"Fire" by Bruce Springsteen

"I’m driving in my car

I turn on the radio

I’m pulling you close

You just say no

You say you don’t like it

But girl I know you’re a liar

‘Cause when we kiss…

Fire

Late at night

I’m takin’ you home

I say I wanna stay

You say you wanna be alone

You say you don’t love me

Girl you can’t hide your desire

‘Cause when we kiss…

Fire"

Hearing Jimmy’s truck burning rubber out of the parking lot, Alyssa’s tears rolled down her cheeks as his words echoed endlessly in her head.

"Damn you Alyssa! Why won’t you commit to me? You run hot and cold with me, and have ever since we got together. I’ve had enough! Do you hear me? Enough! If you really love me, you’ll commit to building a life with me. I mean it. Don’t call me unless that’s what you truly want and are ready for. Otherwise it’s over!"

Cursing herself for the millionth time, Alyssa hesitated before finally picked up the pay phone and dialing the bar.

"Hennig’s, may I help you?"

"May I please speak with Curt?"

"Who’s calling please?"

"Alyssa."

"One moment." Hearing the phone being set down onto the bar, Alyssa waited and listened to the background din of the bar.

"This is Curt."

"Hi Curt, its Alyssa."

"Hey there! How’ve you been?"

"Um, actually I’ve been better. Can I ask a huge favor of you?"

"That depends. What’s up?"

"Well, Jimmy and I got into another fight and he left me in the parking lot of Kincaid’s."

After a moment’s hesitation, Curt was back on the line. Sighing, he replied to her, "You know Alyssa, I can’t keep doing this. I’m sorry that you and Jimmy keep having problems but until you decide to do something about it I can’t –"

"You mean you won’t help me? Is that what you’re saying? If so, spit it out Chris, because it’s freezing out here and I don’t have time to waste. If that’s the case then fine, just say it, and I’ll try someone else."

"I’ll be there in about 10 minutes, okay?"

"Curt thank you, I really do appreciate –"

Looking down at the dead receiver in her hand, Alyssa finished her sentence. "Your help."

Huddling her arms around her shivering body trying to keep herself warm, it seemed like an eternity had passed before Alyssa spotted the lights of Curt’s truck turning into the parking lot. Pulling up alongside her, he opened the door and motioned for her to get inside. Closing the door behind her, Alyssa placed her hands over the vent trying to warm herself up. Seeing that she was shivering, Curt turned up the heat for her and headed out of the parking lot.

Feeling somewhat awkward about seeing Curt for the first time in a long while and not knowing what frame of mind he was in, Alyssa remained quiet, waiting for him to take her home. To her surprise he made a wrong turn and took the highway headed out of town. "Where are we going, Curt? Don’t you remember where I live?"

"Oh yes. How could I forget where you live?" he laughed harshly to her.

"Well this isn’t the way to my place."

"I’ll tell you what, Lyssa. We’re going to go somewhere and have ourselves a little talk."

Grimacing slightly when she heard him use his nickname for her, Alyssa replied to Curt, "Please now’s not the time okay? This evening has been a nightmare and I’m freezing and…"

"It’s never the right time for you is it, Lyssa? Come to think of it, it’s never the right man either," he said to her bitterly.

Turning away from him to stare out the passenger window at the blackness enveloping them, Alyssa remembered happier times that the two of them had shared only last year when they had been a couple. Everything had been perfect until Curt had asked her to move in with him. Unwilling to give up her freedom, she refused several times telling him that their relationship was better the way it was. Why change it? She was unable to forget the hurt expression on his face when she had told him a week after their last argument that they were better off as friends than lovers.

Watching in puzzlement as she saw Curt turning onto the road that led to the lake, she kept herself calm while he drove them down to a grove of trees and parked the truck. Sitting quietly as he turned off the engine and turned to face her, she asked him calmly, "Curt, please tell me what this is all about."

"Oh that’s an easy one. So you and Jimmy had another fight, did you? I’m sorry to hear that Lyssa, but did it ever occur to you that I might be tired of only hearing from you when you’re having your little problems? Sweet, dependable Curt, always there to pick you up when you fall down. Is it my imagination or is this relationship a little one sided?"

"Curt, I’m sorry, I really am. If it was a problem for you to pick me up then you should have told me and I would have found another way home," Alyssa said to him, sighing softly.

Laughing somewhat bitterly at her, Curt turned away to look out his window. "Yeah, but I just couldn’t do that, Lyssa. I miss you too damn much."

"Curt, please listen to me. I’m your friend and I always will be. You’re a very important part of my life and even though things didn’t work out between us."

"Well, obviously things aren’t working out between you and Jimmy either. Tell me – is the argument you’re having with him the same one you had with me? You and your commitment phobia?"

"Listen, would you please just take me home?" Alyssa sighed to him, tired of fighting.

"No, we need to stay here until we straighten something out. I need to know something, and I need an answer right now. Not tomorrow, or next week, or next year. Did you love me?"

"Wh-what?" Alyssa said, turning to look at Curt in surprise.

"It’s a very simple question Lyssa, it just requires a yes or a no answer. Did you? Even for a little while?"

"Yes I did, Curt," Alyssa answered him, looking down into her lap.

"Then what happened to us? Why couldn’t you commit to me?"

"Curt, it really was for the best. Sometimes things just aren’t meant to be and-"

"Don’t give me that bullshit damn you!" Curt yelled, slamming his fist against the dashboard. "Answer me!"

"I didn’t want to hurt you anymore. I couldn’t stand to be the cause of pain for you and I figured that since all we did was fight the last month that we were together it was better that we just went our separate ways."

"And just how long did it take for you to hook up with old Jimmy?" Curt sneered to Alyssa, turning back towards her.

"Damn you, he had nothing to do with us. Leave him out of this!"

"I can see it now, Ms. Gee-I’m-Sorry-To-Hurt-You-But-I-Just-Can’t-Make-Up-My-Mind. How long was it before you hooked up with him, Lyssa? A month tops? Well, at least he’s survived long enough to be more than a flavor of the month-"

"Fuck you," Alyssa yelled, opening the door of the truck to get out. "I’ll walk home."

"Get back here," Curt said, reaching over to slam her door shut and yank her back into the cab.

"Let me go!" Alyssa yelled at Curt, pounding him on his chest. Feeling his arms suddenly surrounding her and pull her into the heat of his body, she pleaded with him once more. "Please Curt, please let me go."

"I did that once before and I was a fool," he muttered to her against her hair. "Don’t you remember how good it was between us Lyssa? Have you forgotten so quickly?"

"Don’t call me Lyssa," Alyssa said to him through clenched teeth. "That isn’t my name."

"But it’s my name for you. It’s almost as beautiful as you are," he murmured, running his hand tenderly up to cup her cheek with his palm. "Tell me one thing and I’ll let you go. I’ll never bother you again, I swear to God."

"What is it?" Alyssa murmured to him, looking up at him through eyes swimming with tears.

"Tell me that you love Jimmy."

"Why?"

"Because I need to hear it from your mouth."

"I love Jimmy," Alyssa whispered, looking away from him.

"Look me in the eyes and say it, Lyssa. Say it now."

"I..I love.." Looking into Curt’s stormy gaze, Alyssa found her body trembling. "I..I..lo.."

"You can’t do it, can you?" Curt whispered back at her, tilting her chin up with his hand to force her to look at him. "If you can’t do that, then do something else. Tell me that you don’t still love me."

"I don’t…I don’t..I.." Alyssa gave a small hiccuping sob as her chin dropped to her chest. Feeling Curt slide over on the seat and lift her sideways onto his lap, she felt herself suddenly drowning in the warmth of his embrace. Attempting to extricate herself from him she only felt him tighten his hold on her. Tilting her head back he kissed her softly beneath her ear, a soft fluttering spiderweb caress that she barely felt and yet burned her to the core. "Curt, don’t," she said to him.

"Why are you trembling then?" he murmured to her, allowing his lips to graze down the curve of her neck to rest at the hollow of her throat where he could feel her pulse begin to beat wildly.

"I’m just cold," she lied to him, her breath beginning to quicken.

"Then I’ll warm you," he replied, smothering her protest with his hot lips. Slanting his mouth across hers, he cupped her jaw with his palm to allow his tongue access to the sweet depths of her mouth. Feeling her body cease struggling, he moaned softly as she wound her arms around his thick neck.

Lifting her up slightly so that she was now straddling him, Curt pushed his hardness up into her pelvis, hearing her gasp of desire.

"Does that feel like I don’t want you any more, Lyssa?" he murmured to her, softly biting her earlobe. "Does that feel like everything’s over between us? Don’t you remember how we used to set one another on fire? Have you missed my touch? Can you honestly tell me that Jimmy makes you feel as good as I used to? Do you ever close your eyes when you’re with him and pretend that you’re with me?" he said to her, reaching up to cup her breast through her sweater with one hand while holding her hips in place with the other.

"Curt, yes I have Curt I…"

"Say it, Lyssa. Tell me what I want to hear."

"I love you, Curt," Alyssa whispered to him, drawing back from him and kissing him lightly on his mouth. "I always have. I never stopped."

Groaning, Curt pulled her soft body roughly to his and kissed her savagely, running his fingers through her hair to hold her head in place as he ravaged her mouth with his. Feeling her begin to writhe in his lap, he ran his hands down the length of her back to cup her buttocks through her skirt as she wrapped her arms around his neck, unable to press herself close enough to his heat.

Outside the wind suddenly begin to blow, gently rocking the truck as an owl hunkered down upon a branch, the only creature around to witness the windows of the truck rapidly fogging up while soft cries emitted from its depths.

God’s in his Heaven, and all’s now finally right with Curt and Alyssa’s world.