A/N: So I finished chapter 31! Which means you guys get another chapter! This one is another short one, but it's SUPER FLUFFY so I think you guys will love it.
Happy reading!
angellwings
PS - I promise drama is on the way soon. ;)
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN: Seeing the Appeal
Sylvie's second to last light duty shift went off without a hitch. It was even miraculously quiet for Truck 81, leaving them plenty of time to savor their "attached at the hip" status before they officially let it go. But shift is over now and today is their first day attempting to get back to "normal". For Matt that means finally putting in those two bids he's been metaphorically stashing in his back pocket and finally getting his one indoor remodel job inspected. For Sylvie that means meeting Chloe for breakfast to talk about wedding arrangements.
And Matt can't be completely sure but he's fairly certain Sylvie plans to sneak off to her gym once that's done. He's tried to tell her to wait one more week lest she aggravate her hurt side. But he saw the stubborn gleam in her eyes when she vaguely told him she'd 'think about it' and he knows better. He'll let her believe she's getting away with it. She can't keep a secret to save her life so if she does sneak off he'll hear about it eventually.
They're in his truck and pulling away from the curb when her phone rings. Her face lights up when she reads the name on the screen. She answers immediately.
"Hi, mom!"
A call from her mom put an instant smile on her face? Christ, she's adorable.
"Tomorrow? Yeah, that should be great! I can meet you. Send me your hotel information and I'll pick you up in the morning." Sylvie laughs and shakes her head. "Mom, really, this is great! I can't wait to see you both. Okay, right. Love you too. Bye."
She hangs up the phone and turns to him with excitement written all over her face. "My parents are gonna be staying in Chicago for a couple of days. They've never come up here. I've always gone back home! Oh, this is going to be so much fun!"
"A couple of days?" He asks. "So, tomorrow and the day after?"
She nods, distractedly. He can tell she's already planning every second of her day tomorrow.
"You should have them come by the Firehouse day after tomorrow," he suggests. "I'm sure 51 would love to meet them."
"Oh!" Sylvie exclaims happily. "And I want them to meet 51! I mean I talk about you guys enough. They should have faces to put with the names. That's a great idea! And next shift is my last one on light duty so I don't have to worry about leaving them behind at the house if there's a call. It's perfect!"
Her last shift on light duty. It hits him then that this worry he's felt since the wreck will never really go away. She'll always be on Ambo, running headlong into danger just the same as him. She's also PIC so if one of the paramedics is going first, it's going to be her. The image of her partially crushed under the rubble at the mattress factory intrudes on his thoughts and he grits his teeth to force it away.
He's going to need to find a way to better balance his worry with his faith in her abilities. She's the best paramedic in the damn city. She's worked hard at it. She wants that reputation. He also knows she understands her own mortality. Sylvie knows she's not invincible. That makes her careful as well as capable. His sudden wave of anxiety crests and falls like it never happened.
"You okay?" Sylvie asks him with a concerned glance.
He nods, confidently. "Yeah, I'm good."
And, to his surprise, he actually is. His answer was honest. More honest than he realized when he gave it.
They get back to the loft and change clothes. Him for work and her for a casual breakfast with Chloe. Quicker than he'd like, they're standing in front of each other, ready to separate for the day.
It's unexpectedly awkward. They stand at an impasse in unbearable silence for a minute at least, maybe two, before Sylvie takes a deep breath and breaks the ice.
"Well, um, have a good day!" She says with an overly chipper smile. She rises on her toes and gives him a brief kiss and then bolts out the door. She doesn't even give him time to say it back.
It's a version of ripping off the band-aid, he supposes.
He spends the first half of the day doing a last check over the kitchen and laundry area renovation he'd been working on before Sylvie's wreck. He had to hire guys to rig everything for natural gas and he's put off getting that inspected for longer than he should have. (It didn't help that everybody involved seemed short handed and getting an inspection on the books this time of year was like pulling teeth.) The inspection takes up more of his day than it should. The guys he hired used outdated regulations so now he has to call them back out here to redo it all. Which fucking sucks since he's already massively behind schedule. He's just gotten off the phone with the dumbasses who did it wrong and wants nothing more than to throw his phone across the room in frustration until he sees the text message waiting for him.
"Went cake shopping with Chloe! Thought you might appreciate this one!"
Just the message from Sylvie alone is enough to bring a smile to his face but the attached image of a cake made up to look like the Stanley Cup is certainly intriguing.
"That's a cake?"
"Unbelievable, right? Chloe ordered it as Joe's Groom's Cake."
Groom's Cake? What the fuck is a Groom's Cake? He's not very experienced with actual weddings but he feels like he should know what that is.
"There's a cake for the groom?"
"Sometimes. This one's going to be a surprise for Joe at the rehearsal dinner so don't you dare tell him, Matt Casey."
"Couldn't if I wanted to because I still don't understand it. And I'm fine with that."
She replies with a laughing emoji that mysteriously has the same effect on him as her actual laugh. Probably because he can hear that laugh ringing through his ears right now.
His mood drastically improves. He's still frustrated but it no longer feels like the end of the world. It'll all happen in it's own time and stressing out over it won't make it happen any faster.
It's amazing what a brief exchange of text messages can do. They text on and off for the rest of the day.
He breaks for lunch while the dumbasses fix their mistakes and then drops off the completed bids that have been sitting in the passenger seat of his truck all morning. When he gets back to the site, the work has been redone but another inspector can't come out till tomorrow. He makes the appointment and then starts to pack up. He's done for the day. Without the inspection he can't move in the rest of the appliances.
He gets home around three and Sylvie isn't there. It's not that he expects her to be waiting on him but, based on her texts, she and Chloe finished up over two hours ago. He's about to text her just to check in when the door opens and Sylvie steps through. Her skin is flushed and glistening with sweat while a gym bag hangs down over one of her shoulders. She spots him on the couch and freezes.
"You're home early," she says with a surprised glance and a smile that more closely resembles a wince.
He feels the corner of his mouth twitch in a barely recognizable smirk. "And you went to the gym."
She looks utterly caught. He presses his lips together to avoid a laugh.
"Yes," she admits sheepishly. "Yes, I did. But I didn't do anything too strenuous, I swear! And I feel completely fine!"
He finally cracks an amused smile at her nervous demeanor and shrugs. "Okay."
"O—okay?" She asks skeptically.
He gets up from the couch and pulls her into his side, letting a kiss get lost in her hair. "You know your body better than me. If you think you're ready then who am I to disagree? I mean so long as you're not pushing it so hard you hurt yourself again."
"Sometimes, I think you're too good to be true," she tells him earnestly.
His reply is immediate. "Right back at'cha."
"How was your day?" She asks as she pulls away from him to hang her jacket on the coat rack and toe her sneakers off by the door.
"Frustrating, but manageable. Yours?" He asks, not really wanting to recount his inspection issues.
"Well, I love Chloe but I could go a few years before talking weddings ever again," she answers with a tired sigh. "I think we went to every bakery in Chicago today."
"And you didn't bring anything home with you?" He asks feigning offense.
She quirks a brow at him and points at the kitchen island. "I came here to change before I went to the gym and dropped that off. You're welcome."
He notices a white bakery box he didn't see before. He walks over and opens it to find a variety of cupcakes in different colors and flavors.
"Bakers dozen cupcake sampler," she informs him. "Because why not?"
It's exactly what he needs at the end of this day. Two indulgences. Sylvie and a dessert.
"It's official," he says with a playful grin. "I have the best girlfriend."
She stiffens and, initially, he thinks he's done or said something wrong, but then her eyes soften and her smile widens. He realizes it's the opposite. He's said something right.
"That's the first time you've called me that," she says as she joins him in the kitchen and wraps her arms around him from behind. Her arms go up and under his, with her hands landing on his shoulders — joining her chin as it comes to rest on his left shoulder too.
"Called you — what? — my girlfriend?" He asks as he brings up one of his hands to cover one of hers.
She nods against his shoulder. "I liked it."
"It feels hokey," he replies with a quiet laugh. "Or too young for us, maybe. But it's accurate. I mean, we're not dating other people. We're serious about each other…"
As his sentence trails off she fills the silence with her mirthful voice. "That is all very true, boyfriend."
He turns in her arms and leans back against the island, allowing her to lean into his chest. "Okay, now that I hear you say it, I'm seeing the appeal."
She chuckles and kisses his chin. "Thought you might."
It's interesting, he notes to himself. Being with her after spending the day apart makes everything they're building feel more real. As if this is an actual relationship now and not some sort of isolated but unbelievably beautiful snowglobe they've stumbled into. He knows 'absence makes the heart grow fonder' is typically used in more dire circumstances but the expression's never felt more real to him than it does right now. He was right. A little separation will be good for them. There's no telling what kind of growth will come from it, but he hopes it'll help them grow both as individuals and as a couple.
A couple. Huh. That's what they are now, he and Sylvie.
A couple.
It's a wild thought, but also completely right.
