His Purple Heart

4 - I have your back

˚˚ Trystan ˚˚

I grunted as I entered my apartment. The rush up the driveway to get away from the rain had gotten the best of me. My residual leg was cramping like crazy and I couldn't wait to remove the prosthesis. Shaking excess rainwater from my hair, I dropped my keys and phone on the counter before getting a glass of water from the refrigerator.

"What's up buddy?" I greeted Ziggy, my dog. A German Shepard. The pooch couldn't be bothered to greet his owner anymore. Sometimes I felt like he wanted to be the boss of me.

Ziggy lifted his head off his paws and his brown eyes widened in anticipation, but when he noticed that I didn't have any treats, he lowered it and went right back to sleep.

That was all fine by me. I wasn't exactly craving attention of the four legged variety right now. Not that I was complaining. Ziggy was a great companion, but he had a few shortcomings. There were voids and certain needs that he couldn't fill or meet.

Nights like this were the worse. Rainy nights, aching joints and meeting 'I'm so getting drunk tonight,' girls at random bars. I'd gone out tonight to find her, but had come home empty handed again. Not surprising, considering I hadn't made a move to talk to any of the women I'd come across at the bar. I wasn't shy, far from that, it's just that none of the woman had spark my interest.

Well, maybe except for one.

After I filled my glass with water again, I stepped over Ziggy who was blocking my path to the living area. Before moving on I stopped to scratch the dog behind the ears. I got a much better response this time. Ziggy licked my hand and wagged his tail in excitement.

I smiled. "Good boy."

I was never going to find my wife at this rate. I wanted children. A family. Maybe going to a bar to find her was not my best idea yet. Somehow I'd hope to find someone like me, someone who didn't belong there.

I just wanted to find the girl who would order grapefruit juice at the bar, while everyone else around her pumped their livers full with alcohol. She would laugh with her friends and get on silly with them even though she was sober as fuck. That's the kind of woman I wanted. Someone who could have fun and laugh without having to spike her drink or do drugs.

That girl, Debra, had stood out like a sore thumb, but I wasn't sure she was the right fit for me. She was apparently going through some deep personal shit. But, of all the women I'd come across so far in my search, she had definitely triggered me to make a move.

I hadn't physically moved to speak to her, though I could feel her dark stare on me the entire time. She had really pretty eyes. Dark brown, hooded, sensual. Even from across the room I could feel the heat coming off of her in waves. She also had a headful of natural curls that I wanted to grab by the base as I reminded her of who's boss. I hadn't known until I saw her just how sexy curls could be. Everything about her drew me in. Her sharp tongue. Her vibe. Her aura.

I didn't actually believe in the whole mambo jumbo of auras and chakras, but I believed in angels. One had come to me during my coma, and Debra somehow reminded me of her. She radiated warmth and my cold heart needed that. It was a feeling, a sense of being whole in her presence. Like we belonged. An unexplainable connection. And here I thought I was a rational man all along.

There was nothing rational about this. That girl wasn't an angel. Angels didn't drink. Not the ones I believed in anyway.

I shook off the fuzzy feelings and dropped myself on the couch in front of the TV. Propping my left leg up, I reached down to remove my prosthetic leg. I released the proximal lock on the prosthesis, pulled out the side strap and pulled the prosthesis off the residual leg. After removing the stump sock and prosthesis liner I massaged the remaining stomp of what my leg use to be, soothing away the ache the incoming rain had caused.