Cherry - S01 E02

Story 2 years ago

Cherry - S01 E02

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 2

was bracing myself for the worst as the screen went from black to blurry and then focused on her. When the picture came in, I was absolutely floored. Cherry was drop-dead-gorgeous! She had beautiful light red hair that flowed in lazy curls down her shoulders and she had a face like a porcelain doll. There were a few freckles across her nose, green eyes and the nicest set of lips I had ever seen! Her eyebrows matched her hair and that gave me some less- than-pure thoughts.

Cherry smiled wide as she sat back from her camera and said, "HI It's nice to finally see you, David!" I sat in stunned silence, unable to respond. Finally she asked, "Can you hear me?" Her question about a possible technical problem with the computer brought me out of my trance just enough to answer her. "Oh, yeah, I can hear you," I said. She asked if the camera was working and I told her it was working perfectly. She started to look a little uneasy and I realized I probably looked like a chained, starving dog with a steak that was just out of reach. I snapped out of it and apologized. "I'm sorry: you are not exactly what I was expecting to see...and I mean that in the best possible of ways!" She laughed and returned the compliment to me. I said, "You are beautiful: why don't you put your picture up on your profile page?" She replied, "That's why I am on line to begin with. Most guys look at me and the only thing they see is a possible opportunity to get a plece." I said, "Yeah, well, guys are pigs. What can you do?" She laughed and our conversation took off from there.

We chatted for what felt like 20 to 30 minutes when I realized the sun was coming up-we had been up all night! told Cherry that, regretfully, I had to go to work. She said it was ok because she had to go, too and, before signing off, we said we would look for each other again later.

Having gone all night without sleep, I should have been a wreck at work, but surprisingly, I was rejuvenated. I went about checking the gear-making sure everything was ready to go if a call came in- with a spring in my step as they say, I didn't even have to be entirely focused on what I was doing; I was more or less on autopilot after doing the daily routine so many times over the years. It was around mid afternoon when the chief came up to me and asked, "So, what did you find?" I was deep in thought about Cherry when he'd asked me, so it took a second to understand what he was asking me. After a few seconds of a blank stare from me, he said, "You are different today-better. You must have found an outlet, yeah?" Suddenly realizing what he was talking about, I said, "Oh, that; Yeah. Well, maybe it's too soon to tell for sure." Chief laughed as though he'd heard that line before and said, "Well, don't you go putting a ring on her finger too fast! Not just any

woman is cut out for this life!" I just smiled and nodded, surprised that he could read me so easily, but then figured he'd been around for a while so he knew what he was talking about.

The day passed with nothing more than a minor accident that we were called out on as a precaution. I got off work and couldn't wait to get to my computer. The moment i signed in, I saw that i had several messages from Cherry. Each of them said the same thing in different words-she just wanted to know if I was on line yet. I sent her reply to the third one and monents later she responded. We met up in our chat room and went about telling each other about our days.

After talking for a while and still hitting it off well, I asked her if she wanted to meet. She was a little hesitant at first which took me a little by surprise. I started to back pedal a little to keep her from being embarrassed for me asking so soon, but she assured me that wasn't the problem. She explained her car wasn't running right and had dropped it off at the shop and had to rely on a friend for a ride. She didn't say it, but I was sure she wasn't ready for me to show up to her door yet. We were getting along great, but we were still strangers over the 'net, after all.

I asked when her car would be ready and she said it should be done that Saturday. I said that would be perfect since that was my next day off and offered to meet on 'neutral ground'-a shopping mall approximately half way between us. She agreed to the mall and I let her pick the time and exact location. We exchanged cell phone numbers (just in case) and we both agreed to cut the conversation "short" (since it was already 2:30am) because we needed to get SOME sleep. I couldn't believe I'd been talking to her for over 6 hours again!

I decided not to call Cherry on her cell phone until after she called mine. I didn't want to come across as another one of the 'pigs' that I mentioned to her. That night I was on call all night, so I wasn't able to chat on line. She called me later in the evening to see if I was ok (wondering why I hadn't logged on) and I explained about my work schedule. She apologized and said she would talk to me later. Before she could hang up, I told her that it was 'ok' and that I could talk to her on the phone-it wasn't a problem. She said, "That's really sweet of you David, but you are at work. What you do is really important and you don't need me distracting you while you are working. Someone's life could depend on it. Ok?" told her that she was probably right (knowing full well how right she was) and thanked her for understanding. We said our 'good-byes' and hung up

I turned around and Chief was standing right behind me, eyeing me knowingly. For a big guy, he was stealthier than a cat with ninja training. "Was that her?" he asked. I answered, "Yeah, Chief, that was her said we shouldn't talk since I'm on call.." He just nodded approvingly.

Not ten minutes went by and, sure enough, we were called out on a structural fire. As soon as we heard the first part of the street address, we knew where we were going. It was a local restaurant with a 'gimmick'-it had an actual clay oven that they used for all of their cooking. The only problem was the damn thing was always catching the roof on fire-we had been there MANY times, but never to eat. No, every time we went to this particular restaurant, it was on 'business'.