“If there’s one thing I could change about the military, it’s the fact we have to shave our face,” whines Bleau. “I like dressing up in my dress blues, but damn! I’m short and without a beard, my round face and freckles make me look like a fat baby. No woman is ever going to want me.”

I look over to Bleau sitting across the circular table with half-drunk glasses of champagne and pineapple flavored iced tea as I try not to laugh. Despite the décor of his ribbons pinned to his chest and the formal dark blue jacket and bowtie, Bleau does look like a fat baby.

“Chicks like babies,” I tell him, trying to sound encouraging. “Maybe you should use that to your advantage.”

“The only thing I know about babies is that they cry a lot.”

“Don’t do that,” I parry. “I’m pretty sure chicks don’t dig dudes who cry.”

Bleau nods in agreement and we both notice Vollmer strolling over with his super-hot date—long curly brown hair, tan skin, with plenty of cleavage showing through a sparkling silver dress. She’s in trouble tonight and she knows it as does Vollmer strutting proudly.

I admit not having a date for tonight’s ball might’ve been a bad idea. I’m not in the mood for dancing, but I feel stupid sitting alone with Bleau. I hope no one thinks we’re together although I don’t think anyone’s thinking about us at all.

I think about K.

“Fuck, man,” blurts Vollmer, who sits down right next to me. “You thinkin’ about that chick again?”

“What chick?” asks the brunette, but I don’t answer.

“My man, Jet, got his heart broken by some girl he met back on the East Coast while on vacation a few months ago,” replies Vollmer.

“Wow. Really? You’re hot. I like the dark and mysterious you got going on. With those honey brown eyes and baby pink lips, I’m pretty sure you could steal the heart of any girl here.”

I can’t help but smile.

“Ouch! And those dimples!” she bats her eyes. “You were right to let her go.”

Vollmer looks at his date with a suspicious eye.

“Don’t worry, baby,” she laughs at him. “You already have my heart.”

He already has her heart? I want to puke.

Instalove. It’s a big problem for military folk. Vollmer just met this girl last week and she’s already calling him “baby” and professing her heart’s commitment to him. It’s ridiculous, really. The whole thing makes me realize I was right to let K go. Vollmer and his date are filled with nothing more than hormones. But once the attraction wears off and the sex positions get redundant, it’ll only be a few months before at least one of them will be looking for a way out of the relationship and, hopefully, they won’t be married by then.

“So, who is this girl?” she asks.

“You wouldn’t know her. She attends a college on the East Coast,” I answer.

“So, what’s her name?”

Vollmer interjects, “Shayna, Jet doesn’t want to talk about her.”

“I’m just asking. Gosh!” screeches Shayna, “You boys can be so uptight. You know you don’t always have to be tough guys. Sometimes it helps to talk about things.”

It’s awkward, but Shayna seems like she’s just trying to help. “K,” I tell her.

“Kay? That’s unusual,” she says. “What’s her last name?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” Shayna cocks a brow. “That must’ve been some one-night stand. So, what does she look like?”

Vollmer interjects again. “Shayna, please. The man has been nursing his own heart for months now. I’m really trying to help him get over this woman that he knew for a whole day and a half or something and you’re not helping.”

“Shut up,” Shayna scolds like she’s already Vollmer’s wife.

“It was five days,” I correct Vollmer—again. “She was Asian—Japanese, I think mixed with maybe some Caucasian. Long black hair. Tall for an Asian woman—at least five feet, ten inches. Smart—she was studying engineering and beautiful, of course.”

“Huh,” chortles Shayna. “Does she fly?”

“What?” I feel a stir in the pit of my stomach.

“Does she fly airplanes?”

“No,” I blurt and I remember K did profess she liked them. “Why do you ask?”

“She sounds a lot like Keiko Matsuura, the famed fighter pilot who did a local recruitment commercial for the Hawaii Air National Guard. The newspaper ran an article about her—really smart, just like you say. She’s working on a second master’s degree in engineering based out of some college in the southeast. She wants to be an astronaut or something.”

My face feels warm.

“Hey, man,” says Vollmer. “You’re turning red. There’s no way it’s the same girl. Just chill okay?”

I whip out my phone.

“You don’t have to look her up,” interrupts Shayna. “She’s here.”

My face feels like it’s on fire and I put my phone back in my pocket. “Who’s here?”

“Keiko! This is a small island. Everybody knows everybody. She’s a cousin of my ex-neighbor’s boyfriend’s best friend. I’m really surprised you’ve never met since you all work on the same base at Hickam Airfield. If you want me to introduce you, I can. She and her date came late.” Shayna squints at me. “Maybe you should go to the restroom and splash water on your face first. Your cheeks are really red. If it was a sunburn, I’d say it was okay, but you almost look drunk on something.”

Without hesitating, I get up and walk out of the banquet room, past the bathrooms, and head to the back exit doors that lead onto a sidewalk pathway behind the hotel hosting the ball.

Several couples stroll by holding hands and kissing. There’s a soft wind blowing and the air fills my nostrils with the scent of coconut oil and tart strawberry daiquiris from the bar right around the corner. I’m reminded of K’s scent. Of course, she smelled much sweeter, much more like a lady and I try to recall our conversations.

Ridiculous. There’s no way K is this girl, Keiko, that Shayna is talking about. K didn’t just love airplanes, she loved coffee, cats, and...

Stars. She did talk a lot about stars—astronomy. It was the one big thing we had in common. She also talked about how she never got to enjoy enough of the things she loved. She never had time to stop for coffee, so we sat in the coffee shop for hours together each morning. She could never own a cat because she was too busy, so I took her to a shelter to let her play with all the kittens. But “the stars,” she said would be the one thing she would “never give up on” and that I could not give her because she wanted to claim those for herself.

Could it be? There’s no way. It can’t be her.

I look up to the night sky through blowing palm leaves and I see a satellite streaming by. I’m just overthinking things again. I should just—

“Jet?”

Ah, fuck! I’m burning up.

“Jet?” I hear that familiar voice again.

Fuck me! It is her.

I try to be calm. I’ve been dreaming about this moment for two months—in the morning, in the evening, when I’m eating, when I’m working. I gave up television to spend my time randomly searching social media in hopes of possibly recognizing her profile picture. Vollmer insisted I was obsessed and I denied it, but he was right. There hasn’t been a day that’s gone by that I haven’t thought about what I might say if I ever ran into her, even when I knew there was virtually zero probability I’d ever see her again.

Of course, I couldn’t call my brother and his new wife, who could tell me who she was, because of the time difference ...and I’d ruin their new perfect life.

But I’ve thought about Keiko so much, I’ve even rehearsed the things I might say to her. I’ve taken long showers, wasting water, as I practiced professing my love and stating how much I’ve missed her. I’ve even gone as far as to reenact how she might respond after I tell her how much I’ve regretted not staying in contact.

“Jet?” she calls again with a quiver in her voice so I reluctantly start to turn around recognizing this my chance.

This is the moment I’ve been hoping for. This is everything I’ve been dreaming of—my fucking dream come true! And whatever comes out of my mouth should not only be good but impressive and the truth. I take a breath and turn around...

“Hey,” I grunt.

She looks beautiful. I’m speechless. Oh God! She’s gorgeous.

She’s in a slinky, black gown that cuts high at her thigh. Her upper torso sparkles from the waist up to a shimmering beaded collar that exposes her thin shoulders. The cherry on top is the deep-cut center exposing her breasts; it looks like a keyhole and I want my face to be the key. Her hair is pulled back from her face, allowing the rest to fall straight along her back and Goddamn, I want to pull on it.

I can’t remember anything I rehearsed or what I’m supposed to say because the only thing I want to do is speak of all the dirty things that are going on in my mind.

She looks me over. “I’ve missed you.”

Oh fuck.

She looks at her toes then looks back up at me and grins. “I’ve been thinking about you.”

No. Shit.

She stares blankly at my uniform—right where I see she notices my rank and now she knows I lied. I’m not an officer or a Captain like I said—I’m a grunt Airman.

She looks disappointed. “Don’t you have anything to say to me?” she asks.

I bite my lip. I’m dizzy; I can’t think of what the hell I’m supposed to say—that I missed her, that I never stopped thinking about her, that I think I might...

Love her?

“There you are,” sings an unexpected masculine voice and I see a hand reach for her arm from behind.

She smiles, blushing at the blue-eyed, blonde hair, Captain Daelan Foskett, an Air Force pilot.

The guy looks at me. “How you doin’?”

“I’m fine, sir, thank you,” I nod, making sure to keep my chin up. I know him. He’s a cocky fucker, but if things ever came down to a genuine cockfight, I know I could kick the shit out of him.

The Captain eyeballs me, looks back to Keiko, and then whispers in her ear.

I’m so pissed. “Hey, man, we’re trying to have a conversation. Do you mind?”

“Excuse me?” he asks, squinting as he puts his other arm around her. “Mounds and I came here together.”

Mounds?

Keiko squirms a bit and, although I figure she probably did come as his date, he’s clearly overstepped his boundaries.

“Sorry, but she and I are old friends,” I stress, “and we’re trying to catch up, so can you please take your hand off her and let us finish our conversation?”

“Mounds,” he calls Keiko again and grips her arm tighter. “The Airman looks like trouble.” Foskett glowers at me and continues to talk shit to her. “He’s probably drunk or something; he’s all red-in-the-face. Let’s go inside.”

Now, I’m pissed and I step forward. “Hey, fuck you, Captain! You don’t know me. Get your arm off her before I fucking break it off.”

“Jet!” cries Keiko. “What the hell is wrong with you? Relax.”

“You are overstepping your boundaries, Airman,” proclaims Captain Foskett. “You need to settle down before your face pops.”

I step up to him. “If you don’t remove your hand from my girl, I’m going to pop your face.”

“Your girl? Mounds is not your girl,” he laughs and yanks Keiko closer to him to the point her head bobbles back, so I push him.

“No!” Keiko cries.

She tries to come between us, but I feel a knock on my jaw, so I take a swing. We shuffle for a bit before Foskett and I both land on the ground, but I manage to get on top of him. I’m so ready to kick his ass and punch the asshole in the face when I’m suddenly choked; an arm from behind has wrapped itself around my neck and that’s when I take a big hit to the mouth.

I taste blood. It’s leaking from between my teeth. I’m so pissed as I realize three Airmen are gripping me back to allow Foskett to take one more punch at me. I see it coming and his fist hits me on the cheek.

Fuck! It hurts. I yell in agony because I swear to God I want to put this fucker down.

“Oh my God!” cries Keiko.

She’s in tears and my heart breaks as my buddies hold me back. I try to reach for her as she is escorted away—away to safety, away from the fight, away from me.

“Damn, man! Calm down. We gotta go!” says Vollmer, who’s got me in a chokehold. “We need to get you home before somebody calls the police and you get in real trouble.”

Bleau pulls at me and gets under one arm as Vollmer gets under the other to help me walk forward.

“So, it is her,” states Bleau, but I don’t say a word. “She’s unbelievable. Amazing, really. I don’t think you should be messing with her,” Bleau continues and I’m starting to fume again.

“I agree with Bleau, man. She’s out of your league,” Vollmer concedes. “That’s probably why she let you go. She’s like royalty to the Air Guard. Hell, to the country. Honestly, she’s not worth the fight. I can see how you might’ve easily fallen for her in just a few days, but it’s obvious you were a fuck toy. She was twiddling with your prick, man.”

“No, she wasn’t,” I insist, but just then someone pushes me hard on my back and I nearly fall forward. I’m so irritated—I’m going to put this asshole down. Right. Now.

I raise my fist and turn to take a punch as I jerk forward and it’s Keiko. She skips back and falls on her ass onto the asphalt; her face expresses terror.

I drop to my knees. “I’m so sorry, baby. I would never hurt you.” I reach for her hands, but she pulls them away.

“Who are you?” she bawls.

“I—”

“Hey! We gotta go. HPD is here,” Vollmer announces as he tries to get me up.

From the corner of my eye, I see flashing blue lights and I turn to see two white cars labeled with the insignia of the Hawaii Police Department. I look back to Keiko.

“Please go,” she says as she dusts rocks from her hands. But I can’t. I can’t move.

“Get out of here!” she yells as she rubs her hands together harder trying to rid herself of dirt. “Will you fucking take off before you get us all in trouble, including me?” she whines.

I get up to stand on my feet and Bleau pulls at me again. We hustle to his car in the parking lot. As I get inside, I think about Keiko on the ground, which reminds me of the time I got in trouble as a little kid for throwing rocks at a girl.

I hear my father in my head. “You’re a good boy, Jet. Angry, but a good boy. If you can find a way to turn that anger into something positive, you’ll be an unstoppable force no girl will be able to resist and you won’t have to throw rocks to get her attention.”

I fucked up. I feel like such a dumbass rather than a Badass because I didn’t just fuck up with Keiko once, but twice now.