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Buck was in the 118 station’s kitchen, helping Bobby cook his famous lasagna, when Tommy did it for the first time. The young firefighter was taking care of the white sauce while Bobby was seasoning the minced meat, when someone called out from downstairs.
“Someone here?”
Hen and Chim were sitting at the table together with Eddie, playing cards, and Eddie got up from where he had been sitting to walk over to the banister. Placing his hands on it, he looked down at the ground floor. “We’re up here,” he said.
Buck frowned and then watched a young man climb up the stairs. He was carrying a really nice-looking bouquet of flowers. The young man was wearing the uniform of a delivery service, and he was looking at the screen of a phone he was holding in his hand.
“Oh, did my wife send me flowers?” Hen asked with a grin, but before she could get up to accept the bouquet, the delivery guy looked up at the group of firefighters in the kitchen- and dining area. “I have a delivery for one Evan Buckley,” he said. And Buck frowned.
“That’s him,” Bobby said, pointing a greasy spatula in Buck’s direction. The guy was obviously in a hurry, because he walked over to the kitchen isle, rounded it and pushed the bouquet and an envelope in Buck’s hands. “Delivery complete,” he said, turned around and disappeared as quickly as he had shown up again.
And Buck blinked in confusion. “Why the hell is someone sending Buck flowers? And why are they all yellow?” Chimney asked. He got up and walked closer, obviously curious. There was a cheeky grin on his lips. “Did you help an elderly lady cross the street and made her fall madly in love with you?” he asked and then gasped a quiet “Ow!” when Hen not-so-gently slapped the back of his head. “Shut up, Chim,” she just said and Chim crossed his arms in front of his chest, pouting.
“Those are tulips. And… what are the other ones?” Eddie asked, leaning against the banister, watching Buck who took a closer look at the flowers. “Those are irises,” Bobby said, who was taking care of the meat in the pan again, making sure it wouldn’t burn.
“Yellow tulips and yellow irises,” Buck mumbled quietly. “Huh. Those are really pretty,” he then added. “What does the card say?” Hen asked, hovering over Buck together with Chimney. Before Buck could put the flowers away or open the envelope, Bobby suddenly held out a vase for him to take. “Put them in here,” the Captain said before he went back to keep on preparing their meal.
Buck quickly did as he was told - he filled the vase with some water and then carefully placed the bouquet in it. Then, he grabbed the envelope. It was a simple, blank white one. Buck opened it, curiously, and inside was a card. The card showed a gorgeous blue sky covered in several white, fluffy clouds. Flipping it open, Buck found only one sentence inside. It was not hand-written.
Thinking of you
His heart skipped a beat. Could it be…?
“So? What’s in the card?” Chim asked, obviously impatient, and Buck showed it to him. His fellow firefighter frowned again. “That is really weird. Who’d send you something like that? Did you meet a girl and if so, why didn’t you tell us about her?” he asked, obviously scandalized by being left in the dark about Buck’s love life. Oh, he had no idea. Nobody in this room besides Buck did.
“I don’t have a girlfriend and I have no idea who sent this,” Buck said, not really telling the truth, but he wasn’t really ready to out himself to the others yet. At least not during one of their shifts - he wanted to do so in private, not when there could be a call coming in any minute.
Still, he was quite sure that Tommy sent him this. Who else could it be? After their three dates and their one night together, Buck felt really close to him. And he felt himself fall for the gorgeous helicopter pilot more and more with every passing day.
“In the language of flowers, yellow tulips mean happiness, cheerfulness or there’s sunshine in your smile ,” Hen said, scrolling on her phone. “And yellow irises mean passion .” One of her eyebrows wandered up and she looked at Buck. “You sure there’s not some girl we should know of, Buckaroo? That sounds suspiciously romantic.”
Buck shrugged a little, trying not to show how fast his heart was hammering away in his chest at the revelation of the meaning of the flowers. “There is no girl, Hen,” he said, going for nonchalance. He wasn’t lying, after all! Tommy was not a girl! Hen watched him warily for a moment before shrugging as well and then walking back to the table. Chim followed her, babbling about how weird it was that Buck of all people got sent a nice bouquet like that.
Gently touching the soft petal of one of the irises, Buck now took another close look at the bouquet. Four yellow tulips, four yellow irises, wrapped up in a beautiful white bow made out of silk. It was simple. It was beautiful.
When Buck raised his head again, he noticed Eddie was still watching him. “Those are really nice,” Buck just said, his heartbeat still elevated and he could feel that his cheeks were red because of how warm they felt. A smile appeared on Eddie’s face and he nodded. “Yeah, they really are.” He pushed himself away from the banister again and, a few seconds later, was back to playing cards with Hen and Chim.
Buck turned back to his task of preparing the white sauce for the lasagna which only took a few more minutes. After finishing the sauce, he placed the bowl with it next to the baking pan Bobby had prepared for the lasagna. “I’ll be in the bathroom real quick,” Buck then told Bobby who nodded and then started to fill the baking dish with the first layer of ingredients, focused on his cooking.
Buck quickly wiped his hands on a kitchen towel and then left the kitchen area to go downstairs. He changed his mind last minute and entered the bunk rooms instead and fortunately, one of the rooms was empty. Buck pulled his phone out of the pocket of his jeans and sat down on one of the beds. Opening up his chat with Tommy, he started typing a message.
Only a few seconds after sending this message, Buck saw the three little dots appear that told him Tommy was typing, and that made his pulse quicken again.
Buck felt himself blush at Tommy’s last message, and for a split second, he buried his face in his hands, trying to get ahold of himself. Tommy was so incredibly sweet and romantic, so thoughtful and caring. Buck had never been treated like that before and even though it felt really unfamiliar to him, he couldn’t help but love it.
With his heart doing several somersaults in his chest, Buck grinned at Tommy’s sweet messages. Now, he couldn’t wait for his 24 hour shift to be over early in the morning.
Buck could see Tommy’s sassy expression in his mind when he read that last message. How his deep voice would ask this question in a challenging, seductive, amused way and damn, just thinking of Tommy’s sexy, sultry voice made Buck’s belly tingle. He loved flirting with the other man so much. Everything with Tommy felt so natural and easy.
Buck’s eyes widened when Tommy called him baby in one of his messages. He felt his heart hammer away in his chest, warmth flooding his whole body. He really couldn’t wait to see Tommy again in only a few hours. With a huge smile on his face, he placed his phone back in the pocket of his jeans and left the bunk rooms to go back upstairs to keep helping prepare dinner. And for the rest of his shift, Buck couldn’t stop thinking about this beautiful man waiting for him to show up in the morning, carrying a bouquet of the prettiest flowers.