Thwarted - 6. Chapter Six

“If you like planes so much, why didn’t you join the military as a pilot?” Mark stood next to Trey as they studied one of the fighter planes from World War II. They’d had a good morning so far, the only really awkward moment, other than when Jackie was at his apartment, had been when they were trying to decide what to do for the day.

Trey had suggested paintball, laser tag, or airsoft war games. Mark hadn’t been able to suppress his shudder at that point and had quickly shot those ideas down. After his stint overseas, he just hadn’t been able to stomach the thought of pointing a gun of any type at someone. He’d wracked his brain for something else to do and had suggested the Museum of Flight. To his surprise, Trey had jumped at the suggestion.

“I wanted to, but I couldn’t pass medical for it.”

“They are pretty picky about who they’ll let fly. What couldn’t you pass?” It had to be something that would still allow him in the military, possibly with a waiver.

“My eyesight. I had known it would keep me from being a pilot and my parents paid for the surgery to fix it so that I could fly.” Trey sighed and walked the short distance to another plane from World War II. “Unfortunately, we didn’t do our homework.”

“What do you mean?” Trey gave up any pretense of looking at the planes. It wasn’t that he didn’t find them interesting, but he was more interested in Trey’s story and he could come back and look at the planes any time he wanted.

“When I admitted to having had the corrective surgery, I was told that pilots had to have uncorrected near vision of 20/20 and distant vision that was correctable to 20/20.” Trey turned to face Mark. “I’ll let you guess which one I had.”

“That sucks.” Mark shook his head. “To want to do something…” he didn’t even know how to finish that thought.

Trey shrugged. “Yeah, it sucks, but you can’t always get what you want. I still wanted to serve and I could get a waiver if I was grounded.”

“Well,” Mark smiled and took a step closer, “I’m glad you didn’t let it discourage you from joining.”

“I am too.” Trey smiled back and they moved on to the next exhibit.

“I thoroughly enjoyed that.” They’d spent the majority of the day at the flight museum and Mark couldn’t remember a day he’d enjoyed more. He hoped Trey didn’t mind that he hadn’t wanted to go do the stuff he’d suggested. He’d been surprised when Trey hadn’t questioned his earlier refusal of paintball and other shooting games.

“Yeah, so did I. I remember not being able to wait for Christmas morning. Most my friends asked for bikes, sports stuff, or a pet. Not me. Since I was about ten, all I wanted was model air planes that I could build. I usually got ‘em too and would spent my entire Christmas break putting them together.”

“I was one of those asking for a new bike or a pet.” Mark’s stomach growled as they pulled out of the parking lot and he knew it was time to start thinking about lunch. Well, dinner considering it was nearly four o’clock. “I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.”

“I could eat.”

“Any preference?” Mark didn’t care where they went; he just didn’t want the day to end.

“Feel up to Italian? My treat.”

“Perfect, I know a great place if you didn’t have anywhere in mind.” It wouldn’t take long to get there and this time of day it wouldn’t be too busy.

“Nope, I’m good with wherever.” Trey reached across the distance separating them and laid his hand on Mark’s thigh.

Mark glanced down at his thigh and then over at Trey, unable to stop himself from smiling. Not that he was surprised; he’d been smiling for most of the day and it all had to do with the man sitting next to him.

“What is it about you?”

Surprised, Mark looked over to see Trey studying him closely. “What do you mean?”

“I’ve never gone home with someone after just meeting them. At least, not until last night. There’s just something about you….”

“I’ve been wondering the same thing about you.”

“Come up with any answers?”

“Nope. All I know is that it seems like I’ve known you forever, but yet I know we’ve never met before.” Mark grinned. “I would definitely remember you.”

“Yeah, same here. So, what do we do about it?”

Mark wished he wasn’t driving so that he could actually look at Trey while they were talking, but with traffic, it wasn’t smart to take his eyes off the road. He did occasionally glance over, but didn’t let himself focus on Trey.

“Honestly, why do anything about it?” Mark shrugged as he pulled into the restaurant. He put the car in park and twisted in his seat until he was facing Trey, unintentionally knocking Trey’s hand off his thigh. “I’ve asked myself a dozen times why we seemed to just instantly click; why I have acted so out of character since I met you. I haven’t been able to come up with an answer.”

“It doesn’t bother you?” Trey glanced down at his hands, now clasped in his lap.

“Bother me? No. Made me wonder? Yes. I’m guessing it’s troubling you?” Just the thought that it might be worrying Trey made Mark’s gut twist. He had planned to talk to Trey over dinner about seeing where this connection took them and now was afraid maybe he wouldn’t get that chance.

“I’m not really bothered. I just wish I had an answer for both of us.”

There was no time like the present to make his thoughts known. “Well, how about we quit questioning it and just see where it takes us?”

“Sounds good to me.”