The photo session finished, and the PR woman rushed off, reminding the Chief of the next item on his agenda.
Erin decided to use the bathroom before leaving which meant a walk down the hallway and around the corner into an out of the way section of the building. On her way out, she nearly crashed into the Chief.
Great. Exactly what she needed.
“Excuse me, sir,” she uttered formally.
“I need to apologize to you.”
Erin crossed her arms over her chest. “I should apologize for my tone earlier.”
He smiled placidly. “Your firehouse suffered the most in the past year, so your frustration is warranted.”
Damn it; he had to be so magnanimous. His blank, polite features made her want to squirm. “Then what are you apologizing for, sir? Selecting us for diversity and inclusiveness?”
“That was all Fitzpatrick and Williams seizing an opportunity, but I can’t fault them because they were right.” He began the next part with more care. “Before last shift… the gym. I had a physical response which was both inappropriate and unprofessional.”
“Oh, did you? I hadn’t noticed,” she lied. Not a good time to mention that it might have been the highlight of her week, especially since this shift was turning into a day with Angry Captain.
“Once again, my apologies for my physical response to your… therapy. I’m not a robot, and it can occur with close contact between personnel.”
His use of the word ‘robot’ had to be deliberate. Anonymous must not have been particularly anonymous depending on what her teammates had written.
Then she replayed his apology in her mind. He was taking full responsibility, reducing their mutual attraction to a basic physical response.
“Wait, are you blaming this on me?” Her eyes widened with the realization. “What happened between us—”
He cut her off. “It’s my ethical duty to you to make sure you understand that there is no ‘us.’ There’s never been an ‘us.’ There’s will never be an ‘us.’ And if, as your fire chief, anything I did that made you feel it was a possibility is solely on me.”
“It’s your fault because you’re my superior officer, and I have no agency of my own?” Couldn’t he have reprimanded her or something instead of telling her how unimportant all of this was to him?
He spoke evenly, “Battalion Chief McClunis and I are on the same page about the inclusion of female firefighters and treating them appropriately. I never want to take advantage of my position. I hope I never gave the impression otherwise in any of my words or actions, Hudgens.”
Erin was seething and decided to bite back. “You have not. I think I need to make myself clear. I’m my own woman who makes my own choices about what I do and don’t do. Those are not your responsibility. You are confused about my intentions. In the gym, in the light of our first encounter, I offered you some harmless, light, flirty banter.”
“Oh.” His tone made her feel extra stupid.
If he was committed to being so professional, she would one-up him. “Our encounter at the yoga studio was an innocent mistake. Perhaps it gave me the impression of intimacy, which led to me overstepping my bounds as your subordinate on past occasions, and I’m sorry.”
“Thank you, Hudgens.” His calm response made her want to knock him off-balance so badly it made her shoulders quake.
Now she was on a roll and couldn’t seem to stop herself. “I know it’s difficult for you to compute that someone as beautiful and as awesome as me doesn’t quite fit into your box of interchangeable fire department cogs that keep your new Cuyahoga Combined machine running smoothly.”
Baker’s eyes narrowed. “I see.”
She continued, “You don’t owe me an apology for the nothing that happened while we were both off the clock. What anyone does in their off time is not CCFD’s business. Isn’t that correct, sir?”
“Yes,” he admitted, rightly sensing a trap.
“And as long as it doesn’t compromise their team, their personal lives are their own. Suppose I go back to the guy I used to date from 19, I don’t need to apologize to anyone, right?” If the chief was letting her know he wasn’t interested, it was only fair to let him know that she wasn’t interested either.
Not a bit.
“We don’t really encourage relationships,” he started.
“Attractive horny people are going to do what they’re going to do.” The warning flags were all there, but Erin was going to barrel forward. “Anyone can hook up with anyone, provided it’s not within their own firehouse. Not that anyone would ever do that because it kills their opportunity to be captain.”
She arched an eyebrow and waited for a reaction. He stood there, unmoved and silent.
