“DO YOU ALWAYS WEAR YOUR UNIFORM?” I asked him in the cereal aisle. The cart we had chosen had a creaky wheel that liked to get stuck on turns. I’d handed Kael my grocery list in the parking lot, assigning him to hold onto it. He didn’t say anything, so I took it as a yes.

“No,” he said, surprising me.

I looked at him, pressing him to say more. “Seems like it.” I attempted to soften my words by smiling at him, but he didn’t look down at me.

“I don’t have any of my clothes.”

Shit. “Oh. Sorry. I didn’t think about that. Where are they? Do you need a ride to get them?”

He grabbed a box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. At least he had good taste in cereal. He was keeping his items in the basket in the front of the cart where kids usually sat while parents tried to keep them entertained and cooperative.

“I don’t know where they are.” He looked confused. I was getting better at reading him every day. Granted, it had only been two days, but still. I was cracking him open, slowly but surely. His face was actually pretty expressive.

“Was going to go to the mall later. Or Kohl’s. Wherever.”

We passed an older man who kept his eyes on Kael and me just a beat too long. I noticed his lingering stare, shifting back and forth between us, and the hairs on my neck prickled. The man disappeared around the corner. When I went to mention it to Kael, I started wondering if I was just paranoid and decided not to give the grumpy old man any more attention than I already had.

“I work until four, but I could run you to get clothes after?” I offered.

The Commissary was crowded as always. The low prices on groceries and the zero tax were barely worth bracing the crowd for. I would rather work an extra shift than wait behind shopping carts stuffed to their brims.

Kael pointed down the next aisle, the beginning of the freezer section. “You know there’s Uber and cabs and stuff, right?”

I glared at him. “I was trying to be nice.”

“I know. I’m just fucking with you.” His voice was light, a different tone than I had ever heard come from his lips. It made my skin tingle. I looked away.

“Ha. Ha,” I teased back.

My throat was aching. I would always remember that, the way he made parts of me ache that I had never felt before. I would always be thankful for that.

“So, should I take you or not? Can you grab those little pizzas? The red box.” I pointed behind him.

“If you want? I mean, I’m already staying on your couch, imposing on your family dinners, eating your granola bars.”

“You ate my granola bars?”

He laughed. If I hadn’t turned around, I would have missed it. It was that quick.

“I’m buying you another box.” He was definitely not into owing people things.

“I would normally say it’s fine just to be polite, but my electric bill is high as hell this month, so go ahead.” I nudged his shoulder. He tensed up beside me. It was a shift as small as a pinprick, but I felt it down my spine.

Kael took a step away from me as we continued to walk. The music overhead was louder, it had to be. I felt uncomfortable. Embarrassed. It was as if something had cracked open last night. I guess a three a.m. chat in your panties would do that. Kael was different today. More open. Almost talkative. Still, I wondered. Did I think he was flirting with me? I hadn’t actually thought of it that way, but it felt something like it.

“Sorry,” I ended up saying a silent minute later. We were standing in the chip aisle. I was deciding between flavored pretzels and Doritos Cool Ranch chips when Kael grabbed a bag of Funyuns and tossed it into the cart.

“I used to love those when I was younger,” I told him. “My best friend Sammy and I ate them all the time. Oh my god, that and Mountain Dew. My mom wouldn’t let me drink it, but Sammy’s mom always had the Kroger brand version that was actually better.”

I was totally rambling.

Kael seemed to be more relaxed than he was a few seconds ago. I didn’t look at him as long as I wanted to, or tell him how much I missed Sammy since she got married and moved across the country, like I wanted to. Not the married part, just the move the hell away from here part.

We didn’t talk again until we checked out separately. We both had to show our ID cards, his Active Duty and mine a dependent ID. He was a gentleman and helped me load my car, carry the bags into my house, and he even asked if he could help unpack them. I hated that my brain was trying to figure out why he was so nice. It was like I couldn’t just accept kind gestures or compliments from people, like I wasn’t worthy of them.

But as much as he made me feel flustered and a little bit paranoid, I was starting to kind of like the way I felt around him. As long as he didn’t think we were going to end up hooking up. He hadn’t mentioned a girlfriend or anyone in his life at all—though, he hadn’t exactly been forthcoming. But we weren’t doing anything wrong. Nothing. Just grocery shopping and sharing a living space for a few days.

If I was his girlfriend, I wouldn’t be too happy about him staying with two women. Regardless if one was pregnant or not.

Why was I back to assuming he had a girlfriend? Or that he would even like me?

Hell, I didn’t even know him enough to like him that way, and he looked like the kind of man that every woman was drawn to. I realized that I was a little more interested in him than I had admitted to myself. I was sort of freaking out and he was in the seat next to me. I could feel his eyes on my face.

“Everything okay?” he asked after all the groceries were put away. It took half the time with him helping and I didn’t have to tell him to recycle the paper and plastics.

We were both sitting at the table now. He was scrolling through his cell phone and I was eating my second granola bar and getting ready to leave for work. I could hear the shower from down the hall so I knew Elodie was up. Thank God. I couldn’t imagine telling Mali that Elodie was going to be late again.

Through my lashes, I tried to watch Kael without him noticing. He noticed immediately, like the good soldier I was sure he was. I felt the words building in my throat and didn’t want to stop them. I had to know. “Do you have a girlfriend?” I blurted out.

“No. Do you? Have a boyfriend, I mean, or a girlfriend?”

I shook my head. My fingers felt like they were shaking against the cold back of the chair.

“No. Neither.”

He let out a breath and stood up. My eyes followed his movement from the fridge, to the cabinet to grab a glass, and back to the fridge. He poured himself some milk, splashing a little onto the floor. If I could have had one thing in that moment, it would have been for him to say something, anything. My throat felt like it was on fire. My whole body felt like it was on fire.

“So, we’ll be gone until later, but we always have our phones on at work. If my brother comes by, let him in?”

Kael nodded. I watched as he cleaned up the splashed milk that I’d assumed would dry on the floor with the rest of the random spillage that had accumulated since I’d mopped about two weeks ago.

Elodie came walking down the hallway with her short hair soaked, staining the shoulders of her gray t-shirt. “The shower is finally fixed!”

“What do you mean?” I made my way down the hallway toward the bathroom.

“The temperature! You had it fixed right?” she asked. I passed her, shaking my head. Sure enough, when I went into the bathroom and turned the shower on, it was immediately warm. I turned it to cold. Immediately cold. The pressure was even stronger, like a normal shower. Such luxury.

“I have no idea how it’s fixed. I’m glad it is though, because …” I started to say. My eyes landed on Kael’s and he licked his lips, turning his cheek slightly away from me.

“You!” It dawned on me. “Did you fix it?” Somehow I knew he did, even though it was such a foreign concept to me.

Kael nodded sheepishly. “It wasn’t a big thing. It was just a loose pipe. It took me less than five minutes.”

Elodie walked toward him, her hair dripping as she moved. “You are so nice. Oh, I can’t wait to tell Phillip. Thank you, thank you,” she told him, hugging one of his arms.

First the gas, now fixing my shower. Of course I thought it was nice of him, but it also made me feel helpless.

“What she said.” I was annoyed and they both picked up on it. “Okay, gotta go, I’m going to be late. See you at eleven.” I hugged Elodie and walked to the front door.

I didn’t look back at Kael as I walked out. I knew I would feel guilty if I did. He did something nice for me. It was not only thoughtful, but practical. I appreciated it, I did, but I also didn’t want him treat me like I needed help fixing things. I bought that house to prove that I was no damsel.