Light a Fire Inside My Heart

Liam was sure that the fact his building had thirteen stories and no working elevator was a crime. He was on his third trip up the stairs and so far he’d only managed six boxes in the three hours he’d been moving. He prided himself on his fitness, but even he was struggling to make it up to the thirteenth floor carrying the boxes.

He’d finally finished his third trip and was about to rest when he noticed smoke billowing out from underneath his neighbours door. He didn’t even think, his training kicked in and before he knew it he’d broken the lock and was tumbling through the door. The room was filled with clouds of smoke. Liam made his way to the kitchen, grabbing the fire extinguisher from the wall. He opened the oven and more smoke came spilling out. He sighed in relief. Nothing had actually caught fire, just burnt to a crisp.

“Who are you?” A voice choked from behind him. He jumped around, the voice startling him. He came face to face with a woman dressed in only a towel. Her hair was dripping wet and pressed flat against her head. It was hard to tell what colour it actually was but he guessed a dark brown, but wet it looked almost black. Liam tried desperately to avert his gaze, trying to look her in the eyes, but the towel left little to the imagination.

“I’m sorry ma’am. I’m your new neighbour, I saw smoke coming from your door and…” he stuttered unsure what else to say. Something about the woman stood in front of him had him paralysed.

“Oh! I was in the shower! I forgot I was even cooking.” Liam looked at his watch; it was an odd time to be cooking. It wasn’t even five o’clock yet. Too late for lunch but too early for dinner.

Liam hesitated, not wanting to cause offense but part of his job was to warn the public about the dangers of fires. “You know ma’am you really shouldn’t leave your cooking unattended for any period of time. It can be dangerous, and if I wasn’t here there’s nothing to say that your apartment wouldn’t have set fire and by the time the fire service got here it would have been too late for you.”

“Gee boy chill out. I just forgot I was cooking!” she tried to play it off. What was his deal?

“What about your fire alarm? I didn’t hear it going off.” he mentioned giving her a pointed stare. It was things like that, that annoyed him. How hard was it to keep the batteries in a fire alarm working? He’d known from experience that fire alarms could save lives and that it was careless not to keep them working. It not only risked the lives of the people living there but their neighbours and the firefighters that responded to the calls.

“I took the batteries out. As you can tell I’m not the best cook.” She smirked, trying to lighten his mood. He seemed visibly stressed, and he looked exhausted. His top was drenched in sweat and his hair looked ruffled and greasy, despite this he looked like the kind of man to take care of his appearance and she wondered what was wrong.

“No offense ma’am but I think you should take a fire safety course.” he felt bad, but if he were going to live next door to her then he wanted to know he was safe in his sleep, he risked it enough during the day.

“Okay, first of all; stop calling me ma’am. I’m 19 not 90. Second of all; I do not need a fire safety course. My dad and brother are both firemen. So please, stop right there.” she snapped and Liam couldn’t deny, he was slightly turned on. She was feisty and he liked it. He could tell she had a gob on her and he liked that in a woman. He didn’t like girls that didn’t say it how it was, who tried too hard to impress him or agree with him on anything even though he was clearly in the wrong.

“That or you could come for a coffee with me. If I’m going to be living next door then I want to make sure I’m safe to sleep at night.” he smirked. Both would have their benefits. He could still warn her about fire safety but he couldn’t deny the physical attraction he had for her. She was medium height, shorter than his sister Ruth and probably about the same size. It probably didn’t hurt she was stood in front of him in nothing but a towel.

“Seriously?” she barked with laughter. “You break down my door, insult me and then demand I go on a date with you? Who do you think you are?” she scoffed. He was preposterous. How arrogant could one man be?

“The man who may have just saved your life.” Liam wasn’t really sure where his new found arrogance had come from. He wasn’t one to deny the fact that he could be a bit of a ladies man, or the fact that he knew he was good looking, but he wasn’t really arrogant. Confident; yes. Arrogant; no.

“Oh don’t be so melodramatic! I was getting out of the shower anyway. In fact all you did was leave me with a busted door! I’m supposed to be at work in an hour!” she complained.

“I’ll fix it!” he offered. He was good at fixing things. It had been his job for a long time.

“Yeah well as nice an offer as that is I don’t really know you and, I don’t trust you.” she was feeling exposed standing in front of a stranger in nothing but a towel, and while he seemed to be a gentleman, he’d kept his eyes glued to hers in his attempt to allow her some dignity, he was still a stranger to her.

“Well if you agreed to have coffee with me we wouldn’t be strangers anymore.” He smirked. He knew he was pushing his luck but there was really something about her that drew him to her. He realised it was probably just the fact she was in nothing but a towel and any man in his position would be a fool not to at least ask her out, but he couldn’t be sure that it wasn’t something more than that. Well, at least not until he had got to know her while she was fully dressed.

“Try asking me when I’m dressed and not just in a towel and also when I actually know your name.” Liam suddenly felt like an idiot. He’d broken into her house and asked her on a date and all without telling her his name.

“Liam Payne. I just moved into the flat next door.”

“Tansy Styles and you’re still stood in my kitchen.” She smiled sarcastically.

He understood she wanted him to leave but he just had one more question for her. “Can I just ask one more thing? Is the elevator always out? Walking up and down those stairs is killing me and I haven’t even got any of the furniture up here yet.”

“Have you tried the service elevator? The codes 7994. If anyone asks you how you found out, it’s not from me.”

“Are we allowed to use it?” he asked. Why couldn’t he mention where he had found it out from?

“No. Well, no.”

“Then how come you have the code?” He was confused, but as far as she could tell it didn’t seem to take much to confuse him.

“My brother, the firefighter, got the code for me.” She rolled her eyes. “Now seriously, I need you to leave. I need to get ready for work and phone my brother to get him to come and fix this lock for me.” She sighed.

“Uh...okay. Well, I’ll see you later.” He stuttered as he backed out the door. She closed it on him and he stood there for a moment. How had he managed to make such a tit of himself? He was supposed to be the heroic firefighter. However, he couldn’t help but hope that she’d take him up on the coffee. There really was something about that girl. He snapped himself back from his thoughts about seeing her in less than a towel. He needed to finish getting his stuff up here and get some rest. He had an early start in the morning. It was his first day on a new job and he’d landed himself a place on one of the most renowned fire crews in London as well as one of the busiest.