“Kelly Air Force Base?”
He nods, looking at me funny as I slide the application over to him. “Let me know if you have any questions.”
“Shukran.” Thank you.
“Afwan.” You’re welcome.
That was a weird exchange, right? I shake it off as the guy leaves and Evie walks in, stacks of pizza boxes in her hands.
“By the way, your little idea didn’t work,” I say as she sets the pizzas down on the front desk.
“Heath?” she asks, handing me a slice of pizza. She points at the bandage on my arm, and I wave it off.
“Yep. Ornope, as the case may be,” I say, moaning at the flavors hitting my tongue. “Dammit, woman, how do you do that with a pizza? I should be tired of pizza by now, but then you bust out with this fajita, Cholula, roasted corn and… is that charred cilantro?”
She nods, waiting.
“And… lime?”
“Yes,” she answers, smiling triumphantly. The old coot Morris passes by, and she hands him two slices.
“Hey! You’ve still got two days on your suspension. And also,” I say, turning to Evie, “why does the cranky one get two slices?”
“One for him, and one for Maggie,” she says, winking at the ancient windbag. “And he apologized.”
I swear, for a second, Morris’s cheeks redden. “I’m notthatcranky,” he says sheepishly. “And… thank you. Maggie will appreciate this.”
Old man Morris gives Evie a soft smile as he walks out the door, taking my pizza with him.
Looking between the two of them, I have to ask, “What gives?”
“Hm? Oh, nothing. Morris and I just get along, that’s all.”
“Mmmhmm. I bet.”
“Whatever, don’t try to distract me. What happened with Heath?”
I shove another bite of pizza in my mouth and answer, “I tried, and I don’t want to talk about it.”
Evie looks at me with suspicion filling her eyes. “I have a feeling you didn’t do it right.”
“No, I totally did it right, up until the point when he touched my shoulder, and I damn near startled us to death with a cast-iron skillet full of boiling oil and butter,” I say, acknowledging my bandaged arm.
She gestures her hand in a rolling motion and says, “I’m going to need more words from you on exactly what happened. All I know is that Scout got a weird call from Heath, asking for Jonathan’s number, and now he has a bruise on his elbow and tape holding two of his toes together.”
“Yeah, well, I have this burn on my forearm. And it ruined my favorite unicorn T-shirt.”
“I’m still hung up on the detail that this was a surprise for him.”
Fuck. I probably did do something wrong.
“You’re the one who said to center him, so I decided that he probably needed some help with food, and I wanted to show him that I could be trusted with food in the future so that he wouldn’t have to worry about it.”
“So, you wanted him to know and acknowledge that you are a safe person from whom he can receive food in the future. Do I have that down correctly?” she asks, doing a very bad job of hiding a smirk on her perfectly appointed lips.
“Wellyeah, but why are you saying that like it’s a bad thing? It’s like I agree with all of your words, but you’re saying it like I am the dumbest, most selfish person in the world. And I went through a lot of trouble to get that dinner going.”
“Honey, the hint is in the number of times you use the wordI. I decided, I wanted, I could. You decided how you were going to make him feel better, and you didn’t check in with him. Centering someone means youask themhow to make things better, and then you do that thing. And sometimes, the thing they want you most to do isstay the fuck away from them.”
