“Hipsters?” Todd asked. “That’s pretty gay.”
“A)” Lieutenant Slade said in a tone that brooked no argument, “we will not usegayas a pejorative. And B) Ashley is a woman. Show some respect.”
Bull was still standing, and he grabbed his crotch as he told Ashley, “I got some steaming hot respect for you right here, sweetheart.”
“Enough. Sit.Now,” Slade ordered.
Bull sat but he still made kissing noises in Ashley’s direction.
And again, the SEAL was looking at her, as if waiting for her to do something.
But Ashley had found that nothing worked better than refusal to engage. Ignore and avoid. Although avoiding Bull was going to be impossible, since they were on the same team… That leftignore, so she calmly took another sip of her wine.
Lieutenant Slade finally spoke. “Okay. Let’s go around the table, introduce ourselves—where you’re from, what you do, and what you hope to gain from this session. Kenneth, why don’t you start?”
“Oh, uh, yes, of course,” Kenneth said. “Kenneth Price. Originally from the UK, little town just outside of London… College student, Boston University, English major… Hoping to gain… I want to say… life experience…?”
“Good. Thank you. How about you, Clark?” the SEAL prompted.
“Clark DeWitt. I’m Ashley’s brother and Kenneth’s roommate. Originally from New York. I’m here because I’d… well, I was thinking of maybe trying to become a SEAL someday.”
Ashley looked at him. She’d had no idea… “Really?”
Bull snorted his disdain. “That’llnever happen.”
Ashley shot him a hard look. “You don’t know that.” She turned to Clark. “I think that’s a great aspiration.”
“I think you meanpipe dream,” Bull said.
“I think you need to zip it,” she shot back at him.
“I know one way you can get me tozip it,” he said. “Although it starts withunzippinga differentit.”
Nope, not going there. Ashley looked at their SEAL instructor, who again was looking back at her. “May we continue? I’ll go next. I’m Ashley DeWitt. From San Felipe, California—it’s near San Diego. I’m a lawyer for a family law practice that specializes in protecting women who are victims of domestic violence.”
Bull laughed. “Of course you are.”
“I hope to gain… confidence,” Ash said.
Bull grabbed himself again. “I got a confidence injection for you right here, baby-cakes,” he said.
Clark had had enough. “You know, you read as pathetic,” he told Bull. “You’re not funny, you’re just stupid and ignorant—”
As Bull bristled, Ashley leaned slightly against her brother. “It’s okay,” she murmured. “Just… pretend he’s not here.”
“Does that really work?” Lieutenant Slade asked. He was still watching her. He’d been watching her since this gathering had started. No doubt ready for her to quit and walk away. “Because in my experience… well, I’ve never been able to just wish an adversary away.”
“Can we finish here?” she asked in response. “I’d like to get back to my camper. I’m still working on my recovery from my jet-lag.”
“We need to elect a team leader,” Bull pointed out. “In fact, I nominate Ashley.”
“I second it,” his friend Todd said.
And before Ash could begin to form the N forno, Kenneth and Clark, not realizing what they were doing, chimed in with “Third!” and “Fourth!”
“Good, so that’s decided,” Bull said with a smirk. “You’ll get a packet of info that tells you what you have to do—it’s mostly just taking attendance, and bringing us coffee in the morning.”
What? Ashley looked at Lieutenant Slade, who was shaking his head. “No, to the coffee, but yes to the packet,” he said.
