Chapter Text
Salsa, limes, paper plates. Salsa, limes, paper plates. Violet repeated the grocery list over and over in her head so she wouldn't forget anything. Ritter had invited her and Gallo over for taco night to brainstorm their next strategy for Fire Goat, and had given her specific instructions on what to bring. As she turned the corner from the bakery to the produce aisle, she saw the handsome subject of her most recent thoughts.
Standing right in front of the apples was Chief Hawkins. She quickly ducked back the way she came so he wouldn't see her.
She confronted Hawkins last week - Evan, she'd allowed herself to start calling him in her head - about her award and whether he gave it to her because he liked her, and he'd insisted she deserved it on merit, then suggested they stay away from each other for a little while.
It was frustrating, but she understood. Compared to most of the shitty guys on dating apps, he was making an effort to put her first, to make sure that her accomplishment wasn’t tarnished by any possible relationship between them. She respected the hell out of him for it. But, there’d been no discussion on how long they ought to stay away from one another, right?
She eyed him again from around the refrigerated case. Fuck it, she was just going to say hi. It was a free world. She could say hi to her boss’s boss.
She decided to go for ridiculous, just to break the ice. Which, arguably, was probably a bad idea, considering he was her boss's boss. “You come here often?” She asked, leaning a hip on the produce display.
He turned towards her, his eyebrows raised in amusement. “That line usually work for you?”
She pursed her lips and smiled coyly at him. “Sometimes.”
“You following me, Mikami?”
She pretended to act affronted, pressing a hand to her sternum. “Me? I would never.”
“This is my usual grocery store. I live right around the corner.” He thumbed over his shoulder.
“This is my usual grocery store. I live right around the corner that way .” She pointed in the opposite direction.
“Of all the gin joints…” He muttered, sending a shy smile her way.
“Excuse me, I thought we just established that you walked into mine…”
“You look beautiful.” Evan saddled up next to her at the bar. Violet felt her cheeks heat up. It had been a week since she ran into him at the grocery store, and she couldn't stop thinking about him. The ballroom at the Hilton was packed for the CFD’s annual gala. She had been on the fence about going, but Brett convinced her it would be fun to get dressed up. Even if the drinks weren’t free - CFD charged everyone, because ethics - it would still be a good time. As recently as walking in the door, Violet had been skeptical, but then this gorgeous man walked up to her.
“You don’t clean up so bad yourself.” It was an understatement. He looked remarkably handsome in a black suit and tie, his hair parted to one side.
“Can I buy you a drink?” Speaking of things that probably violated ethics rules...
“Good luck. I’ve been waiting for five minutes already. It’s slammed.” She gestured towards the middle of the bar, where the three bartenders worked feverishly. Her strategy had been to wait at the very far corner of the bar, because at least there she was out of the crush of firefighters trying to get another beer. Unfortunately the bartenders were constantly helping that side instead of making it around to her as she’d hoped.
Evan eyed the crowd, looked over both of his shoulders, before leaning over the bar and grabbing an unopened bottle of wine.
“I know this isn’t the fancy beer you brew, but will this do?” Her eyes widened at his audacity, but she quickly nodded. He pulled a 50 out of his pocket and put it on the bar. “You want to go out on the balcony?”
"Sure." They walked toward the exit doors side by side. Evan pulled the door open and guided her onto the balcony with his free hand on the small of her back.
The balcony was quiet, the din of the party softened by the glass doors and the hum of traffic below them on Michigan Avenue.
"I..I just realized I forgot wine glasses."
Violet tilted her head to smile at him. "I don't mind sharing." Evan let out a little laugh, muttering, "Okay, then," under his breath.
He unscrewed the bottle and offered it to her. "Ladies, first." She took a sip, holding eye contact with him as she passed the bottle back.
She shivered, certainly from the cold, but also from her proximity to the man in front of her.
"Here let me give you my coat." He set the bottle on the ground and shrugged out of his jacket and draped it around her shoulders. The action brought him even closer into her space. He straightened the lapels, his hands lingering.
She briefly thought about how cliche she'd once thought this gesture was, but a much louder voice in her head was swooning.
Two weeks was long enough to stay away from each other, right? Had it only been two weeks ago that they promised to stay away from each other?
She could tell he was warring with himself, and it endeared him to her even more. But she was done with this noble shit.
"You should tell me to stay away." That was about the last thing she wanted to do right now.
"I don't want you to," she whispered back.
"Violet…"
"Kiss me, Evan."
“I was in the neighborhood, and I needed to top off my coffee,” Evan said, raising his travel coffee mug. Suuuure. Her paramedic field chief just happened to be driving by, needed coffee, and then happened to linger in the common room until she came back from a call.
Violet saddled up next to him and reached for her coffee mug in the cabinet that was just out of her normal reach. Damn Capp for being in charge of putting away dishes again. She had to go up on her tiptoes to reach the maroon ceramic mug. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Evan pivot towards her, then quickly shift back. It brought her a little joy to know he had to restrain himself from stabilizing her as she did so. They'd been secretly hanging out for about a month now since the gala, and it had been really great so far.
She poured her coffee and turned around to lean against the counter next to him. Even just the aroma was giving her life after three back-to-back cases over night. And of course now her…boyfriend? They hadn't defined their relationship, but she wasn't in a rush. “Your excuses are getting pretty flimsy.” Evan just smiled at her and shrugged, reaching down to stroke his pinky finger down the side of her hand.
“You are so lucky they’re distracted today.” Sure this secret thing was fun, but she did not need to hear her coworkers' views on it.
“Yeah, what are they doing?”
“They’re arguing over a box of ‘Would you rather?’ cards that Hermann found in the board game corner at Molly’s.”
“And they’re debating those cards?”
“Oh no, I’m told they exhausted those about two hours ago. Since then they’ve been creating their own, each one more ridiculous than the next.”
“What’s the current question?”
“If you were in a space movie, would you rather fight two Godzilla sized aliens or 10,000 cat sized aliens?”
“Oh easy. Godzilla-sized, for sure…”
For as long as Violet had lived in Chicago she always felt safe. Of course there were the crazy scenarios she encountered at work, and of course there was crime, but for the most part, she felt safe. Her mom had taught her to always listen to her instincts, and it kept her from ending up in harm’s way.
So when she left out the back door of Molly’s patio to walk to her car, and felt someone watching her, she listened to her intuition and started walking faster. A glance over her shoulder proved fruitless - the only people she could see on the street were going into the bar. It was probably nothing, but she held her car key in her fist anyway.
Crossing the street to her SUV, she checked her six one more time before walking around to the driver’s side of the car. She nearly jumped out of her skin when she found a man, hands in his pants pockets, casually leaning up against her door.
“Jesus, you fucking scared me.” She unclenched the key from her fist and shoved her keys in her back pocket, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at Evan, who had the decency to look embarrassed.
“I just wanted to see you. I can’t keep coming up with reasons to come by your firehouse. Gallo was looking at me suspiciously last time.”
“Don’t worry about him. He’s an idiot.” Even if the gorgeous man in front of her wasn’t interested in her, which she knew he was, she’d months ago realized that she and Gallo were only ever meant to be friends.
Evan offered her a roguish smile, crowding her towards the car until she was boxed in. It was a little more forward than he usually was while sober, but she didn't hate it.
“You looked so gorgeous in there. It was all I could do not to come up to you at the bar,” he said, grazing his nose against the column of her throat.
“How much have you had to drink?”
“Not enough to forget I promised to stay away in public, but enough that I don’t care.” She tried to hold in her shudder as he grazed his teeth down her neck.
“Evan. Someone could come out of the bar at any moment,” she forced herself to say in warning. Right now it was really hard to remember why they weren’t doing this.
“I know, I know,” He said, raising his arms in surrender and backing away.
“How are you getting home?” She called after him. He held his phone up, shaking it in her direction. She could see the Uber app open on the screen.
“Just get in the car,” she hollered. The shit-eating grin on his face told her that this was his plan all along, but she couldn’t bring herself to care.