“Hi, man!” Zack said excitedly, the moment he saw me.

He pulled me in for a bear hug in the middle of the restaurant, and I laughed. “Get off me… geez.”

“Please… you love my hugs.”

“Can we please just sit and eat?” I asked.

“That’s always been your problem,” Zack said, with mock sadness as we sat down together. “So damn closed off.”

“Shut up and sit down,” I said. “I’m starving.”

“Dude, it’s been ages,” Zack said, shaking his head at me.

“Don’t I know it,” I nodded. “I’m sorry. I know I’ve been terrible at keeping in touch. It’s just with all the shit that went down recently—”

“Hey, you don’t have to explain man,” Zack said immediately. “I get it. You were trying to stay out of jail.”

“Tried and succeeded,” I said, unable to keep a little edge of satisfaction from my tone.

Zack shook his head at me. “I know. You have to be the luckiest motherfucker I’ve ever met,” he said. “When I heard about your case I was sure you would be spending some time in the slammer.”

“Hey, I’ll be the first to admit that I got really, really lucky,” I nodded. “I mean… I had no one and nothing on my side, but the judge… he turned out to be a pretty decent guy. I think maybe I reminded him of his son or something, but I saw him softening towards me the more he questioned me. I think he actually kind of liked me.”

“It’s that pretty face of yours.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” I nodded smugly.

“Were your parents there?” Zack asked, softening his tone a little because he knew how sensitive I was on the subject.

“Of course they were there,” I nodded. “They wouldn’t miss a chance to see their little boy cuffed and dragged away like a common criminal.”

“Come on,” Zack said, abandoning his menu in favor of the conversation. “You can’t believe they would really have wanted you sentenced?”

“I do,” I said. “There isn’t a doubt in my mind that that’s what they wanted. How could there be? Dad basically said exactly that to my face.”

“Fuck,” Zack said, in a low voice.

“I shouldn’t have expected anything else,” I said, with a shrug. “He’s a fucking asshole, and he always has been.”

Just then the waitress appeared, and we ordered two thin crust pizzas after Zack had finished flirting with the waitress.

“What about drinks?” she asked.

“I’ll have a beer,” I said promptly.

“I’ll have a Coke,” Zack replied.

“A Coke?” I said, looking towards him. “Why aren’t you joining me for a beer?”

“Because its mid-day, dude,” Zack replied. “And I have to get back to work.”

“They won’t even notice.”

“Not the point.”

I frowned at him, but Zack turned back to the waitress. “Just a Coke for me, love,” he said, giving her a little wink in the process. “Thanks.”

The moment she left, Zack turned to me and shook his head. “I’m trying to be a grown up here,” he said, in an accusing tone.

“Grown-ups drink.”

“On the job?”

I sighed. “Fuck… being a grown-up sucks.”

“Tell me about it,” Zack nodded. “So… back to our conversation… have you spoken to your parents since?”

“Nope,” I said, trying to act indifferent about that. “I have nothing to say to them, and I doubt they have anything worthwhile to say to me.”

“Even your mom?”

“My mom has no opinions of her own,” I said bitterly, recalling the fact that mom had not jumped in to even attempt to defend me when dad was tearing into me. “She follows dad around and obeys his every command. It’s nauseating.”

“I’m sorry, dude,” Zack said.

I shrugged. “It is what it is,” I said dismissively, even though my feelings on the subject of my parents were vast and complicated. I didn’t let myself think about it too much because it was too damn painful sometimes.

“And the community service… how’s that going?” Zack asked.

“It’s… going,” I said.

“Oh boy.”

I groaned. “The men hate me,” I admitted. “And I don’t know if it’s personal or if they’re just trying to teach me a lesson or something. Whatever… it’s not like I care, it’s just annoying to have to go there every day and deal with that shit. Not to mention it makes doing the work that much harder because no one’s willing to help me out at all.”

“Fuck, that blows. And no one’s willing to make things easier on you?”

“Why would they?” I asked. “I’m a nobody to them. There is one guy who’s been pretty decent to me though.”

“Oh yeah?”

“He’s the one I report to everyday… his name’s Seth. He’s actually really nice to me.”

“Well, that’s something.”

I narrowed my eyes at Zack. “It’s a small something, but I guess I’ll just have to take what I can get. It’s just hard to be positive, man… I have so much shit to deal with. I can’t sell pot, which means my source of income is down the drain. I have to resort to going to all these lame ass job interviews that require your average corporate stooge. And then there’s the roommate issue. I still haven’t found one.”

“Oh that’s right,” Zack nodded. “You’re looking for a roommate.”

“I wouldn’t have to if you just moved in with me and took care of half the rent,” I pointed out.

“Please,” Zack said. “If I moved in with you I’d get nothing done.”

“Meaning what?”

“Meaning you party so hard it leaves no time left over to be productive.”

“I’m productive,” I said defensively.

“You’re an artist,” Zack said. “What you do is very different. I happen to be one of those corporate stooges you hate so much.”

I smiled. “No offense.”

“Fuck you.”

I laughed, and a second later the waitress showed up with our pizzas and our drinks. She set them down in front of us, gave Zack a parting smile and then walked away. Zack watched her go with obvious appreciation.

“She’ll do, won’t she?”

I shrugged. “Not my type,” I said.

Zack turned to me and frowned. “Excuse me?”

“What?” I asked, taking a slice of pizza.

“She’s exactly your type,” Zack pointed out. “Blond and blue-eyed and great body.”

My thoughts immediately flitted to Zoey, and I felt another wave of disappointment. It didn’t look like she was going to step into the station anytime soon. I had been on the cusp of asking some of the firefighters about her because they all seemed to recognize her name when I had mentioned it to them, but no one had offered me an explanation as to how they all knew her. In the end, I hadn’t asked after her. No one would give me a straight answer anyway. They’d probably just use that information against me, so I had decided to leave well enough alone.

“Hmm… maybe my attention has been caught elsewhere,” I admitted.

Zack turned and looked around. “Really?” he asked. “Which girl are you checking out?”

I smiled. “She’s not here, dude,” I said. “She’s a girl I met a short while ago.”

“Really?” Zack said, immediately interested. “Where?”

“Believe it or not, at the fire station.”

“Really?” Zack said, looking at me pointedly.

“She’s not a firefighter,” I explained. “She stopped by one day to bring cupcakes to the boys.”

“Ah, a Samaritan?”

“Apparently,” I said. “I didn’t really ask about the cupcakes—”

“Of course not,” Zack said, giving me a wink. “You were interested in other things.”

I rolled my eyes at him. “She was really cool,” I said, remembering the conversation we had shared and how easy it was to talk to her.

“Describe her to me,” Zack said.

“She was beautiful,” I said. “Pretty, cute, attractive… none of those words cut it for her. She was nothing else but beautiful. She was blond, but dark blond, you know… the kind of blond that has hints of chestnut and caramel and just the faintest hints of auburn where the light touches. And her eyes… man, you should have seen her eyes. They were the most amazing pure green I have ever seen. And they were light, so they stood out, but she didn’t look severe at all. They were the warmest moss green you could find.”

“Wow,” Zack said.

“What?”

“You are so an artist,” he said. “You just painted me a picture right there.”

“Sorry,” I smirked. “That was a bit of a long-winded description.”

“Hey that’s what I asked for,” Zack said. “So tell me what happened? She stopped by the station with cupcakes and naturally you tried to charm her with your wit and intellect.”

“She’s studying music at Columbia,” I said. “She plays a few instruments too. She seems really well read and really passionate about what she does… when she spoke about music, it kind of reminded me of how I felt about my work.”

“And thus a connection was born,” Zack said.

“I thought so,” I sighed. “But then…”

“Then what?”

“I don’t know… we had a really great conversation, and I was pretty sure she was attracted to me—”

“How could she not be?” Zack cut in.

I frowned at him and continued. “So I decided to just cut the crap and ask her out… which I did.”

“She turned you down?”

“More or less,” I said. “She seemed reluctant immediately after I asked her out, which is weird because I was still pretty sure she really wanted to say yes.”

“Hmm… maybe she has a boyfriend?”

“She doesn’t,” I said immediately, even though I really had no idea.

“Did she tell you that?” Zack asked.

“Uh… no,” I admitted. “She didn’t tell me that, but Zoey just doesn’t seem like the kind of girl who would flirt with a random guy if she were in a relationship.”

Zack raised his eyebrows. “You had one conversation with the girl,” he pointed out. “What makes you think you know what she is and is not capable of doing?”

“I don’t know man,” I sighed. “We had this connection.”

“Is it possible that it was one-sided?”

“I have no choice but to consider that,” I admitted. “I mean she hasn’t come back to the station, and she didn’t leave me with a number or anything. We kind of made this… deal before she left?”

“Oh?”

“I told her to think about it, and if she was still thinking of me in two weeks’ time, then she should come down to the station again, and we can set up a date.”

“Hmm… and she went for it.”

“We shook on it and everything.”

“And has it been two weeks?”

“Closing in on two weeks,” I admitted. “Which means either she’s already forgotten about me or she’s really thinking it through… which I can’t help feel might be a bad sign.”

“Why?”

“If she has to think so hard about going on one date with me… maybe she’s not as into me as I thought.”

“Or maybe she’s playing hard to get?”

“I don’t think she’s the type to play games like that,” I said.

Zack shook his head at me. “You don’t really know this girl, you realize. You’re assuming a whole lot based on a couple of minutes worth of conversation.”

“I know,” I sighed. “It’s the romantic in me.”

“Apparently,” Zack nodded. “It’s just… she was pretty amazing, dude. How often is it that you find a woman who ticks all the boxes?”

“Well the two weeks aren’t up yet, are they?” Zack asked. “She might still show up at the station shouting Romeo at the top of her lungs.”

I smiled. “Fuck you.”

Laughing, Zack took a huge bite of pizza and grinned at me teasingly the whole time. We settled into our lunch together and had a great time catching up. It was as Zack was asking for our check that I felt my phone vibrate in my trouser pocket. I looked down and saw that there was another person interested in renting out the extra room in my apartment. The handle read ‘Z-Lark’ so I wasn’t sure if it was a man or a woman. They were interested in seeing the apartment tomorrow morning. I wrote back in the affirmative and set my phone down on the table.

“Another possible renter,” I told Zack.

“Hope this one works out.”

“I wouldn’t have to resort to this shit, if you just lived with me,” I said, in annoyance.

Zack smiled. “Like I said… I can’t afford to live with you.”

“I don’t party as hard as I used to,” I said.

“I’ll believe that when I see it.”

I rolled my eyes at him and hoped that this next person would work out for me. I needed to split the cost of my rent, or I’d have to find a hole to crawl into. I felt the urge for a joint, but since I was trying to stay away from that life, I decided to party away my stress tonight after I finished my community service.