31st October, 1944
It was raining. Again. But even the cold and rain wasn't enough to dampen Evelyn's spirits. She was pretty much on cloud nine. Ever since that night just over a week ago when Liebgott had finally revealed his innermost feelings to her, she'd had this excited flutter in her stomach constantly. The insides of her cheeks were sore from where she had to bite on them almost all of the time to stop herself from smiling too much. After all, she didn't want anyone else to catch wind of what was going on. Not only because they were all so damned nosy and if one of them found out then it would spread like wildfire through the rest, but because she and Lieb could get into a lot of trouble or even be kicked out of the military. It was proving rather difficult to stay away from each other and talk no more than they usually did so as to avoid any suspicion. What was more difficult was keeping their hands off of each other when they finally were able to talk. There were always people around, and in the last eight days, they had managed to get probably five minutes alone. But they were the best five minutes of the entire week.
"Ev, are you ready?"
Evelyn blinked. Babe had his face right in front of hers and was looking at her expectantly.
"Huh?" she frowned.
"I knew you weren't listening," he sighed exasperatedly. "We're about to start the stories."
It was Halloween and a small group of them who weren't on patrol were gathered in a little stone outhouse. It was almost crumbling down around them, yet it still provided a welcome shelter from the cold and rain outside as long as nobody sat too close to the walls where the water was leaking through. Malarkey had decided that seeing as it was Halloween it was the perfect night to tell a few spooky stories. Evelyn wasn't exactly sure that she believed in all of that but it was a little bit of fun, and something to take their minds away from being on the front lines for a short time. Once he was certain that Evelyn and everyone else was comfortable and ready to listen, Malarkey began.
"So, when I was about nine or ten my Dad and I were driving home from my Grandma Malarkey's. She lives in the middle of these woods which are really creepy. Anyway, it was late at night and the rain was pouring and the wind was howling. Now it's about eight miles from my Grandma's into town, most of which along winding lanes. So you can imagine our surprise when we saw a young woman standing on the side of the road, all alone. She was soaking wet and we knew we couldn't leave her out in the middle of a storm on her own. So she climbed into the back of the car and we carried on home. We tried talking to her a few times, but she didn't really seem to want to answer. After a few attempts we just carried on in silence. Anyway, when we got into town my Dad turned around to ask where she wanted dropping off and she was gone."
"You're shitting us," Skip snorted, clearly disbelieving of the entire tale.
"I swear to you on my life," Malarkey answered, deadly serious. Evelyn could tell he was being truthful with them because she had noticed that whenever Malarkey was lying or trying to twist the truth a little, his eyes would look subconsciously to the left and his eyelashes would flutter more than usual. "My dad and I were pretty shaken up so we stopped at the bar for a whiskey to calm our nerves. Well, my dad had whiskey, I had to settle for a root beer. When we told the bartender what had happened, I expected him to think we were absolutely crazy, but instead he told us that years ago right on that stretch of road, a young girl had been hit by an automobile and killed. Apparently we weren't the first people to have picked up the mystery woman. We never saw her again but let me tell you, even now when I'm on that stretch of road it puts the creepers up me."
Evelyn felt a shiver run right up her spine at the chilling tale. Beside her, Babe smirked at her unease.
"Ok, ok, I got one now," Shifty spoke up quietly. Evelyn was genuinely shocked that Shifty would have something to say about this subject matter. He was so level headed that she wouldn't have imagined for a minute that ghosts and ghouls were something he believed in. "We grew up on a farm. My grandfather built it with his own two hands and it was on land that had seen many battles during the Civil war. When I was eleven, I recall vividly one night being asleep in the room I shared with my brother and sister. The toilet is in an outhouse, but Pa didn't like us going out there at night on our own, so we used a chamber pot instead. I was trying my best to fall back asleep after using the chamber pot, but for some reason I just couldn't. As I lay there listening to the sounds of crickets chirping through the open window, I heard another sound along the hallway. It sounded like footsteps. Heavy footsteps, like someone was wearing boots. At first, I wasn't too alarmed because I thought perhaps it was Pa. The footsteps stopped after a little while, and I managed to drift back off to sleep. But what must have been a short time later, as it was still pitch dark, the bedroom door creaked open. I opened my eyes expecting to see one of my parents but instead I could make out the shape of a man who most definitely was not my Pa. In fact, he looked to be wearing a uniform of some kind, much like that of a confederate soldier, and even in the darkness I could feel his eyes riveted to me. I dove under my covers, completely terrified. A minute or two later, I heard my sister crying and when I peeked to take a look at her, she too was looking at the figure in the doorway. As scared as I was, I knew that I had to be brave for my sister so I crept over to her bed, but in that moment the figure began to move closer and closer until-"
Suddenly the door burst open and Evelyn screeched, flinging herself at Babe beside her and burying her face into his shoulder. The guys were laughing hysterically at Evelyn's fright. Well, they were until they saw the grave expression on Eugene's face.
"Evelyn, I need you to come with me now," he said. "There's been an accident."
"What kind of accident?" she asked worriedly standing up to grab her satchel.
"What's happened?" Skip frowned as the rest of the guys began to gather around nervously.
"Lieutenant Heyliger has been shot," Eugene answered, offering no more information than that. "Come on Evelyn, we've gotta hurry."
... ... ...
Moose was in a bad way when they arrived at the railroad. An ambulance was already on its way. As Evelyn and Eugene set to work on stopping the bleeding, Winters explained to them exactly what had happened. He and Moose had been walking along a railway track when a nervous replacement on patrol had opened fire on Moose, seemingly not realising who it was he was shooting at. Moose was bleeding profusely and was unconscious. In all honesty, it didn't look good.
"You give him morphine?" Eugene asked as they loaded Moose onto the stretcher and into the back of the ambulance which had finally arrived. Evelyn hoped that they hadn't given him any because with the amount of blood Moose was losing, it wouldn't bode well for him. Harry nodded and she felt herself grimace inside. "How much?"
"I can't remember," Harry frowned, scratching his head. "Two, three syrettes maybe."
"Three syrettes maybe? Jesus Christ, were you trying to kill him?" Eugene snapped, his whole demeanour angry.
"I think it was two," Harry stammered nervously.
"You don't think it might be important to know how much medication the man has had? Because I don't see one syrette on the man's jacket," Eugene was livid, his face screwed up in rage. Usually calm and collected, this side of Eugene Roe was one that none of them had witnessed before. "He's a big man, maybe he has a chance."
"We didn't know, he was in a lot of pain," Harry tried to explain himself, but Eugene wasn't having any of it.
"Well you are officers, you are grown ups! You oughta know!" Eugene yelled climbing into the ambulance. "All right, let's go!"
As Winters closed the ambulance door, leaving a bloody handprint on the back window, Evelyn turned to Harry, who in her opinion was in shock. Eugene had been harsh, although he had been completely correct. As officers, she would have expected better from the two of them, but sometimes in the heat of the moment people didn't always do the things they were supposed to.
"You ok, Lieutenant?" she asked, putting a hand on his shoulder and peering into his face. Harry looked so downcast and upset with himself. She squeezed his shoulder gently.
"I didn't mean to make him worse," Harry looked like he was about to cry at any minute. "He was just in so much pain that I panicked. What if he dies because of what I've done?"
"Lieutenant, if he dies it will be because of his wounds not because of you," she tried to reassure him. Alright, so it was a little lie but in that moment she felt it was needed. The man couldn't beat himself up about it. What was done was done and all that mattered now was keeping positive and praying that Moose would recover. Over the top of Harry's curly mop of hair she met Winters' gaze. He gave her a small thankful smile. He knew exactly what she was doing and he was grateful for it. In truth, he felt just as guilty as Harry did but he wouldn't- couldn't- show it.
"I really am sorry," Harry mumbled.
"It's alright. Listen, why don't we get you inside and make you a nice hot cup of coffee?" she suggested before lowering her voice to almost a whisper. "I'll bet we can even find a drop of something to put in it if you get my meaning?"
Harry did get her meaning and despite himself he smiled.
"What are you insinuating Guarnere?"
"Don't worry," she winked. "Your secret's safe with me."
... ... ...
When Evelyn returned to the men an hour or so later, she was bombarded with questions about how Moose was doing. She promised the guys that as soon as she knew anything she would tell them.
It was almost two hours later when she left the barn turned sleeping quarters to go to the toilet. She didn't see Eugene sitting outside in the pitch dark until he spoke softly.
"I guess I'm in trouble huh?"
"Christ Almighty Gene, you scared the hell out of me," Evelyn exclaimed, putting a hand to her heart which was beating ten to the dozen. "I don't understand. What would you be in trouble for? And also, why are you sitting alone out in the wet mud?"
"For shouting at Winters and Welsh the way I did," he answered, giving her a look that suggested she should have known what he was going to say without him having to say it. "I didn't mean to. It just kind of came out. And to answer your question, I just felt like being alone for a while."
"I have to admit you were rather fierce. I've never seen that side of you before. Even I was scared and I hadn't done anything wrong," Evelyn teased, hoping to lighten the mood as she sat down beside him. She grimaced slightly as the cold mud squelched underneath her. "If it makes you feel any better, you ain't in trouble. You were right, they should have known better. After you went with Moose, Welsh was beating himself up about it real bad."
"Yeah but they're my superior officers, I shouldn't have shouted at them the way I did," Eugene argued.
"Look it's done now and all anyone cares about, Welsh and Winters included, is whether or not Moose is gonna be ok?" Evelyn told him firmly. "So, is he?"
"I don't know," Eugene answered, rubbing a hand over his face wearily. "They're shipping him out to England as soon as he's stable enough. They managed to stop the bleeding but he's still unconscious."
Evelyn nodded. While it wasn't great news, it wasn't terrible news either. At least Moose was still alive. That counted for something.
"You look tired," Evelyn noted the dark circles under Gene's eyes, visible despite the fact that the only light she had to see him with was that of the waxing crescent moon above them. "Why don't you get some rest? You could probably use it."
"Perhaps later. I want to write to Vera first."
"You literally wrote to her like two weeks ago. I'm sure she can wait one day more for another letter," Evelyn smiled. "Besides, you haven't even given the poor girl a chance to reply to your first one yet. You could at least have the manners to wait until it comes before sending another?"
"For your information, I actually got a reply from her today," Eugene commented, touching his pocket where the crinkled letter that smelled of his wife was nestled away safely. A fond smile played on his lips as he thought of Vera, her auburn hair and her beaming smile. "You heard anything from your folks or Bill yet?"
"Nope," she shook her head.
She hadn't had any correspondence from a single member of her family since Aldbourne. She had tried to put it to the back of her mind, but in truth she was a little upset. She missed them all so much and she worried about how they were coping with losing Henry. It pained her daily that she wasn't back home with them, that she wasn't able to share her grief with them. But just a few words letting her know that they were doing as well as could be expected, or even that they weren't, was all she wanted. As for Bill, she had a feeling he'd be too busy flirting with nurses and hatching his escape plan to be writing any letters. There was no way he was going to allow himself to stay at the hospital and risk being put with a different unit.
"Well, I guess I'll leave you to write your letter. I promised Smokey I would look at the blister on his foot anyway."
"No rest for the wicked, hey?" Eugene smiled, and Evelyn was pleased to see that he looked somewhat happier than he had a few minutes before.
"Indeed," Evelyn agreed. "Try and get some sleep as well, ok? And if you don't, I might have to write to Vera and tell her."
"You wouldn't."
"You sure about that?" she grinned. "Night Gene."
"Night Evelyn."
... ... ...
Everyone was sad to lose Moose as their CO. After Winters, he was a great leader unlike his successor who arrived two days later. Lieutenant Norman Dike was a college graduate whose only interest was in climbing up the ranks. From the very beginning it was clear that he viewed being Easy company's commander as something he just had to do to get on the next wrung up the ladder. He made no effort to get to know any of them and whenever they were battling to push back the Germans, he was nowhere to be seen. He just sort of disappeared like a thief in the night.
He had also been rather disgusted to find that there was a woman within his ranks. In fact, he had been very forthcoming with his opinion that women were lesser creatures than men and they belonged at home, cooking, cleaning and child rearing. Evelyn had resisted the urge to roll her eyes when he had begun his rant. After almost three years, nobody ever batted an eyelid at her being there so to now meet someone who held the same views as her first CO was more than a little frustrating.
Dike had even taken it upon himself to talk to Captain Winters to see if anything could be done about the situation he found himself in. What was worse, he had even had the nerve to insist that Evelyn be a part of the meeting.
"I don't understand," Winters frowned. "Has Corporal Guarnere done something wrong?"
"No Sir," Dike shook his head. "But in my opinion, it just isn't seemly for a woman to be here fighting let alone surrounded in a company full of men."
"Corporal Guarnere completed the same training as all of the men back in Toccoa, and she has proven herself time and again during combat. She is well liked and respected by her comrades and I fail to see why having her here is such a problem? Perhaps if you would just ignore the fact that Corporal Guarnere is a female and focus on her abilities as a medic instead then you would find your opinion changed?"
"I am not disputing the fact that she has completed her training, nor that she is competent out in the field, but the fact remains, Sir. that she is still a woman," Dike continued to argue. "And I highly doubt the men have forgotten she is a woman, which is something that concerns me greatly. I won't have my men being distracted and nor will I have someone who, how can I put this? I won't have someone in my company who has no morals when it comes to certain situations that she may find herself in with the men."
Evelyn was livid. Who in the hell did he think he was? And just what was he insinuating? Her face started to go red as she felt her blood literally boil with anger. She opened her mouth to say something but Winters beat her to it.
"I don't know what you are implying Lieutenant, but I can assure you that Corporal Guarnere is not lacking in morals, nor are the rest of the men in the company," Winters said, his ice blue eyes narrowed slightly as he tried to keep his own anger in check. "Corporal Guarnere stays and that will be the end of it. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes sir," Dike nodded, his jaw clenched.
"Very well. You're dismissed," Winters nodded curtly. "Corporal, can you just stay behind for a moment please?"
Once Dike had closed the door quietly behind him, Winters spoke.
"Despite what I've said, I have a feeling Lieutenant Dike will be watching you rather closely, especially around the men. Therefore, I think it would be a good idea if you didn't let him find a reason to pull you up."
"Yes Sir," she nodded. Although she had an inkling that Dike would make sure he found plenty of reasons to pull her up.
... ... ...
28th November- Mourmelon le Grande
Evelyn closed her eyes and smiled as the warm water cascaded down her body. Finally, after seventy three days on the front line they had been pulled off and sent over to France to rest. There was food aplenty and showers. Actual showers. It was like being in paradise. After stuffing herself with so much food that she thought she might burst, the next thing Evelyn wanted was to get clean. Skip had offered to stand outside the showers to make sure nobody came in. If one of the other guys had offered, she would have suspected that they wanted to catch a sneaky glimpse of her but with Skip she knew that he offered out of pure kindness. And besides, he was wildly in love with, and only had eyes for, his Faye.
"Are you almost done there?" Skip shouted.
"Almost."
"You said that five minutes ago," Skip replied. "And five minutes before that."
"I swear to you that I really am almost done," Evelyn promised. "If you could see how much hair was on my legs you would understand why it's taking a while."
"Thanks for the mental image," Skip grimaced. "Way too much information Ev."
She chuckled and finished rinsing soapy suds from her hair before reluctantly switching the shower off. But then she smiled to herself when she remembered that she could come back tomorrow for another one. This place was better than paradise. It was heaven on earth.
After dressing and thanking Skip profusely, she was heading across the camp to barracks when she heard someone calling her name. Turning around, she saw Vest with a couple of letters for her.
"I don't know what's happened but it looks like there was some mix up with the mail and these went AWOL," Vest looked contrite. "I'm awfully sorry. Although if it makes you feel any better, you weren't the only one."
"It's alright," Evelyn smiled, her heart full to bursting as scoured the envelopes, noticing not only Gina's writing but also her mother's. "Better late than never."
"I wish everyone was as understanding as you," Vest replied. "When I gave Johnny Martin his missing mail he looked about ready to strangle me."
"Nah that's just the way his face is," Evelyn chuckled. "He's a teddy bear really."
"Sure if you say so," Vest snorted. "Anyway, I'd best be off. Enjoy your letters."
Evelyn intended to. She was pleasantly surprised to find that the barracks were empty when she got there. Well, apart from Skinny who was fast asleep on his bunk. He'd been ill for a couple of days and had been given strict orders to rest up. Settling herself comfortably on her own bunk, Evelyn eagerly tore open the first letter which was from Gina. Compared to the last letter Gina had sent, this one was a lot more joyful filled with all of the gossip and goings on from back home in Philly. Apparently Marcie Zimmerman had gotten herself knocked up and it was the talk of the neighbourhood, especially because the father turned out to be a married man who refused to divorce his wife. It was quite the scandal. Evelyn knew that even a minute part of her should have felt sorry for the girl, but she just didn't. In fact, the only thing she was sorry about was that she wasn't there to witness the whole drama for herself. Folding up Gina's letter she fingered the envelope with her mother's neat scrawl on the front. This would be the first time she had heard from her parents since losing Henry and she would be lying if she said she didn't feel a great deal of trepidation at what they had to say.
Our dearest Evelyn,
We hope this letter finds you well and that both you and your brother are looking after yourselves, as well as each other. We received the letter you sent to us and it warms our broken hearts to know that you have one another to grieve with during this unbearable time.
When we first got the news of Henry's passing, your father and I didn't know how to deal with it. It was like a black cloud hanging over us. It still is, but there comes a time when you have to go on living life. That is what Henry would want, so that is what we are attempting to do. It's difficult when there are reminders of him everywhere, but we are trying our best to focus on the joyful memories we have of him.
Every day we pray for you and your brothers. We pray that God watches over you and keeps you all safe. We pray that you are able to find small moments of happiness wherever you are and whatever you are doing.
We miss you all like crazy. This house is far too quiet without all of you. Remember all the times I used to yell at the lot of you for arguing all of the time? Well, I would give anything to hear that right now. I even think Clara misses you rummaging through her clothes and borrowing things without asking. Although I'm sure she would deny that fervently if she knew I was writing this.
There have been many things happening in and around the neighbourhood, but if I know Gina half as well as I think I do she will have already told you about them. She can't hold her own water, that girl.
Look after yourself, our precious baby and we will write to you again soon.
All our love always,
Mom and Dad.
... ... ...
"You sure about this?"
Evelyn took a deep breath and nodded. Now that the time had come she was more than a little reluctant to let Liebgott lop off all of her hair. She loved her hair, it was her pride and joy. It was the one thing that still made her feel feminine when she was surrounded by men and wearing men's clothing all day long. Even though it was shoved up all of the time, it was still there reminding her that she was a young woman. But the problem was that since they had been taken off the line, she'd had three showers and her hair was still caked with mud and who knew what else. It just wouldn't come out and therefore she knew that cutting it was the only option. Lieb had been more than happy to oblige. While he had never actually cut a female's hair, he was fairly certain it couldn't be much different to cutting a man's.
"Just do it," she nodded knowing the longer she procrastinated over it she was sure to change her mind.
She just had to keep reminding herself of the awful state of her hair after seventy three days on the front line with no way to wash it even once. The homeless man who slept outside Gimbles had cleaner hair than she had. But still it was so hard. It felt like the time her Mom had taken her favourite blanket away and said she was too big to be carrying it around. She had felt completely lost without the raggedy holey blanket and she was sure she would feel the same without her hair. Oh Evelyn, stop being so dramatic. You're acting as though you've asked him to shear every last strand off of your head. It's only a few inches. It's nothing. You can do this.
Lieb was hesitant as he watched Evelyn's face closely. He didn't want her to change her mind once he'd started cutting because he couldn't exactly stick it back on, and after three years with the girl he knew her to be rather indecisive. It took her forever to choose something as simple as what to drink and then when she had finally chosen she would nearly always change her mind right at the last minute.
"Fine, if you're definitely sure," he answered. "How short are we going?"
Evelyn thought for a moment. She didn't want her hair too short because well, she didn't want to look like a boy and also her hair was so curly she would look like some fluffy variety of animal. But neither did she want it too long because then she would have the same problem she'd had in Holland in which case she may as well just not bother cutting it at all. Finally she placed a hand just underneath her shoulder, deciding that was probably the ideal length. Liebgott nodded and picked up his scissors. When he saw Evelyn's shoulders tense in anticipation he smirked.
"I'm not gonna cut your head off you know," he chuckled. He hadn't even gone anywhere near her and she was flinching already. In fact, he didn't even have any scissors in his hand because she still hadn't gotten them out of her satchel for him.
"Sorry," she smiled sheepishly. "I once had a bad experience getting my hair cut. My mom used to take us to this woman who lived on the next block from us. I swear my Mom only liked going to her because she knew all the gossip in the area and she was cheap. I hated going there because she always had a cigarette dangling from her mouth and the ash would fall into your hair while she was cutting, and she always stank of whiskey. So I'm sat down and I'm the last one to get done. The whole time we've been there she went through about four cups of what she called coffee, but there is no way on earth it was coffee. Kind of like how Nixon pretends it's water in his canteen and not Vat 69. So, the woman was cutting my hair with her yellow stained fingers and everything was going kind of alright until all of a sudden she practically chopped my ear off. How she did it I don't even know because she shouldn't have been anywhere near my ear. My sisters thought it was hilarious and kept calling me Van Gogh for weeks, but after that I decided to grow out my hair and would only let my Mom cut the ends because I was too scared to go anywhere else. I even have a scar. See?" She moved her hair aside to show him the tiny scar that right across her ear lobe.
"I see how that might be traumatising for you," Liebgott snorted, ignoring the death glare sent his way. He grabbed her face and kissed her soundly on the lips. "You're the cutest thing, you know that?"
"I thought we discussed the cute thing?" she pouted, crossing her arms. "Only children and animals are cute, and I am neither of those things."
"Fine, you're adorable then," he grinned, kissing her on the nose before peppering kisses along her jawline. Evelyn closed her eyes as the pit opened up in her stomach.
"You're supposed to be cutting my hair," she muttered as he kissed her neck, sending chills down her entire body.
"I am."
"What kind of barbershop did you say you used to work in?" she frowned.
"I'm just trying to relax you," Lieb smirked his hot breath against her ear. "You know, because of your previous traumatic hair cutting experience."
"Oh," was all Evelyn could answer before Liebgott weaved his hands through her long locks and kissed her mouth once more.
He licked gently at her lips until she opened them allowing his tongue to dance boldly with her own. He groaned as Evelyn wound her arms around his neck and stood up to pull herself closer to him until their bodies almost melted into one. Sitting down on the now empty chair, Lieb settled Evelyn down on his lap without breaking the kiss. His hands snaked up her waist and cupped her full breasts. She jerked nervously and he smiled against her mouth. He loved how innocent she was. He loved that he was the only person who had ever put his hands on her like this. Feeling her nipples harden beneath his palms, he squeezed them gently through her clothes and she moaned. She shifted her slightly on his lap and he groaned as her warm centre inadvertently rubbed against him.
Suddenly they heard a noise outside the door and Evelyn jumped up just as the door opened wide.
"What's going on in here then?" George asked as he stepped inside, puffing away on a cigarette.
"Nothing much," Liebgott shrugged casually as Evelyn pretended to root around in her satchel for something. "I'm just about to cut Ev's hair actually."
"Is that right?" George answered, eyeing the two of them warily. "Well, I don't claim to know much about barbering but isn't usually the customer who sits in the chair?"
"Yeah but I told Lieb to sit and wait for me because I'm about to go on the hunt for some scissors because I realised that I don't have mine and neither does he," Evelyn explained, thinking it was a pretty convincing lie. She was rather proud of herself actually for thinking one up so quickly.
"What, these scissors?" George asked, peering into her satchel and pulling out the sharp pair of scissors right on the top of the bag.
"Oh there they are," Evelyn laughed tried to act surprised. "What am I like? I'd lose my own head if it wasn't screwed on. Thank goodness you came when you did otherwise I would have been running about all over the place looking for some for no reason whatsoever. Did I ever tell you about the time I lost a two dollar bill. My Mom sent me to the shop for something and when I came back I realised I had lost the change somewhere. Oh I was terrified that she was gonna kill me 'cause it was such a lot of money. When Bill asked me what I was flapping for and I told him, he started laughing. He took my hand, which was closed into a fist, opened it up and lo and behold, there was the money. Right in my hand the entire time. Can you believe that?"
George narrowed his eyes at the pair of them. Evelyn looked flustered and was babbling on nervously, while Lieb looked cool as a cucumber. There was definitely something fishy going on here. He had an idea what it might be but Ev was never going to talk about it in front of Liebgott. Patience was not a trait that George Luz usually claimed to have but he knew he was going to have to practice it until he could Evelyn alone.
Fifteen minutes later, with her hair feeling considerably lighter than it had before, Evelyn and George were walking to the mess hall for dinner. Liebgott apparently had guard duty and George tried to hide his elation at the excuse to talk to Evelyn alone.
"So do you wanna tell me what was really going on in there right before I walked in?" he asked as they strolled across camp at a leisurely pace.
Evelyn sighed. She knew she couldn't get anything past George Luz. And she also knew that he would have started asking uncomfortable questions the second they were away from Liebgott.
"Nothing," she lied.
Sure, George knew how she felt about Lieb but that didn't mean she wanted him to know. Once George knew something, everyone knew it. Actually, she was pretty certain he hadn't told anyone of what she had told him in Carentan, but she still wasn't sure she could take the risk with this piece of news. Therefore she decided that no matter how many times George asked she wasn't going to give in to his questioning.
"Do you really think I'm not smart enough to know when you're lying to me?" George raised an eyebrow. "God, my name's not Perconte you know. Now are you gonna tell me or what?"
"Fine," she tutted. So much for not giving in. "Me and Liebgott kissed."
"You and Liebgott kissed?" George exclaimed, eyes wide.
"Christ George, do you wanna shout that any louder? I don't think they heard you in fucking Australia." Evelyn hissed, smacking his arm. She looked around to make sure there was nobody around which thankfully there wasn't.
"Sorry," George apologised. "Well all I can say is about time. The sexual tension between you two was really starting to get to everyone. At least now we can all relax a little."
"No, you can't," Evelyn frowned. "Because you can't tell anyone. Not a soul. No, not even Frank before you ask. Nobody. N-o-b-o-d-y. Nobody can find out."
"Why not? Everyone would be happy for you two."
"Yeah I know that," she nodded impatiently. "But if me and Lieb get caught, we could get into a lot of trouble. We'd probably be kicked out of the airborne. Especially if Dike catches wind of it. He's got it in for me already. Which is why you can't tell anybody. Do you hear me?"
"Does Doc know?"
"What's that got to do with anything?"
"Just answer the damn question Ev."
"No, he doesn't," she answered. He would know later. She had planned on telling him but never found the right time, and then there was the whole thing with Moose. There just hadn't been an opportunity.
"In that case, say I was to keep this juicy bit of information all to myself, would that then mean that I get promoted to top spot in the best friend stakes?" George grinned.
"No way," she snorted. "That's called blackmail George."
George shrugged as they entered the mess hall. Some of the guys were sitting at a table in the corner and they waved when they saw Evelyn and George heading over to the food line.
"Have I got some juicy gossip for you guys when I get over there?" George called out to them gleefully.
Evelyn glared warningly at George who just smirked, enjoying the fact that he had some kind of power over his friend.
"Alright alright," she mumbled. "You get the top best friend spot."
"I'm sorry, could you just say that a little louder?"
"You get the top best friend spot," she repeated, rolling her eyes and sighing.
"Now, if you could just make a point of telling everyone else that I'm your best friend and also that you're highly devastated that you're not my type and you're not sure that you're ever going to mend the cracks in your broken heart because I've rejected you. And also if you could just smile a little when you're saying the best friend bit because I wasn't really feeling the eye roll you just did. It didn't really make me feel very special like a best friend should."
"Absolutely not," she refused as she got her tray of food.
"Alrighty then," George said jauntily. "Have it your way."
"So what's this juicy gossip you've got for us?" Frank asked as they sat down at the table.
"Ok, are you sure you're all ready for it?" George checked.
"Just get on with it," Joe Toye muttered impatiently. He never had the patience for George's dramatics.
"Wait!" Evelyn said. "Before George reveals this piece of news to us all, there's something I'd really like to say first."
The men nodded and Evelyn saw George trying not to smirk beside her. She desperately wanted to wring his neck, but she'd actually be sad without the guy so she didn't want to cut her nose off to spite her face.
"George Luz, you are my absolute best friend in the whole entire world, but you have broken my heart and I'm not sure I'm ever gonna get over it. But I'll try because we're friends. That's all."
The men frowned at each other but George was positively beaming.
"Well that was weird," Skip commented with a wiggle of his eyebrows. "Anyhoo, what's this gossip then George?"
"Do you know what? I've forgotten," George chuckled. "What am I like?"
"Idiot," Perconte tutted, throwing a well aimed bread roll at George's head. "Trust you to get us all excited and then forget what it was you were gonna tell us."
"Meh, what can I say?" George shrugged before winking at Evelyn. "So who's up for a game of craps later?"
As the animated discussion about who was going to win craps that night carried on well after the food was finished, Evelyn sat contemplating how long it would take for the secret of her and Lieb to get out. She prayed it wouldn't be any time soon.