- 8 hours ago
My Hot Firefighter Ex-Boyfriend EnglishSub FullMovie
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Short filmTranscript
00:00So my ex just kicked down my bedroom door. I'm handcuffed to my own bed frame, wearing a black
00:06lease slip that barely covers my ass. Three firefighters are staring at me. Let me back up
00:1230 minutes. I bought pink fluffy handcuffs off Amazon last Tuesday. Don't judge me. I'm 26 and
00:17single. A girl gets curious. Tonight was supposed to be wine, candles, and a little me time.
00:30Then the little release pin slipped through the crack between my mattress and the wall.
00:35I tried for 20 straight minutes. My fingers couldn't reach the gap. My wrists were turning
00:40purple. Looked cute on TikTok. Turns out the fluffy part hides actual steel. Like real steel. I scooted
00:46my phone over with my chin and hit speaker. 911, what's your emergency? I panicked. I'm chained up.
00:54I can't get out. My hands are going numb. I think I'm losing circulation. Please send
00:59somebody. Ma'am, I'm dispatching fire rest to your location. Stay on the line.
01:05I should have explained it was a sex toy situation. I was hyperventilating. My hands were turning
01:11blue. I was hoping a narcliffe would show up. Then I heard the sirens. They got louder.
01:17Then they were right outside my window. I heard boots running up the stairs. One kick and my front
01:23door was open. Fire rescue. Anyone home? Three guys in full turno gear flooded down my hallway.
01:29I tried to scream stop. Nothing came out. They burst into my bedroom. The captain pushed
01:36to the front. I stopped breathing. It was Liam. My ex-boyfriend. The man I broke up with
01:42three years ago. He was standing in my bedroom. Staring at me. And I was just laying there.
01:49Dress up. Hands up. Everything. Knees apart because that was the only way the cuffs didn't pull.
01:59The rookie behind him made a strangled sound. He spun toward the wall so fast his helmet almost flew
02:05off. Oh god. Oh god. Captain, I'm sorry. I didn't, uh... Sir, these are novelty cuffs. There's no keyhole.
02:12We're gonna need the heavy-duty bolt cutters from the rig. Liam didn't acknowledge him. Liam didn't
02:17even blink. He just kept staring at me. Like he was trying to figure out what he was looking at.
02:22Three years ago, he used to look at me like I was his whole world. Right now, he looked pissed.
02:27Like, really pissed. Everyone out. His voice came out low and flat. The rookie froze. Sir,
02:34protocol says we maintain a two-person... Tyler. Out. Nobody argued. Tyler practically ran. The other
02:40two followed with their eyes glued to the floor. The bedroom door clicked shut. And then it was just us.
02:45My heartbeat was so loud I could feel it in my teeth. Liam pulled the bolt cutters off his belt.
02:50He set them down on my nightstand. He didn't move toward my wrists. He put one knee on the mattress
02:56instead. The bed sank. I literally slid toward him. My strap fell off my shoulder. I tried to shrug it
03:02back
03:02up. Couldn't. The cusses held my arms in place. His eyes tracked the strap. Then my collarbone.
03:09Then lower. He didn't reach for the cusses. He reached for me.
03:16Then he looked at my thighs and I felt it. Physically. Like he'd touched me. His hand
03:22wrapped around my ankle. His hand was so hot. And rough. Firefighter hands, you know?
03:29I got goosebumps everywhere. Like, everywhere. My thighs clenched together on instinct.
03:36Because I knew that hand. I knew exactly what that hand could do. That hand used to be on me
03:42every single night. My body reacted before my brain even processed it. He felt it. His thumb
03:49dragged a slow circle on the bone of my ankle. My breath hitched. Out loud. The corner of his mouth
03:55twitched. He heard it. Liam, what are you doing? He didn't answer. He leaned over me.
04:05His mouth went to my ear. His chest brushed mine through the lace. My back arched off the
04:10mattress without my permission. Then his hand started sliding up my calf. Up the inside of
04:16my knee. He stopped right above my knee and just left his hand there. Burning a hole through me.
04:23So where is he? His voice scraped against my eardrum. Your hookup? Tinder match? Whatever.
04:34He chained you up and bounced? Real stand-up dude. I'd love to meet him.
04:40Every word hurt. I wasn't scared of him. I was guilty. So guilty I couldn't speak.
04:48He thought there was another man. And I had no idea how to tell him the truth.
04:54Liam picked the bolt cutters back up. Cold steel pressed against the soft skin on the inside of my
05:00wrist. I sucked in a breath. His hands were rock steady. This guy pulls people out of car crashes
05:08for a living. He talked a jumper down off the 17th floor last spring. His hands don't shake. He was
05:14clenching his jaw so hard it looked like it hurt. I asked you a question, Chloe. His voice was dead
05:18quiet. Did you use protection? My brain stalled. Protection? Like a safety release on the cuffs?
05:24Did Amazon sell something I missed? I was panicking. I spit out the truth. No. I didn't.
05:30Wrong answer. Wrong, wrong, wrong answer. Liam froze. Completely froze. His knuckles went white
05:36around the bolt cutters. Then he snapped the chain. The metal cracked so loud it made my ears ring.
05:42A piece of the broken link ricocheted and sliced across his knuckle. Blood started dripping down his
05:48fingers onto my sheets. Liam, you're bleeding. Your hand. Don't. He threw the bolt cutters on
05:55the floor with a thud. My wrists were finally free. I scrambled back against the headboard and
06:02yanked the duvet up to my chin. Okay, thank you for the rescue. You can leave now. My voice was
06:08somewhere between a squeak and a sob. I really appreciate the response time. Tell the department
06:12I said thanks. Bye. Liam didn't move. He stood up. He turned his back to me and he started unbuckling
06:19his turno coat. What are you doing, Liam? Hello? The heavy coat dropped off his shoulders. He had on
06:28a black compression shirt soaked through with sweat. You could see every muscle in his back. I just
06:32stopped. Like, brain stopped. He grabbed the chair from my vanity, walked it across the room, wedged it
06:37under the doorknob. He sat down, knees wide, elbows on his thighs, bloody hand dripping onto my floor.
06:43He didn't even look at it. I have to file an incident report. His tone was pure venom. So walk
06:49me through
06:49it, ma'am. Start to finish. When did he get here? How long was he here? What position were you
06:56in when
06:56he left? Take your time. Be specific. My nails dug into my palms. This was revenge. He'd been holding this
07:03in a long time and now I was gonna pay for all of it. He didn't bandage his hand. He
07:07didn't even glance
07:07at it. He was 100% locked in on me. I snapped. Are you insane? I sat up with the
07:14dupe still wrapped
07:15around me and screamed it at him. There is no guy. There was never a guy. Get the hell out
07:20of my
07:21apartment. This is my house, Liam. You don't get to do this. He didn't flinch. His mouth pulled into a
07:27slow smile with no warmth in it. No guy. So you cuffed yourself to your own bed. Dressed like that.
07:37And then he stood up and started searching my room.
07:42I opened my mouth. I closed it. What was I supposed to say? That I bought sex toys to feel
07:48something? That this was my Saturday night, Liam. This is who I am now? He ripped my closet open.
07:53Hangers screeched across the bar. Scanning for anything male. Nothing. He kicked the storage
07:58bins out from under my bed. Flipped one open. Just my shoes. He yanked back my balcony curtains so hard
08:04the rod rattled. Empty. His eyebrows pulled together harder with every drawer. There was nothing in this
08:10apartment except me. There never had been. Then his eyes landed on my vanity. My heart stopped.
08:16Don't go over there. Please don't open it. He started walking. I jumped off the bed so fast the
08:22dupe fell. I sprinted across the room and threw myself in front of the vanity with my arms spread
08:27wide. Stop! You can't open this one! My voice came out shrill and wet. He looked down at me.
08:34I'm 5'4". In a slip. Trying to block a six-foot fire captain. Yeah. It was not going to
08:40work.
08:41Move, Chloe. No.
08:43I'm not asking twice. No!
08:46He didn't repeat himself a third time. His arm went around my waist and he picked me up like I
08:50weighed nothing. He set me down against the wall and held me there with one hand on my hip.
08:55With his other hand, the bloody one, he pulled open the bottom drawer.
09:01There were no men's things inside. Just a brown Amazon box. Sealed and resealed with packing tape
09:07so many times the cardboard had gone soft. He sliced the tape with his thumbnail. The box flopped open.
09:12A photograph fluttered out and landed face up on the floor.
09:17Us. Summer. Three years ago. Outside Station 12. He was in his Navy duty uniform. I was up on my
09:25toes
09:25holding a Gatorade above his head, laughing because he was reaching for it. We looked stupid happy.
09:31Next to the photo was a leather journal, forest green. The spine was cracked from being open so
09:35many times. Liam crouched down. He picked up the photo first. His thumb dragged across my face on the
09:41paper. Real slow. Then he picked up the journal. No! Don't! Liam, don't! I lunged at him. I clawed at
09:49his arm. I grabbed at the cover. He held it straight up over his head. I jumped. He stepped back.
09:55I jumped
09:55again. He stepped back again. The world's most humiliating game of kippawa. My bare foot caught the
10:01edge of the photograph and slipped. I fell forward. His arm caught my waist before I hit the floor.
10:07He never lowered the journal. He sat me down on the edge of the bed. Like a kid in timeout.
10:13He
10:13backed up two steps. Out of my reach. He opened the cover. First page. The day I dumped him. His
10:23pupils flinched. He flipped through the pages faster and faster. His hands started to shake. He stopped
10:28dead on the last entry. Yesterday's date. And then he read it out loud. His voice was already
10:34breaking before he got the first word out. Day 1023. They changed the sign tone at the firehouse
10:40down the block. Took me three days to get used to the new one. The old one was the siren
10:47Liam used
10:48to roll out on. I used to count seconds until the trucks came back. He kept reading. Walked past a
10:54guy
10:54at the mall today. Smoking Marlboro Reds. Liam used to smoke Marlboro Reds. I stopped in the middle of
10:59the food tort. I couldn't move. People were staring at me. I told myself I was just waiting
11:04for someone. I was actually waiting for my eyes to stop watering so I could keep walking.
11:09And then the last line. The one I wrote last night. Drunk on cheap wine. His voice cracked
11:15all the way through. Why does the smell of cigarettes still make me want to cry? The journal dropped
11:20from his hand and hung at his side. His knuckles were bone white around the spine. And then his
11:26whole face changed. His eyes were bloodshot. Like he hadn't slept in a week. The bedroom was
11:34completely silent. He looked down at the pink fluffy cusses on the floor. The anger drained out of him.
11:38The cruel smile was gone. What was left Sussam never seen on his face before. Grief. He'd figured it
11:44out. There was no guy. There was no hiccup who ran. There was just me. Three years of just me.
11:52Sleeping with his photo in a drawer. Writing his name in a book I never let anyone read.
11:58Even the sex toys were mine. There's been nobody else. I slid off the bed onto the floor and put
12:04my
12:04face in my knees. My shoulders were shaking. This was officially the worst moment of my entire adult life.
12:10I looked up and gave him the most pathetic smile I've ever produced. There. Happy now, Captain?
12:17Mystery solved. Chloe Park, 26, certified loser. Can't get over her ex three years later. Buys sex
12:24toys to cope. You can put that in your incident report. Have a great night. I pointed at the door.
12:30Get out. Just leave me a little bit of dignity. Please.
12:35He didn't move. He should have left. I had ghosted him. I had blocked his number and ignored 137 phone
12:43calls. That's what a normal person would do. Instead, I heard the journal hit the rug. Soft.
12:49Then footsteps. Coming closer. Close enough that I could smell him. Smoke. Sweat. Iron from his blood.
12:59His hand came up under my chin and lifted my face. His palm was rough and warm. His fingertips were
13:04trembling against my jaw. I had to look at him. His eyes were wet. Red rimmed. He looked like he
13:11was
13:11barely holding it together. He dropped to one knee in front of me. This is the guy who rips car
13:17doors
13:17open with his bare hands. He carried two kids out of a 15th floor fire last year. And I'm the
13:24idiot who
13:24walked away from him. If you missed me this bad. His voice was barely working. His thumb wiped the
13:32tears off my cheek. He reached for the duty belt at his hip. The buckle came undone with a metallic
13:38clink that I felt in my stomach. He leaned in and pressed his forehead against mine. Nose to nose.
13:44Why are you using plastic toys, baby? Use me. I couldn't speak. He kissed me. Hard. Like
13:52everything he'd swallowed for years coming out at once. The back of my head bumped against the side
13:56of the bed. His palm shot up to cradle it before I felt it. His other hand grabbed my waist
14:02and hauled
14:03me onto the mattress. He climbed on top of me. And then my brain finally caught up to what was
14:08happening.
14:11I shoved both hands against his chest. I bit down on his bottom lip until I tasted iron.
14:16He didn't pull back. He didn't slow down. He kissed me deeper. I beat my fists against his shoulders.
14:22He didn't move. At all. I twisted my head sideways and screamed. Who the hell do you think you are?
14:29You don't get to disappear for three years and then just show up and kiss me. What am I to
14:35you,
14:36Liam? He braced himself over me on his elbows. His chest was heaving. He licked the blood off his
14:42bottom lip and looked down at me. I disappeared? His voice dropped to a whisper. Chloe, you have some
14:50nerve. His right hand caught my wrist. He laced his fingers between mine and squeezed until my knuckles
14:56popped. Three years ago, you're the one who left me. And just like that, I was sobbing because he was
15:04right. Three years of running. Now we're left to run. Because... My voice cracked. Because I was
15:10terrified you were going to die in a fire. Liam went completely still on top of me. His breathing
15:16stopped. Then it came back fast and unseven, hot against my collarbone. I looked at him through
15:22tears. His face had gone white under the soot. It was pure terror. What did you just say? His voice
15:29was
15:29barely a thread. I lifted my hands. The cuffs had left thick red welds around both my wrists.
15:37I cupped his face anyway. My turn. Every time I hear a siren downtown, I start counting seconds.
15:43I never stop. Every fire on the news, I scroll the comments. I look for your name. Two years ago,
15:48a firefighter died at a building collapse over on 6th Avenue. I locked myself in my office bathroom
15:54and threw up for an hour. When I found out it wasn't you, I sat on the bathroom floor and
15:59laughed
15:59until I cried. Like a literal crazy person. My thumb brushed the old scar under his cheekbone.
16:05The one from the collapse he survived two summers ago. Liam, I never stopped loving you. I loved you
16:11too much to sit around waiting for that phone call. I'd rather lose you on my terms than lose you
16:16to a
16:16fire. At least this way I got to choose. At least this way I could lie to myself and say
16:22I left you.
16:24Liam's eyes spilled over. He couldn't get a word out. He buried his face in the cook of my neck.
16:29I could feel his heart slamming through his shirt. He held onto me like if he let go, I'd evaporate.
16:35I pushed my fingers into his sweaty hair. I cried so hard I couldn't get a full breath.
16:40And then his breathing started to change. It got hotter. Heavier. His mouth moved up the side of
16:50my neck. Under my jaw. To the corner of my mouth. My fingers fisted in his hair. My back arched
16:57up
16:57off the mattress. Then a radio shrieked. We both froze. The radio on the chest of his coat. The red
17:04transmit light was blinking.
17:05All units. All units. Multiple explosions reported at Sinclair Chemical on the east side.
17:10Active fire. Structural failure. Engine 12. Respond code 3.
17:13Liam's eyes changed instantly. Heat gone. Hesitation gone. Pure work mode. He pushed off me so fast my
17:20fingers ripped out of his hair. He swiped his coat off the floor. Shrugged into it. Snapped every buckle
17:25in under 15 seconds. Belt back on. Rodeo on his shoulder. Helmet under his arm. He stopped at my
17:30bedroom door with his hand on the knob. He looked back at me. His face was calm.
17:35Almost flat. Lock the door behind me. If I make it back.
17:39The corner of his mouth lifted into that same crooked half-smile.
17:43We're not done. The door closed. His boots pounded down my hallway. The fire engine roared
17:48to life on the street below. The siren screamed past my window and faded into the distance.
17:53And I was alone again. Counting seconds. Just like three years ago.
17:59I sat on the bed in the dark. The only thing in the room was the broken pink cuffs on
18:04the rug.
18:05I pulled my knees up to my chest and started shaking. Chemical fire. Multiple explosions.
18:11Active structural failure. Every nightmare I'd ever had was happening tonight.
18:15I scrambled for my phone and opened the news app. The top story was already live aerial footage.
18:20The eastern sky over the city was orange. Black smoke pumping into the air. The fire glow lighting
18:26up half the skyline. The anchor was talking fast. 27 units on scene. Heavy rescue is now pushing into
18:32the interior of the second structure. Liam, come back. Please come back. And just like that,
18:37I was right back where I'd been three years ago. Back then, I lived two blocks from his firehouse.
18:42The second the siren faded, the waiting would start. The longest he was ever gone was almost two hours.
18:48When he finally walked back in, his left eyebrow was singed off. He poured himself a glass of water
18:55in my kitchen and drank it without saying a word. That night, I cried into my pillow until three in
19:00the morning. The next day, I told him it was over. And now here I was. Same fire glow. Same
19:07silence.
19:08Same fear. I watched the news for two hours. The fire was getting bigger. The first explosion had set
19:17off a chain reaction. The storage tanks were going one after another. The comments under the live stream
19:23went from praying for the crews to any casualties yet in real time. The aerial footage went from full
19:28dark to gray dawn to actual sunrise. The fire was still burning. By hour 10, I'd stopped crying. My eyes
19:34were swollen shut. Hour 11, a push notification dropped onto my lock screen. Breaking. Secondary collapse
19:40at east side chemical fire. Two firefighters reported critical. Identities pending family
19:45notification. My phone hit the floor and the screen shattered. There was a high ringing sound in my
19:50ears. I don't remember putting on shoes. I don't remember leaving my apartment. Uber wouldn't load.
19:56I started running down the sidewalk in my pajamas. One of my converse came off around the third block.
20:01I kept running with one bare foot. A cab pulled over for me eventually. The driver took one look at
20:08me
20:08and fluttered it across town. The ER doors were propped open. Wall of noise. People crying. Doctors
20:14yelling. Radios crackling. The hallway was packed. Hospital gowns. Sochford turnout coats. Family members
20:20with red eyes. I pushed through. I checked every face. I must have looked at 20 firefighters. None of
20:26them was Liam. At the end of the corridor, I spotted Tyler. The rookie. Curled up in a plastic
20:34chair like he wanted to disappear into it. His turnout coat had melted holes in it. The right
20:39side of his face was wrapped in gauze. He was sobbing into his fire gloves. I crossed the hallway
20:44in three steps and grabbed his collar. Tyler, where is he? Where is Liam? Tyler looked up. He saw me
20:52and
20:52his face crumpled. Oh ma'am. Oh god, ma'am. The captain, he pushed us out first. He stayed at
20:59the
20:59front so we could get clear. And then the wall came down right on top. I didn't hear the rest.
21:03My knees folded and I dropped onto the line emolium. I couldn't breathe. Like physically
21:08couldn't breathe. I crawled across the floor to the trauma room doors. The red light above them was on,
21:14in procedure. I bought handcuffs. I played with them alone in my bedroom. He came in to save me.
21:19Now he was on a table behind those doors and he wasn't coming out. The light over the doors
21:25clicked off. The doors swung open. A white sheet was pulled all the way up over the body. The
21:30corner hung off, swaying as the orderly pushed it. I lost it. I crawled to the gurney. My knees hit
21:37the metal frame and I didn't feel it. I grabbed a fistful of the sheet. I was crying so hard
21:44I
21:44didn't even sound like myself. Liam. Liam! You son of a bitch! You do not get to die on
21:53me! I swear to god if you die I'm going on Tinder tonight. I'm going on Hinnage. I'm gonna date
21:57a hundred guys. Do you hear me? The orderly froze with his hands on the gurney rails. The
22:02nurse just stared. The whole ER was watching. I did not care. The only thing in the world
22:06was the white sheet. And then, from behind me, a voice. Tired. Horsey. A little amused.
22:13Hi. Looking for me?
22:16My spine locked up.
22:20I'm not dead yet, sweetheart.
22:22I didn't dare move. I was still gripping the sheet. If I turned around and he wasn't
22:28there, I was gonna die right on this floor.
22:31Chloe.
22:32He said my name again. Closer now. Weak. Smiling. I turned around so slowly. Liam was
22:38heening against the wall at the end of the hallway. His termout coat was bunched around
22:42his waist. There was a thick wad of gauze taped to his left shoulder. His left arm was in a
22:46temporary cast in a sling. His face was streaked with soat and blood. His bottom lip was split.
22:51His left eyebrow was scorched off again. He was upright. He was breathing. He was smiling
22:56crooked at me.
22:59The doctor walked up and pushed his glasses up his nose.
23:02Ma'am, there's been a misunderstanding. The patient under the sheet is one of the chemical
23:05plant employees. He didn't make it. Captain Reyes here walked into the ER on his own two
23:08feet. He refused the wheelchair, refused the gurney, refused the elevator.
23:12The doctor looked at Liam.
23:14He's a pain in my ass, frankly.
23:16I stood up off the floor. My legs were jelly. One bare foot. One sock. I walked across the
23:21hallway in slow motion. And then I ran the last two steps and threw myself at his chest.
23:25He grunt hard. His back slammed into the wall. His cast banged against the doorbrain and
23:29he sucked in a sharp breath. He didn't push me away. His good arm wrapped tight around
23:33my waist. I shoved my face into his shirt and started screaming. He patted my back. Real
23:40awkward.
23:40Hey. Hey. What's all this?
23:43His voice was scratchy and warm. You know what they say. Bad guys never die. And I still
23:50owe you a real night, baby. I'm not going to miss that for a fire.
23:54His mouth dropped to my ear, to a whisper only I could hear. I cried harder and hit his chest
23:59with my fist. The nurses started laughing. Tyler was wiping his eyes and laughing too.
24:04A few bandaged up firefighters poked their heads out of the next room. One of them whistled.
24:09Get it, Captain! Liam flipped them off over my head. The tips of his ears went red.
24:21Three days later, Liam signed himself out AMA. He said the hospital bed was too hard and the food
24:27was an insult. He moved into my apartment with a paper bag full of prescriptions and zero
24:33discussing about it. He was propped up against my headboard with his clasped arm on a pillow,
24:39flipping channels with his good hand. Water.
24:46I brought him water.
24:48Babe, peel me an apple.
24:50I peeled an apple.
24:51Did you peel this with a chainsaw? The skin is still on half of it.
24:56I took a deep breath. I owed him three years. I could take this. He took a bite and talked
25:01with
25:02his mouth full. There's chicken soup in the fridge. Heat it up. I'm dying over here.
25:07I started walking toward the kitchen.
25:09Hey! Hey, hold up!
25:12I turned around. His good hand came out of his pocket holding the broken pink cuffs.
25:18You kept those?
25:19When did you even pick those up? You were on a call!
25:23He held them up to the light and examined them like an antique.
25:27Stuffed them in my coat pocket before I rolled out.
25:30He said it like it was the most natural thing in the world.
25:33I lunged at him. He held the cuffs up over his head, way out of my reach.
25:38I climbed onto the bed and tried to push up on my knees. I could not get close.
25:44Liam, give them back right now.
25:47Nope.
25:49You are literally a 30-year-old man.
25:54Yep.
25:56And then I lost my balance and tipped forward.
26:01He laughed under his breath. His good arm caught me around the waist and pulled me down
26:05against his chest. The cuffs landed on the pillow somewhere. I ended up straddling his
26:09lap with his good hand splayed on my lower back. Our faces were two inches apart. I could
26:14smell antiseptic on his bandage. His good hand slid down past my hip and gripped my thigh.
26:20Hard. My breath caught. He stopped smiling. His eyes went serious.
26:25Chloe.
26:26Chloe. He said my name really quiet. Really careful.
26:29In the hospital. I didn't get to finish what I was saying. When you broke up with me three
26:35years ago, I already knew why.
26:40I stopped breathing. After you moved out, I went to your old landlord, Mr. Henderson. He told me you'd been
26:48calling him at three in the morning, every week. Asking him if he'd heard whether any firefighters got
26:54hurt that night. You thought you got out clean. You did not. You weren't as careful as you thought,
27:01baby. He tipped his forehead down against mine. I knew you still loved me. I knew you were scared.
27:11I didn't come after you because you were scared I was going to die. And I was scared of that
27:16too.
27:17I'd go down in a fire one day and you'd be a 23-year-old widow getting a folded flag.
27:23I couldn't do that to you. His good hand slid up into my hair. So I let you go. I
27:32figured you
27:32deserved a clean break. I thought you'd meet some accountant, a nice guy with a 9-to-5 who came
27:39home every night at six. That was the plan. His voice dropped soft. Then I read your journal
27:47tonight, baby. A thousand and twenty-three days. You weren't free for a single one of them.
27:56He looked up at me. I'm done hiding. I'm done being noble. I'm still gonna do the job. I'm still
28:03gonna run into the building. That part isn't changing. You're mine. You don't get to leave
28:07again. A tear ran off my chin and landed on his bottom lip. He didn't wipe it off. I leaned
28:12down
28:13and kissed it off him. This kiss was different from the one in my bedroom. This one was slow.
28:19His cracked lips. The bitter taste of iodine off his bandage. His fingers tightened in my hair.
28:26He was holding back. I straddled him with both palms flat against his chest. I could feel his heart
28:32mummering through his t-shirt. The kiss moved off my lips. Across my jaw. Down to the side of my
28:41throat.
28:42His good hand slid down the length of my spine. Slow. When his palm hit the small of my back,
28:48I shivered. My tank strap slid off my shoulder. His mouth moved down to my collarbone. He bit me
28:53there. Soft. And then he froze. His thumb had pressed into the bruise on the inside of my wrist. I
29:02winked. He stopped instantly. He pulled my wrist into the light of the bedside lamp. The marks the cuffs
29:07left behind had bloomed into ugly purple bruises. Chloe, why didn't you put anything on these?
29:13His voice went sharp. This is bruising plus surface abrasion. You're going to get a skin infection.
29:17What is wrong with you? I forgot. He glared at me. He used his one good arm to physically lift
29:22me off
29:22his lap and sit me down on the mattress. He stood up and immediately started walking weird. His good
29:28leg and his casted arm tried to swing at the same time. He had to stop and reset.
29:34On his way out the bedroom door, his shoulder banged the door fame. I laughed out loud. From
29:39the hallway, I heard a very loud... Shut up, Chloe! He came back with the first aid kits
29:43tucked under his good arm. He dropped down on one knee next to the bed and pulled my wrist into
29:47his
29:47good hand. Everything about him got gentle. He squeezed a little neocabine onto his finger
29:51fib and rubbed it in. Slow, careful circles. His fingers were rough with calluses. His touch was
29:56almost too soft. Another one. I held out my left wrist. The bruise was darker. His jaw clenched. He
30:01rubbed in more knee open on and blew a slow breath across my pulse. He capped the tube and put
30:06it back
30:06in the kit. He stood up and looked at me. His eyes is dropped straight from my wrist to my
30:10mouth. And
30:10then he did the last thing I expected. He leaned down and kissed me on the forehead. He grabbed my
30:18comforter with his good hand and pulled it up over me. One corner was way too high. The other was
30:24on the
30:24floor. It looked like a disaster. He nodded at it like it was a job well done. Okay. Medicines on.
30:32Get
30:33some sleep. I'll make you breakfast in the morning. He turned and headed for the door.
30:41Two steps in, he stopped and looked back. His face was dead serious. One more thing.
30:47His ears went red again. No more playing with weird stuff by yourself, okay?
30:55You've got me now. He turned around and his shoulder hit the doorframe a second time on his
31:01way out. I heard a muttered goddammit from the hallway. Then the couch creaked as he laid down on
31:07it. I lay there in the dark, smiling like an idiot, crying the good kind. One thousand and twenty-three
31:14days. I waited. He came home. I curled up under the lopsided comfort. I listened to him breathing
31:26on my couch in the living room. I whispered to him through the wall. Okay, Liam. From now on every
31:32single day, sirens or no sirens, I'll be right here waiting.
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