Our Bruised Bodies | Bradley Bradshaw

ACT TWO - PART SEVEN

Cheers for cheer's sake!

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"...But enough about me, what about you, are you seeing someone." Frederick decided after some while, in which Grace had mostly asked about his mother, then about his work and why he was here and where he was staying. She barely left him room for a single question about herself. Just the mandatory question how she was doing and how she was liking it at the academy, three years after the last time they saw each other. Back then she was in her first year, now she is about to graduate.

"God, no." She laughed. A man at her side would only slow her down at best. Play with her hand throw her away like trash at worst. Grace could really do without all of that. She fucked man, she did, but she never truly liked them. Just as her friends.

"Must be my lucky day then." Frederick flirted, leaning closer to her at the bar, she could smell the whiskey on his breath. Her mind supplied her with the thought that her father hated whiskey after having had too much of it at the academy once.

"Frederick." She warned, even though she smiled. It was nice being flirted with charmingly. Not many men these days managed that. Frederick always did, even though he never achieved what he wanted with it, even though a small look over her shoulder into their table's direction told her, that he might achieve part of his desire after all. Annoying Bradley with every breath he took.

"Oh, no. Don't tell me you're still hooked up on the same guy you were three years ago." He was charming about it, smiled laughed, even though Grace knew it was tragic. Not only for Frederick, who really would like to date her, but for herself as well.

The only man, that was besting her, the only man, who's God complex was so grant, he might have met God himself and found he was build in his image. Maybe that's why he woke religiously with the sun. Maybe that's why he followed the Navy rules like others followed the bible. Maybe that's why his name was already synonymous with everything good the navy stood for.

"I'm not. I'm really not." What a fucking liar she was. "But I'm not a teenager anymore. I know now I wouldn't make you happy." That was the truth. Grace thought she wouldn't make any man happy. She might look like a sweet little housewife, but she had raised herself to become an Admiral.

She wanted stars. Four to be precise. Not a ring on her finger and a baby or two in her womb.

Grace wasn't a bride, she was an Admiral.

"We could go out as long as I am here and see about that." He wouldn't be the first to think her a weak woman, who just needed to be shown, that she would enjoy her place by the oven. That she would enjoy carrying children and never talking to adults and if she did, only about her children. They all thought that she just needed to see, and she would fall in love with that life. Grace couldn't think of a bigger punishment than that.

"I'm not the type of woman you want. I'm not tender nor kind. Mostly I will be cruel and distant. I'm mean and bitter, my friends can barely take it and they are in the Navy. I will not allow you to touch me, and neither will I tell you about myself for the first three years at least. I'm not a good person. You want a bride, not an enigma." She pointed out and all of that was right, but if only she would let him show her. If only she would take a look at the life he could offer, he was sure she would be happy there too.

But he knew she wanted four stars on either side of her collar, not a ring on her finger, apart from the Annapolis ring and honestly, he thought her foolish. A woman would never become Commander of the pacific fleet, but she could become the mother of his children. She was beautiful and clever. Their kids would be perfect. Everything he ever wanted, but also everything she ever dreaded.