Desiree and Danita were on their third glass of wine and halfway through Waiting to Exhale when Danita picked up her cellphone.
Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap went the keyboard on Danita’s smartphone as she painstakingly typed out a text message to her husband.
“Time to yank the leash a bit, Danita?” Desiree kidded her friend.
“Oh, hush, girlfriend,” Danita replied, laughing. “I just want to know what time to expect them. The game should just be ending. I imagine they’ll grab something to eat and then come home.”
Come home. Desiree strained to remember a day when she looked forward to her man coming home. She couldn’t do it. “Must be nice,” she said with a sigh.
“What?”
“Having something to look forward to.”
“Oh, girlfriend,” Danita said, shaking her head as she put the phone on the coffee table. “Your life isn’t all that bad, now, is it?”
“No, I guess not. I just wish… Aww, never mind.”
“What do you wish?” Danita asked.
“I wish I had someone coming home to me.”
“You do.”
“You know what I mean. Every night, not just tonight.”
“We’re all working really hard to change that, Dez. Be patient. Good things come to those who wait.”
“Patience is not my strong suit.”
“So I’ve heard.”
The two women returned their attention to the movie, where Bernadine, Gloria, Robin, and Savannah were having yet another wine-fueled gripe session about their men—or the lack thereof.
“Stupid women,” Danita observed. “Sitting around all those years waiting for a black man to be a man. Holding their breath waiting for something that’s never going to happen—” She stopped mid-sentence. “Sorry, girlfriend.”
Desiree smiled. “No worries. It’s all good.”
“They should have found themselves a good man first, and not been so damn hung up on color.”
“True that.”
Danita raised her glass. “To lessons learned the hard way.”
“To lessons learned the hard way,” Desiree repeated, then downed her glass of wine in a single gulp.
Danita’s phone buzzed twice, even more loudly than usual since it was lying on the glass coffee table. She pressed pause on the remote and then hit the message button on her phone. “The boys are on their way home.”
“Good,” Desiree said. “And hopefully not too impaired.”
“No worries,” Danita said. “They took the trolley, remember? The station is two blocks from here. And our men can more than handle themselves on the mean streets of Chula Vista after dark.”
“I have no doubt of that,” Desiree said.
“They’ll be home in about an hour, hour and a half tops, depending on which trolley they catch. More than enough time to finish off the wine and the movie.”
“Looks like we’re the ones who need to worry about being inebriated,” Desiree said with a giggle.
“Nah,” Danita said. “We’re not drunk. We’re just buzzed.” She hit play on the remote, and the movie resumed.
* * * *
Desiree and Danita were both feeling a little tipsy by the time Joe and Landon walked in a few minutes before one AM.
“How many bottles of wine is that tonight?” Joe asked, kissing Danita on the cheek and gesturing toward the empty bottle on the coffee table.
“Just two,” Danita replied. “We’re nowhere near drunk. Just buzzed. What about you guys?”
“One beer at the game and another at the Tilted Kilt afterward. We know the drill.”
“Good boys,” Danita said, hugging Landon. “We missed you guys. So what’s the plan now?”
“No need to go to bed early since Landon and I are still on leave. Let’s just continue the party—”
Joe was interrupted by the ringing of his cellphone, which blared he and Landon’s least favorite ringtone: The Imperial March.
“Or not,” Joe said with a frown. “I’ll be right back.” He stepped outside.
“Shit,” Landon said softly.
“What?” Desiree asked.
“That ringtone means playtime is over and it’s time to go to work.”
“Oh.” Desiree didn’t like the sound of that at all. An uneasy feeling began to form in her stomach.
Joe was back. “Let’s roll, Landon.”
“Right now?”
“No, sunshine. O-dark-thirty. Of course right now. We aren’t allowed to keep our rich uncle waiting.”
Landon turned to Desiree. “Sorry, babe. Duty calls.” He hugged her tightly.
“When will you guys be back?”
“When the mission is over.”
The knot was growing, and suddenly, Desiree was scared shitless. “Come back to me, okay?” she said, tears welling in her eyes. “I didn’t find you again after all these years just to lose you to the war.”
“I’ll do my best, beautiful.” Landon turned to Joe, who had gathered his sea bag from the bedroom. “My stuff is in my locker at the team room.”
“That’s where we’re headed first anyway. Let’s roll.” Joe hugged Danita for a long moment. His wife was also trying to hold back the tears, and failing miserably.
“Be safe, boo,” Danita said in a shaking voice.
“Always.” Joe winked.
With twin brave looks and waves, and a quiet but firm closing of the front door, the two SEALs were gone—one with the night.
Desiree embraced her friend tightly. “Is it always like this?”
“Always,” Danita replied softly. “For almost twenty years our lives have been dictated by the fickle whims of Uncle Sam and his hordes of enemies around the world. That’s what you’re enlisting for here, girlfriend. You up for it? It’s not for everyone.”
“Absolutely.”
Danita smiled. “That’s the spirit.”
“How long do these missions usually last?”
“It varies.”
“Spill, girlfriend,” Desiree said, sensing her friend wasn’t telling her the whole story.
Danita sighed. “SEALs work on a two-year cycle. Eighteen months of training, followed by a six-month deployment.”
“I see.”
“They were scheduled to leave for their next deployment at 0600—err, six AM Friday anyway.”
“I see.” Desiree folded her arms, becoming more annoyed by the second. “And when was this apparently top-secret information going to be shared with me?”
“That, girlfriend, was my assignment, and I failed,” Danita said, exhaling. “The three of us talked about it beforehand, and we agreed that it would be better if you heard it from me. It was just so hard, after seeing how everything went with you and Landon this weekend. I’m sorry.”
Desiree shook her head. “So after reconnecting with Landon, I don’t get to see him for six months. That sucks.”
“It does,” Danita agreed. “But it is what it is. Don’t be mad at Landon, okay? This was my fuckup. Let me make it right.”
“How?”
“I’ll think of something.”
“You get right on that,” Desiree snapped, her irritation not easing one bit. She moved to the end of the oversized couch and pulled the fleece blanket over her head. “Good night.”
* * * *
“So, where we headed that’s so important our superiors moved up our departure by four days?” Landon asked as Joe ignored the speed limit on the nearly empty Coronado Bridge.
“The ’Stan.”
“Which one?”
“The Afghan variety. Rock-solid intel on a high-value target. The new Al-Qaeda Number Two.”
“Rock-solid intel, huh? Now, there’s an oxymoron,” Landon said sarcastically, rolling his eyes as he stared out the passenger side window at the dark, calm, late-night waters of San Diego Bay. “Capture and interrogate, or is this a kill mission?”
“Not sure yet,” Joe said, his face grim. “I’m guessing we’ll get that information in our briefing just before we leave.”
“I vote for kill. These bastards never give us anything worth saving their sorry asses for anyway.”
“I hear you. But that decision is made far above our pay grade, Landon.”
“I know. I’m just griping. A time-honored military tradition. Shit defying gravity and moving uphill. You know the drill.”
“You’re allowed, my friend. Let’s just hope for a nice, uneventful final deployment for me. I do believe I’ve earned it.”
“Roger that, sir.” Landon displayed crossed fingers on both hands.
Joe smiled, displaying crossed fingers on his right hand.
“So what is the plan for tonight?” Landon asked. “As if I need to ask.”
“Gather our shit, muster the platoon, get our briefing from the senior chief, then take our usual uncomfortable-as-fuck seats on a transport set to go wheels-up at 0400.”
“Works for me,” Landon said. “Actually, it doesn’t. But we have no choice. So let’s get it done and get home. Hopefully, it will be a short six months.”
Joe smiled. “You get it now, huh? Having something to come home to makes a world of difference, doesn’t it?”
“Sure does.”
“Then let’s rock and roll, my friend.”
Landon and Joe bumped fists as the truck pulled up to the guard station at the main gate at NAB Coronado.