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“Still no word from Stella?” Matt found Kelly standing out on the apron.
“No.” Kelly shook his head. “I’m just waiting for her.”
“She’s got this, she’s going to be fine.”
“I know.” Kelly took his eyes off the street to glance at Matt, his gaze landing on the cigars in his hands. “You’ve been MIA.”
Matt’s eyebrows furrowed as he handed him a cigar. “What do you mean? I was home.”
“You didn’t leave your room.” He retorted. “What happened?”
Matt’s mind flashed to the conversation outside of Firehouse 40. Not that he’d thought of much else in the past forty-eight hours, anyway. “Nothing.”
“You came to find me with cigars at seven thirty in the morning.” Kelly laughed, then glanced back towards 61 in its spot. “Something with Brett?”
“What - why would you think that?”
“You’re not as subtle as you think you are, Case.” Kelly snorted. “So what happened?”
“Sylvie and Grainger broke up.”
Kelly raised an eyebrow. “And?”
“She told me he called it off because she didn’t tell him it was me she was helping when I was going through all that head stuff.” Matt waited for a reaction, continuing once he realized Kelly wasn’t going to give him one. “I could tell she was upset about it, so I thought I’d go to 40, try to talk to him.”
“Of course you did.” Kelly sighed. “And how’d that go?”
“He thinks she’s in love with me.”
“Huh.”
“Seriously?” Matt exclaimed. “That’s all you’re gonna say?”
“Well, what do you think?”
“I have no clue. Clearly, I am clueless.” He shook his head. “She told me it couldn’t happen. I just… assumed the door on that was closed.”
“And now you think it’s not?”
“I thought Gabby was always going to be an issue, but maybe she’s not. Not if I can convince her she’s in my past and staying there.” Matt sighed. “I just have to figure out how to do that.”
“Incoming.” Kelly mumbled, raising his cigar to his mouth.
Matt glanced towards the sidewalk, seeing Sylvie walking towards them; he smiled and waved, then put his cigar to his mouth.
“Good morning.” She smiled.
Matt opened his mouth to return her greeting, then coughed on the smoke from his cigar; out of the corner of his eye, he could see Kelly pressing his lips together to avoid laughing.
“Are you okay?” Sylvie touched his arm as he continued to cough.
“Uh, yeah.” He cleared his throat. “I’m, um, I’m all good.”
“You sure?” She asked, her hand still on his arm; he nodded, and her smile returned. “I’ll see you inside.”
“Yeah, uh, I will. I’ll see you inside.”
As soon as the door to the firehouse closed behind Sylvie, Kelly laughed, shaking his head.
Matt resisted the urge to groan. “Don’t.”
“That was… almost painful to watch, man.” Kelly laughed. “Wow.”
“You can see why talking to her might prove to be a problem.”
“Yeah, I can see that.” He laughed. “I know you’ve been out of the dating game for a while, but that was ridiculous.”
“Either say something helpful or shut up.” Matt grumbled.
Kelly laughed until he saw Stella walking up towards them, still in her dress blues. “So how’d it go?”
Stella shook her head and shrugged. “I couldn’t get a read on how I was doing at all.”
“I’m sure you did fine, Kidd.” Matt smiled. “Those white shirts can be hard to get a read on.”
“Yeah, you were ready, Stella. I know you’re going to pass.” Kelly pulled her into a hug. “You got this.”
Matt glanced away from his friends, focusing his eyes on the cigar in his hand.
“I gotta go change.” Stella sighed. “I’ll leave you two to your cigars then.”
“I’ll be inside in a second.” Once Stella was inside, Kelly turned to Matt. “So what’s your plan?”
“Plan?”
“About Brett, obviously.”
“Figure out how to have a conversation with her without looking like an idiot?” Matt sighed. “That seems like a solid first step.”
“Yeah, that’s a good place to start.” Kelly laughed. “You said I needed to shut up or say something helpful. So here’s my advice; get your shit together, man. Figure out what to say to her and just do it. You’ve avoided it long enough. You can’t just spend the rest of your life staring at her from across Molly’s.”
With that, Kelly started walking away.
“That’s supposed to be helpful?” Matt called after him. “I knew that much.”
“Then do it.”
If his back hadn’t been to him, Matt would’ve flipped his best friend off.
Matt put his cigar out and tossed it in the trash before heading for the door; he rounded the back of 61, only to crash into Sylvie.
“Woah, sorry.” Matt reached out to steady her. “You okay?”
“I’m fine.” Sylvie laughed. “You sure you are? You looked pretty distracted before the collision.”
“Oh, I’m good.” He realized his hand was still on her waist and yanked it away, awkwardly clapping his hands together. “All good. Better get inside, got some paperwork to do before morning brief.”
Matt hadn’t realized Violet was with Sylvie until he noticed her looking at him with a raised eyebrow as he stepped away.
He hadn’t gone more than a few steps before he heard Violet’s voice. “What was that ?”
Matt sighed as he walked away; Violet was just the latest person on the ever-growing list of people that had witnessed him being incredibly awkward in front of Sylvie Brett.