March Heat

by Chase Jackson

  “Duke wanted to make his parents think that he had changed,” I countered. I brought the wine glass to my lips and took a sip. I felt an immediate sense of relief. I couldn’t tell if it was desperation, or if the musty, warm taste of chardonnay was actually starting to grow on me…

  “You don’t even know if this ‘ultimatum’ crap is actually true--”

  “He admitted it!” I said, slamming my wine glass down on the counter.

  “Ok, so there was an ultimatum,” Gia conceded. “But how do you know that going to the gala with you was part of it?”

  “Why else would he bring an EMT in a TJ Maxx dress to a beach party in the Hamptons?” I demanded.

  “His parents weren’t around to watch when he took that punch for you at Rusty’s,” Gia said. “They weren’t there when he called the fire department employee hotline and made a report against Scott Fuller. So who was he trying to fool then, huh?”

  “Wait, what?!” my eyes flicked up at Gia. “Duke was the one who reported Scott?”

  “Duh,” Gia said. “I thought you knew.”

  “No. I thought it was anonymous…”

  “Well his name is all over the reports,” Gia shrugged. “It’s all there… even the part about the fight. Duke put his entire career on the line for you. Do you really think that this was all about some stupid ultimatum?!”

  I didn’t know what to say, so I funneled more wine into my mouth.

  “There was something real between you two,” Gia continued. “You said so yourself. You can’t just imagine something like that--”

  “He’s a player,” I said flatly. “That’s how he operates. That party was probably full of ex-flings who thought that they could be the one to tame Duke Williams. The only difference between them and me is that at least they looked the part.”

  Gia sighed and swirled around the wine in her glass, then she glanced up at me:

  “No,” she said firmly. “The difference between them and you is that you did tame Duke Williams. He loved you, even when nobody was looking--”

  He loved you. The words sent an involuntary tremble through my body. My stomach twisted into knots and my cheeks burned. I fought off the feeling, forcing myself to swallow heavily and focus on the anger and hurt that was rotting in the pit of my stomach.

  “Duke didn’t love me,” I insisted. Then I repeated Brie’s words from the party: “He doesn’t love anyone. He’s incapable.”

  “Do you really believe that?” Gia challenged me. Then, in a softer voice, she said:

  “Duke can’t change his past, but he can choose his present. And he chose you.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN | DUKE

  Ugh! I grunted through a mouthful of rose petals as I waddled across the lobby of the Hartford Fire Department Headquarters, clutching the giant flower arrangement in my outstretched arms.

  ‘Flower arrangement’ probably wasn’t the most accurate term; the mess of stems and buds protruding from the oversized glass vase was more like a tree. A very dense, very thorny tree.

  How the hell did Brie manage to haul this thing all the way to the apartment?!

  I heaved the tree onto the front reception desk and panted for breath. Heaving that monstrosity across town had been a feat in and of itself, but I knew that this was just a warm-up for the challenge that awaited me.

  I poked my head out from behind the arrangement, and I saw a pair of beady black eyes glaring up at me expectantly. According to the metal name plate that was positioned on the desk, those beady eyes belonged to a woman named ‘Donna.’

  “Good morning!” I said cheerfully. “I have a delivery for Olivia Beck.”

  ‘Donna’ glared between me and the flowers, then she pointed a finger towards a maze of cubicles at the back of the office.

  “First row on the left,” she grunted. “Last cubicle.”

  “Thanks!” I hoisted the flowers against my chest and proceeded to waddle towards the back of the office, squinting through the hedge of thorns and rose buds that blocked my face.

  I already knew that I wouldn’t find Beck at her desk. ‘Donna’ probably knew that, too. But I wasn’t looking for Beck; these flowers were for someone else.

  The seed for this far-fetched plan had been planted in my head as soon as Brie had mentioned the word ‘bribery.’

  I knew that someone in Hartford had to know where Beck was… and I knew that bribery was my only shot at getting that information. The only problem was that I needed someone to bribe.

  I had wracked my brain trying to think of any friends or colleagues that might know where Beck had vanished to, and then a lightbulb went off.

  Beck had only mentioned her cubicle-mate once. It was the same night that we shared our first kiss, among other things. After confessing to seeing the Firehouse 56 calendar, Beck had quickly blamed it on the colleague that she shared a cubicle with at the office.

  She hadn’t mentioned anything else about the coworker -- not even her name -- but the calendar gave me a good start.

  Let’s just hope that she’s a fan of the month of March…

  I followed Donna’s directions and found the cubicle at the back of the office. Two nameplates were fashioned to the outside wall of the cuble: Olivia Beck, and Gia Rogers.

  Gia, I noted silently. That’s who I’m looking for…

  Then I stepped forward, wedging myself and the flowers into the cubicle.

  “I’ve got a special delivery for Gia Rogers!” I announced from behind the shield of thorny stems and pastel-colored petals.

  ‘Gia’ was sitting at one of the desks in the cubicle, and she instantly spun around in her office chair. I could only imagine what this looked like from her vantage point: a giant orb of flowers with a pair of human legs. Her jaw dropped and she clutched a hand over her chest.

  “Those are for me?!”

  “They sure are!” I slid the bouquet onto an empty patch of her desk. The massive arrangement took up nearly half of the cubicle, but Gia didn’t seem to notice; her attention had turned away from the flowers and onto me.

  “You’re Duke Williams!” she stammered as her jaw dropped all over again. “Wha--what are you doing here? And why did you bring me flowers?”

  I avoided the question as I glanced around the cubicle. My eye caught on the Firehouse 56 calendar that was pinned up on the wall. She had the calendar set to May.

  “You know your calendar is out of date, right?” I said, nodding at the calendar. “It’s not May anymore.”

  “Oops!” she giggled as her cheeks turned beet-red. “Must have forgot to change it…”

  I’m sure...

  “Anyways,” I said, crossing my arms and leaning back on the edge of the desk. I saw her eyes shoot straight to the muscles in my biceps, and I grinned. “I was hoping that I could ask you for a favor…”

  The smile immediately slid off of her face, and she glanced at me skeptically over the rim of her glasses.

  “What kind of favor?”

  “I need to find Beck.”

  “I don’t think I can--”

  “Please,” I clasped my hands together in front of me in the prayer position. “I just want a chance to explain myself. If she still doesn’t want anything to do with me, then that’s her choice… but she needs to know the truth, and I want her to hear it from me.”

  Gia sighed heavily and her eyes wandered back to the flowers.

  “Please?” I begged. Then, with a smile, I added: “If you want, I could introduce you to Mr. May--”

  “What?! Why would I want that?!” Gia snapped defensively. Her cheeks flushed again, reaching a new level of red.

  “Just putting it out there!” I shrugged quickly.

  Her face softened and her shoulders slumped forward.

  “If you really want to talk to Beck…” she said slowly, “You’re going to have to hurry.”

  “Hurry? What do you mean?”

  “I mean you’re going to have t
o hurry,” Gia repeated meaningfully. “You don’t have much time.”

  “Why?”

  “She’s leaving town,” Gia said. Then she glanced at the digital clock display on her desktop and added: “You’ve got less than an hour.”

  ***

  The Greyhound bus for New Haven was scheduled to depart at noon, which gave me less than an hour to make it across town to Union Station.

  Luckily, I had the right set of wheels for the job: a 35-foot long, cherry red fire engine, courtesy of Firehouse 56.

  Technically speaking, borrowing an apparatus from the firehouse fleet was strictly against fire department policy. So was using the sirens in a non-emergency situation. But as far as I was concerned, this was an emergency: Beck was leaving town, and I had to stop her before she was gone for good.

  Desperate times call for desperate measures...

  With sirens wailing and lights flashing overhead, I sped through Hartford’s midday traffic in the fire truck.

  I got to Union Station with minutes to spare, but then I was faced with another hurdle: where the hell was I going to park the engine?

  I glanced around the crowded street frantically, but I couldn’t see any sign of a fire lane.

  “Fuck it,” I decided, slamming on the gas. With sirens still blaring, I screeched forward and steered the truck through the gates of Union Station, driving directly into the bus terminal.

  Pedestrians glanced up in panic, and I narrowly avoided a head-on collision with an oncoming Greyhound bus that was attempting to exit the station. I located an empty bus bay in the terminal, and I swerved the truck into the spot.

  My heart was racing, but I didn’t have time to catch my breath as I flicked off the sirens and climbed out of the truck and kicked down on the hot asphalt.

  I was prepared to search every inch of the station to find Beck… but it turned out, I wouldn’t need to.

  “Duke?!”

  My eyes shot up and I saw her standing directly in front of the fire engine. She frowned, trying to process the scene. She wasn’t the only one; a cluster of other passengers had formed behind her, gawking at me and the fire truck. I ignored them. There was only person who mattered to me: Olivia Beck.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” she asked me finally.

  “I needed to see you,” I said, taking a step towards her. “I needed to explain--”

  “I’m leaving,” she said firmly. “I already made up my mind.”

  “I know,” I said. “And I know that once you make up your mind about something, there’s no changing it. You’re stubborn as fuck, Beck, but so am I. And I’m not going to let you go without a fight.”

  “I’m not fighting with you, Duke.”

  “I know you’re not,” I said. “I’m fighting for you.”

  She sighed and pursed her lips together, adjusting the duffel bag on her shoulder.

  “I’ve never fought for someone before, Beck,” I told her. “I’ve spent my entire life assuming that people should care about me. I assumed that my parents were supposed to love me. I assumed that my friends were supposed to give a shit about me. I assumed that women were supposed to want to be with me…”

  Her face was completely still and emotionless. I swallowed heavily, then I continued:

  “I figured that if people didn’t care, the problem was them. But I was wrong, Beck. The problem was me. People didn’t care about me because I never gave them a reason to. I was never a good son to my parents. I was never there for my friends when they needed me. And women… well, I never had more to offer them than sex.”

  There was a murmur through the crowd, but Beck and I both ignored it; our eyes stayed locked in a fierce stare. I could see the ice in her eyes, but it was no match for my fire.

  “My life was so shallow and selfish,” I shook my head slowly. “But then I met you. You made me realize that I could be better, Beck. You made me want to change.”

  “This was never about me,” Beck said, narrowing her eyes. “Your parents gave you an ultimatum, Duke. You had to change so that you could get your old life back. I was just a prop.”

  “You’re right,” I admitted. “I did want to get my old life back. I thought that’s who I was… but you helped me see a different side of myself. You listened to me. You cared about the parts of me that nobody had cared about before. You made me realize that I didn’t need money to be worth something.”

  Beck crossed her arms over her chest and stared at me. I couldn’t read through the still expression on her face, but I could tell that the intensity in her eyes was starting to thaw. That gave me hope.

  “Beck, I know that I don’t deserve you,” I said. “But I meant everything that I said to you. I want to fight for you. I’m just asking you to give me a chance to prove it--”

  The speaker system over the bus terminal crackled on, and a computerized voice announced:

  “FINAL BOARDING CALL FOR BUS 2112 SERVICE TO NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT. SCHEDULED DEPARTURE AT 12 PM. ALL PASSENGERS MUST BOARD AT THIS TIME. BUS IS PREPARING TO DEPART.”

  “That’s my bus,” Beck said. “I have to go.”

  “Beck, please...”

  She pinched her lips together, and I could tell that there was more she wanted to say; more that she was holding back. She sighed and turned towards a bus that was idling in the next slot over.

  There was a murmur through the crowd as Beck climbed the steps onto the bus, then disappeared inside the Greyhound. I jerked forward, chasing after her.

  The bus engine was rumbling and hot exhaust was pooling around the terminal. I threw myself into the bus and climbed up the steps, but the bus driver stuck her hand out to stop me.

  “Ticket?”

  “I don’t have one--

  “Nobody gets on this bus without a ticket,” she said firmly.

  “I can pay you cash,” I said. “I just--”

  “Step off the bus, sir,” she insisted.

  I froze, and my eyes shot to the aisle of the bus. Beck was standing there, staring back at me.

  “Don’t leave,” I pleaded with her. “I know you’re scared. I’m scared, too. But there’s something between us. You can’t deny it. I know you feel it, too--”

  “Sir, you need to step off the bus,” the bus driver snapped, sticking her palm into my chest. I ignored her.

  “This is real, Beck. Please don’t run away from this!”

  Beck’s face softened and I saw confusion and uncertainty wrinkle through her forehead.

  “Just give me a chance--”

  “SIR!”

  “I love you, Beck,” I spit the words out, and I felt a chill spread through my body. “I’ve never said that before, and it scares the shit out of me, but I fucking love you!”

  “That’s it,” the bus driver grumbled. She clicked off her seat belt and scrambled to stand up from her seat. She was approximately four feet tall, but that didn’t stop her from pushing me forcefully back towards the steps.

  I had nothing left to say, and I fell silent as I let the diminutive bus driver eject me from the bus. I stumbled backwards on the asphalt, and I noticed that the crowd of people was still gawking at me, waiting to see what would happen next.

  I glanced back up at the bus, and the driver grumbled something under her breath and glared at me as she slid the doors shut.

  The engine revved, and I felt my stomach sink.

  That’s it. She’s leaving…

  I knew it was my own damn fault, but that didn’t make it any easier to grasp. I had meant every word I said: I did love her.

  I took a step back and joined the crowd of onlookers. We all blinked at the bus, waiting for it to pull out of the station. But it didn’t move.

  I frowned, and there was a chorus of voices murmuring through the crowd.

  I glanced down at my watch. It was 12:02; two minutes after the scheduled departure time.

  What’s going on?

  Then, suddenl
y, the bus doors slid open. The crowd went silent, and I stared up.

  The first thing that came out of the bus was a duffel bag. It was tossed down onto the asphalt, and it landed right on the asphalt by my feet with a heavy thud.

  I stared at the bag, then my eyes flicked back up to the bus just as a pair of Adidas Superstars trekked down the steps, followed by a pair of long legs...

  Beck came fully into view as she hopped off the final step and landed next to her duffel bag on the asphalt.

  The doors immediately slammed shut behind her, and the bus rumbled noisily as it pulled away behind her. But Beck didn’t seem to notice; her bright blue eyes were locked straight up at me, and she was staring at me expectantly.

  “Could you repeat what you said back there?” she asked in a stiff, flat voice. “I want to make sure I heard you right.”

  “I asked you not to run away,” I said slowly. “I asked you to give me a chance--”

  “Not that,” she shook her head. “The last part. What was the last thing you said?”

  My pulse swelled through my ears, and I felt like my heart was going to explode through my chest.

  “I love you,” I said the three little words again, and I felt another chill ripple through my body.

  The tension in her eyes melted away, and those two little balls of ice turned into swirling pools of bright blue Caribbean Sea as her face twisted into a smile.

  “One more time?” she asked. “I’m not sure I caught that--”

  “I love you,” I reached forward and grabbed her around the hips, dragging her towards me. “I love you, I love you, I love you…”

  I repeated the words over and over as her hands hands wrapped around my neck and pulled my face down towards hers. Our lips were a few inches apart, and then I heard her voice say in a soft little whisper:

  “I love you, too.”

  She pressed her lips into mine. I felt fireworks explode inside of me as I kissed her over and over again, lifting her off the ground and hugging her closer to me.

  I didn’t notice all of the applause and cheers coming from the crowd until I set Beck down on the ground. She blushed and glanced up at me.