Sailor Proof (Shore Leave 1)

“My preference matters?” Seeming surprised, Arthur shifted around in the seat again.

“Well, yeah. You’re stuck with me for a week. Seems like you should at least get a fake-boyfriend experience you enjoy.”

“Awww. You’re sweet. Just be yourself.” Arthur’s voice was warm, but he maybe had too much confidence in me. “What sort of boyfriend are you normally?”

“Uh.” I made a sputtering noise as we slowed for a curve. I took a minute to handle shifting gears, while I searched for an answer. “Other than Steve, I don’t have a ton of relationship experience, and clearly I fucked that one up, so maybe you could help me out here, tell me your ideal boyfriend traits.”

“Whoa, whoa.” Arthur threw his hands up. “You didn’t fuck up. You’re not the one who cheated and lied, and whatever my opinion might be on how much deployments suck for relationships, he signed up for that sort of separation when he decided to be with you.”

“I don’t think anyone is truly prepared for deployment. It’s hard on even the strongest of couples.”

“As I well know.”

“And... I maybe wasn’t the most attentive when we were in port,” I admitted. If I couldn’t be honest with my fake boyfriend, who could I be? “He complained about me taking on extra responsibilities that weren’t strictly job requirements. And he said I wasn’t as fun as he’d thought. He was really social, liked going out and parties, and I think staying in with me started to chafe.”

Memories made my jaw clench, and I looked straight ahead, at the rolling terrain, not at Arthur.

“Then he should have spoken up.” Voice firm, Arthur tapped the dash for emphasis. “Like an adult. No sneaking around.”

“Yup.” Damn but it was nice to have someone on my side instead of dishing out well-meaning advice that inevitably made me feel worse. “And I’m sorry. You don’t need to hear all my pitiful relationship drama.”

“I don’t mind.” Laughing lightly, Arthur finished with a big yawn. “And for the record, I’m no prize either. I get lost in composing and forget to eat, let alone remember dates to hang out. I once totally forgot I had someone over.”

“Oops.”

“Yeah. It’s not that surprising that I haven’t had the most practice with boyfriends either.”

“Ha. We’re a pair.” If I was going to be hopeless at relationships, it was at least nice to have company.

“Hey! How about we use this week as practice?”

“Practice?” My voice came out wary even as my brain jumped ahead to all sorts of sexy things I’d like to practice with him.

“Yeah. Be better boyfriends. The kind we’d like to be when it counts.”

“Huh.” Not that I was ever traveling the long-term relationship route again, but Arthur made a certain amount of sense. It might be nice to get my confidence back, stop beating myself up for my shortcomings. “That’s not a terrible idea.”

“I do have good ideas. You just have to trust me more.”

“Working on it.” Considering that the last time I trusted him I ended up with a kiss I still hadn’t recovered from and a fake relationship that kept getting more complicated, I was still a little skeptical of this plan. Being nice to Arthur was hardly a chore though, so perhaps Operation Be a Good Boyfriend wouldn’t be that hard.

“Okay, so I’ll try not to forget you exist—”

“Pretty low bar.” I had to laugh and Arthur joined in.

“Hey, I’m starting small. And you can practice spending time with someone instead of work, work, work. Easy.”

If only. The spending-time-together part wasn’t going to be difficult, but I still doubted our ability to pull this thing off unscathed.

Chapter Eight

Arthur

I had the best ideas. Learning how to be a good boyfriend by using Derrick as a test case was going to be amazing.

Or fail spectacularly.

Or intensify whatever low-grade crush I was already nursing for Derrick.

Whatever. It would be fun finding out, and I was greatly enjoying our drive to the camping resort even if Derrick wasn’t parting with the keys to his sweet-ass ride and had a strict no-drinking-in-the-car rule when I suggested stopping for soda.

“What’s the absolute worst thing a boyfriend could do?” he asked, continuing the discussion we’d been having about pet peeves around relationships. It was fun and slightly silly and might help me be a better fake boyfriend, but also I liked talking with Derrick, no matter the topic.

“Hmm.” I took a second to think because unlike a lot of my friends, Derrick seemed to want actual answers from me, not simply fast one-liners. “Ignore me. Which I know is rich coming from me, but I don’t like being ignored in plain sight, that invisible feeling.”

“I get that.” Derrick nodded solemnly, and it made sense that he’d understand because he tended to fade into the background at events himself.

“What about you? What’s your deal breaker? Other than cheating, obviously.”