Fire Meet Gasoline

Chapter Sixteen

'Someone's popular..." Herman said to me as I walked into the common room and saw the table full of flowers. I frowned, not entirely sure what he was getting at.

"I hate flowers, who the hell got sent all these?" I commented and looked at one of the notes.

"You, apparently." Kelly muttered.
"Date went well I assume?" He added, and I frowned.

"I think Rhodes dropping her off in his fancy sports car this morning is enough to assume that the date went well." Otis says and I send him a playful glare, knowing him and the majority of fifty one saw me get out of his sports car, in my clothes from the night before and a borrowed sweatshirt from Connor's wardrobe. I turned back to all the flowers, biting down on my lip.

"There's no way Connor did this. Absolutely not." I glanced at the note, and noticed the initial, and the message. "He wouldn't have had the time..." I add.

'You're really playing hard to get this time Len, good thing I love to play games - M'

"They're from him, they're from Morgan." I said and Kelly looked at the card.

"Did you speak to the Chief about it yer?" He asked and I nodded.

"Yeah, last shift. Still waiting for HQ to get back to us, he promised he'd chase it up."

"God I hate flowers, they're a reminder someone did something bad." I say and pick up the one set and throw them in the bin.  It made me feel better.

"Have at them. Here, Herrmann, give these to Cindy." I say, passing one of the bouquets his way.

"Matt, these are for Gabby." I tell him. "Joe, these are for your new bird."

I sign and scrape a hand through my hair. My phone starts to ring and I answer it.

"Hello?" I say, and hear breathing.
"Can I help you?" There was no response. I cut it off, now was not the time for cold callers to start pestering me.

I walked out of the common room, to the locker room. I open up my locker and pull Connor's sweatshirt over my head, shoving it inside before pulling my spare uniform out.

"Last night's clothes? Classy." Gabby says and I laugh a little.

"So... you and Rhodes huh?" She asks, and I nod.

"It was our first date. I had sex with a man on our first date." I say to her and laugh a little.
"I have never done that before, and you know what? It was very liberating. I finally feel like myself again." I tell her, and she smiles.

"You got that whole post sex glow thing going on, I'll give ya that." She says and I laugh a bit more.

Sylvie walks in and has a smile on her face.

"Please tell me you went home with Halstead and your car is still parked up outside Molly's and he had to bring you to work?" I ask her and she smirks.

"No, because Halstead went home with me." She says proudly and I high five her.

"Okay girls, spill. How was it?" Gabby asks.

I look around the locker room, to make sure there's no unwanted listeners.
"It was really good, and it was the first time I've had sex with an American. I haven't had a shag, let alone a good one since... a very long time."

Gabby and Sylvie pull a face. "A shag?"

"It means to have sex. Thought you'd be used to the slang by now. But last night taught me one thing, that I miss having sex and being close and intimate with someone. Because let's be real, I'm pretty heartless with real trust issues and hates relying on people, so that small bit of intimacy was really nice, I didn't realise how much I've been craving it."