Come Fly With Me

Sparkle stared up at the ceiling of her hotel room. She laid perfectly still, trying to delay the inevitable. Maybe if she stayed still, time would stay still and she wouldn't have to face the stranger who was lying naked next to her. She felt him roll over onto his back and she shut her eyes tight. Way to go, Sparkle. Good luck getting out of this one.

The man inhaled deeply and sat up groggily. She felt the heat of his gaze on her face. "Morning. Er, afternoon I guess."

Maybe if I keep my eyes closed, he'll think I'm still asleep and just leave.

"I'm thinking of ordering up some breakfast," he said as he got off the bed. "Do you want anything?"

Sparkle sat upright in a heartbeat and saw the naked stranger holding his sides with laughter. She realized he'd gotten one over on her and tried to chuckle as she covered her bare chest.

"I'm Xavier, by the way. Just in case you forgot." He didn't seem self-conscious at all as he bent to pick up his boxer briefs. And there was no reason he should be since Sparkle could easily make out every single muscle in his eight-pack. He also had the most beautiful dark chocolate skin and the ass of a god. "You're... Star?"

"Close enough," Sparkle said, tearing her gaze from his bulge.

"I wasn't really going to order breakfast. I just wanted to say thanks for a fun night." He talked as he got dressed. "If you're still in town for a while maybe we should do it again."

"I'm not even sure what it is we did, to be honest."

He smirked. "Check the photo gallery on your phone. There's some juicy stuff in there."

"Oh God!" Sparkle dropped her face into her hands, mortified. Her hair cascaded down to create a fluffy blonde curtain and she felt the edge of the bed sink beneath Xavier's weight.

He patted her shoulder. "Don't be too hard on yourself. We had good, wholesome fun!"

Sparkle snorted. Xavier got back up to put on his shoes and Sparkle mustered up enough strength to get up as well, yanking the sheet from the bed to wrap around her body. She walked him to the door like a good hostess. "Actually," she said as he opened the door. "My name is Sparkle."

Xavier smiled and gave her a peck on the lips. "I know."

She watched him stroll down the hall and turn for the elevators then shut the door. She banged her head against it once then twice. "Fuck."

It was at that moment that Sparkle realized there was something different about her room. It had all the same furniture but she could've sworn her beds were on the right and the tv and dresser were on the left. She checked the closet and recognized a few of the items as Kelly's. But why was she in Kelly's room? And where was Kelly?

As if on cue, Sparkle heard her phone ring. She picked it up from the floor and saw Kelly was calling. Kelly's voice came loudly from the other end, "Hello sleeping beauty! We just saw your man candy walk by."

"You remembered him?" Sparkle asked as she snatched last night's dress from the chair in the corner. "I'm glad someone does..."

Kelly laughed. "Winnie and I are down here at the pool, getting the sun to soak up the alcohol from our pores. Put your suit on and come join us!"

"I'll be a minute, Kel. I need to wash every part of my body first."

She laughed again. "Got ya. We'll be here."

Sparkle found her clutch still had all it's original contents and once she pulled her dress on, she ran as quickly as possible to her own room. Her shower was heavenly; scrubbing and exfoliating and shampooing and conditioning all of the smoke and embarrassment out from last night was exactly what the doctor ordered. By the time she put her damp hair up in a bun and got on her green and white polka dot bikini, she felt almost new.

Winnie and Kelly were lying prone on a pair of lounge chairs with the afternoon sun shining brightly down on them. There wasn't a clown in the bright blue sky and Sparkle was thankful she brought a pair of sunglasses. She walked to the other side of Kelly and spread a towel out on the chair before sitting down. The girls both turned to her with rapt attention.

"What?"

"Details on the Hershey's kiss you spent the night," Kelly prompted. "Did he melt in your mouth or your hand?" They both cackled wickedly.

Sparkle groaned. "The better question is why were we in your room Kelly?"

"You told us you wanted to bring him back to the hotel with us but you didn't want him to know which room was yours in case he turned out to be the kind of guy who pops back up unexpectedly."

"Drunk Sparkle is actually quite logical," Winnie said.

"Was I the only one to slut it up last night?" Sparkle asked.

Kelly touched her chin thoughtfully. "Well... I made out with someone. Winnie gave a lap dance to a bride who was out doing her bachelorette party thing...."

"Oh!" Winnie said. "One of Brandon's exes showed up and, well, they left before anyone else did. I think Ramon got a couple of numbers too..."

"What a night."

"Good thing we have all day to recover," Winnie said, settling back into her prone position. "We need to be in tip top shape to fight those fires tomorrow."

The next day, tip top shape was what Sparkle was. Dressed in green wide-leg pants, a floral blouse, and a beige blazer, Sparkle walked into the training center with the rest of her class ready to annihilate any fire the instructors threw at her. Standing in front of the classroom, in addition to their regular instructors Chase and Andrea, was a row of about five or six guys she had seen the other day in the galley. Including Trent.

"Good morning everyone!" Andrea said in a chipper voice. "Fire. An unpredictable force of nature to be reckoned with... In keeping with our teamwork value, we have a few firefighters who work on the airport grounds to teach the lesson with us. Gentlemen, would you care to introduce yourselves?"

Brandon leaned over to Sparkle and whispered, "You've got the green light with Mr. Tall Dark and Handsome since he's not a pilot."

"I didn't know I needed your permission," Sparkle whispered back.

Brandon winked at her and then returned his attention back to the fire fighters. It was Trent's turn.

"Hello," he said in the gruff voice that Sparkle remembered. "I'm Eli Trenton. Most folks call me Trent. You might hear these guys calling me Barry but don't pay them any attention." A few of the guys chuckled.

After the introductions the lesson began. It turned out they weren't only fighting fire, but learning CPR as well. Sparkle was familiar with the method thanks to the certified nurse's assistant course she took the previous year and found herself done with the workshops first. Trent approached her as she stood near the back of the room.

"You looked like you've done this before," he remarked.

"Oh, yeah. I blow into incapacitated mannequins all the time when I'm at home." Trent chuckled. Sparkle smiled, shaking her head. "No, really, I was a CNA for about six months last year."

He seemed impressed. "Some tough work."

"Yeah, but it's not like I had to fight a fire or anything. I couldn't imagine doing something like this for a living."

Trent shrugged and put his hands in his pockets. "I can count on one hand how many fires I fight in one year. Which I think is a good thing."

Chase was calling the class back to order and Sparkle excused herself. She wished for their lunch break so she'd have the opportunity to talk to Trent some more but when lunch did finally come around, he was surrounded by his fire fighter buddies.

"Who do you think is hotter?" Brandon asked. "Eli the fire fighter or the chocolate drop from the other night?"

Sparkle's eyes went wide and she felt her ears turning red. "Ohmigod, Brandon! I thought we were done talking about my one night stand," she said in a fierce whisper.

Kelly and Brandon fell into each other with laughter. Winnie tried to shush them for Sparkle's sake but even Ramon was smiling too.

She rolled her eyes and suddenly remembered some of the pictures they had taken that night. They were racy and dirty and even though they were embarrassing, it looked like she had had fun with Xavier. Hot, nasty fun. The sort of fun she couldn't remember ever having with Hassan... She shook the thoughts from her head and focused on her training. It went by slowly but since it was a fire lesson, at least they were able to spend part of the day outside in the sun.

By the time they were dismissed for the day, it was dusk. Sparkle and her classmates filed onto the bus and headed back to the hotel. When they got there, Sparkle was shocked to see Xavier standing in the lobby. He smiled as she approached and let her take his hand, pulling him outside.

"Not exactly the greeting I was expecting," he said, clearly amused.

Sparkle looked at him. She couldn't deny he was a devilishly handsome guy even in just jeans and a fitted t-shirt. She blinked and looked into his brown eyes. "What're you doing here?"

"I thought I would take you to dinner. I called but your phone goes straight to voicemail."

"Oh... I turn it off when I'm in training..." she trailed off as she saw Trent step out of a parked Charger on the other side of the parking lot and head in her direction.

"Understandable," Xavier said. He smiled again. "So, dinner? I really wanna get to know sober Sparkle."

"Um, well..." The idea of dinner with Xavier didn't seem like a bad one, even considering the mortifying memory of their first night together, but it definitely could've come at a better time.

Trent half smiled when he walked up to her. "Hope I'm not interrupting anything," he said, tugging at his beard.

"I dunno," Xavier said. "Is he interrupting something Sparkle?"

Sparkle looked from Xavier to Trent in a mild panic. "I'm not sure either. Trent, what're you doing here?"

He continued tugging at his beard. "I guess I just... I didn't think we had enough time to talk today. I was wondering if you wanted to grab some food."