Rosalyn, shortened to Roz early on, was without a doubt the prettiest girl I had ever
laid my eyes on. I first saw her when I was a senior in college and she was a year behind
me. I was not a believer in love at first sight until that moment I saw her across the
common, outside the student center. She was sitting under a tree reading a book and
enjoying the autumn sunshine.
Her copper red hair obscured her face for a few moments, but when she brushed it
back, I was a goner. She had a face the poets raved on about. At first glance, she seemed
innocent and pure. On second glance, she reeked of raw animal sexuality. Something else
scribes attempt to put down on paper and usually fail.
Being basically shy I don’t know from where I summonsed the courage to go over to
where she sat, but I did. She looked up at me when my shadow fell across her book. When
she smiled at me I nearly fainted.
Lest you think me a wimp or milquetoast or something of the kind, I’m not. I’m a
shade over six feet tall and athletic. I stayed in good physical shape by playing several
sports. I am, as I said, a shy person.
“Hello,” I said hopping my voice wasn’t squeaky. “I’m Adam Yates and I think I love
you.”
“Okay, Adam Yates,” she replied with an even bigger smile. “I’m not Eve, but why do
you think you are in love with me?”
“I don’t know for sure,” I said sitting beside her. “I saw you and my heart started
beating fast. My mouth became dry and my hands started sweating like crazy.”
“Well, Adam Yates,” she said still smiling. “It sounds like love, but it could be
lust. They manifest themselves alike sometimes.”
“Maybe,” I said. “I can’t really say, because I’ve never been in love before.”
“But you have half of the equations because you surely have been in lust before,”
she said looking me over carefully. “A big handsome fellow like you has certainly felt the
pangs of lust. Were they anything like what you feel now?”
“I’ll admit there are some similarities,” I said feeling good about the meeting
because she hadn’t sent me away or laughed at my clumsy attempt. “The sweaty palms are
something new. That’s never happened before.” She reached over and took my hand in both
of hers.
“They are moist,” she said caressing my palm. “Did you get an erection?”
“Not until you touched my hand,” I answered truthfully. I developed a diamond
cutter boner the moment she took my hand in hers.
“I’m Roz, Rosalyn Hooper to be formal. I don’t know, Adam,” she said releasing my
hand. “Should we explore this in depth? The idea of scientific discovery intrigues me. The
difference between lust and love is an interesting subject, don’t you think?”
“It is indeed an interesting subject,” I agreed. “I like the notion of discovery.
How about tonight to begin with?”
“Discovery? Yes, I like that also,” she said with a merry laugh. “I think we should
begin this very day. You can buy me some coffee and we can talk about tonight. Maybe we
can travel the road of discovery together.”
It was a road of discovery. From that first day, everyday led me to new
discoveries.
One thing I discovered she was hot blooded. I knew that because I fucked her on our
first date. I also knew I wasn’t her first lover because she knew what to do and I didn’t.
I mean I knew the basics, but Roz knew the frills. Later I heard the stories about her.
Roz Hooper had a reputation as a good-time girl. I discovered over time the stories were
mostly not true. Roz knew what she wanted and she wasn’t shy about getting it, but she
wasn’t a pushover.
Roz and I dated a lot over that school year. We weren’t exclusive, but that wasn’t
my idea. I knew she dated several other boys. She told me on our first date she was not
ready to settle down so I shouldn’t expect it.
The next spring I got my degree and a commission in the Navy. I was going to school
on a Naval Reserve Officers` Training Corps (NROTC) scholarship.
As I walked across the dais to receive my diploma, Roz was there cheering. Later
when I was commissioned as an officer in the Navy, she pinned my lieutenant bars on me.
Two weeks later, she saw me off as I left to begun my military service. I told her
I loved her and that I would remain faithful while I was away.
“That’s bullshit and you know it, Adam,” she said. “You will not remain faithful.
You are too much of a man to stay faithful and I certainly will not be chaste while you
are away. All I want you to do is stay safe. If someone is shooting at you keep your thick
head down. I’ll see you when you get back from wherever it is you are going,
sailor-boy.”
So me and the love of my life parted. I felt terrible and almost deserted from the
navy. I didn’t want to leave my beautiful Roz, but I sucked it up and left her.
We exchanged letters for several years and slowly, over time, the letters got fewer
and farther apart until they stopped altogether. Roz faded away until she was just a fond
and beautiful memory.
I spent the next twenty years climbing the military ladder. The Gulf war was a
giant boost to my advancement. I finally reached the rank of commander and I was a shoo-in
for Captain. I would have made captain if things had worked out differently.
A suicide mission launched by a group of Islamic extremists rammed my ship. Twelve
officers and men were killed. I was the executive officer and even thought I wasn’t on
watch I got the blame for the incident. EO’s have a history of having to fall on their
swords to protect the service or their commanding officer.
Since the judgment was a matter of record, I knew I was dead in the water as far as
advancement was concerned. On the day I could retire with a full pension, I did so.
Suddenly I was at a loss. My career was at an end. I had married, but that marriage
ran onto the rocks and shoals so I had no family.
I signed all the mountains of papers, packed my bags and left the naval base.
Actually it was a Naval Air Station and not a real naval base. That may be just my blue
water bias against aviators. I had to call a taxi to get me because I didn’t even own a
car. Since I spent most of my time at sea, I hadn’t needed one.
“Where to, Admiral?” the cab driver asked me. I didn’t have a ready answer. I had
not thought that far ahead.
“The civil airport,” I finally said. Even after I arrived at the airport, I didn’t
have a destination in mind. I was standing at a counter looking up at the board at the
arrivals and departures when I felt someone at my side. I looked around and there she was.
“Where are you going, Adam?” Roz asked me. She had not changed one little bit.
“Still looking for the road to discovery?”
“Oh my God!” I said after I recovered the ability to speak. “Roz? Rosalyn, Is it
really you or am I dreaming?”
“Naw, it’s me all right. I saw you when you came in. I said to myself, could that
be Adam Yates, the sailor-boy who thought he was in love with me?”
“I didn’t just think it, Roz,” I said. “I was in love with you. Are you going
somewhere or meeting someone?”
“I’m meeting my sister,” she said. “Where are you bound for? Some exotic port of
call?” I was still in uniform because I had very few civilian clothes.
“No, I’m finished with all that port of call crap. They have an expression on
Martha’s Vineyard. They say that someone got through with a job regardless of how the
ending came about. Quit, fired, or ran out of work. I got through with the navy. I’m
retired as of this morning.”
“I see,” she said. “So where are you off to?”
“I really don’t know,” I said. “My parents passed away while I was off and gone so
I have no family to go home to. I had a home of sorts in Jacksonville, Florida for a
while. I was married, but my wife didn’t like me being gone for such long periods of time.
While I was off sailing the seas, she became my ex-wife. I didn’t know you had a
sister.”
“Sorry about your marriage, Adam,” Roz said. “Faye isn’t my actual sister. She’s my
sister-in-law, but we’re closer than most sisters. Since you don’t have a particular place
to be, why don’t we get a cup of coffee and catch up while I wait? Faye’s plane is late.”
“Okay, I have a lot of questions,” I said once we were in the coffee shop and
seated. “The first one is how in hell did you managed to stay looking the same as you did
twenty years ago? You haven’t aged at all.”
“Aren’t you sweet?” Roz said. “Thank you for the complement. I’ve aged, you just
can’t see it.”
That was right. She had aged some. She had to be pushing forty, but she looked like
a twenty-five year old girl. It seemed that for every year I aged, she aged a month or
two. She had developed a serene maturity. She could still make my heart race and it was
racing at that moment.
“Sister-in-law seems to indicate a husband,” I said. “Tell me about that.”
“Husband, as in past tense,” Roz said. “Larry Giovanni. He died several years ago.
Larry ate himself to death. One day his heart just gave up and stopped working. The man
just wouldn’t listen to my advice to eat right.”
“So you are single?” I said becoming very interested.
“For the moment,” Roz said. “I’m engaged to be married this summer.” She looked at
me with a twinkle in her eye. “Unless you talk me out of it.”
“I’m willing to have a go at it,” I said. “Is that your phone?”
“It is,” she said digging into a suitcase size purse. “Cell phones are a mixed
blessing, aren’t they? Excuse me a moment.” She dug a tiny phone out and unfolded it. She
answered it and listened for a few moments.
“Okay, I understand, Faye,” she said. “No, it’s no trouble. We can get together
another time. No, honey, I’m not pissed at you. In fact, while I vainly waited for your
arrival I met an old friend and we’re talking about the good old days. No, Faye, I haven’t
forgotten about Arnold…Adam Yates, if you must know…Yes that Adam Yates. Goodbye, Faye.”
“I gather your sister-in-law isn’t coming,” I said when Roz refolded the phone and
tossed it back into the bag.
“No, she had to cancel,” Roz said. “But,” she said brightly. “I didn’t drive into
town for nothing. I ran into you, so it certainly wasn’t a wasted trip.”
“You don’t live here in the city?”
“No! Hell no. I hate this nasty dirty town. I only come here because it’s the
closest airport. I live almost a hundred miles away in a tiny little place where everybody
knows everybody’s business. It makes that fictionist town of Mayberry look huge. They got
their first traffic light about a year ago and held a big celebration.”
“That small, huh?”
“Smaller, even,” she said. “The town only has one main street. They take in the
sidewalks at ten o’clock each night. It would be a one horse town, but the horse died last
year.”
“I think I’m getting the picture. A small town,” I said laughing at her
description. “Now, let’s get back to that engagement thing. Is that the Arnold you
mentioned on the phone?”
“It is,” Roz said. “Arnold Perry. Arnold was a business associate of Larry’s.”
“What kind of business?”
“Arnold and Larry had an advertising agency here in the city. Very successful. Now
Arnold owns one third of the agency and I own the other two thirds.”
“So Arnold is looking for a merger?” I said and immediately regretted it. “Sorry,
that didn’t sound so mean in my head.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Roz said with a merry laugh I remembered. “I’m sure that
fact isn’t lost on Arnold.”
“Still it was insensitive,” I said. “So, if your business in here, why do you live
out on the boondocks?”
“That is a long complicated story, Adam,” she said. “You’ll have to take me to
dinner to get it.”
“I would love to take you to dinner,” I quickly said. “I’m a stranger here, so I’ll
have to rely on you to tell me where.”
“The Matador Bar and Grill,” she said. “Do you like Mexican food?”
“I love Mexican food. Let me retrieve my bag and we’ll find a taxi and be on our
way.”
“I have my car,” she said. “Do you not know where you were going? Seriously?”
“I don’t have a clue where the Matador Bar and Grill is,” I said. “Oh, you meant on
a plane. No, no earthly idea. Some place inland away from the sea, boats, and anything
that might remind me of the Navy.”
“You sound bitter,” Roz said as we walked to the parking lot. “The parting of ways,
wasn’t your idea?”
“No, I planned on making admiral before I retired.” On the drive to the restaurant
I told her how my career plans had gone off course.
“And that happened while you were in bed sleeping? That doesn’t sound fair to put
the blame on you, Adam. No wonder you’re pissed at the Navy.”
“I’ll get over it sooner or later,” I said. It was funny, but just telling Roz
about it made it better.
Over a nice dinner we talked, laughed, and caught up on our lives. I saw her glance
at her watch and asked if she needed to start home.
“Here’s how I see it,” Roz said. “I can take you back to the airport and watch you
take off again, or,” she paused dramatically. “Or, I can take you to a hotel and fuck your
socks off. Do you have a preference?”
“I have no need for socks,” I said quickly. “What about Arnold?”
“Arnold will just have to make out on his own tonight,” she said. “Pay the bill,
Adam, and let’s be on our way.”
We went to a midtown hotel and got a room. Once in our room Roz did exactly what
she said she would do. She fucked my socks off. The thirty-nine year old Roz was even more
lush that the nineteen year old girl I left behind. The only change I could see was a
small black ace of spades tattooed just above her pussy. It was about an inch wide and
high.
“I cannot believe how kind the years have been to you, Roz,” I said looking at her
ripe luscious body. Her breasts were fuller and there was just a tiny bit of sag from the
sheer weight of her fantastic globes. Her big breasts were still topped with the large
areola and her large nipples. Works of art that I had dreamed about for many years. I had
spent a lot of memorable time playing with her large nipples.
“See anything you like, Sailor-boy?’ she asked me striking the pose I’m sure Mother
Eve struck for her Adam. She crossed the short space that separated us and it was as if
time rolled back twenty years.
Our first coupling was hurried, even frenzied, but nonetheless very good. The
second one was slower and better and the third, sometime later, was even better.
“Did your ears ever burn while you were sailing the high seas, Adam?” she asked me
much later as we lay exhausted and happy. “They should have because every time, and there
were many, I had a lover that wasn’t as good as you I cursed you for leaving me.”
“You know sometimes my ears did burn,” I said. “I wondered what was causing it.
Sometimes I would lie in my bunk at night looking at your picture and I would wonder what
you were doing and who you were doing it with.”
“You kept my picture?” she asked sitting up on the bed. “Which picture?”
“The one where you were flashing your boob at me,” I said. “That Polaroid I took of
you at the fair that spring before I shoved-off. You don’t believe me? Look in my wallet,”
I added seeing her questioning look.
She bounced out of bed and got the wallet out of my pants. I had the snapshot
laminated in an effort to stop the fading. It hadn’t worked all that well. It was faded,
but Roz was still recognizable.
“I can’t believe you kept this picture all these years,” she said looking at the
old photo. “Wasn’t I a regular show-off slut?” She continued to gaze at the picture. “Do
you remember getting that guy to take our picture? It was right after you took this one. I
have carried it in my wallet.” She got her giant purse and retrieved the photo of us, our
faces close together.
“You kept it?” I said looking at the picture.
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