The Firefighter and the Girl From the Coffee Shop by Terry Towers Page A

that's making him unsure
about you or he's already involved with someone..."
    "Nah," Alyssa
shook her head, "he's not with someone already. I already know that
much."
    Shrugging,
Jenny picked up the dishrag from the table she'd just finished
wiping down and turned to walk back to the kitchen. "In that case
you're doing something wrong. He's interested. He wouldn't be
coming over here to chat with you several times a night just for
the fun of it. If you know what I mean.”."
    “You need to
make your move Alyssa, time’s ticking. Tick -tock, tick- tock.”
    Jenny huffed
as she walked away not bothering to look back.
    Alyssa sighed,
as she contemplated on all what Jenny had told her. A ding sounded
in the earpiece of her drive-thru headset signalling a customer at
the speaker. She rushed to the drive-thru section, her usual
station for the majority of the night, as she pressed the TALK
button on the control box, hooked to her belt and asked to take
their order.
     
    ****
     
    "Visit number
one of the night coming up," Jenny announced over the headset as
Alyssa came out of the walk-in freezer with an armful off meats to
prep the sandwich bar with. She glanced over her shoulder at the
clock in the kitchen as she passed by it and noticed it was
slightly early for him to be showing up. It wasn't even two hours
into her shift yet. A shiver of anticipation rushed through as she
quickened her pace to deposit the food in the cooler up front so
she could meet him outside for her first break.
    "Do you mind
if-"
    Jenny rolled
her eyes and grinned. "Go ahead. But for the love of God get a date
out of the man already."
    Alyssa
returned the older woman's grin as she removed her headset, dark
brown visor, and hairnet and then shook her long dark locks free of
the clip holding them into a loose bun at the back of her head.
"How do I look?"
    Jenny snorted.
"Good. Same as you do every other night."
    A bang on the
side window, courtesy of Evan, had Alyssa rushing to the side door.
"I'll be back in fifteen," she called over her shoulder as she
unlocked the side door and stepped out into the warm summer night
air.
    "I know I'm
early tonight. Bored." Evan crossed his arms over his broad chest
and reclined against the brick wall of the coffee shop.
    Damn, he's
sexy. "Isn't that a good thing?" she asked, closing the door
behind her and standing a couple feet away from him, her hands
stuffed into her back pockets.
    Evan huffed
then gave her the sexy, dimpled smile that sent her heart racing
each time she saw it. "Yeah, I suppose. I can only handle playing
cards for so long though. Ralph is in a mood because his wife left
him-"
    "Again?"
    Evan shrugged,
"-And Jeremy is studying for some college exam he has to take next
week and well... you know that Troy and I do not get along.
So..."
    "So, you might
as well spend some time chatting with the coffee shop girl
huh?"
    His grin
deepened. "Something like that." He jerked his thumb in the
direction of the firehouse, "Besides you're a hell of a lot more
pleasing to the eyes than those clowns over there."
    Alyssa's brow
furrowed. "Thanks. I think..."
    He raked a
hand through his hair and sighed. "Yeah, and a... there is this
thing coming up next month."
    "A thing?" her
heart leaped at the thought that he might finally ask her out on a
date.
    "Yeah, like an
annual city wide fireman's ball thing. It's a formal thing."
    "Formal ball
thing huh?" Alyssa teased as she rocked back on her heels and her
dark eyes caught his. So was he simply sharing the information for
the sake of conversation, or was he hinting? Damn it! She hated
having to read between the lines, if there were lines to be read
between. She groaned inwardly. How she wished she had the
confidence of Samantha, to simply see a man she wanted and go and
get him. Life would be so much easier, at least when it came to men
anyhow.
    But she wasn't
Samantha.
    He paused not
saying anything more for close to a minute, as if waiting for her
to say something more