I playfully smacked her in the arm as my cheeks reddened, “Hey!”

“I’m kidding! I’m kidding! But honestly, it was kinda hot.” Ashley scrunched up her nose and smiled.

I bashfully looked down at an unknown object as my cheeks remained red. Then I caught a glimpse of Ashley’s hand traveling between my breasts, “Do you ever take these things off?”

I was grasping my dog tags in her hand, “No.”

“Spence, you’ve been discharged. You don’t have to wear them anymore.”

“I know. But you wear them so much that they kinda become a part of you.” Ashley began slipping them up over my head, “What are you doing?”

“You’ll see.” She slipped them up over my head and then placed them around her own neck.

“You’re going to wear them?”

“Yeah, I kinda like the idea of having a piece of you with me at all times.”

She was corny…but she was cute. I had to admit that. She knew just what to say to make me weak in the knees. And she knew how to make my heart melt in all the right ways. And she did much more than that in other categories.

“So, when are we going to have our first date?”

I sat at the small island in the middle of Ashley’s gynormous kitchen, “Well, my parents are going out of town tonight. So I figure, dinner and a movie?”

Ashley smiled as she dished up a good amount of eggs on each of the two plates, “Sounds good by me. But how are you going to cook with a bum leg?”

“I have my ways.” I gave her my infamous smile.

She slid a plate of eggs in front of me, “Well, we have an entire day ahead of us.”

Ashley seemed to be more grown up than I remember when I left. She was helpless when I left for Fort Irwin when my orders came through. I just couldn’t believe that this was the same girl that I had once believed would never grow up. She could barely take care of herself nine months ago and now she was taking care of the both of us a majority of the time.

Our day was spent mostly apart. Ashley and I figured that it would be best for us since we were designating tonight as our first date. We had to make it real. And the anticipation of seeing the other was all part of the reality of a relationship.