Their relationship had continued until one day she bought them a trip to Vegas on her mother’s stolen credit cards. It had only taken them less than four hours to win their way into the high-rollers room and score themselves a free luxury suite and as much alcohol as they could drink. He could barely remember the four star restaurant, or slipping the diamond on to her finger and promising to be her man forever through the haze of Tequila. The white dress that made her look like Marilyn Monroe he remembered better, as well as buying her a lap dance at the strip club where they ended up later. That had been hot! So was that Holly chick from forensics. The thought of them together was quite a turn on. Maybe when Gail stopped punishing him, he could get in on a little of that action with the two of them.

They had talked about getting married in Vegas the next day, to leave the circus of their families out of their wedding day. Everything had been going so well until they got into a drunken fight back at the hotel, over what, he couldn’t remember. All he knew was that this one had scared the crap out of him! She had been in the shower, and he was blasting Godsmack on the stereo when she swaggered in naked, swigging tequila from the bottle. He had said something that caused her to smack him upside the head. The fight that ensued had been epic! In the end he had pushed her up against the wall and threatened to hit her. She had smashed the tequila bottle on the edge of the dry bar and brandished the broken glass like a knife. His hand still bore the scar from that too. He cut himself as he had taken it from her, and she had kissed him like lightning striking the tallest tree in a dry pine forest. The wildfire that followed had possibly been the best sex of his life. He woke early the next morning stone cold sober. He remembered watching her sleeping peacefully on the other side of the bed, her pail skin and hair still streaked with his blood. He knew in that moment that he had to go. He was afraid, afraid that if he stayed this would end like the ending of one of her favorite movies she had made him watch, Sid and Nancy.

It had taken him three days to hitchhike to Vancouver, where he ended up with a tattoo on his shoulder, and a one-way ticket to Afghanistan courtesy of the Canadian Royal Armed Forces. He had thought of her often during his deployment, but had done nothing to reach out to her. In-fact, they had had no contact until he had ended up here. It hadn’t taken them long to fall back into old patterns. He realized after that night on the beach, when she had finally given in to desire, the she was still his. When Andy had gone back to Sam, he had assumed he could sweet talk his way back into Gail’s bed. He was beginning to see that this might take some time.

He was watching her texting now, smiling at her phone with a soft expression he had never seen her use on humans over the age of six. What the fuck Gail! I know you’re not a dyke!

What the fuck.