>>5539699You’re trying to think up a way to regain the ground you’ve lost and banish the increasingly thick aura of awkwardness, but you just can’t come up with anything actionable.
With no better options available, you make a desperate call and nudge Jack with a sigil ping. Set was an option, but you’ll die before you dare to ask him for dating advice,
> “Jack, I really need your help here. Set tricked me into a blind date and I’m completely out of my depth when it comes to women. The only experience I’ve got to work with is FOB nightwatch bullshitting and that one time I got kinda brainwashed. Save me, please.”The response you get back is sympathetic; yet firm and to the point.
“Relationships are all about trust. If you really want to connect with this woman, then you need to make the first move. Tell her something of great import to you and see where it takes you. I know it can be scary, but I’m afraid that it’s the nature of the beast. Whatever happens, just know that you have nothing to embarrassed about. Go get her, Sean.”
The only thing you can think of is your time in the Corps.
You’re still puzzling over the right thing to say when your food gets delivered, saving you temporarily from having to take a precarious social plunge.
As it turns out, you managed to order some kind of stewed octopus instead of something more conventional. Still, it’s not half-bad; a little salty, but you’ve had far worse.
In between bites, you gradually build up the courage to bring up your military service. Given the disastrous nature of its conclusion, you decide to sanitize it a bit.
> “So, here’s a fun fact about me; I actually did a few combat tours in the Marines. I don’t generally talk about it a whole lot, but I figured that it’d be best to be upfront.”“Wow! You must have plenty of stories; mind giving me some highlights?” Marina says, a little too flippantly for your liking.
You can tell that she doesn’t mean anything by it, but her offhand comment inadvertently rips the bandage off your deepest wound, the kind that’s liable to never fully mend.
In that moment, a crack forms in the carefully curated compartment where you shove everything you don’t like thinking about.
Especially the memories.
They dig themselves out of their forgotten sepulchers and demand your attention immediately, at potentially the worst possible time.
The mood is instantly ruined when your mouth moves faster than your common sense.
