The Loneliest Stars || EDITING

Chapter 24

"Natty, baby..."

"Hmm?"

Bless her. She answered to her name in her sleep. It was fun when he had first discovered it, but it was short-lived, since she didn't make a lick of sense.

"Nat." He tried to shake her awake.

"Do you mind if I go meet a buddy for a drink? He's only in town for tonight."

God, he was whipped. He couldn't believe that he was asking for permission to leave, but the words were out of his mouth before he could have stopped them.

His phone was lit up in the dark. The text from his old team-mate has just come in, someone he wasn't expecting to hear from at all, someone that was closer than a friend, more like a brother. With their schedules, it was hard to find time to talk let alone meeting up face to face.

Natalia blinked slowly at him in the semi-darkness, waking up from the light cycle sleep she had been in. "Of course not. Text me if you want a lift back."

Why did he think she was going to make a fuss?He was pleasantly surprised that she hadn't. Would he had even stay if she expressed her displeasure? Gabe cast his mind back to what the old Gabe would have done. The old Gabe wouldn't even have asked. He would have just slipped out, maybe left a note if the spirit moved him to.

He had been a jerk of a husband. Away for most of the year and not physically there when he was back from deployment, prioritising his team over his wife. He didn't want to slip back into that mentality, where the Marine Corps owned him, body and soul, everyone else including him just  getting scraps.

He pressed a kiss to her temple, breathing in the coconut scent of her hair. She rolled over and snuggled into the spot he had vacated, hugging his pillow. Her breathing evening out, and settling into a content slumber. 'It must be nice, having a healthy relationship with sleep,' he thought. Just watching her sleep relaxed him.

He slipped on his previously discarded clothes and went to his car, parked outside her house. It was a short drive to the bar he was meeting his buddy, Ty.

"Damn you're old and ugly," Gabe laughed as Ty came into his line of vision at the bar.

"What's that pretty boy? This is what a real man looks like," Ty retorted with equal mirth. He was big, tattooed and hairy. Both beard and head sporting hair of equal length.

They hugged and the testosterone levels in the bar rose incrementally from their macho back slaps.

"What you doing in town, brother?"

"Just some personal business. How you been?"

"Good, man. Never better." It wasn't a lie, he hadn't been this good for years.

"I'm sorry I couldn't..."

"Nah, it's fine brother. I know how it is."

Handling training, workups and deployment, along with your personal life left you little time to look out for anyone else. Gabe got it, he didn't always get it, the bitterness at being left out to dry on his own had consumed him. But time did its thing and he could now look fondly back at his time in the service. Ty was one of the few of his team mates that he had been able to keep in touch with after he'd left; exchanging emails or quick texts. It wasn't often but he still appreciated it.

"How's contracting?" Gabe asked, taking a sip of his IPA.

"Just got back from a stint in the Yemen."

"Shit that was you?" Gabe asked, referring to a news article he had read recently, where some US State department employees had to be evacuated. The US didn't have an official diplomatic mission in Yemen, he guessed they were running some sort of off-book operation that required a quick response.