Beautiful :)

That is a beautiful story. Thank you for sharing it. I enjoyed your writing style... but thought I should mention that you missed a spot on one of your shot glasses.

On a historical note: during Operation Desert Shield (the precursor to the battles), a tent full of mail caught fire and was nearly consumed. I was the recipient of one of the surviving care packages sent from home. It was charred on two sides, but the address survived enough for the postal service to forward the package. I still have the heat-browned letter that accompanied the package. When you first reached the part in the story where they weren't receiving each other's letters, that is what I naturally thought of. Mail was always glacially slow there, but this incident really threw a spanner in the works.

This is so amazing! I really like how you told the story from a bartender's point of view. The occasional interruptions really made it feel realistic.