It took some time, but the next person to burst out laughing was Chuck. “I see it now. It looks like the J men hooked up with A women, while the A men hooked up with J women.”
“Exactly. I wonder if Morgan realizes this. Not only has she been surrounded by J’s and A’s growing up, but now she is in her work life. No offense to you ladies or anything.”
“None taken,” Joyce laughed as she looked at the others shocked expression. “Most of the time while we’re working, we call out our former rank, or use our last names.”
“Does that mean you won’t be offended if I do it?”
“Not at all,” they all said, and settled back in their seats.
“How does it work here?”
“How does what work?” Chuck asked as he sipped his beer and turned to look at her.
“Living here? I saw the entire house, and I even picked out my room, but how does the cooking and cleaning work?”
“Oh, we’re responsible for our own laundry. Alan will probably make you a little wooden plaque with your name on it. There’s a hook on the door of the washer and dryer, you just hang your name on the hook, when you’re using them. This tells the rest of us whose clothes are being washed or dried.”
“Does this also tell you who you can yell at if they don’t get their clothes out right away?”
“Yes,” several of them said as one. “As for the heavy cleaning, like the dusting, vacuuming, mopping the floor, stuff like that, we tackle the entire house as a whole. Doing it together. We usually do it on Sunday afternoons, but I think that’s about to change.” Joyce looked at the others and rolled her eyes at their expression.
“Why will it be changing?”
“Football,” seven men said as one. “We did this week’s cleaning Friday afternoon, because Morgan slept here the night before the wedding, and we were all over at the ranch yesterday. Today’s game starts at four, so we have plenty of time.” Bernie shook her head when every man in the room looked at their watch.
“What about the cooking and cleaning up after that?”
“Oh, that’s easy,” Chuck said as he jumped to his feet and took his empty beer bottle to the kitchen. She noted he rinsed it out and placed it in a recycling bin next to a door. He reached in and pulled out a six pack, and brought it over for the others, but not before getting his own out of it first. After placing the fresh bottle on the coaster beside his seat, he went back in the kitchen and brought two bottles of wine. He poured fresh for the ones that wanted it, then set it on the table before them.
“What’s easy about it?” Bernie had to clear her throat several times to get her voice to work. She had watched him the entire time, and his body was poetry in motion. She wondered if he had fluid muscles that would move like that when he was naked. She shook her head hard before tuning in to what was being said but had to ask them to repeat it.
Joyce smirked at her as she leaned back into seat. “Mealtime around here is casual. If you want to cook something, and it’s getting along time to eat, or you’re hungry we ask that you cook enough for everyone, and people will join you in cooking. There’s not room for all of us in the kitchen at the same time, so the ones that don’t cook or set up, they clean up after.”
“Wow, I think I’m going to like that idea.”
“Do you cook?” Chuck asked.
“I know how, but I prefer not to. Not if I don’t have to, that is. I lived on a military base since I started my career, and ate at the mess tent mostly, but during my last tour, I had a small studio in base housing.”
“Why? Wouldn’t you be entitled to a larger place because of your status in the military?” Chuck asked, then held up his hands at her look.
“I never, not once, flaunted my status. I didn’t need anything bigger than a studio, since it was just me. I refused to take a larger dwelling because base housing is so hard to get in the first place, that I allowed a family to move into one of the larger homes.”
“Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you. It’s just that I’ve never been in the military, and I don’t know how it works.”
Bernie turned and studied the man beside her and nodded once. “You’re forgiven. I didn’t mean to tear your head off about it. This last tour was the first time I ever had a place of my own.”
“Why do you call them tours?” Alan asked. “Did that mean you were deployed overseas?”
“No, not deployed, but I would go over there on rescue missions.” Bernie looked at the other women and realized they hadn’t discussed anything about their time in the military with their men. She drew in a deep breath, let it out slowly, before she took a sip of her wine, then set the half full glass to the side to pick up a bottle of water. After she adjusted her position, she looked around at the others again, and only nodded once.
“I don’t know what the ladies have told you, and it’s none of my business. I didn’t experience what they did, nor did they experience what I did. You do know that they all had a certain position within their team?” When the men agreed they did, Bernie gave one decisive nod and continued, “You probably know this, but there are only twenty-five EWMs at one time.”
“They know that,” Ava said. “We’ve also told them we were judged from the second our boots hit the ground at Parris Island.”
“True, but that’s not when the judging began.” She held up her hand to hold off any comments. “I’m not using the word judge as a… well, for lack of a better word, judgey thing.” She seemed lost for words, then Chuck reached over and took her hand in his.
“Assessing?”