“It’s the best birthday I’ve had in a long while. A long, long while,” Noah said.
“Like how long? Two years?” Erin asked. Her birthdays were fun affairs with her friends, making up for a dead mom and a dad too busy with his new wife and life in Haiti to send even an email.
“Definitely the past five years at least.”
“That’s really pathetic,” she said. “You’re hot, you listen, and you rock a mattress. In the past five years, not one person was willing to give you a screaming birthday—” she amended her statement when the waitress dropped off their waters and fries “—delicious piece of cake?”
“I was busy.”
She scoffed and ate one of his fries. “‘You should never be too busy to get busy. These last three weeks, when I wasn’t working or sleeping, I was thinking about getting busy.”
“Now who’s not playing fair?” His eyes flashed with what she hoped was barely controlled hunger, stealing her water glass and drinking half. “Neither of us have been available this week. Can we make it up this weekend?”
“Hope the Domino’s pizza guy likes hanging out in the snow. " Erin ate some more fries. He passed her the entire plate, and she debated if she needed to get more overtly sexual. Would sucking on the fries be too much? She did like this place, so getting kicked out wasn’t the goal. The goal was getting Noah out of here and naked ASAP.
“I usually give him a big tip,” Noah said.
“Glad I like pizza since I’m skipping this weekend’s team breakfast.”
“Team breakfast?”
“Yep. Kevin’s breakfasts are amazing. You never tried them. You came by for lunch as captain, but never breakfast,” she said.
“Because you were up there, adorable and untouchable.”
“I wasn’t the untouchable one, ‘Mr-I-have-a-Charlie-Horse-Don’t-Massage-My-Leg.’”
He placed one hand on her knee under the table. “The more time I spent with you, the easier it would have been for anyone to see how I felt.”
Erin’s breath caught. In the past, she’d have felt suffocated, but these weeks were like nothing she’d experienced before. Together, she couldn’t get close enough, and apart, she longed for him.
No. No. This couldn’t… They had to move away from this right now.
“Unlikely. We’re blind when we want to be. It took months to even admit Aiden had a problem.” Erin opened a can of worms rather than address the big picture.
“It wasn’t your fault,” he said.
“I know. That’s what the team breakfast is for. To put a happy face on Aiden, starting at HQ after Thanksgiving,” Erin said.
“Yes. He’ll work in training with Munnis and attend more therapy. Rodriguez will be with Vega in administration,” Noah said, easily.
“She’ll love that. Rodriguez don’t want to ride no desk. Though a broken arm does make it hard to crash another fire truck. How’s Williams doing?”
“Making his nurses and his sisters miserable. He has two younger sisters, and they send me texts twice a day,” Noah said, and he did the ‘blank-face’ thing she’d caught him doing when there was something he couldn’t address.
“You want to talk about it?”
“Talk about Williams’s sisters?” He pretended to be flummoxed. She wasn’t fooled.
“No, about you and Williams?”
“I was the best man his wedding. I thought we would…” He stopped when the hostess brought them their pancakes and the spread of cakes.
“Sorry. The Rocky Horror Picture Show crowd starts showing up soon, and they get a little rowdy.”
“Thank you,” Noah said. He glanced down at the cakes and the pancakes. “Which one should we try?”
“Hey, Counselor Troi,” Erin used the name written on her name tag, though they shared similar coloring. “Can you bring me a box for the pancakes?”
