Wild Heart - Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell

15. Two-Sided Story

Both shot up in bed, like a couple of teenagers having sexy time only to have the parents show up home early and only to be caught red handed.

Only it wasn't the parents, it was a friend. 

"Fin?" came Brad's call again.

This had been a regular occurrence during his flight school days and her teaching school days, just showing up at each other's homes to see if the other was there. 

"Stay here," she hissed to Pete, tying up her robe and leaving the room, careful to close the door behind her. "Brad?"

"You're home."

"Yeah, coming." She checked her hair in the hall mirror to make sure it wasn't too too messy. Then she opened the door to find her forlorn looking friend. "Hey!"

"Hey."

"You okay?"

"Not really, I - can I come in?"

"Oh - yeah, sure, come on in." Thankfully, Pete had taken off his shoes - cough, and the rest of his clothes, cough cough - in her room, so they were nowhere in sight. 

Now he - Brad that is, not Pete - stood in her living room, hands jammed into his pockets.

"Um, would you like to sit?" she asked him, gesturing to the couch. She hoped, guiltily, as he was clearly upset, that this wouldn't take too long.

"Thanks." He sat down with a sigh.

"So what's up."

"He doesn't think I'm ready."

"Who?"

"Maverick," he said, as if this were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Oh." Also the man who was currently naked in her bed.  "Oh, yeah, right. What do you mean?"

"I can see it while he's teaching, hear it when he talks to me: he doesn't think I'm cut out for this. And the mission is fast approaching, we're running out of time here."

"Oh, Brad-" She sat down next to him.  "I'm sure that's not true. It's just this is a very specific mission, by the sounds of it. I think he's just nervous for everyone."

"Well, you don't know him like I do." Again, Bitter Brad was here.

No, I don't. I know him much differently.  "I'm sorry you feel that way - maybe you could talk to him about it?"

"Already tried, it just ends in a big fight."

Yeah, she figured the whole 'talking it out' thing would be a bit of a stretch, with Brad at least.

"Are you okay?" he asked her suddenly. "You seem a little - frantic?"

"I-" It was then that she realized she was running her palms up and down her legs, all while her feet bounced against the floor. She was not sitting still.

Okay, this was Brad, her friend, she could just tell him the truth, he wouldn't judge. Well, some of the truth that is...

"I'm actually - I'm actually with a gentleman caller..." she finally settled on, like it was 1856 or something. 

"Oh." He blinked back.  Then he suddenly made sense of her lacy robe and his eyes grew wide.  "Oh-"

"Yeah..."

"Everything all right?" he asked.

"Oh, yeah, yeah."

"This pretty new?"