The Purple Heart (5 page)

He was so muscular, and I was enjoying
my view immensely. He raked. I asked questions. He answered. I
flirted. He flirted back. We both laughed. He raked some more.
Before I knew it, it was time to leave for lunch. Time just didn’t
exist when I was with him.

“
I have to go now. Will you
be all right here? Do you want to come with me? I can drop you off
at the base so you can take care of anything you might need to
there. Or if you’d like, you can join us for lunch.”

“
No, thank you. I’ll be
just fine here. I’d like to finish up the yard. Do you mind if I do
some other things around here? I noticed they could use a man’s
touch.”

“
Be my guest. I
love
you.” Immediately, I realized that my innocent comment might sound
totally out of line. My eyes got wide, I felt the blood drain from
my face, and my mouth dropped open but nothing came out.

“
Good to hear.” He gave me
that amazing smile, and any strangeness was suddenly at a zero
level. He leaned in to kiss me gently.
Hum and
tingle.

Aiden walked me to my car, and watched
as I pulled down the drive. He looked lost when he waved goodbye to
me. He was out of sight in a moment, and I strangely found myself
missing him already. I definitely thought about him the entire
drive to lunch, feeling like I was in high school with a crush on a
cute boy.

I was driving to a local diner, which I
frequented with my girls at least once a week. It was close to
Gina’s ballet studio, so Cheryl and I join her there often for
lunch or dinner.

When I arrived I searched for them.
They were sitting in the back in the greenhouse room, so it took me
a few minutes to locate them. Gina liked to sit where it was sunny;
she didn’t like to feel closed in.

She was sitting very close to Cheryl.
It was so obvious they were a couple. I’m sure there were people at
the diner, and other places, who had issues with their
relationship. That always infuriated me. They were one of the
sweetest, most down-to-earth couples I knew. Their relationship had
outlasted many of the heterosexual ones I knew. Their marriage was
forever, whatever
that
meant. I was positive if there were
an afterlife, you’d find them together even then. I sometimes
wished everyone would just stop all the prejudice. It seemed to me
that everyone should be past it by now.

“
Hello, ladies. Am I
late?”

“
Hi, Sydney!” Gina pulled
me into a hug and planted a kiss on my cheek.

“
No, you’re right on time.
I ordered you a diet with a twist of lime, just like you always
order.” Cheryl knew what women wanted. That’s exactly how she swept
Gina right off her feet. The second they met it was true
love-at-first-sight. Their chemistry oozed out of them, and there
was no way anyone could overlook it. They had been with each other
for many years now, yet the bond was still as strong as ever. I
wondered if what I felt for Aiden was even remotely close to what
they had experienced when they had first met.

“
So no office time for you
anymore?” Cheryl questioned me like she was my mother.

“
I only have
one
case
. Why go into the office?” I sounded just like her snarky
teenager in my reply.

“
So, who is this guy, a
general’s son?” I could see Cheryl was going to grill me on
everything today.

“
No, nothing like that.
He’s this very handsome decorated soldier.”

“
Handsome. Hmm.” Gina’s
eyes gleamed when she said it, and she shot Cheryl a cute
look.

“
I didn’t say handsome. I
said
highly
.
Highly
decorated soldier.”

“
No, you didn’t, you said
handsome. I heard you.” Gina voice was sing-songy, like a young
child ready to start singing the
kissing in a tree
song.

“
Cheryl, please tell her I
said highly. Please make her stop.”

“
Sorry, I can’t do that.
You said handsome.” Cheryl had an evil grin on her face. It was
Gina and Cheryl’s favorite game. They had a blast messing with me.
I didn’t mind one bit because I laughed a lot when I was with them.
They were the closest thing to family I had these days.

“
Okay, he
is
handsome.”

“
How handsome?”

“
He’s gorgeous!” I
proceeded to tell them all about his body, face, hair, everything I
could possibly think of. I wanted to let Cheryl hear how easily we
got along, because I knew she was going to be concerned. Although
she often suggested dating soldiers, she was still very protective
of me. She really was like a stand-in mother at times, or more so
like an older sister. She needed to hear how we clicked instantly.
I rambled excitedly for quite some time.

“
So where’s he staying?
Somewhere close by?” Cheryl questioned.

“
Yeah, about that.” This
little tidbit of information was something I knew would freak her
out.

“
Is there an issue with
where he’s staying? I bet if I spoke to our landlord he’d be happy
to put him up in one of our units. Joe’s a veteran; he’d be more
than happy to help out another vet. I know there are a couple of
the smaller units available and I can call him right now if you
want.”

“
No, it won’t be necessary.
He’s staying with me.” I looked down so I couldn’t see Cheryl’s
eyes burning into me, along with flames shooting out her nostrils.
This was
not
going to go over well.

“
Are you fucking kidding
me? You don’t know anything about this guy!”

“
I know, Cheryl, but please
understand, there’s something about him. It’s just there, between
us. It’s a really strong connection. I felt it the second we
met.”

“
Wow, Sydney, are you out
of your mind? You have no idea what he’s like. He could be all
messed up in the head from the war. Please let me call Joe and we
can get this guy out of your place today.”

“
Cheryl, correct me if I’m
wrong, but didn’t you take Gina home with you the first night you
met? She stayed the whole damn weekend. A month later you were
living together.”

“
That’s different. Look at
her.”

“
You haven’t seen him yet.
It’s
not
different.”

“
I think it’s sweet.
Lighten up, Cher. This guy could be her
me
,” Gina
chirped.

“
Aiden is amazing. I
actually can’t wait to get back to see him. It’s insane.” I
addressed only Gina.

“
It’s insane, all right.
This guy could be a predator. You left him alone at your house?
What if he steals everything or goes through your things?” Cheryl
was pissed.

“
He’s a war hero. He
wouldn’t do that!”

“
Because you know him so
well? Remember that story from a few years ago? The one about that
soldier who also happened to have a Purple Heart? The whole town
celebrated him as a hero, with a parade and everything. A week
later, he had committed suicide. No one had any idea he wasn’t the
person he used to be or that he was suffering silently. Even his
family had no idea he was hurting so badly. Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder does things to people. No one is helping the soldiers deal
with it. There should be screening or groups to help them open up
about it. It’s not even like you knew Aiden well before he left for
the war so you could notice a change. You just met him yesterday.
How can you confidently say he wouldn’t do something?”

“
I … I can’t. Remember,
Cher, I
am
a psychologist. I’m sure I would recognize all
the signs.”

“
So you saw no signs of any
PTSD?”

“
No.” That was an outright
lie. Every soldier had some form of it. I had seen a few moments
yesterday. Aiden seemed to withdraw inside himself each time I
noticed, though, and he didn’t come across to me as a
threat.

Gina began to jokingly lay into Cheryl
about backing off, and letting me finally enjoy being with someone.
I half listened as she basically called me her
potentially lost
cause
, who might have a shot at some kind of relationship, no
matter how long it lasted. I should have been insulted. Why did she
think I would never find anyone? Maybe I wasn’t the only one who
really thought I’d end up a spinster. I felt like their child,
sitting at the table while they talked about me like I wasn’t even
there.

The other half, the one not listening,
began to have an anxiety attack. Cheryl was right. I didn’t know
this man at all. I invited a complete stranger, who even the United
States government had little or no known background on, to live at
my home. What if he wasn’t who I perceived him to be? Did I
actually make him out to be someone I wanted, just because I was
looking for it? He could be a cold-blooded killer or a crazed
maniac, and he was at my house alone with all my things. At this
point in time, he could be looking through my computer for all my
personal information or stealing all my jewelry. I felt a cold
sweat break out on my forehead.

“
Hun, are you okay? You’re
not looking so good right now.” Gina reached up as she said it and
felt my forehead like the great mom she was going to be to her
future kids.

“
I’m good.” The pit in my
stomach and the lump in my throat said differently. I wanted to
jump in my car to rush home to check on Aiden.

“
Syd, did I just ruin
everything for you with your new man? I’m sorry. I just worry about
you. It’s bad enough I worry about you being alone all the time in
those woods that surround your house, but now, add a complete
stranger that I’ve never met to the mix. I’m just looking out for
you.”

“
You scared the shit out of
her, Cher. Stop it. Let her enjoy falling in love without all the
drama. I’m sure everything will be fine. Why don’t you tell me more
about him, Sydney,” Gina requested.

“
I don’t know if I would go
to the extreme of saying I’m falling in love. He’s a very sweet man
and the potential is there. Heck, right now he’s working in my
yard.”

“
A man that does yard work
is a plus. Tell me more. It’ll make you feel better again,” Gina
said.

“
He cooked dinner with me
last night, and we never ran out of things to talk about the entire
time. He got up and made me coffee this morning.” I sounded like I
was trying to convince all three of us that he was a good
guy.

“
Did he bring it to you in
bed?” Cheryl was not going to let this go. Gina shot her a dirty
look and I swear I heard her mumble ‘no sex for you tonight’ under
her breath.

“
No,” I said
flatly.

“
Well, was there
any
nookie last night?” Cheryl questioned.

I really didn’t want to tell her how we
made out on the couch. At the same time, I really wanted to get all
giddy over it with Gina.

“
Does kissing
count?”

“
Who are you and what did
you do with my prudish friend Sydney?” Cheryl said, rolling her
eyes.

“
Yay! You kissed him. Is he
a good at it?” Gina was full of enthusiasm. I wished I had only met
with her for lunch.

“
I don’t want to hear about
her kissing him. If it was a hot chick, maybe.”

“
Shut up, Cheryl. Just
ignore her, Sydney. Tell me. I want to hear all about it. Did he
give you soft gentle kisses? Was there tongue involved?” Now both
Cheryl and I rolled our eyes. It was like I was in the cafeteria in
high school.

“
Yes, Gina. We French
kissed. He touched my boobs, too.”

“
Over or under the shirt?”
Gina liked her details.

“
Are you kidding me? We do
not
need to hear about that. That’s all, though, right?”
Cheryl quizzed.

“
I stopped him. I was
seriously going to let him do whatever he wanted, but I didn’t want
him to think I was easy.”

“
Oh no, nothing easy about
a girl who invites you back to her house the first day you’ve met …
to live with her.”

“
Cheryl, you know I’m not
like that.”

“
I’m not sure what you’re
like. This whole thing is completely out of character for you.
Might I add it’s also not ethical? Where is your work
professionalism? It anyone finds out, you’ll lose your
job.”

“
The only people who know
are you two and Aiden. I’m quite confident none of you are going to
say anything.”

“
His name is Aiden? That’s
such a nice name. That’s a Gaelic name and it means little
fire.”

“
Gina, how the hell do you
know that?”

“
She’s been in the baby
name books again. It’s nonstop lately.”

“
That’s so wonderful. Do we
have a plan yet for who the donating father will be?”

“
Not yet. We’re still
looking. It’s a really hard decision,” Gina replied.

“
Please don’t get her
started.”

“
It’s fine. I won’t get all
teary anymore. I’m just looking for the right guy. Speaking of
which, let’s get back to Aiden and kissing.”