The idea behind military dress is uniformity. However, even though we were all wearing the same woodland print camouflage, she didn’t look like anyone else on that truck, on that base, or that I had ever seen in my entire life.
My glance lasted but a second before I redirected my eyes back down to my boots. Although I was sitting just five feet away from her, I was certain she would have left me just as breathless from a hundred yards away. I could hardly register everything I was feeling. My heart started pounding both fast and hard as if a boxer was in my chest jabbing a speed bag then coming through with a strong right hook. A rush of nervous energy hallowed my stomach like a bongo drum and sent a mild chill racing through my body. The feeling was so aggressively unfamiliar that I thought I might pass out, yet comforting in a way I’d never known.
I looked up again, casually scanning from one side of the truck to the other in an attempt to hide my true intentions. I told myself to keep the pace and simply scan right past her, but as my gaze met her face, I locked on. She was in mid-conversation and I’m sure she didn’t notice, but what was only a few seconds of staring, felt like a moment frozen in time. She was gorgeous. Her posture on the bench was upright and allowed the fit of her uniform to lie close to the curves of her body. Her soft brown eyes batted and full lips moved as she spoke to Selena with humor and confidence. Just by the way she spoke I knew she was ambitious, intelligent, classy and drastically different than any woman I’d ever met. To not draw attention to myself, I broke my stare and continued my scan around the truck.
In some part of my day dreaming, the Texan with jackhammer arms, who smelled like Stetson, and radiated confidence, had entered the conversation with Selena and my dream woman. All three of them were laughing, which made me think he said something hysterical like, “If they’d let you drink lava and wrestle gorillas, I’d win Survivor every time.” The conversation broke my fantasy and immediately made me self aware.
What was I doing to myself? How did the odds escape me? Not only was every other guy on that truck thinking the same thing that I was, but every other guy who was into beautiful, confident women with limitless potential…military or otherwise. I’ll let you figure out the ratio on that one. Even if we throw the odds aside and it was just her and I on that truck, where would I even start?
I practiced a few realistic lines in my head.
“Hey baby. No no, it’s not halitosis, I just didn’t want to risk shaving my teeth this morning”…yeah that’ll get her phone number.
“Funk and Old Spice is my natural scent”…smooth.
And finally, if she’d seen me before I got on the truck, “I wasn’t clinging to the wall petrified out of my mind back there. I was just feeling my way around the building…literally”.
I don’t know why I got myself so worked up. Girls like that are for airman like Lumberjack Tex and his chiseled chin. I’d eventually find my match somewhere. We’d probably meet behind a K-Mart or at the circus, but, hey, she’d be mine.
As the truck slowed to a stop in front of an airplane, I heard the driver call out her name.
“Airman Morey, this is your stop.”
She picked up her tool box and got off the truck. As we pulled away from the parking spot, I got one last look at Airman Morey . She walked up the steps into the airplane and then, just like that, she was gone. Somewhere, some little part of me felt lost when she left my sight. It was like I found a part of myself that I never knew I was missing and held it just long enough to feel the hole when it was gone. In that moment, I knew the odds were a million to one, but that one had to be someone and maybe, some day, it would be me.
“Kevin” Selena said, talking to the Texan and interrupting my moment. “You’re getting nowhere flirting with Stacy like that. You know she’s married.”
What? My heart dropped like a falling brick crashing deep into the pit of my stomach. Married?
* Tune in next Thursday for Chapter 4
** Thank you to all the people who entered the giveaway. Each comment was assigned a number and the winning number was randomly pulled. The winner for this giveaway is “LKSitterson”. Please email me at stacyhartphotography@gmail.com your information including your address and what size beanie you want and I will send it along to Bouquet Beanies!
For those of you who are interested in ordering a custom crochet beanie, hairband or more cute stuff, please check out Bouquet Beanies
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