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But if I want that, then I have to wait. Bide my time. Make her see that she’s more to me than just a fuck. Hopefully, today has been a good start. There’s no denying that I chose the right place to take her. She was like a kid at Christmas, so excited. And the way she reacted to the dolphins. Sharing that experience with her was magical. And now I’m cooking for her. Fucking hell, she’s turned me into a house husband already. I don’t fucking care. I’ll do anything she wants me to and then more.
I plate the food. I’ve made my famous carbonara. She’s already sitting at the table when I walk through with the plates. She’s poured us some wine and she smiles when I come in.
“It smells great. I’m starving,” she says as I put a plate down in front of her.
She picks up her fork and tastes it. She moans appreciatively.
“It’s lovely,” she says. “So, how much is it costing me?”
I frown. What the hell does she mean? She laughs softly.
“You said dinner was on me. So I guess I’m paying the chef,” she says.
“Ahh, well that’s all part of my cunning plan,” I tell her. “Because now, it’ll have to be lunch tomorrow.”
She smiles and her eyes shine.
“And then it’ll be dinner tomorrow I take it?”
I nod. “Yup. Then it’ll be movie tickets on Tuesday night. And something next weekend. It won’t be long until it’s a deposit on a house, and then maybe a wedding cake.”
I wonder if I’m coming on too strong, but Zoe laughs in delight.
“You have it all mapped out, don’t you?” she says.
I reach over the table and caress her hand where it sits beside her plate.
“From the moment I saw you, Zoe, I knew you were different. Special. I see a future with you. Is that crazy?”
She shakes her head.
“Not even a little bit. I feel it too. It’s like we have this connection, like the universe always had this planned for us.”
I nod.
“Yes. And I’m going to spend the rest of my life showing you the universe was right.”
“I already know it. Never doubt the power of fate,” she says, her voice mockingly serious.
We both laugh and our conversation takes on a less deep vibe as we talk about our plans for the future.
“What do you want to do after you graduate?” I ask her.
I cringe inside as I remember she’s still in high school. Fucking high school. What the hell am I doing? Relax, Mac. She’s eighteen. She’s a woman. And she’s almost done with school.
“The dream or the practical?” she asks.
“Both,” I say.
“Okay. The practical. I want to be a teacher.”
“And the dream?”
Her face lights up in a way it just didn’t when she said she wanted to be a teacher.
“I kind of feel like somehow you already know. I want to be a marine biologist.”
“I should probably roll with that and let you think I’m all sensitive and shit, but I’ll be honest. I don’t even know what a marine biologist is.” I smile.
She laughs. “Amongst other things, marine biologists are trainers at Sea World.”
“That makes sense,” I say. “So why is that the dream and not the reality?”
She looks down at her almost finished meal and spears a piece of pasta. She sighs.
“Because it’s so hard to get into. You need top-notch grades, an almost perfect GPA, and then a first-class degree, ideally from an Ivy league school, but for me, it would be Stanford. And that’s just the start of it. You need experience working with marine animals. It’s so competitive.”
I wait for her to look up and I smile at her.
“But you have passion, Zoe. You love those animals. I could see it in your face today. And you can be anything you want to be. Don’t give up on your dream and live a half-life doing something you don’t love. There’s nothing to stop you from volunteering at a rehabilitation center or similar while you get your degree.”
She gives me a shy smile.
“When you put it like that, it sounds almost achievable.”
“That’s because it is,” I say.
“What’s the dream for you?” she asks.
Setting your body on fire, making you come every minute of every fucking day.
“I honestly don’t know,” I say. “I never really thought about it much outside of the military. But I guess I’d best get thinking about it.”
As I say it, I know it’s true. Just like that, I’ve made a decision I’ve spent the last six months agonizing over. I have to leave the military if I want any sort of real life with Zoe, and I want that more than anything.
“You’ve decided to leave when your time is up then?” she asks.
“Yeah,” I say. “Because now I have something worth staying here for.”
I can’t believe I’ve made such a major decision just like that based on a girl I haven’t even known for twenty-four hours. And that I’ve just announced it to her, letting her know she’s the reason why. If someone had suggested I’d do this, I’d have laughed in their face. But with Zoe, it just feels right.
