The lights shone through the windows of the barracks across the street, but it didn’t seem like he lived there. That meant he was either married or higher-ranking than his age would suggest. Soldiers below a certain rank could live off-post only if they were married, but I couldn’t imagine that a married man would be sleeping on my chair right after a deployment. Besides, he wasn’t wearing a ring.

I was checking out his ACU jacket for his rank patch when I saw his eyes on me.

“Are you coming with me, Sergeant, or are you going to make me stand in this parking lot until you call a locksmith for your car?” I looked at the patch on his chest, his last name stitched in capital letters: Martin. He was so young to be a sergeant.

“Come on.” I put my hands up, begging. “You don’t know me, but this is what will happen if I leave you here. About five seconds after I drive away, I’ll feel guilty, and I’ll obsess over it the entire way to my dad’s. I’ll imagine you getting hit by a car or passing out or something. Some awful death scenario, and then by the time the dinner is over it’ll be worse. Way worse.” I rolled my wrist in a circle and looked him right in the eyes.

My mouth was dry. I was talking a lot, and not slowly. It didn’t seem to annoy him and I wasn’t even getting that little bubble of fear of rejection from basic contact with other humans like I usually did. I continued, more animated.

“I’m talking apology texts to Elodie, who’ll be stressed because she worries about everyone, and then we’re talking the guilt level of stressing out a pregnant woman, and good Lord, who knows what will happen to the baby?”

“The Lord,” he said randomly. I studied the scar in his eyebrow as he spoke. It was small but somehow made his look more interesting.

“What?”

“You said, ‘Who knows what will happen.’ So, I answered you.” He didn’t smile, even when I nearly cackled. I covered my mouth with my hands to keep my laughter in.

This guy was the kind of funny everyone wanted to be. The kind who could just say random stuff like “the Lord” and it was effortlessly funny. He was probably never awkward, and he seemed like he knew he was good at humor. He didn’t physically show it, but I could hear it.

“Are you always funny?” I asked him.

He shook his head, looking away from me. I stared at him, but he didn’t let up or look at me.