I shook my head. I couldn’t have him giving me gifts—I wasn’t the gift-receiving type. But I couldn’t phrase it, although watching his face, mine was probably doing something strange. “It’s fine, honestly.”
“Well, when’s your birthday?” he asked.
In a soft voice, I looked at his beaming excitement. “It was last week.”
He slammed his fist down on the counter behind the glass. “Shut the front door.” He was dramatic about it, and I smiled. “Whatever you just ordered, it’s free. And—and—have some of my cake. You can say it’s a belated birthday cake.”
I kept smiling and nodded. “Sounds delicious. I’ll take some.”
Behind him, Tobias was decorating cakes and Keaton was standing looking all goofy at our interaction, as if it was something bigger—something different. “Wait,” he said, also slapping a hand on the counter. “Why didn’t you order your cake from us?”
I laughed. “I—I don’t really eat much cake, and the guys at the station, well, they just made me a birthday lasagna,” I said.
Caspian snorted a laugh. “Savory cake,” we said at the same time. We shared a moment, of sorts, but I really had to get back to the fire house, and he had to celebrate his birthday.
With a rather large bag of baked goods all boxed up and stacked neatly, I left the bakery and walked out into the nippy autumn air. I preferred hotter weather. Maybe it was my occupation—with the namefire—but I really preferred being close to the holy ball of burning fire we called our sun.
Tom Whitney was standing around outside the fire station door, half dressed in his uniform. He nodded at the bag. “What you got there?” He was trying to hide the fact that he was smoking—as if he wasn’t standing right beside the smoke bin and rubbing his fingers on the piece of wet wipe.
“I think these are apology cakes from Oh Crumbs,” I said, raising it.
He let out a singular laugh. “I hope there’s enough for me to take some home.”
“Plenty. I’m sure Katie and Denise will love them.”
Since we were a small station, I was in charge, then Tom, who acted as my second-in-command. He was a paramedic, and he was invaluable to the team—the team of four. I was on call, from home, from here—whatever it was, I wasalerted to it. Janey was our driver and engineer; she was an absolute beast in the truck. I’d never seen someone drift in one of them before. And Rooney, he was green to the job and was following in Tom’s footsteps, but was not quite as experienced. Anyone else who came in was a volunteer, though we had a couple of retired firemen in town who operated on a paid-on-call situation. I think it might’ve been part of their retirement benefits package from the department.
Upstairs in the staff room, which doubled up very often as a bedroom with the softest sofas, I placed the cake and cupcakes out.
Janey rushed to me, oil all over her hands. “I heard you went back to the bakery,” she said. “I was hoping it was for something yummy.” Janey was a complete contradiction in my eyes, her hair was always slicked into a ponytail and her makeup was always done, usually with an oil-slick shimmer effect on her cheeks. “Those guys know how to make cupcakes.”
“I went over because it’s—” I paused, pulling my jacket off to reveal the deep blue fire station T-shirt beneath. “There was a false alarm earlier, and it turns out it’s Caspian’s birthday.”
“Love him,” she said, placing her oiled hand to her chest. “I always wonder if they’re in some throuple situation, you know.”
I almost choked when she’d said it, my mouth now wideopen as if to catch flies. “I—”
“Oh my god, I’m absolutely joking,” she said. “I’d know if they were. My sister, Adrianna, was in their year in high school. She’d tell me if she knew the tea.”
Janey would introduce newlingoall the time. It didn’t help me when I was trying to figure out what she meant byteaand spilling it. The last thing we needed in the fire house was a stained carpet. I just took one of the cupcakes and stuffed my face with it. Janey sighed and continued to ramble, talking about how she was still working on the rig. It had been making a sound—one that I hadn’t heard—but I let her get to it since she was the engineer.
***
My phone sounded. It was always on me, even as I reclined back in my armchair watching the ten o’clock news. There were bear sightings in the area, and I was watching a basic informative guide on dealing with them. I’d almost been asleep when the phone beeped, but now I wasalert, upright, almost throwing the cake crumbs caught on my T-shirt across the room.
It was him. Caspian.
Hi! Thank you so much for the gift today. I know you said to text, but I didn’t know if you meant like, text for emergencies, or whether you wanted to talk.
It seemed better worded than anything I could’ve puttogether at that moment. I just looked his message over, yawning and blinking wildly at it. Crafting a message back was a struggle, mostly because knowing it wasn’t an emergency call, my heart rate had resumed and I was still tired.
Well, I think it’s best we know each other. I could even give you some safety tips. You know, a lot of the smoke created doesn’t come from the baking, it comes from the matter on the metal that’s burned on, and the more you keep baking it, the harder it becomes, and then it might no longer make smoke, but it’s not a good look.
I looked back over my message and wished to delete it. I didn’t want to come across as a know-it-all, especially to him. He looked like he might break at the slightest sign of criticism, and I didn’t want to be seen criticizing him.
That’s mostly Toby’s job, so I’ll let him know.He replied almost immediately.
Okay, and if there’s anything I could help you with, please let me know.
