“Your girlfriend seems nice,” Trevor says on our way back to the firehouse.

The small kitchen fire wasn’t anything much, and it sucks that what one person could have easily taken care of stole me away from my lunch date with Madison.

“She is and you can stop thinking about her right now.”

He rumbles with laughter. The kid is overzealous to say the least. Always at a ten.

“You worried I’m going to steal her away?” He moves his eyebrows up and down.

“No. Because you wouldn’t stand a chance with her.”

“I never said I wanted her. All I said was she was nice.” He holds up his left hand with a ring attached.

Well, I’ve been fooled before. That piece of metal means nothing.

“And I’m just confirming that she’s mine.”

“Jeez, lay off the testosterone.”

We sit in silence for the rest of the ride. I know I’m being a jealous prick. I’ve seen Trevor and his wife, Ariel. They’re much like me and Madison where they can’t keep their hands off each other. She’s all bright eyes and huge smiles, bouncing around next to Trevor when she comes in. That’s one thing Cailin and Hunter never had. They never did seem that happy, but they were married and in my opinion that held more weight than the affection they shared.

The truck is about to turn into the station, a few passersby watching us as always. A little boy waves and Big Gus honks the horn. The kid’s face lights up.

I’ll be thankful to get back to the station, call Madison and if I’m lucky, get each other off with some dirty talk.

“Engine Fifty-Five,” a dispatcher comes in over the radio.

Big Gus pulls the radio down to his mouth, pressing the button.

“Another call. A warehouse on…” My mind drifts with the word warehouse.

Trevor pales across from me, his eyes finding no serenity at the kid jumping up and down on the sidewalk. He was there that night. Being a newbie, he was only able to assist in hose preparation. Tonight, he’ll be in on the action.

My LT turns to us from the front, his eyes finding mine.

“They’re calling in other engines for back up. It’s a big one boys.”

As we back up onto the streets of Chicago, another set of guys head to the ladder truck, climbing in. The ladder truck hasn’t been used since that night and all of us in the cab of this truck know it.

Fuck, uneasiness unsettles my stomach as the truck sirens blare down the street. It’s a bad omen when you have to go into a call with a monkey on your back like this. I try to shake it off as we whip through traffic, but it’s impossible.

Ten minutes later, the thick, dark smoke billows out into the blue sky and we’ve arrived at our destination. The ladder truck goes first, positioning itself to spray down into the structure.

At three stories, this one is bigger than the one six months ago.

My lieutenant jumps out, as we all do, the physical aspects of the job second nature by now. It’s putting the mental mind fuck aside to function as the team we’re trained to, that’s the challenge.

A car is parked in front of the fire hydrant, so Trevor breaks one window and I the other as I pass him the hose to hook up. The car alarm joins the chorus of fire trucks approaching the scene.

“Bianco!” Lieutenant waves me over. “You and Conley handle hose.”

I nod to Trevor Conley who looks like he’s about to puke in the middle of the street.

I grab the hose, put on my helmet and button my jacket up.

We head up the sidewalk, following the other fighters with axes to break down anything that blocks our way.

All that’s on my mind is Madison. The way her eyelashes flutter when I kiss her good morning. How her body seeks mine, her arms and legs anchoring my body down in bed like she’s afraid I’ll disappear.

The heat of the flames hits my face, and I switch the hose on, cementing my legs to keep control of the water, spraying down the uncontrollable rager in front of me. I’m fighting the fire physically but my mind wanders to her.

I remember two mornings ago when I woke up to her hands sliding down the waistband of my boxer briefs.

How her heated gaze stayed on me while her tongue licked up my length and she settled between my legs.

Her soft hair wrapped around my fingers as I rocked into her mouth. The tension that stiffened my legs as my balls drew up while her soft hands massaged them.

The name Madison falling from my lips while the morning light flowed into my bedroom.

The warmth of her body as she slides up to meet me.

The way I tasted on her tongue.

Her giggle as I flipped her over and returned her good morning wake-up call.

I never wanted to leave that room.

“BIANCO!” Trevor yells and I wake up from my daydream to hit the flames about to melt our boots on the floor. “It’s everywhere, man!” Fear laces every word.

It takes us a while but when the front room is clear, we head upstairs while another team covers the first floor.

“Just keep the hose firm in your grip. It will be over before you know it.” I say to him.

“Second floor is practically nonexistent,” another firefighter says over our line. “Need another hose ASAP.”

“Coming,” I say, increasing my speed.

Trevor keeps up and we find two guys outside a door, one with an axe in his hand.

“One, two, three.” The guy beats it down and we all stay on the side to see what kind of flames will emerge.

When it’s clear, me and Trevor head in, spraying down the rapid rupture of flames climbing the walls. Again, as I extinguish the hungry beast, Madison enters my mind once again.

Last week when she went over to my mom’s and they discussed options to expand their kitchen. A ventilation system that would ensure it did not get so hot. She even suggested a double oven. The call from my mom after her visit, proud that I found such a keeper.

That’s exactly what she is, a keeper and I have to make sure she doesn’t slip away.

From room to room, we combat the fire, making ground and all I want is for this to be over so I can see Madison. I’ll call her as soon as I get back and ask her to come to the station just so I can hold her in my arms.

We break down another door, waiting for the flames to emerge before we spray it down and enter. We’ve already done this more times than I can count but based on the other rooms I wasn’t prepared for the flames to cover every surface like an out of control vein on steroids. Within seconds, every surface around us was covered.

“What do we do?” Trevor asks as I try to spray each corner, only to have it covered by fire again immediately. The flames aren’t going out and panic starts to bubble in my throat. “It’s closing in on us, Mauro. What do we do?” Trevor is in a full panic.

“Conley! Bianco! You need to get out. It’s way too dangerous. We’re going to have to fight it from the outside only!” the lieutenant shouts in my ear.

I turn around for a second to signal to Conley for us to find some way out of this, but he’s as baffled as me. “We’ve got nowhere to go. We’re caged.”

“Find a way, goddamn it. Find a fucking way, Bianco!”

My eyes search, spraying the hose in all different directions trying to get enough control of the fire to allow us a moment to escape. It feels hopeless as I watch the water-sprayed wood feed the fire down the path we came.

“We have no choice. We have to go forward to get out.”

“We’ll never survive,” Trevor says behind me.

“Look behind you, Conley, we’ll never survive that way. We have no choice.” Moving forward, the heat becomes almost unbearable.

“If you live and I die, tell Ariel I love her. Tell her I’m there with her when the baby is born. There’s a letter in my locker, in case anything like this happens. Give it to her.”

I don’t want to hear this shit because I’ve never told the woman I love that I love her. I’ve been too chicken shit in case she doesn’t feel the same way about me yet.

“I will, but we’re getting out of here, you hear me?”

“Watch out!” Conley yells and a wall falls down to the right of us, sending embers in all directions.

I have to get it together, but visions of Madison at my funeral plague me as we search for escape. Visions of the flag draped over my coffin and her walking behind the truck assault my mind as each room brightens with more intense flames.

She’d never know how much I love her. If I get out this, I’m telling her, to hell with the consequences.

“BIANCO!” Conley bellows and this time I have no time to react.