Which proved there was a perfect amount of loud.
“Don’t you think it’s a little old fashioned?” he said at last.
“You do have a point. It isn’t inclusive enough.” Fitzpatrick flipped through the magazine and its mostly shirtless men. “I bet they can find aspiring models to pose for the ladies. We may not want to request non-binary and trans people though, since it isn’t the main readership of the group.”
“Models?” Noah refrained from rolling his eyes, wishing he were still with Erin.
The weekend had been earth shattering in a myriad of ways. While Erin was inventive, playful, and insatiable in bed, he’d been shocked to find he was too. He hadn’t gotten a lot of play for almost six years—not since his marriage to Kathleen had capsized almost immediately after the ceremony. Noah had no idea how much he’d sublimated his desires until he met Erin at the fateful yoga class.
He forced himself to keep on the issue at hand. It was better to not think about how much protocol he’d broken by sleeping with her. Or think about the noises she made when he was above her or below her or…
No, he had to stop thinking about her, or he’d be walking around HQ with a hard-on.
Hannah was about to take care of it, though.
“Never mind. Models are boring and unrelatable. We can ask for more diversity features.” Hannah’s features brightened with sudden inspiration. “I’ve got it. Men and women. A/B testing after our re-branding showed the audience responded very well to our pediatric photoshoot. We had Indians, Filipinos, Jews, Latinos…”
It annoyed him how she focused on the commodities. He didn’t care about the numbers; he recognized there were entire populations that CCFD had under-recruited. Women were better at calming victims, fit into smaller spaces, and could last longer inside burning buildings because they used less air. Neighborhoods trusted firefighters more with a shared background and race.
Firefighting was changing at a rapid pace. Actually fighting fires was a much smaller part of the job. They needed to do more fire prevention and resource management. Those things had nothing to do with how much a firefighter could bench press and everything to do with building trust in a community.
“I just thought of something even better. We can ask the magazine to reach out to everyone in the photoshoot. Audiences love medical students. Once the magazine is on board, I can get those three lady firefighters from the photo op. Black, White, and Latina. Do you think they would wear bikinis?” Hannah suggested.
“NO!” Noah adjusted his tone. “No, we are not going to ask them to feature women. It will only come off as sexist.”
“I can see where that goes against the brand. We’ll stick with the previous demographic of men. I’ll schedule your photoshoot in the next few weeks.”
“My photoshoot?”
“As the headliner, you need professional photos. Fortunately, we share the city photographer, and one of my assistants has a solid background in design.” Hannah was furiously writing notes.
“Also no.”
She showed him the magazine. “This is how this works. They do a big story on one bachelor who gets four pages to himself and an exclusive interview. That’s you. Everyone else submits a photo of themselves and a smaller bio with their email for interested parties.”
“I am not doing that. I’m sure we have plenty of younger, single firefighters who are happy to pose shirtless and share their socials.”
She shook her head. “They aren’t you. This is a huge opportunity to get the city to identify with YOU as the face of CCFD. What if the photographer shadows you and takes photos that way? Possibly a few tasteful poses of you working out at the gym? If you can’t do shirtless, a tank top?”
Hannah made some solid points. As fire chief, he was already regularly in the public eye, so he ought to make the best of it. Other than the shirtless problem, there wasn’t any reason he shouldn’t do this. Last year, he’d have jumped at the chance. Free publicity for the department and the off chance he could get a date.
But was he single now? He and Erin slept together one weekend, and he’d crept out this morning after leaving her coffee and a note. It wasn’t like he’d snuck out, though. She had a shift, and he had to work.
“Hannah, I appreciate the offer…”
“If you don’t do it, do you think I should ask that other new captain, Jacen Williams? He tested well with the public, and he represents everything in the re-branding campaign.”
Noah gritted his teeth and controlled his breathing. It would be a cold day in Hell before Williams agreed to participate.
“Hannah, do not approach Williams.” Noah deliberately used her first name to remind her who was the fire chief, and thus her superior. “I will participate if I get final approval of the photos and story copy. And I will submit a list of talking points I want covered in the interview.”
“I can make that happen.” She triumphantly gathered her papers and made for the door.
“Hannah, you didn’t ask me if I was single.” His words stopped her at the door.
She raised an eyebrow. “Does it matter? As long as you aren’t actually married, you’re a sexy divorcee in need of the right woman.”
“If I see anything slightly distasteful, the whole deal is off. Clear?” His warning bounced off her demeanor, and she gave him a shark-toothed smile.
