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“Yeah, I’ve got a nice little apartment in downtown New Orleans. It’s just a few blocks away from my parents’ restaurant and I’ve been helping out there.”
“Not as a cook, I hope,” I tease him.
Reyes could burn water. He always had to have someone else make him coffee in the morning, and I smile at the memory.
“Haha, no. I’ve been bartending.”
“Do you like it?”
“Yeah, it’s kind of nice to hear about other people’s problems. I missed feeling useful after I got back. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and I still don’t, but for now, bartending is a good start.”
“I hear you.”
“What have you been up to?”
“I’m staying with my cousin and his wife up in Fallen Peak.”
“Never heard of it.”
“I’m not surprised. It’s this tiny little town, but I love it.”
“Yeah? Are you working?”
“No, not yet. I have no idea what I want to do,” I admit.
“You should do web design,” he says right away and I blink.
I was always messing around on my laptop when we were deployed, so I’m not surprised that he remembers that. There wasn’t much else to do and I had always liked computers. I taught myself coding one lonely summer when I was a teen but had never done anything with it.
One of our teammate’s wives was starting her own business and I had offered to help with the website. I ended up designing her whole site for her and had a blast doing it.
I had forgotten all about it until now though.
Could I really start my own business? Could I find enough clients to support myself?
“Yeah, that’s a good idea,” I tell him.
“Let me know if you do it. My parents’ website could use a makeover.”
“I will.”
There’s a moment of awkward silence and I hold my breath because I know what’s coming. I can feel it. Tension wraps around me and I close my eyes again, praying that he doesn’t bring it up.
“How are you dealing with everything else?” he asks me apprenhensively and I take a shaky breath in.
“Alright,” I lie.
“Yeah?” he asks and I can tell that he doesn’t believe me.
“Not really. Everyone around here thinks that I’m some kind of hero. I can’t stand it when they bring it up or God, when they congratulate me,” I grit out.
Anxiety builds inside of me. Is he going to be mad that I’m treated like some war hero when that’s just not true?
“You are a hero, Jonah,” Reyes says quietly and my breath stalls out in my lungs.
“No, I’m not. Smith, Maxwell, Tobinas, they’re all dead. I couldn’t save them. I couldn’t save any of them,” I choke out.
“You saved me.”
