They did.
Just not the way I expected.
Nobody smiled.
That was the first thing I noticed, before I even said a word.
A few of the guys looked up, then looked at each other, then looked away from me entirely, like they were waiting for someone else to speak first.
For a second, I wondered if I’d interrupted something serious.
The station wasn’t loud like I remembered.
No television blaring in the background.
No one calling across the room.
No stupid joke flying in my direction.
The air felt strangely still.
I tightened my fingers around the cake box.
Maybe they’d had a difficult call.
That happened.
Tyler had told me before that sometimes the station stayed quiet afterward. Everyone processed things differently.
I told myself that was all this was.
Then I noticed one firefighter glance at the balloons and immediately lower his eyes.
Another man cleared his throat and walked toward the far side of the bay.
My excitement started slipping.
Not disappearing.
Just changing.
A small nervous feeling began forming in my stomach.
I looked around for Tyler.
I didn’t see him.
Maybe he was in the kitchen.
Maybe he was showering.
Maybe they were planning to mess with me.
That last possibility actually made me feel better.
Tyler’s crew loved making people uncomfortable before revealing a joke.
I almost smiled.
Almost.
“Is Tyler around?” I asked, still holding the cake, my voice already sounding smaller than I meant it to.
Nobody answered right away.
That silence was worse than anything they could have said.
Then Captain Reyes came out from the back office, slowly, his expression doing something I’d never seen it do before.
I had known Captain Reyes for years.
He was normally composed.
Firm when he needed to be, but easygoing around families.
Whenever I stopped by, he usually greeted me with some version of, “What did Tyler do now?”
Not this time.
He looked at the balloons in my hand, then at my face.
Something inside me went cold.
Captain Reyes stopped a few feet away.
For one strange second, neither of us spoke.
The balloons shifted behind me.
The cake suddenly felt heavier in my hands.
“You don’t know yet?” he asked.
For a second, I thought I’d misheard him.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
Captain Reyes’ expression changed immediately.
He looked past me toward the other firefighters, almost as if he wished one of them would step in and rescue him from the conversation.
Nobody did.
My heart started pounding.
“Know what?”
Captain Reyes lowered his voice.
“Amanda, why don’t you put the cake down?”
That sentence terrified me more than his question had.
“No.”
“Amanda.”
“Where is Tyler?”
My fingers tightened around the cardboard box.
Captain Reyes took one careful step toward me.
“He’s not here.”
“I can see that.”
My voice came out sharper than I intended.
“Where is he?”
