The line cook slapped overly cooked broccoli next to Forest’s serving of chili mac. He scrunched his nose.
“Not sure I’ll ever look at broccoli the same again.”
“You’ll get over it.”
“So, how long do you have left with the military? Will you be staying in? Or heading back to the States and civilian practice?”
“My commitment is up at the end of this tour. I have a month to go.”
“And?”
“I love my job. I can’t see doing anything else. Until they kick me out, I’m here to serve.”
“That’s the Tia I know,” Forest said with a smile. “Now, let’s go have fun with lover boy.”
“Can you please stop calling him that?”
“Hell no! I’ve got two days to tease the shit out of you and few years to make up for. I’m totally going to have fun with this.”
She rolled her eyes and led Forest back to her table. Her food was probably lukewarm by now and non-palatable. With Forest breathing down her neck, she’d have to shovel it all down. She wanted to gag, and that sick feeling in her gut wasn’t all due to thoughts of the food. Forest’s comments about Lyons had her mind in a tailspin.
FIVE
Tour
Tia and Forestheaded back to the corner table where Warren and Lyons waited. The general noise level in the room returned to its low buzz, but many pairs of eyes followed them. The wordsAngel Firepopped through the room, the troops excited about the band’s arrival.
Warren glanced up from his computer screen and perked up with Forest’s approach. He ended his conversation with Lily, blowing her and his boys kisses. Lyons shifted back around to the opposite side of the table while Tia took her spot next to Warren. A cold tray of chow-hall food waited for her return.
“You didn’t have to end your call with Lily,” she said, feeling horrible to have intruded on Warren’s personal time with his family.
“Oh, it’s, like, 4 a.m., and the boys were falling asleep.”
“I’m surprised she was up,” she said.
“Well, she always makes time for me, and the boys would’ve been heartbroken if they’d missed my call.”
“You’re an amazing man, Warren,” she said. “A true hero.”
He laughed. “Well, I don’t know about that, but to those boys, I might just be.”
Forest shoveled a scoop of chili mac into his mouth, grimaced, and reached across Lyons to grab the saltshaker. “How the hell do you stand this stuff?” he demanded.
Lyons passed the pepper. “You’re going to need some of this.” He jabbed his fork toward Forest’s plate. “That’s the best food I’ve had in weeks. You should try eating MREs day in and day out.”
“It’s got to be better than this,” Forest said with a grumble.
Tia and her teammates laughed.
“You’ve obviously never had the pleasure,” Lyons said. “Hey, T, do you think we should enlighten him?”
She shook her head. “Are you kidding? He’s doing advance recon for Angel Fire. Shove an MRE down his throat, and he’ll turn the band around.” She gestured at the full chow hall. “Now that everyone knows they’re coming, you’ll incite a riot if they don’t show up. All because you wanted to have fun with Forest and MREs.”
Rumors were no doubt spreading across base about the imminent arrival of the rock legends. A nonprofit organization, the USO provided programs, services, and live entertainment to the military. They’d been doing so since 1941. Bob Hope, Marilyn Monroe, and Bing Crosby were a few of the first. More recently, Katy Perry, Toby Keith, Five Finger Death Punch, Disturbed, and other rock legends had made the circuit.
Most times, the base population knew who was coming and when, but sometimes, the USO liked to surprise the troops. The public relations buzz, which came from those surprises, garnered a lot of attention back home. Angel Fire might count as one of the biggest surprises in a very long time. She wished her team wasn’t going to miss it.
“So, what is the plan for their tour?” she asked. “Bagram first, but then what? Are they playing at all the bases in Europe?”
