of the building. Oh, man. Getting fired sucked but at least my favorite booth was open.

Lacy carried my piping hot caramel latte over and then rushed back to the counter.

Sipping the latte, I popped my earbuds in and cranked up the music until my phone flashed a warning that I was about to exceed the safety parameters.

Psh. I bobbed my head in time with the beat and opened up a job search screen on my browser.

The world narrowed to those three things. Coffee. Music. Money.

I frowned as I scrolled. Nothing local fit my job experience, and everything else was too far away.

Mom and Grandma needed me here. They were counting on me to help out with Christmas, even if both of them were too stubborn to say so. I emptied my cup and pushed it to the side of the table in case Lacy took mercy on me and refilled it without me asking.

The search was going nowhere, but I couldn’t stop until I’d exhausted all possibilities.

My eyes burned and I rubbed at them, trying to clear the haze from my vision. When that didn’t work, I blinked several times and looked up from my screen. My heart stopped. Smoke filled the coffee shop in a gray haze. I coughed as it wrapped around me. My lungs burned with every inhale, and I covered my mouth and nose with my shirt to try and block the smell.

Tears streamed from my eyes, and I coughed again when I tried to call out for Lacy.

I pulled an earbud out, and the screaming of the fire alarm assaulted my eardrum.

Shit. Shit. Double shit. I had to get out of here. “Is anyone there?” I screamed the question at the top of my lungs.

No one answered.

The entire shop was filled with smoke. I scrubbed a hand over my eyes and squinted. What was the protocol for a fire? Stop drop and roll? No. That was if I wasonfire. I might consider myself smoking hot, but that was beside the point.

Good lord, was I delusional already? A burst of adrenaline-fueled laughter caught me by surprise. I dropped to my hands and knees and started crawling.

Smoke was supposed to be thinner closer to the ground. I remembered that from all the movies I’d watched.

They all lied. I couldn’t breathe any better down here. I raised my shirt over my nose again and took short, shallow breaths. My arm hooked around a chair leg, and I freaked out, thrashing and flinging my arm side to side. The metal burned like a bitch.

---