The Chief, part 3

I would get through the weekend with him. He was like a gleeful child when I said yes. The sad puppy dog look was gone from his face. We continued the drive to the restaurant in silence.

Chief knew of my weakness for authentic Mexican food. It was no surprise where he took me. He held my hand as we walked from the car. Chief has always been a gentleman with the ladies. I must admit this is my favorite part about him. That and he is very easy to talk to. I never hold back what is on my mind with him. It’s disturbing at best.

Small talk was made over dinner. Neither of us could ask certain questions about each others' work and I really didn’t feel like talking about the past. Talking about Chuck was a touchy subject. One that left me in tears more often than not. We discussed future plans, vacations, places we’ve been, his kids, Hannah’s girls, and what to do this coming weekend. In any event, I didn’t want to get into a deep conversation.

He dropped me off at the barracks after dinner. Generally, I stay in the officer’s barracks or in transient housing at the various stations. I’m not there long enough to get a short-term apartment and hotels are not part of my expense account. One thing was for certain, I wasn’t going to have to worry about having a place to stay this weekend.

I woke up the next morning to a pounding on my door. It was Chief, waking me up for breakfast. Good thing he did too, because I was running late. I forgot to turn my cell phone back on after dinner. I just stared at him groggily.

“Wow, good morning. Who did you fuck last night that you forgot to take your clothes off?” Chief was chuckling at my mussed state.
“Bite it.” I couldn’t help but look down at myself. I didn’t bother getting undressed before climbing into bed.
“You know, we could have breakfast here.”
I knew what he was implying. But no way. Not there.
“Uh, I’m going to grab something from the Exchange Mall. I should be good.”
“Let me give you a ride over there.”
“Sure, I gotta pull myself together and change my clothes. Oh, thanks for waking me. I would have been super late otherwise.”
“No problem. We won’t need any wake up calls this weekend.” A huge grin was plastered on his face.
“I’m sure we won’t. I’ll be ready in a second.”
“Oh really? What did you have in mind?”
I casually skirted the question. “I haven’t given it much thought. I could use some sleep. Jet lag is catching up to me.”
“Sleep, okay. I’m sure we can fit that in.”
“Let’s go.” I rolled my eyes.

After a long day of work and fielding some troubleshooting questions for another location, Chief was waiting for me outside my office. He took me back to my room and helped me pack up before turning in the room keys to housing.

Chief looked at me and said, “I was thinking we could drop your stuff off at my place, then figure out dinner.”
“I’m tired. We can always order in.”
“Yes we can.”

We dropped the keys off and I signed out of the barracks. I needed to go by the base Commander’s office to drop off a report and then we would be on our way. My favorite Lady Gaga song was playing in the car. I turned it up loud and sang along. I didn’t care who heard me. Who knows what the Chief was thinking when I did that. He was just laughing at me because I’m sure I was quite an interesting sight to behold. I was nervous. I knew what was coming up. I had it in my head that I was just going to give him what he wanted and then call it good. It’s not like I’m in a relationship with him or any other guy.