“Yeah, spicy food.”
“I… You don’t think I… Cade, I…” he began and then gave a defeated sigh. “You know what? Fine. Spicy food.”
“Right,” I said, frowning in confusion. “You don’t like spicy food?”
He smirked. “Ilovespicy food.”
“Alright, then there ya go,” I said with a hurry-up gesture.
“If you liked…spicy food,” he said with a smirk. “Just that one taste of it, and you’re not sure if you like the rest of it. The answer is pretty obvious.”
“Even if I didn’t think I liked spicy food before?” I wondered.
“I mean, if you aren’t interested in finding out and want to stick to the food you’ve had before, then just stick with it. If you want to find out the answer to your question though, you’re going to have to keep trying the spicy food,” he said with a shake of his head.
“Yeah, that makes sense,” I said with a frown. “But what if, uh, I wanna be sure I like the food and not just like…the spiciness?”
He stared at me, and for a moment, I thought I’d confused him before he looked upward and silently mouthed a prayer before looking at me again with exasperation. “I just… Cade, I know what you told me when we first met. So I know there’s a battle-hardened soldier in there, and you’re definitely not an idiot, even if you want to say otherwise.”
“Um, okay, thanks…I think?”
“But subtlety and metaphor are not your skill sets,” he said with a snort, leaning forward. “Best you can do is try the spicy food again, if you’re willing, andonlythen, got it? Sometimes you’ve gotta be uncomfortable expanding your…palate, Jesus Christ, anyway. But don’t push too far. So I guess…Jesus, how do I translate this to…ah, right. Maybe don’t just stick to trying the food, maybe look at the food, see if the food does it for you, see if it…smells right and…yeah, I’m just going to leave it there though I probably should have stopped a sentence earlier.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Um, thanks…I think…again.”
“You started this,” he said with a sigh. “Geez,spicy food.”
“I’m, uh, just gonna go,” I said, thinking about what he’d said. It wasn’t really spicy food I was talking about, of course, but I’d got my answer. I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to continue when I didn’t know if it was one reason or another that I’d enjoyed myself. But at least I had something I could talk to Walker about when I was finally given the chance to get him alone. “I’m gonna go find Walker.”
“I’m sure you are,” he said, and when I glanced at him, he cleared his throat roughly. “I’ve seen how close you two are.”
“We served together,” I told him, feeling defensive.
“Oh,” he said, looking down at my leg. “I thought?—”
“He was…on my team, but he got hurt on a mission a few months before,” I said, knocking on my leg with a grin, “ya know, it all went to shit.”
“Ah,” he said with a smile. “And now he’s here?”
“I guess.”
“Huh, weird. Maybe there’s something to Reggie’s theory.”
“What theory?”
He waved me away. “Trust me, the less you try to get into that man’s head, the better. Go on, go find your friend. I’ll be here if you need to talk about…food again.”
“Sure,” I said brightly as I walked off to the steady beat of my leg against the ground. I was feeling better about the whole thing; at least I finally had something I could say besides “I dunno” when I tried to talk to Walker.
His class would nearly be over, so I headed to the room where they held the sessions. The tune was back in my head and I was humming as I went, grabbing the door and opening it, only to come to a stop when I saw a group of men twisting on the ground like they were trying to audition for a porn set.
“Er,” I said, realizing I should have at least knocked before entering, but it would have been a lot better if I had peeked in to see if the class was over. “I, uh…sorry.”
“We’re nearly done, but you can join us,” the instructor said, and I couldn’t remember his name considering I’d never joined the classes.
“Ah, no,” I said, looking down at my leg. It wasn’t like I could do a whole lot, not yoga anyway. “Not really lookin’ to wave this hunk of metal around. Was just here to, uh…pick someone up.”
The instructor’s eyes darted to my leg, but his pleasant smile remained. “Well, take a seat then. Maybe a little mindfulness will find its way to you.”
