"Hey," Ant grinned warmly, his infectious smile inspiring my own as we embraced. "You look great, how are you feeling?"
"Good," I smiled and greeted Rob with a hug I had grown to feel comfortable with.
"Jase made it sound like you were dying," Rob held my shoulder and looked at me carefully, inspecting for any lingering signs of illness.
"It was a flu, a two day thing," I rolled my eyes with nonchalance, concealing the true sickness that had plagued me. "I didn't know you'd be meeting me," I glanced around quickly, looking for signs of Jase's tall, hulking body.
"Jase said he might meet us later, he told us where to pick you up from. You need to eat, don't you?" We piled into their truck and pulled on to the service road, the bar only five minutes away by car.
"They do pizza there, I think," I mused. "I've heard there are some rules..."
"Yeah thanks- I already bought two rounds for everyone when we went in last week," Rob groaned.
"What did you do?" I chuckled.
"I put my phone on the bar, and touched one of the model planes they have hanging from the ceiling. You can't wear a hat in there either, I can't remember the others. Good laugh though," he smiled.
As dusk fell, more and more personnel began to drip in to the base's only watering hole, some of whom I recognised from seeing them around, some who had dropped in paperwork with a smile to the office, plus a familiar face in Jack surrounded by a couple of other shirt wearing agents. He nodded to me briefly from across the room, prompting an influx of questions from Ant.
"Who's the suit?" He frowned suspiciously.
"Who, Jack? He's my 'liaison'; he took care of everything at the beginning basically. I think he's like Lorres' lackey," I spun the coaster around on the surface of the varnished table with my index finger, ignoring the increasingly frequent looks from that side of the bar. Jack was drunk, they were all drunk. Their laughs had become jovial roars, animated conversation notched up loud enough for everybody to hear.
"Think Rob's having fun?" Ant smiled and gave his friend a sideways glance. Rob was deep in conversation with a pretty servicewoman; whilst she fluttered her lashes he clenched his biceps, the mating ritual very entertaining to watch.
"It's like watching National Geographic," I giggled and took a sip from the sweating bottle of beer I'd just started. It was the first alcoholic drink I'd had, and I was a little nervous. Would I have lost all of my capability to hold my liquor? When inhibitions were all I seemed to have, what would I be like if I let some of them go for an evening?
"And here we have the typical Alpha Male specimen; this large male raises his sleeves before he approaches the female, showing his impressively carved muscles," Ant narrated as David Attenborough, watching carefully as the woman stroked the tattoo on Rob's arm.
I took a swig from the beer, enjoying the hoppy taste and snickering privately as Ant continued his repertoire.
"Oh- she's leaving!" I exclaimed in a whisper. "No, she's going to the ladies' room. I'm going to go and put in a good word," I hastily stood from the table, ignoring Ant's hissed protests.
I walked across the bar, shooting a mischievous smile back to Ant, and nearly bumped into somebody as they whirled round.
"Whoa- sorry!" The familiar man stumbled back and grinned. "Hey, I recognise you."
"Oh, yeah you dropped some paperwork in to 91 a couple of weeks ago, I think," I squinted my eyes as I placed him. He was very recognisable; tall, built, with a deep tan and a classically handsome face. His eyes were brown and framed by thick black lashes, his hair dark chestnut that looked soft even from afar. His features were so symmetrical they made looking at him a pleasurable experience.
"Yeah, I remember you," he smiled boyishly. "You look different."
"Well... I don't really wear makeup to work, so..." I could feel the blood rush to my cheeks as I flushed.
"No it's... your eyes, I think. You can see them properly now," he gazed intently for a moment before his glance shifted to something behind me.
"Your beer's getting warm," Ant's low voice boomed softly.
"Oh, thanks. This is, uh..."
"Ryan," Ryan extended a hand to Ant, who looked at it for a moment before slowly completing the gesture with his own.
"Ant," Ant nodded cordially as their interlocked hands raised up and down, then broke precipitously.
"You stationed here?" Ryan asked politely.
"No, just visiting," Ant glanced around the bar quickly.
"Oh, cool. British? Navy?"
"Special forces," Ant coolly responded. "SAS."
"Nice. I'm in the selection process for DEVGRU, might be able to call myself a real SOF man too soon," Ryan smiled ruefully. I stood awkwardly, Ant's demeanour telling me to let him do whatever he felt he needed to in this strange show of dominance and possession.
"Yeah? You must know Jase then, one of the directing staff?"
"No, I don't think-"
"Jason Hill," Ant's eyes began to glitter in challenge.
"As in Master Chief- that Jason Hill? Yeah he's overseeing part of the selection process- why? You know him?" Ryan looked around briefly in quiet alarm, wondering if his superior was lurking somewhere in the bar.
"We've worked together. He lives with Paige," Ant's lips straightened into a slight smirk, watching Ryan's brows elevate in surprise.
"Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't realise," he smiled charmingly, clearly unsettled with the idea that he had stepped where he shouldn't have done.
"We're roommates, that's all," I explained clearly. I wasn't going to have anyone on base thinking there was more than that between Jase and I, it was bad enough that people mistook us for a couple when we went grocery shopping.
"I'll uh, see you around then," Ryan smiled and backed off, re-joining his group of friends.
"You may as well have peed on me," I rolled my eyes as Ant and I made our way back to the table.
"What?" He exclaimed with a spluttered laugh.
"Oh please, what was that?"
"I didn't know if you'd be comfortable. If someone approaches you when you're alone you bet your arse I'm coming over and throwing them off," Ant took a generous swig of his beer.
"He's nice," I jutted my chin defensively, the gentle attention Ryan had showed not entirely unwanted.
"Hey-" Rob approached, grabbing his jacket from the back of a chair. "I'm going to take off," he nodded his head back to the woman waiting patiently at the bar.
"Have fun big man," Ant chuckled, smiling after Rob as he placed a hand on my shoulder in goodbye and stalked off to his conquest. "Shall we get another drink and go for a walk?"
"Sure," I replied, the atmosphere becoming a little too busy and masculine for me to feel comfortable.
The sun had set, leaving only a thin slither of amber against the kiss of the horizon. We strolled along side by side in the inky violet night, shoes crunching into the sandy gravel. I was tired now, worn out by pushing myself too soon after recovering from an illness.
"Did Jase tell you we have to leave tomorrow?" Ant asked softly, a hint of shame in his voice as though he presumed he'd be letting me down.
"Leave? I thought you were staying on another two weeks," I frowned.
"Funeral," Ant cast his glare off into the distance of tarmac and dotted rotors of choppers.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Someone you were close to?" I suddenly felt incredibly selfish.
"We served together, he was in my unit years ago but we all kept in touch. We called him Peacock; or Captain Peacock; CP... Feathers sometimes," he smiled. "His middle name was Frank and his last name was Thornton, you're probably too young but Frank Thornton played Captain Peacock in-"
"Are You Being Served," I finished. "It was always on in my house," I smiled sadly.
"Yeah, well, there you have it. Shot in Afghanistan. His funeral is in three days, Rob and I want to be there."
"Of course you do," I nodded. "Ant," I breathed in and hesitated, the attention of his cool blue eyes against mine making me doubt the words I was about to say. "I'm okay here, you know," I continued without exhaling. "And I'm feeling better, I'm going to be cleared to do proper exercise and some self defence classes soon... it won't be long before I'm discharged from their care altogether," I breathed out shakily, impressed by the babble of words I didn't really mean.
"You're really okay? Even with Jase?"
"I'll never be okay with Jase, not totally. But I'm sure we've dealt with the worst of it, we can coexist a little longer," I replied firmly, the resoluteness of mind entirely false. "It's nearly nine o'clock actually, he didn't turn up." Jase's lack of presence brought an unexpected lightness to the evening, but it tinged the experience with nerves. It seemed unlike him to surrender control of me to anyone else so flippantly, especially without it being planned. He'd said he wasn't going to show, but I hadn't believed him.
"No, he seemed like he was in a gopping mood to be fair, probably just as well," Ant raised his brows. The wind gusted from behind us suddenly, whipping my hair across my face. "Shall we get you back?" He smiled slightly, looking at my mouth. His hand reached forward and released a lock of hair caught in the edge of my parted lips, his eyes tracing up to mine for a few charged seconds. There was something deep, deep in my body that teetered me on the verge of leaning in, only a fraction, to close the gap between us. But his eyes broke away and it was lost.
"Yeah, it's getting late," I nodded, diffusing the tension in my head. We ambled towards his truck, no other words exchanged between us. The strange rush of energy that had passed through my body had me alarmed and relieved at the same time. I didn't think I would feel impulses again, certainly not like that, but there was no mistaking it. The surge was desire, and it rested uncomfortably in my veins with nowhere else to go.