All Things Nice » Band of Brothers

60: Island

"What?" he asked, his tone filled with exaggerated offence. "I thought we were friends!"

Posey grinned, turning her eyes back on the line. "We are friends. We're just not quite there yet, you know?"

"No, I don't."

Posey laughed at his deadpan. "Not quite friends enough that I can tell you all my secrets," she explained.

"Does Bill know?" Heffron demanded. Posey could feel his eyes on the side of her face.

"Why I don't smoke?" she clarified casually.

"Yeah."

"Not sure." She shrugged, drumming her fingers on her rifle. "He might do. Johnny definitely knows - I remember telling him back in Carentan." She could definitely recall telling Johnny about how she'd been brought up as a proper lady, having attended a very expensive finishing school and having it drilled into her that she was not to smoke unless she should ever find herself widowed.

"What about Bull? Does he know?"

Posey found Heffron's intrigue about something so trivial, his desperation to be let into the inner workings of her life, endearing, which was the only reason she continued to indulge him with responses. "Bull and I are closer now than we've ever been because of what happened in Nuenen. We've always been friends but we've definitely not always been so close. So no, he doesn't. Not that I think he'd care, particularly." When Heffron went to speak she shot him a glance. "Heffron, are you watching the line?"

"'Course I am," came his immediately reply, even though she knew he hadn't been. She laughed and shook her head at him.

After a few moments' silence, he spoke up again. "Hey, lets play a game." At the sceptical look Posey levelled him with, he explained, "To get to know each other better."

"Who says I want to get to know you better?"

Heffron scowled. "Duckie."

He was just so fun to irritate.

"How does the game work?" she relented, burying her grin in her collar and turning back to the line.

"I ask you a question and you answer, then you ask me a question and I answer, and on and on. Just stupid stuff, whatever you wanna know."

"That's not a game, that's a conversation."

"Why can't it be both?" Heffron replied. "Talkin' can be fun, if it's with the right person."

Posey grinned, her eyes sweeping across no man's land. "I'm flattered, Heffron, truly." She knew he'd meant himself. 

"You should be." She could hear him grinning as he spoke. "I'll go first. What's your least favourite colour?"

"Orange," Posey replied immediately. She offered no explanation. "What's yours?"

"You can't do that! That was my question!" Heffron protested.

"You said I could ask whatever I wanted!"

"Yeah, but it's gotta be original -"

"Fine!" Under her breath but still loud enough for him to hear, she mumbled, "Didn't realise I was playing a game with a dictator." When he laughed, she grinned. "Do you have any pets?"

"Nah. Always wanted a dog though."

"Me too!" Posey replied. "Well, I had one once but he died and we never got another. His name was Floyd, like Tab."

"What breed?"

"Scottie dog. He was very handsome, unlike Tab, but definitely had the same knack for getting into trouble." She was smiling just thinking about it; she'd loved that dog. "Anyway!" She shook her head once to clear it of all lingering childhood memories. "That was two questions, so now I get two!"