But finding Jim and telling him thatno, she reallydidn’twant to be his awkward friend because she’d far prefer to see what would happen if she kissed him again…? Thatwasworth both her time and her effort.
But the idiots blocking the hallway didn’t budge. “One down,” Bull smirked. “Four to go.”
“Please move,” Ashley said.
But Bull just laughed as he took a step closer, which made her take a step back. She’d never really thought of him as anything but a nuisance, but now she realized how big he was. And how badly lit the hallway was. And her back bumped the wall, but he kept coming. “Good luck, though, with the senior chief because he’s—”
“Hey!” Thomas had come out of the lounge and was at the end of the hall. “Back the hell off!”
Bull and Todd both moved at that—fast—slipping around past Ashley and heading for the exit down at the end of the hall. “Relax, brah, no one’s getting in your way,” Bull called back to Thomas, “But heads up, she’s a frog-hog—you might wanna be proactive with the course of antibiotics!”
The door slapped shut behind them, muffling their raucous laughter as they moved off into the night.
Thomas was just a shadowy shape at the end of the hall, but he came toward her. “You okay?”
Her heart was still pounding, but she nodded.
“What thefuckwas that about?” Oh, good. Jim had come out of Dunk’s office at the sound of Thomas’s raised voice.
“Just Bull and Todd being Bull and Todd,” Ashley said, adding as she swiftly went out into the mess, past Thomas, “I’m fine. Sorry about that.”
But Jim wasn’t willing to let it go—lurking there, an even bigger shadow in the dimly lit mess. “You’resorry…? Bull insulted you like that andyou’resorry…?”
“They’re idiots,” Ashley told him as she drew close enough to see the anger on his face. “Do you mind if we go into Dunk’s office, LT, to talk?”
“They’re idiots,” he repeated her again—standing there just as solidly unmovable as Bull and Todd had been. He was outraged and indignant, and—unlike her—unwilling to simply let it go. “But you just let them dis you and walk away.”
“I didn’tletthem do anything,” Ashley pointed out. “I can’t control what they do—or think. I can only control my response.”
“Which is what?” he asked. “To shrug it off…?”
She sighed. “Yes, you know what?Yes.For a lot of reasons that I know you can’t possibly understand.”
He made an exasperated noise.
So she kept going. “Come on, Jim. Do you really think my having a conversation with Bull and Todd would change anything?”
“Yeah, actually, I do,” he said. “I think if you stood up to them, they would realize that they can’t just walk all over you—disrespect you to your face. Where dotheyget off insulting you like that? Freakingfrog-hog…”
“Well, for one thing,” Ashley told him a tad more sharply than she’d intended, “they saw me kissing you.”
“Andthisis where I grab Rio and go.” Thomas, who’d been hovering, vanished back in the direction of the lounge as Jim swore.
“Yeah,” Ashley agreed with his salty language as he took her by the arm and pulled her with him into the privacy of Dunk’s office.
But he wasn’t done arguing. “First of all,Ikissedyou,” he said. “So, youmightwant to get that right, and you know,maybeget a little angry atme, too…?”
Ashley stared at him. “Why would I—”
“Because I fucking kissed you without thinking!”
“You already made that very clear,” she countered.
“No, Jesus! God, I mean, yes, but I also didn’t look around first,” he shot back. “I didn’t thinkHey, maybe I shouldn’t fucking do this completely inappropriate thing because some douchebag lowlifes might be watchingand now they’re fucking calling you nasty-ass names, and your response isOh, well…? Boys will be boys…?”
“I didnotsay that.”
“Just Bull and Todd being Bull and Todd,” he quoted her. “Sounds equally defeatist to me.Nothing’s ever gonna change…”
