Authors: Aisha Brooks
The final bell of the school day rings, signifying the end of another long day at Jeremiah Rusk Middle School. Kimberly is a lifelong resident of Ruskerville, except her time in college when she attended Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia.
After four years, she graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences with Teacher Licensure. After graduation, she returned home to Ruskerville, where she took up this job as a history teacher in the local middle school, named for former governor of the state. Things have been rough for the tall, gorgeous young woman romantically since she started.
She initially tried to rekindle an old flame with her “high-school sweetheart,” Bailey. Unfortunately, however, Bailey decided to begin dating another woman only days after she had started talking to him again. Then, she had gone on a date with a tall mechanic that she met through a mutual friend, only to find that he was going through a divorce, and had two kids by his ex. Since that night, she has not been on a date with anyone, and is really starting to feel the keen sting of loneliness, deep in the pit of her stomach.
Because of these feelings of loneliness, Kim had finally decided to take drastic measures to fill the void in her heart. So, one night, she bought a bottle of Arbor Mist, and began searching for a dating website. Getting steadily tipsier, she had finally decided on two sites: a major, commercially successful website, and a niche website that matched former military personnel to those that desired the love of soldiers, soldiermatch.com.
Slightly buzzed from the large amount of alcohol that she had consumed, she filled out her profile on the website, promptly ignoring the site for the next three months. As she places the papers that she is grading in her briefcase, though, she decides to check it when she gets home.
She exits the school building, and drives down Jackson Street before turning left onto Morton Lane. All in all, her drive to her apartment takes less than five minutes. She goes inside, and locks the door behind her. Walking into the kitchen, she gets a bottle of wine out of her refrigerator before taking off her button down shirt and pants, and finally removing her bra, releasing her large breasts. This is her preferred attire when at home—complete nudity, save for her tight fitting panties. Sitting down to her computer, she pours herself a glass of wine, and logs on to soldiermatch.
She had decided to create the soldiermatch profile because of her great love for the military, and all who have served. Her father had been a fighter pilot in the Navy, and her brother is currently serving as a Marine at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Her grandfather had been a member of the First Recon Battalion, and was killed in action during the Korean War. All of this combined to make Kimberly very respectful of the military, and to be honest, she felt that the regimental lifestyle of the military is the only way she can live.
Sipping her wine, the nearly naked Kimberly reads through the connections that various military men (and one woman) have sent her in the last three months. “I am an airborne jump instructor at Ft. McCoy, and would like to talk to you,” one said. Another told Kimberly, “I am a National Guardsman in the 32nd Infantry Brigade, and I live in Madison, WI. I would like to start communicating with you about potentially meeting.” The woman told her that she was a recently discharged Army nurse, who was only interested in lesbian encounters. It is not that Kimberly dislikes lesbians and gays, she just wants a man.
Going back to the main screen of the website, she decides to pursue the profile entries of the newest members on the website.
The first one she opens immediately catches her eye. It is for a man of thirty four years, and is a recently discharged Special Forces operator. “I have had three general combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with countless special forces missions around the world. Three time purple heart medal recipient.”
She finds him very intriguing, and only a little disconcerted by the eleven year age difference between the two of them. He is a very handsome man, with piercing blue eyes, and dark brown hair, almost black. His profile picture shows him smiling slightly, wearing his fatigues, and his arm around an older, short woman, presumably his mother.
Kimberly stares at his photograph for several long minutes before she finally decides to send him a message. She takes another swig from her glass of chardonnay, before searching the site for the man’s name: Robert Steele. “Even his name is sexy…” Kimberly thinks to herself, feeling a slight quiver in the center of her womanhood, contained only by the silken fabric of her underwear.
Finally, after drooling over the five or six pictures in his profile, she sees that he is a new user on the website, only creating his profile that day. Realizing that if she did not snatch him up quickly another woman surely would, she begins to compose her message to him.
“Robert,” she types, “My name is Kimberly Brown, and I am a middle-school teacher near Green Bay, Wisconsin. I would really like to start talking to you…”
Chapter 4: The First Date
Rob can hardly believe how quickly that a woman had answered to his posting. He had finished creating his profile, and literally less than five minutes had gone by when he received a message from a pretty young woman from right there in Green Bay! Or, Ruskerville anyway, which was less than two miles outside the Green Bay city limits.
Before he responds to Kim’s message, he decides to visit her profile page first. Her profile picture clearly shows that she is a young, sexy beauty with large bosoms to accompany her curvaceous figure. Wearing a professional pant suit of green perfectly complements her eyes, which are also a bright green. The black rimmed glasses that she wore for the picture only serve to increase his lust for her.
“Now that is a real woman,” he says, admiring her figure. After seeing that Kim enjoys boat riding and fishing, he decides to contact her.
“Hello Kim,” he types. “First of all, I want to thank you for contacting me. I am new to this online dating thing, and it made me really pleased to know that I am attracting at least some interest. After looking over your profile, I can see that you live just outside of Green Bay, in Ruskerville. I live in Green Bay, and I am freshly home from deployment in Afghanistan. I am really just looking for a strong woman who can help me to work through the bad memories of war. If it is agreeable to you, I see that you enjoy fishing, boating, and the outdoors. Would you like to go fishing one day? My brother owns a boat that we can borrow, and I can take you out on the lake. Would that be okay? I hope this message finds you well, hoping to hear from you soon, Robert Steele.”
Rob reads over his message before sending it, wondering if he was over sharing. Oh, fuck it, he thinks to himself. The worst she can do is say no…and that happened all the time in high school…you can deal with it, Robbie, he says to himself. If you can’t take the occasional shot in the dark and get rejected, then you have no business being on a dating website.
Finally, Rob clicks the small, square “send” button on the bottom right of the message viewer, and he sits back to wait. He does not wait for very long before Kimberly responds.
“That would be great! :-) When do you want to go?
“Oh, I don’t know. Whenever you would like to. I am free most of the time, because I just got home about a week ago, and to be honest, I haven’t even started looking for a job yet.”
“I completely understand,” Kimberly typed back. “Well, I am a school teacher, so the weeks don’t usually work well for me, so if you wanted to go on a Saturday, that would probably be the best day for me.
“Okay, Saturday it is, then. Where do you want to meet?”
“Well, I usually go to the Starbucks on Rustons Road on Saturdays, so if you want, we can meet there.”
“That’s fine. What time?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Kimberly answers, “maybe about 9:30?”
“9:30 works great for me.”
“Great! I’ll see you then!”
“See you then,” he answers, closing up the chat portal open on the screen, blocking the website.
Thus, Robert has set up his first date since high-school.
Two days later, he goes to his brother’s house, and borrows his brother’s ¾ ton Chevrolet pickup, and the nineteen foot fishing boat that he was going to use on his date with Kimberly.
At exactly 9:25 a.m., he pulls up in front of the Starbucks on Rustons Road, and gets out of the vehicle. Walking around the front of the Chevrolet, he enters the Starbucks and orders a Grande Mocha Frappacino.
“Nice order,” comes a sultry female voice from behind him. Turning around to see who the speaker is, Rob immediately exclaims,
“Kimberly! It’s good to meet you!” God, she’s taller than I expected! he says to himself.
“Yeah, it’s great!” she answers. Shit! He’s even better looking in person! she thinks to herself.
They walk out the door of the Starbucks, each of them holding their coffee in hand. “That’s a nice truck,” Kim says, making conversation.
“Yeah,” Robert answers, “Timmy’s done well for himself.”
“Timmy?”
“Yeah, he’s my baby brother. He was smart, like you. He went to college and got a degree in Marine biology. He’s doing research for the University of Wisconsin on the different animals and plants that live in Lake Michigan.”
“What do you mean, ‘smart like me?’” Kim asks him.
“Well, you both went to college, got your degrees, and are working to help others understand the world better. Me? I joined the Army right out of high-school, and have spent the last 15 years in hell-holes all over the damn globe, getting shot at, and seeing friends die.”
Rob is starting to withdraw into himself, due to the frustrations that he has with himself for having to discharge before he could retire. Having earned a Medal of Honor, would have granted him a 30% raise in his pension if he had retired. Instead, he was just over a year into his fourth enlistment, and the damn doctors made him get out, because of a few flashbacks and nightmares. He doesn’t care what the shrink says, he feels weak, and there’s no escaping that feeling.
“Robert,” Kim says softly into the silence that has suddenly and unpredictably fallen between them. “If you want to talk about anything, I’ll listen. PTSD is a very serious thing.”
“How did you know that I’m diagnosed with PTSD?” Robert asked, suddenly defensive.
“My brother is a Marine…my dad was a fighter pilot, and my grandfather was killed in Korea. My dad’s uncle was in the same unit as my grandfather, and saw his brother-in-law get killed. I know what PTSD looks like.”
Chapter 5: Getting To Know Each Other
She knows what PTSD LOOKS like? Robert asks himself. What the hell does that mean?
“Look,” Kimberly says, with authority, “The way I see it, you have two choices…you can either let your past dictate to you in the present, or you can let it go, and we can spend the day catching fish for supper.”
“It’s not that simple,” Robert says. “I can’t control when I have a flashback.”
“Maybe not, but you can control how much it affects you. Have you seen a therapist?”
“Yes,” he answers, sheepishly. “I haven’t really wanted to share that with anyone, though.”
“Look, it’s nothing to be ashamed of, Rob,” she says. “Would you apologise for being a diabetic or a cancer patient? Of course not! In this situation, the right thing to do is to seek help, just like in those situations.”
“I suppose you could be right…”
“I am right,” Kimberly said, “Now, are you taking me fishing, or not?”
Robert, although taken aback by Kimberly’s direct nature, is glad that she neither thinks him weak and to be neither pitied, nor so strong that he shouldn’t feel the way he does. There is something refreshing in the young maiden’s directness, because she does not discount what he is dealing with the way so many Americans do, she does not think him incapable of facing the challenge.
“Yeah, let’s go fishing,” he says, as he turns down Lakefront Drive, heading for a boat ramp that is big enough to launch the massive 19 foot long vessel. As they are working together to launch the boat, Kim really notices the tattoo on the inside of his right arm, and asks, “What are those on your arm?”
“Just some tattoos,” he answers without going into detail, and trying to hide them from her view.
“Let me see them,” she says.
“No, it’s okay. They’re just tattoos of some of the medals I received overseas.”
“Can I please see?” Kim asks, just the hint of begging cutting through her voice.
“Oh, I guess so,” he says, rolling up his right shirt sleeve, conceding to her.
“Oh wow…so you earned what…four Bronze Stars? Three for valor? ”
“Yeah, I did,” he answers.
“And, two silver stars?”
“Yes.”
“Three purple hearts too? Wow…but I don’t know which one those two are.”
“The first is the Distinguished Service Medal, the highest honor the military has besides the Medal of Honor.”
“And is this the Medal of honor?” Kimberly asks, indicating the correct medal.
“Yeah, that’s it.”
“For Valor…”
“…at risk of life and limb above and beyond the call of duty.”
“How did you get that?”
“For the same thing that got me diagnosed with PTSD.”
“I’m guessing that you don’t want to talk about it right now?”
“No…”
“Okay,” Kimberly answers. “Let’s go fishing.” They spent the entire day on Rob’s baby brother’s boat, catching largemouth bass and other assorted sunfish. Kim even managed to hook a large Muskie, but the line snapped before she could land the apex predator in those waters.
They stopped for a short period of time at about 1 p.m., and Robert bought them each a cheeseburger lunch from a national fast food chain that had a franchise location close to the water. As they sat eating, talk turned to Kimberly, and how she came to be a teacher.
“Well, I’ve always loved history, but I didn’t know how I could use a degree in history, so I settled for being a teacher.”
“So, you decided that you would just get the degree you wanted, and use it in the most secure profession you could think of that needed it?”
“Something like that!” Kimberly answers, laughing aloud. They are getting along famously, and Robert cannot take his eyes off of her body. While her profile picture on soldiermatch.com had her wearing professional attire, today she has chosen to wear a bikini top and some short, cutoff jeans that barely cover her rear end. She is clearly much more confident in her body than are many women her age. She is not thin as a rail like so many women in society, but instead, she is fit and toned, but not so muscle bound as to appear freakish. Overall, Robert is incredibly attracted to her.
Kim, too, is feeling the pangs of lustful passion grow in her belly when she steals glances of him. Sure, he is dealing with some serious baggage from having gone to war, but all that means is that he is a brave soldier who witnessed things that the rest of the merely mortal men that she comes into contact with wouldn’t experience in their worst nightmares. Combined with the fact that his physique clearly was that of a former Army Special Forces operator, and Kim was confident that she could see herself in a long term relationship with this hero.
They continue fishing for the rest of the afternoon, laughing and joking about the way she is catching more fish than he is. Their flirtatious banter would not be out of place in a high school hallway or dive bar. Soon, they have caught well more than enough fish to eat for supper, so they pack their gear up, and head back to shore. After they have loaded the boat back onto the trailer, they set off, heading in the direction of Rob’s house.
When they arrive there, he cleans the fish while she slices potatoes to make homemade French fries. When all the food is ready to cook, he fires up his propane fryer, and together they prepare supper.
Carefully, they pre-cook all the freshly cut potatoes, and set them aside while the bass fish fillets are cooking. Once all the fish is finished, they cook the potatoes for the second time, creating the crispy boardwalk style French fries that are so delicious.