Finding You

A Nice Easy Walk

"Wow, this is gorgeous." I breathe as we make it to a park with a pond and walking trail around it. In the few weeks that I've been here, I don't think I've ever seen this.

"I like to run here and it clears my mind. You know, stretches my legs, gets me out of the apartment." He tells me as we start walking on the trail. It's a nice, almost spongy, trail. I can imagine it would be good for running. I should probably start running.

"Do you run a lot?" I ask and look up towards him.

"Every morning. I like it. It's relaxing now." He explains and I nod.

"Yeah, I understand. I do yoga and some workouts at home. I usually don't have this much time to do things like this."

"You have to find time to get out of your head, ya know? Working all the time can really put a damper on you. I made that mistake when I first started."

"I know. I've not been here long so I'm still trying to find my routine. My soon to be ex-husband is Military so in my mind, I wanted to stay fit enough to pass a PT test if I ever chose to go to the military."

"Nice. I like that you had a back up plan." He says and I smile.

"I don't think the military is for me. I've seen how they treat each other and I don't appreciate the attitude most have. I worked with a lot of members from the lowest rank to the highest and it's just weird, ya know? Not what you think it is." I tell him and shove my hands into my pockets. If only I could get out of these shoes. They're killing me.

"I understand. I'm sure it's interesting." He's becoming short. I guess it is to be expected. It is getting late. I didn't realize that we had been out so long. It's like 10:00.

"I'm sorry. I don't talk to a lot of men so I end up saying the wrong thing." I apologize after a moment of silence. I sigh. I hate how weird I am or how awkward I can be. As someone who has interacted with so many people, military, civilian, some music stars, I just always end up being awkward.

Brad stops and turns to look down at me. He smiles and takes a deep breath in.

"You didn't do anything wrong. I like hearing you talk. I guess it's soothing to me." I blush and cover my face. He's flirting with me? He likes my voice? What is going on here? I turn away from him and start walking. He catches up with me with ease and we fall into a comfortable silence, just being with one another.

"So there was this one time, I was working a summer music festival at my old job and a van of guys showed up. I was so into my work that I was telling everyone what to do and where to go. I walked up to the group of guys, that had just got out of this van, and starting barking orders. I was pointing at them and sending them places and these guys never said anything about who they were. They were legit just like 'yes, ma'am' and went to do what I said. It wasn't until my boss called and told me that she just found out that I put one of the bands to work that I figured out who they were. I was so embarrassed. I had to go hunt them down and apologize. Thankfully, they were really cool about it or I would have lost my job on that day." I tell him out of nowhere. I want to hear him laugh though. He did say he liked hearing me talk, right? Brad laughs, a genuine laugh.

"I was like, I am so sorry. Please don't report me. Please don't leave." I tell him, which makes him laugh longer. I do really like his laugh. It makes me smile.

"They thought it was funny too. We all got to talking though and I still keep in touch with them to this day and I get tickets every so often. Even got a job offer to work as the head of their marketing team and the bus team." I tell him and he stops to catch his breath. Then, it's like he notices what I said.