"I broke up with Abby." Evan groaned as soon as he pushed his way into her apartment, leaving Ollie staring after him in shock and slight annoyance.

    "Hi, Evan. I'm having a great day, Evan. No, Evan, you can't come into my apartment, I want to be alone. Okay, fine, Evan, you can come into my apartment." She rattled on, turning and watching him move into her living room, plopping down on the couch like he owned it. "Good for you. You should've done that."

    He let out a huff as his shoulders hit the cushions, head laying on the armrest like he was in therapy. "It felt good, when I did it. But we had a call today. A lady pointed a gun at me while she was standing in a robe on a traffic sign, just to get her husband to notice her. Can you imagine that?" The question was half rhetorical and so she decided not to answer at all. "Being married to someone for over a decade and your relationship dwindling down to nothing?"

    Ollie sat down in the little gap on the couch between his foot and the other armrest, pulling her legs up to her chest as she listened to him. A part of her wanted to laugh at how anguished he was at this fact, but she decided it was probably better not to. "Glad you didn't get shot," is the only thing she could think of saying, giving him a thumbs-up and a smile.

    "Thanks, Ol." Buck grunted, his voice flat. He suddenly sat up, staring straight at her. "If you ever see me in a relationship where the light has died in my eyes, take me out. However you please."

    She laughed, rolling her eyes. "As amazing as that sounds, no. Just don't be with anyone that doesn't always bring you light, Buckaroo." Her fingers entangled with each other nervously, just the awkwardness of giving her ex-boyfriend relationship advice weighing on her shoulders. "You need a match to spark your spunky ass." She scoffed.

    He sighed, staring at the ceiling for a moment before nodding. "You're right. You're right."

    "Not a rare thing." She muttered sullenly.

    Evan rolled his eyes, shaking his head. "Okay, anyways. I think I'll go out tonight. Ask Chimney if he wants to go. Get out there and meet people." He declared, looking around her apartment as if he was making a grand gesture before his attention was pulled back at Ollie. "Do you wanna go?"

    Ollie gave him a blank look, eyes flickering from the boot on her ankle back to him. "You want me to go out again after knowing what happened last time?" Of course, she was only referring to the broken ankle, however she realized that her words had double meanings once a blush started creeping up Buck's neck towards his cheeks. "I think I'll be keeping both of my ankles safe in my apartment." She added quickly, leaning back against the cushions with a playful scoff.

    "Fine. But you're missing out." He responded, finally placing his feet on the floor so that he could get comfortable, arms draping over the back of the couch. "How are you doing, not being at work?"

    She groaned, throwing her head back. "Horrible. It'd probably be more bearable if Ellis didn't work crazy shifts but, alas, she does." Her complaints flew out of her mouth before she could stop them, rolling her head to glance back at him. "I tried walking to the store the other day, but I couldn't even get my jeans on, and I didn't want to go out with three day-old sweatpants on, so I immediately just laid in bed again."

    Buck's nose wrinkled, staring at her with a look of mock disgust. "You wore the same pair of sweatpants for three days?"

    Reaching out, her hand smacked against his bicep, eyes narrowing dangerously. "Watch yourself, Buckley, or I will break your ankle so you know how it feels." She threatened, pointing a finger at him.

    He laughed, pulling his arm back out of her reach. "Alright, alright, no more judging. But I can smell you from here." He huffed, unfortunately very serious. "Please go take a shower."

    "I have to shower with my ankle outside of the way of water. Do you know how hard that is?" She retorted, crossing her arms stubbornly. "I tried and I almost ended up with a concussion, too. This shit is hard. I want to go back to scaling buildings."

    "And getting stuck under rubble?" He mused, hands raising in surrender when her eyes zeroed in on him. "Sorry, sorry. Hey, how about this," he leaned forward, "I can call Maddie and she can come over and help you out with anything you need. Plus, you can have some company until Ellis gets home. I'd stay, but I already asked Chim to go out, and..."

    Ollie shook her head, holding out a hand. "You are free to leave, Buckley. And I don't need Maddie over here. I'm fine, really. All I need to do is get through this final week and I will be boot-free and back at the 118."

    "Oh, please." Evan chuckled. "Maddie has been begging me to start inviting you everytime me and her hang out one-on-one, and she is pissed about the amount of times I've been over here without her. Really, you'd think she's in love with you."

    She chortled as she stood up, lumbering her way into the kitchen. "Jealous?" She snorted, grabbing a glass to get herself some water.

    Buck's laugh followed her into the kitchen a few moments later, his body taking up most of the space between the counter and the island as he watched her pour. "Anyways, I texted Maddie. She said she'll be over soon, so I'm gonna head out. You two don't get into too much trouble, okay?" He teased, raising his eyebrows at her as he turned for the front door.

    Ollie watched his back as he walked away, sipping at her drink. Right when he opened the door, a grin pulled at her lips. "No promises, Buckaroo." She laughed, shooing him out of the doorway with her hand when he stopped to gawk at her.

    Just as Evan had promised, three little knocks came from her front door about ten minutes later. "Come in!" Ollie called, exiting the kitchen just as Maddie made her way inside. As soon as her eyes caught on the wine bottle in her hand, her eyebrows raised, pointing at the brunette limply. "Why do you have wine in your hand?"

    "Because it's a girl's day!" Maddie chirped, breezing her way into Ollie's kitchen and digging through her drawers. "What's a girl's day without wine? Where the hell is your corkscrew..." She trailed off, the sound of utensils and things clinking together bouncing off the cabinets until she finally pulled out a corkscrew. "I knew you'd have one!"

    Ollie leaned against the doorway, chewing on her thumbnail. "Maddie... I don't like wine."

    Maddie whipped around, hair flying. "What? Then why do you have a corkscrew?"

    "My roommate, Ellis, likes wine." She explained. "She has a lot of breakups. Surgical interns are like those weird friend groups in middle and high school." A small breath of a laugh left her lips, shaking her head.

    "Okay, one, she sounds amazing. Two, you replaced me? Hurtful. Three, you're drinking wine whether you like it or not. I gotta get some answers out of you." Maddie huffed, popping the cork off of the wine like she had done it hundreds of times before starting to rustle through Ollie's cabinets again for two glasses.

    After a moment of watching her rummage through her cabinets, Ollie grabbed one of the now-full glasses and the bottle, following Maddie into her living room to sit on her couch.

    In the hour they spent hanging out on her couch and two failed attempts of getting up to get Ollie showered, Maddie and Ollie were successfully tipsy off of the wine, which was lingering dangerously close to empty. They were giggling loudly, loosely, and the feeling brought a large bubble of joy into Ollie's chest. She didn't know if it was nostalgia or just the slow cracks slowly chipping away at her armor or maybe just the wine in her system, but she enjoyed the feeling immensely.

    Maddie sighed as she dropped her phone in her lap, tilting her head as she looked at Ollie. "Chimney won't stop asking me to come save him from being alone with Buck at the bar. Says he won't stop moping."

    "He cared about Abby that much?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. It sounded rude, now that it hung in the air, but it was the first thing that came to her mind.

    "It was his first big relationship after you." The brunette responded, leaning forward to set her wineglass on the table. "Buck was a manwhore for a little bit. He was impulsive, noncommital, with people and places. Every time I heard from him, he was in a different state, talking about the women. He even got fired from the 118 for, like, a day because he wouldn't stop taking the firetruck to go sleep with women."

    Olivia's eyebrows raised up to her hairline, coughing as she choked on a mouthful of wine. "That's fucking insane." She breathed out, rubbing her chest.

    Maddie laughed, nodding. "Something only Buck could do, really." She agreed, leaning back comfortably into the cushions and pulling a blanket over her lap. "But then he met Abby. She was a 911 dispatcher, they met over a call, and kept talking. He... matured for her."

    "She must have a banging body." She whispered mockingly.

    "She's sixteen years older than him."

    "Are you fucking kidding?" Ollie squealed, leaning forward as her jaw dropped. "He went from me to a cougar? Should I be offended?"

    Another loud laugh was pulled from Maddie's chest, her shoulders shaking. "He just has a diverse type!" She defended. "Acting like he's not still into you."

    Ollie groaned, throwing her head back. "Maddie, I am not doing this right now."

    The other girl practically jolted towards her, a hand landing on her leg. "Olivia! The boy talks about you like you created the Sun with your own two hands. Looks at you like you created earth, wind and fire — not the band. When he was mopey after you left, he talked about never finding love again."

    "And yet he did. With Abby." She noted, nose wrinkling, brain still on the thought that her ex-boyfriend's other true love was sixteen years older than him. "You want to talk about love life? Are those three texts in the last two minutes from the lovely Chimney?"

    A dark blush spread across Maddie's cheeks as she flipped her phone over. A quiet fell over them for a few moments before she smiled sheepishly. "He's cute, isn't he?"

    Ollie threw her head back with a laugh, shaking her head. "Whatever floats your boat, Mads. If you want him, go get your man." Her hand waved in the air, a dismissal of the woman in front of her.

    "Ollie! I can't just leave. We are actively hanging out." Maddie huffed.

    "And you are actively swooning over a hunky firefighter that is begging for your attention right now when he is surrounded by women at a bar. I'm single with a broken ankle, I need gossip to keep my life interesting until I'm fighting fires again. Get out of here. If Buck is so enamored with me, tell him I said hi," she added, a teasing tone lacing her words.

    Maddie's lips pressed together before she breathed out, nodding. "Fine. I'll go. But get Ellis to help you with a shower, please. I love you, but you stink." She grimaced as she stood up, blowing a kiss as she grabbed her stuff and made her way out the front door.

    Ollie groaned at her friend's final statement, throwing her head back and sighing.