Firefighter's Virgin

Billy smiled. “Do you know who you are? What year it is? Who the president is? I’m just joking. Let me walk you home, at least. It’s the gentlemanly thing to do.”

And so we left the bar, and I felt his hand touch the small of my back as we went out the door, but it was more like it was just guiding me out, making sure that I didn’t trip. When we started to walk down

the sidewalk, we were close to each other, but not so close that someone might think we were a couple or anything. We were just two friends, going for a walk.

The fresh air made me a little more alert, even though the ground still felt like it was tilting underneath my feet.

“Take my arm,” he said, holding his forearm out to me. “You’re a little tipsy. Or I could give you a piggy back ride.” He stopped walking and bent at the knees a little, nodding toward his back. “Hop on.”

I laughed. “I’m not going to get on your back.”

“Why not? You don’t think I’d be able to carry you?”

“No, I just . . .”

“You want to fall over and scrape your knees?”

“No.”

“Then, hop on!”

“Well . . . okay.” I jumped up and felt him slip his arms underneath my knees as he straightened up. I let my arms dangle over the front of his shoulders, but I could feel myself slipping.

“You want to help a guy out and hold on a little more tightly there?” he asked.

“Sure,” I said, wrapping my arms around his neck.

He coughed. “Too tight,” he said. I loosened my arms a little. “Ah, just right,” he said.

“Okay there, Goldilocks.”

We both laughed.

“Thank you for fulfilling this fantasy of mine. Getting to walk down the street with a lovely lady on my back.”

“Happy to oblige,” I said. He walked easily, didn’t seem to be that burdened by the fact that he was carrying me like this. When was the last time anyone had given me a piggyback? I honestly couldn’t remember.

“Well, thanks,” I said when we got to the doorstep and I hopped down. I looked around. “I don’t see my stalker. I have a stalker, you know.”

“Do you, now? I don’t see anyone out here.”

“I guess he’s not here at the moment. But he hangs around sometimes. He hasn’t done anything bad yet, but it’s still creepy.”

“I’m not entirely surprised though, a girl like you. I could take care of it for you, if you wanted.”

“What do you mean?”

He shrugged. “Oh, you know. That could mean several things. But I certainly don’t want someone following you around when you don’t want them to be following you around.” He chuckled. “But wait a second—don’t you work for a security company? Isn’t this something your boss should be taking care of?”

“I can actually take care of myself.”

“I don’t doubt that.”

“Well, thank you for walking me home.”

“Anytime. Thanks for hanging out with me. I’ve really enjoyed these times that we’ve run into each other.”

“Me too,” I said. I could feel a gigantic yawn getting ready to stretch across my face. I was suddenly exhausted and wanted nothing more than to be crawling into my bed, about to fall asleep for ten, maybe eleven hours. I covered my mouth with my hand as though that might somehow keep the yawn at bay. “I’m sorry,” I said. “It just hit me all of a sudden, how tired I am. I really don’t usually drink that much beer.”