Touch This Fire

2. Anthony

AnthonyI must have paced the floor for at least ten minutes before I got up the nerve to call Shawn. It had been almost a week but I had thought about him every minute in between. I had absolutely no idea what I was going to say I just hoped that I didn’t make a total d**k out of myself. Taking a deep breath to steady myself I dialed Shawn’s number.

It rang for a while then he answered.

“Hello?” Shawn’s voice sounded half-asleep and very groggy.

“Oh crap. Hey Shawn it’s Anthony... You know the guy you rescued?” I stuttered lamely... “I threw up on you”... Oh Christ! I slapped my forehead in frustration. He’s going to hang up you moron!!

Shawn cleared his throat and I could hear him smiling on the other end. “Oh yeah... hey Anthony... Sorry I am on night’s at the moment so I am not really with it right now.”

I did wake him up! “Oh man sorry Shawn. Hey listen I’ll call you back later on ok?”.

“Well hang on a second... Could we at least make a date before you disappear. I didn’t think you were going to call me you know.” Shawn’s reply was kind of teasing and a little hurt too.

I think realizing that left me in a state of shock... A hot fireman actually sounding bewildered that I had taken so long to call?! One small piece of the wall that guarded my heart so carefully crumbled.

“Um well... It took a while to just recover and then I was a total coward and even though you’ve been in my thoughts I just couldn’t quite get the nerve to call until now”. Stop raving you twit! I mentally berated myself.

So after both agreeing that I was an i***t we made a date for Friday evening. Nothing too fancy so there was no pressure for either of us to impress the other. Just two guys testing the waters. This was going to be a long week!