Page 4 of So Smitten

Maybe that was a question for another session.

“Really,” Dr. West said. “That sounds… interesting.”

She chuckled. “Do I win the most shocking revelation award?”

“Oh, you’d be surprised the things people tell me,” Dr. West replied, “but that is definitely not what I thought you’d say.”

“What did you think I’d say?”

“I thought you would comment on the brotherhood you felt for your fellow Marines and what an honor it was to follow them into battle.”

“A Marine doesn’t need to say that out loud,” she replied, “It’s understood.”

“Of course,” Dr. West said. “When people go into war together, there is a bond there that can never be severed.”

A stab of guilt shot through Faith. When was the last time she had talked to anyone from Dog Company? She hadn’t even gone to the five-year reunion.

“Of course,” she said, keeping her voice neutral.

“So tell me about this boy,” he said, “or this man, I apologize.”

She smiled slightly, "No, boy, just about sums it up. He was the stereotypical bad boy with a baby face. Movie star smile, nice arms, blue eyes. Not much of a lover, but you took whatever you could get over there.”

So much for avoiding personal conversations.

“Did this boy have a name?”

She furrowed her eyes. “Well, yeah, but why do you want to know?”

“Well, you were intimate with him. He must be important to you.”

She laughed. “Decker? No, he was never important. I wasn’t important to him, either, though. We were just young and horny and available. That’s really all it came down to. And since the platoon sergeant walked in on us, it never happened again.”

“Well, this Decker was important to you, Faith, even if you don’t realize it,” West insisted. “You were intimate with him, and even if it seemed to you like it was only scratching an itch, it was certainly far more than that. You chose to reach out for human contact, and when you did, you chose Decker.”

“So why him?”

Faith blinked and looked back at Desrouleaux. "Why, who?"

Desrouleaux glanced at his partner, a young agent named Chavez, who stood nervously, unsure what to do. Faith was the most well-known and respected agent in the Philadelphia Field Office, and Chavez was barely out of her training uniform. She still raised her hand to speak in meetings.

Faith spared her the need to interrogate a senior agent. “I don’t know. Best guess, he just recalled me mentioning the name once and decided to hunt him down.”

“How many other names do you think you mentioned to him?” Desrouleaux asked.

The corners of Faith’s lips turned down. For a while, West was the only person Faith really talked to. She had shared a lot of names with him, far too many to recall.

But she had to recall them. “I don’t know off the top of my head,” she said, “but a lot.”

Desrouleaux sighed. “Dammit.”

“Yeah,” she said,” I know.”

“Do you think you could come up with a list?” he asked. “Of any name you can remember telling him and what their relationship is to you? I don’t know how it would matter how closely they’re related since his first choice was a guy you hadn’t talked to in over a decade. Was he an old boyfriend or something?”

“No, not a boyfriend,” Faith replied. Which was perfectly true.

Desrouleaux shook his head and scratched his chin. “Well, we’ll file it all away with the rest. Sorry about this, Faith.”

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