Fighting For Us - Book 4

Fireworks

STEF POV

As my lunch break ends, I walk with Cinnamon as far as her job at The Bronx Public, grateful that I'm feeling much better as she had also given me a plate of spaghetti and meatballs that her room mate had made the night before. I was hoping I could make it the rest of the day and not have another one of these damn attacks. But I just never knew which could cause a lot of anxiety as well.

As Cin grabs my upper arm and kisses my cheek I let out a soft smile. "Talk to your wife, 5-0. I mean it. From what I have heard, she's a pretty awesome girl. You don't want to lose her the second time. Now do you?"

I smile awkwardly as I reach out and squeeze her hand. "I shall do...my best. And no I don't."

"Do it! I'm not fuckin playin, Officer! Because I know how your stubborn butt is and I will call you out."

Laughing, she walks into the bar as I take a deep breath to start my second shift of the day. I pull out my walkie to radio Sandy, my partner as she, too, has taken the second shift, and she tells me to call her on a pay phone. Finding out that we are to head into Lower Manhattan, I'm hopeful that I might just get to see the fireworks after all and maybe by some stroke of luck meet up with my family. Maybe I could also pick up a few roses for Lena since I had been such an ass. Hopefully she would forgive me.

As I make my way through the crowds of people, Sandy and I keep our eyes peeled. It's supposed to storm later this evening, and I can only hope it doesn't ruin the firework show.

"Sir, please stop that! Stop it! Now!" I turn to see Sandy reprimanding a drunk guy from peeing on a fire hydrant, and when he doesn't comply, she cuffs him. I roll my eyes as I radio for a car which takes thirty minutes to reach us.

This is pretty much how our evening continues between drunk people becoming rowdy to a girlfriend screaming at her boyfriend for cheating on her with her best friend. I felt more fried than ever as I slammed people on the ground, against buildings and even chased one teen boy through the alley after I caught him drinking a beer.

The heat is almost unbearable as I feel disgusting as I'm hot and sweaty, and as the first firework goes off, the city seems to calm even if momentarily.

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LENA POV

Making our way down to the Lower East River near South Street Seaport we had spent the afternoon walking through the many festivities New York City was known to have for the 4th of July, all three of us: me, Callie and Frankie were stuffed to the gills from all the street and food trucks that lined the area near the Brooklyn Bridge. We had everything from cotton candy, slushies, foot long hotdogs, chips and sodas, yet we were satisfied. The girls were thankful that I had lifted my no junk food ban for the day after their healthy breakfast of yogurt and granola, and long gone were the thoughts of Luisa and the riff we had encountered earlier in the day...for now. What she wanted with my girlfriend I had no idea and I damn sure didn't care.

"Mama, do you think we'll get close enough to the river? Me and Mariana usually try to weasel our way as close as we can, but they usually have it roped off after a certain point for protection of the crowd. It can get kinda rowdy down here," Callie smiles as she sips her cola.

I smile as I lift my sunglasses to the top of my head and squint through the crowd. "I can see that. Both of ya'll stay close, okay? I didn't realize it'd be this crowded!"

"Ya! Always is! That's the city for ya!" Callie shouts above the hubbub of the gathering crowd as Frankie looks around taking in everything. She had gotten quiet I'd noticed, but I just chalked it up to being sensory overloaded as we didn't really make it a habit of being in super large crowds back home. In fact, we usually head on over to Julius' house and have a picnic before gathering on blankets in his big backyard and watch a fireworks show that rises over the treetops from a nearby park. This was an entirely different scenario and I even underestimated how crowded this would be.