“Must have been a bitch to not get drenched with water during your eight-hour shift.” Aiden said. “Pussies.”
Carver’s face fell, and Erin swooped in to help. He wasn’t her favorite, but team came first. “During Christmas and New Year, we do twelve hour shifts to give people holiday time off.”
“Still leaves you enough time to throw the worst holiday party ever—Oww!” Theo’s joke was cut off when Erin kicked him under the table. They didn’t need to contribute to Aiden’s bad mood.
Vanessa was better at reading the room. “Here’s our food. When we aren’t drinking, we’re getting laid.” The waitress set multiple plates in the middle of the table.
“Yeah, I want to hear more about Erin’s new guy. Is Han Solo a stevedore in bed?” Kevin enthusiastically inquired.
Erin smirked. If she kept it all to herself, it would only make them more curious. “He was pretty good. Better than the last guy.”
Aiden laughed. “I was surprised you slept with Casey Jensen at 19. Those guys are such morons, it’s amazing he knew what to do with his stick.”
Theo gave Aiden a plate of wings and a warning. “Throw no stones, man who lost his chance at captain for sleeping with a teammate.”
“I lost my spot because Soto’s a vengeful bastard with a nepotism complex. My mistakes don’t excuse sleeping with a dumbass from 19 who can’t hold his dick up,” Aiden mocked, and Erin flinched.
“You’re cut off. Eat.” Kevin took Aiden’s glass away and put a baked potato in front of him. “Apologize now. She’s never blamed you for Luna, and Erin would pick you over Soto any day—though if you keep talking, none of us will be speaking to you soon.”
“Sorry, Erin. I crossed the line, and I’m an asshole,” Aiden said and rubbed his forehead. “I had a rough night.”
Rather than pointing out the night was slow enough that she’d had phone sex with the Fire Chief, Erin decided to be generous. “Apology accepted. You’ve been through a lot, and Kevin is right. You and Luna dating wasn’t a great idea, but if Soto wanted it punished, he should have applied it equally.”
Kevin also gave the benefit of doubt to his roommate. “And our new captain is definitely stressful. I do think 19 could use his help since they can’t remember basic firefighting protocol.”
“Excellent idea. Send Williams over there,” Vanessa agreed. As Erin suspected, Vanessa was willing to let Aiden’s mood slide, but not Williams’s negative view of beauty contestants.
Theo wasn’t quite as generous. “Aiden, you still need to apologize about your Casey Jensen comments to Erin.”
“I apologize for suggesting Casey was stupid and terrible in bed and thus implying your only standard was their physical proximity,” Aiden said.
“Casey was fine, but even with beer goggles, third time wasn’t the charm. Nice guy, not very inventive, so I’m not insulted.” No need to explain that it held almost zero resemblance to Chief-sex. Noah was a lightning bolt, and Casey was more like a mosquito bite.
“At least he could find the hole,” Aiden said. “Puts him ahead of anyone else in 19. You think we should tell the Chief about it?”
Erin was suddenly alarmed. “The Chief? Why-why-why would we bring the Chief into it?”
“Because we need some warm bodies to fill in here. If Casey Jensen’s not a complete idiot, Williams could burn his angry energy on training him.”
“I prefer guys I slept with not join my firehouse. I hope everyone learned that lesson, Aiden,” Erin said, sticking with the technicality. The Chief was not a member of 15.
“Sleeping inside the firehouse leads to ruined Christmas parties,” Vanessa said. “Why retread all of that? What does Han Solo do?”
Erin invented quickly, surprising herself at how easy it was to disseminate to her team who outranked her family as the people for whom she cared about the most. “Han’s an office worker or something. We didn’t talk about his work much.”
Vanessa giggled. “The best kind of relationship. Zero talking. My ideal date involves sex and a quick morning goodbye while I’m off to fight a fire. ‘I’ll call you. Don’t call me.’”
“Great plan,” Kevin said. “No matter what you do—don’t feed them. During the hook-up, they can snack. Glass of wine, crackers, cheese goes a long way. If you let them stay the night, keep a set of breakfast foods that you can pair with their coffee on their way out the door. I can even give you my recipe for baked french toast; I keep it my freezer to heat up while the coffee brews. Remember, do not invite them over to eat before the sex, that’s dating.”
Vanessa had plenty of helpful additions. “There’s also a max number of times you can see them. If the sex is pretty good, twice a week is fine. If the sex is okay, once a week is the limit. And girls are clingier than guys.”
“Unless they’re Aiden, in which case, one time is enough to be dating,” Kevin tried to tease Aiden gently.
“You see them out the door with breakfast and promptly forget their name and phone number,” Aiden bit back, now drinking his water.
“Drew feeds me all the time,” Theo said.
“Because he’s a maître d! Isn’t he the head of the chefs or something?” Erin winked.
