“What, Brian?”
He entered the room and laid down on the bench next to mine, picking up the weight above his head. We were in the small firehouse gym that was equipped with several exercise machines, which helped us stay in shape and kill some time as we waited for our next assignment.
“You still owe me that bet. She didn’t sleep with you.”
I rolled my eyes again and raised my weight high above my head, my arms slightly shaking. We’d made a bet last week about a chick from the bar we’d visited. She was busty and looked like she was up for some fun. We’d drank too much, and for some stupid reason we decided to place bets. I’d claimed I would have her in my bed by the end of the night. I failed.
She called me the next day, though, having changed her mind, and asked to see me that same night. Needless to say, I didn’t refuse.
“Maybe not that night, but she was all mine the next one.”
He lowered his weight and brought it back up again. “Nope. That doesn’t count. You didn’t manage to get her that night, so you owe me.”
“Fine. As soon as we finish here, I’ll give you the cash.”
“Was she good, bro?” Roy, another of my colleagues, asked.
I smiled, remembering her blowjob, and my cock throbbed in response. “Yeah, she was good. She was so good that I don’t regret those few bucks I’ll give you.”
“Man, you’re one lucky son of a bitch,” my best friend, Trent, told me, who was running on a treadmill across the room.
Just like me, he looked like he belonged on the cover page of the glossy magazines more than in Firehouse 149 in downtown Seattle, where we currently worked at. He was extremely muscular and popular with women. Maybe even more than I was, though I’d never admit that to him.
Trent came here before me, having joined the brigade after high school. I became a firefighter after saving a woman from a burning car seven years ago, and that was when I met Trent. We’d become friends almost instantly, and we were inseparable ever since.
This job was stressful, and it took a lot of courage and energy on a daily basis, but everything was easier with Trent next to me. We worked together perfectly, always assisting each other when needed, and he was the best friend a person could have.
“Lucky? Why?”
“The last chick I slept with was dry as a desert.”
We erupted into laughter.
“Similar to Roxanne,” Roy said and huffed, picking up his weight again.
Roxanne, Roy’s current ex-girlfriend. They were one of those couples who kept breaking up and coming back together, so I’d heard a lot about her manipulative and selfish ways. Apparently, she was bad in bed, so I had no idea why he always returned to her.
“Seriously, man.” Trent increased his tempo on the machine. “She’s bad news. You know it, we know it, and even your grandma’s cousin knows it. Everyone knows what a bitch she is, but you keep putting up with her.”
Roy put the weight back to its place above the bench. “Well, I won’t anymore. Here. I swear I’ll stay away from her for good now.”
“Yeah, right,” I said, giving him a half-smile. “You said that a million times already. You even lost a bet twice, and you think we’ll believe you now?”
Roy looked slightly offended, but he decided to drop the topic. “How about you, Brian? Any new meat you can brag about?”
Brian opened his mouth to answer him, but he never got the chance since the alarm went off. The atmosphere in the room changed immediately, all our joking immediately forgotten as we stopped working out to rush to get our gear.
My heart pounded faster in my chest, fueled by adrenaline that coursed th
rough my veins. We rushed out of the gym, all of us wearing deep frowns on our faces, and went to the lockers to change into our personal protective equipment or as we called it, our PPE. Other guys who were in the same shift joined us, and nobody uttered a word until we got the address and went to the trucks. According to the report, this apartment building fire managed to spread through the whole building, so it was highly possible that there would be victims.
I tightened my jaw, noticing out of the corner of my eye how Trent clenched his hands around the steering wheel. He navigated through heavy traffic, switching lanes quickly and taking sharp turns, and we barely even spoke a word. This would be a long night, and I tapped my fingers on my lap as I hoped there wouldn’t be anyone hurt.
It wasn’t uncommon for one of us to get injured or burned during emergencies. Since our dispatchers knew only what the callers had told them—which was most of the time incomplete—we were always heading into unknown, which could cost us lives. Our lives. And the lives of the people inside the structure.
We reached the building in ten minutes, and my adrenaline spiked, leading my body as we jumped out of the truck and put on our face masks. We quickly assessed the situation, agreeing with others about our positions, and went to work. The bystanders had already gathered around, some of them even filming the fire. We could hear the screams of the people from the inside, which prompted us to move faster.
My breathing quickened and senses became sharper, and all my focus now was on entering the building and finding out if there was anyone that was trapped inside. Others were already grabbing the fire hoses, approaching the building from different sides, and I gave Trent a final nod before I stepped in between the furious flames and entered the long hallway.