Into You

Chapter 2

"No thanks, I'm fine," she replied, as sweetly as she could manage, hoping it didn't come across as rude. "I'll just have a glass of sparkling water please."

She shrugged her shoulders placing the order with the waiter and dismissing him politely. With a sweep of her arm, Dinah gestured for her to sit down.

They simply regarded each other as they waited for the drinks.

Dinah's actually quite impressive. Quite tall, fit and well muscled. She has an aura of quiet competence. She wonders what she's like when she's not being all professional.

"I believe Ally has tried to bankrupt me again on one of her little spa sessions." Dinah laughed and winked at her, "the last client she brought here ended up trying everything; and I mean everything... cost me a fucking fortune, I can tell you. What someone would want with a salt rub I don't know; for me, salt is for fries and burgers, you know what I mean?"

She nodded a little guiltily, thinking back to all the treatments Ally had insisted she take earlier in the afternoon.

"Anyway, did you have a good time?"

She nodded again, a little sheepishly. She hasn't really, but she can't really tell Dinah that, can she? Seeing as she's apparently just paid for it all. At her nod, Dinah burst into laughter.

"Oh Lauren, I hope you're a better soldier than you are a liar; but I know what you mean. I hate this place, too. Not something I'm used to either; all this pampering. If it wasn't for the fact that I have to play the big businesswoman and..."

She left this hanging, as the waiter came back with their drinks; pausing in mid-sentence as if she was telling her big secret that she didn't want anyone else to hear. After the waiter had gone, Dinah tipped her glass to her and took a sip, before sitting back in the deep, lavish, leather chair.

"So, Lauren Michelle Jauregui Morgado," she recited as if she had just started a tape playing in her head. "Twenty-six years old, born in Miami; joined the Army on your eighteenth birthday not long after the loss of your mother to..."

"Twenty-five," she interrupted, anxious not to think about her mother's death.

"I'm sorry?" Dinah asked blinking back at her.

"I'm only twenty-five, or I was, the last time I looked anyway."

"You should look a bit harder then, Lauren. Your twenty-sixth birthday was 13 days ago; though I suppose you would have had other priorities at the time other than celebrating."

She hadn't realized, or at least, she'd lost track of the date. She put it down to the isolation of being on the streets. She had been concentrating on days, not dates. When it all comes down to it, she's not even sure she could tell what month it was.

But she missed her birthday in all this shit; even missed the anniversary of her mom's death. No matter where she was in the world, or what she was doing at the time, she'd lit a candle in her memory on that date.

Making a silent promise to make amends to her mom's memory, she simply nodded in acknowledgment of the woman's comment as she continued with her potted history of her life to date.

"You served one acclimatization tour in Germany after basic training and were selected to join the Close Protection Unit on your first application, with a recommendation from your company commander no less. One tour in Iraq with multiple commendations on your record; identified for fast track promotion. You finished that tour, then you were transferred to a new unit and shipped to Afghanistan. How did you deal with that, Lauren? Two combat tours back to back?"