Charlotte Valentino and Dennis Severs grew up together at Churchill Estates. A deadly fire inspires Dennis to join the fire brigade and it lands him at the White Watch, who fought that fire. But he's keeping a grave secret from his fellow firefighte...
"Hey Chuck." Dennis calls Charlie when he gets off his shift the following Friday.
"What's up, love?"
"How long will your ceremony last and are ya doing anything after?"
She makes a popping sound with her mouth. "Should finish about 8, 830? And no I'm not doing anything. Why?"
"Uhm my boss, who has been out since before I started, has come back. So they all want to go out for drinks. But it won't be until about 9. So I was gonna see if you wanted to go with me. Me and you could celebrate the pinning."
"That sounds lovely. I have to wear my silly white uniform dress. Should I bring a change of clothes with me or you think we could stop by the flat before we go?"
"We can stop by first. Don't want ya stressing."
Charlie chuckles. "Great. Wanna just ride together then? To the pinning. You can meet at my place around... 5? We could grab some food and head there?" Charlie squeezes her eyes shut. This is seeming more and more like a date, which Charlie doesn't mind, she just hopes Dennis feels the same way.
"I'll see you at 5."
"Where you off too, love?" Kelly Severs asks her son.
"You remember Charlotte?"
"Yes of course. Lovely girl."
"She's getting pinned tonight. Just finished nursing school. So I'm gunna go to the ceremony and then we're gonna get drinks after."
Kelly narrows her eyes. "You look very chipper about this. You like her, then?"
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Dennis rolls his eyes as his cheeks heat up. "Yeah I do...."
"Didn't she used to date George?"
"It was very short and a long time ago."
"How will he feel about this?"
"Dunno mum and I don't care. He treats her like shit."
"Well just be careful, love. We all know how George is..."
"I'll be fine mum. I've gotta go." Dennis kisses his mum on the cheek and makes his way to Charlie's flat.
"Hey!" She opens the door. "You ready to go?"
He takes in the sight of her beautiful brown curled hair, but smirks at her outfit. "I didn't know a jumper was part of the uniform."
She looks down and rolls her eyes. "I can be a messy eater and if I dirty up this thing before the ceremony, they'd throw me out."
The more they spend time together, the more comfortable they get. Dinner goes by with ease as they laugh and talk about childhood memories. Around 630, they head to the ceremony.
"I'm so nervous. Which is stupid since all I have to do is just stand there but I dunno. I don't like being in front of a lot of people."
Dennis reaches for Charlie's hand and squeezes. "You'll be fine. And I'll be right out there." He pointed to where the crowd sits. "Just look for me if you get too nervous and I'll make a funny face or something."
