Page 29 of Better Late Than Never

Tomorrow night?

Isidoro.

* * *

I was way too tired to make one of the early trains, but whatever. The ride from here to El Puerto was only an hour and some change, so even if I left later in the afternoon, I’d still be home well before dinnertime.

The only downside was that the Sevilla Santa Justa train station wascrawlingwith people. My very slightly hungover head was less than thrilled, but I intended to appease it with some coffee from that one café inside the station. And one of their pastries, because those were amazing.

I got a ticket for the 1440 train, which gave me a solid hour and a half before I needed to head for the platform. Plenty of time to wade through the line and get something to eat.

The line crawled forward, and I caught up on my socials while I waited. Nothing too exciting going on. My family back home was posting vacation photos since it was that time of year. My brother and sister-in-law had taken their huge family to his in-laws’ cabin near Lake Chelan in Eastern Washington, and the kids were clearly having a good time. My parents were there, as were the in-laws, so it looked like my brother and his wife were getting a break, too. With six kids—they’d each brought two kids into their marriage, and they’d had two more together—neither of them got a lot of downtime these days.

I smiled to myself as I thumbed through the photos. I’d joked with my parents that between him and my sister, who had three kids, I was off the hook for grandkids. At the time, I’d been kind of relieved that there was no pressure on me. These days, especially as I watched everyone grow up through photos while I was stationed on the other side of the world, regret sometimes crept in. On my rare visits home, it was just me. No partner. No kids. I still didn’t even know if I wanted kids, mostly because I was still eschewing relationships.

“Alex, honey,” Mom had gently said the last time I was home. “I understand not wanting to settle down in your twenties, but you’re almost forty.”

“I know. And I’ll be retired in a couple of years.” I’d shrugged it away like it was nothing. “Once I’m out of the Navy and figure out what comes next, then I can think about settling down with someone.”

She hadn’t been happy about that, though she’d let it go.

These days, I wondered ifIwas happy with it. Was that why I’d been such a tangled mess of frustration? Was I lonely? Itching to finally connect with someone and have a partner instead of banging my way through my active duty years? Hell, maybe I was hungry for somerealintimacy after that miserable year with Tobias.

I sighed and pocketed my phone as the café line moved forward. I was just hungover. That was all it was. Hungover, and a little frustrated because I’d spent last night alone.

Alone, Alex? Or not with Connor?

Ugh. Fuck that thought. I couldn’t have spent last night with Connor. I couldn’t spendanynight with Connor. And even if we did hook up, that wasn’t going to do anything about this melancholy feeling I got when I watched my family vacationing a few thousand miles away.

Eighteen more months. Then I’d be a civilian, and I’d be stateside, and I could think about?—

“Fancy meeting you here.”

I whipped around, and even though I recognized his voice, I was still startled to see Connor standing there. And when had he started wearingglasses?“Oh. Hey.” Why was my heart suddenly racing? “Uh… Great timing.” Really? That was all I could think to say?

He chuckled. “Something like that.” Gesturing at the end of the line, he said, “I’m going to get something myself. Mind if I join you?”

The correct answer was,“We should probably stay separated as much as possible, sir, not eat our pastries together, and definitely not sit together on the train. Sir.”

What came out was, “Sure. Yeah. No problem. I’ll wait for you after I get mine.” There weren’t any tables available in here, so we’d have to take our food to go.

He flashed me a smile that brought back way too many memories of last night—especially the one in the shower—and then he continued toward the back of the line.

Fuck me. We were going to have a late breakfast together and then ride the train back to El Puerto together, weren’t we?

From the excited flutter in my stomach… yeah. We were.

I was sorely tempted to text Isidoro then and there to lock down something for tonight. At least then I’d know there was relief on the horizon.

In fact, that was a damn good idea.

I took out my phone and sent him a message through WhatsApp, hoping the translator didn’t mangle it too much:

Are you free this evening?

I was next in line when he responded:

Duty tonight. (sad emoji)

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