“Did someone say Tucker had a record?” I asked.
Elvo chuckled. “No, that would be his husband, Dunn. Apparently Dunn’s been caught in his birthday suit a time or two. The man swears naked fishing is a sport.”
All of us took a minute to imagine the hazards of naked fishing. Champ shuddered, and Hux made a whimpering sound in his throat.
“Anyway,” Elvo continued, “the man is a hoot. Do you know he has a pet pig named Bernie? And he lets him sleep in his bedroom.”
“She,” I muttered before taking a reluctant bite of my burger.
“Come again?” Hux asked.
“The pig is female. Bernie is short for Bernadette,” I said. “Carter told me about her. Dunn’s really sweet with her. I guess it made Tucker all ooey-gooey, which made Carter gag, but really I could tell it was nice, you know? Like maybe Carter envied their relationship a little.”
The silence around the table suddenly got weird. Well, it was weird that there was silence in the first place since I worked with a team of Marines who never shut the fuck up.
“Riggs,” Champ began. He was using his kind voice, the one that grated on me and made me want to punch things.
“No, thanks,” I said. “Whatever you’re going to say, I don’t need to hear it. Sir.”
I took another bite of my burger, bigger this time in case someone asked me a question.
Champ’s eyes darkened. “Oh, well, far be it from me to say something you don’t need to hear.”
Oh shit.
“I mean, Jesus. I certainly didn’t mean to interfere with your relationship with a client of ours.”
Fuck.
“Besides,” he continued, gathering a nice head of steam, “I’m sure relationship advice coming from someone who’s married to a gun-toting drag queen may not seem like much to you, but—”
Hux leaned over to Elvo. “When, um… when did Champ marry a gun-toting drag queen because I’m gonna need photos of that.”
Elvo shushed him and ate his fries like popcorn, watching Champ and me like we were the main tennis match on center court.
Champ continued. “But I actually know a thing or two about relationships and how to royally fuck them up. And I’m beginning to get the feeling you’re in the thick of something just like that right now.”
I clenched my teeth. “No, sir. I’m not.”
“Don’t fucking lie to my face, Marine.”
I set the burger down and scrubbed my fingers with a napkin. “I’m not in the thick of something like that because there’s no relationship to fuck up. There’s no relationship at all.”
Champ tilted his head at me as if assessing the situation and creating strategies. “You and the doctor.”
“Mpfh.” I shoved a fry in my mouth.
Hux tried taking one for the team. “He didn’t mean to. It just sort of happened.”
Champ sat back in his chair and crossed his arms in front of his chest. “So, what’s the problem, then?”
I glanced up at him in surprise. “Uh, he was my principal? He was kind of a client? I wasn’t supposed to think with my dick on assignment?”
“Again,” Champ added.
“Again,” I said through gritted teeth. “And I tried not to. Sort of. But, fuck. He’s… he’s… God, he’s just a really good man. The best. The best kind of man.”
“This is the real deal,” Champ said, his face cracking into a smug grin. “You’re having feels.”
Elvo chuckled softly and got up to clean up some of the trash from lunch.
“I don’t appreciate the smug face,” I told Champ. “And before you kick me off the AIP again, just know I’m fine with that. I need to stay here anyway and make this right. I can’t fly out while he thinks I don’t care about him. While he still thinks he was nothing but my principal or a hookup.”
Champ’s jaw dropped. “You’re fine giving up your spot in the AIP for this guy?”
I nodded and looked down at the remains of my lunch, wondering if I should just wrap it up and give it to Elvo to throw out while he was busy cleaning stuff up behind me. “I care about him. A lot. I need to make this right. He… he doesn’t deserve the way I treated him on the plane. The way I acted toward him in front of all of you.”
Champ’s eyes flicked over my shoulder and back to me. “Why did you act like he wasn’t important to you?”
“You told me not to fuck around on the job. You told me not to share personal info with a hookup.”
“But he wasn’t a hookup, was he?”
I shouldn’t have been so surprised Champ was being supportive. He may have been pissed at me fucking around with a client, but he’d never stand in the way of me developing real feelings for someone. We’d all spent plenty of late nights talking about our hopes of finding a partner one day, and I knew Champ respected the difference between a casual fuck and a meaningful relationship.