“Yes, ma’am. I took over for Nevis.”
Bean blew out a breath. It was ridiculous that he even considered that Garnet could be guilty of anything. She wasn’t a bad person, and he didn’t need to think that she would run off while he was getting them food. She wasn’t guilty of sabotaging the computers here. She’d just gone to the bathroom.
“I have food for us.” Bean held up the bag of food.
“Thank you. I really am hungry, and I need a break. I feel like my concentration is crap.”
“Good. I have food, and we can talk about anything you want.”
“Anything, hmm, that’s interesting. Let me think.”
He set up their food as she settled at a table in one of the nearby conference rooms. She grabbed cups of water from a cooler, and they sat down to eat.
“The first question is, what is your favorite holiday meal?”
He threw back his head laughing. “Sorry. That’s a great question for someone who isn’t a military lifer.”
“What do you mean?”
“My parents did the best they could, but my mom didn’t cook, and they were poor. Then she died when I was twelve. We didn’t do holiday meals. In the military, you get what you get, and you don’t throw a fit.”
“Fair enough. I’m sorry about your mother.”
“It’s okay. My lack of strong family ties led me to where I am. These people are my family.” He unwrapped the food he’d picked up, seeing it was beef wrapped in flat bread. “There was this one time I was in Australia during Christmas. It was hot, and totally not typical Christmas weather I was used to, but my CO’s wife made food for us and brought it in. It was the best meal I’ve ever had. I don’t even remember everything she made, but there was turkey, beef, and ham, along with three types of pie. I’ve never eaten so much in my life.”
“Nice. That sounds great.”
“What about you?”
Garnet took a bite and chewed, looking very thoughtful as she thought about the question. She swallowed, then her lips screwed up to one side. “I think my favorite is when my mom made lasagna. It was always so good. She made this really good garlic bread, and she would make these amazing dessert cannolis.”
He moaned as he thought of the food. “That sounds good.”
“I enjoyed it. I was an odd child. My parents didn’t get why I was so into certain things.”
“Like what?”
“I’d hear something about a political or historical figure, and I had to dig in. I’d spend hours at the library, finding out everything I could. I made them send letters to politicians where I asked very intricate questions. I’m sure I was very annoying, but I needed all the information. Then I found computer programming. That changed everything.”
“I’m sure you weren’t annoying.”
She shook her head and laughed. “Oh no, I was totally annoying. I was ten when I ended up catching a bus to a university that was close by and finding a professor. It could have turned out much worse, but the guy was nice and not sketchy at all. He answered my questions for an hour. When he realized I was ten years old, he was shocked. He also realized I shouldn’t be there. He made me call my parents and tell them where I was. They were so mad.”
“Oh crap, what did they do?”
“They threatened to ground me. The professor asked them if it would be okay if I attended classes online. So at ten, I was allowed to sit in on his computer classes. Then I started sitting in on physics classes.”
“So you were a brainy kid. When did you finish college?”
“When I was fifteen. My parents hated it. I would have finished at twelve or thirteen, but they forced me to do other things. They wanted me to be a kid, but my brain wouldn’t stop. Regular school was too dull, and the teachers hated me. I mean, I did tell them how to do their jobs, and they got mad when I corrected their mistakes.”
“So do you feel like you missed out on childhood?”
Garnet shook her head, her red hair bouncing around her face. “No way. I had a great time doing what I loved. I was able to spend time learning really cool stuff.”
“That’s great. I wasn’t really into school. I thought it was too easy. I liked history, though.”
“History was interesting. I wanted to know everything about people. It’s hard sometimes because when you dig into some people’s backgrounds, you find some really terrible stuff. I found out that I love computers more than history.”
