Curvy Girls Can’t Date Soldiers by Kelsie Stelting
Fifty-Four
Apollo
Momand I sat in the hotel dining room, eating our breakfasts surrounded by other guests. Some ready for the day with their newspapers, others in pajamas, and even more trying to get their children to eat more than just syrup-soaked waffles.
She smiled across the table at me. “Will you come home for spring break?”
I nodded. Although Nadira and I hadn’t even had our first date yet, I knew she’d be gone to Cambridge with her math teacher and Regina for a research convention. Plus, going home would be better than staying in the dorms like I had over Christmas break. That place was practically a ghost town over the holidays.
“Good.” She tucked her napkin in her lap. “You should come home. And the summer?”
Cutting my sausage with a fork, I said, “We have basic training for six weeks. But after that I can.”
She nodded, her eyes falling slightly at the mention of military training.
I set my fork down, knowing I needed to say this. The military was the one thing Mom and I hadn’t broached the entire time we’d been together. “Mom, I know you don’t want me to join the Air Force, but you don’t understand. I have to.”
Her eyebrows drew together, and her hand stilled over her plate. “You have to? Why?”
“It’s hard to explain.”
“Try me.”
I looked over my shoulder at the coffee pots. One had a slow drip that seemed to echo in my ears. “It’s the one place I’ve felt at home since I left.”
Setting her silverware down, she wrapped her arms around herself.
“I know that my life may eventually be put at risk, Mom, but my life’s at risk every time I get in the car. Every time I walk on campus. I don’t know if you’ve seen, but terrorists don’t just live overseas. I want to choose how I spend my life—and give it a meaningful way to end if it comes to that.”
Her breath came shakily, but she slowly nodded and met my eyes. “Sometimes it’s hard to admit you’re a man and not my baby boy.”
“Sometimes it’s hard for me too,” I admitted. “There’s been more than one time this year I’ve wished I could just pick up the phone and call you.”
Reaching across the table, she put her hand on mine and said, “I promise, I will always be here when you need me from here on out. No matter what.”
I smiled at her, feeling the weight of a year slowly lifting off my shoulders.
