Unlikely Lovers

Unlikely Lovers

Written by
Anna Kristell

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Cover Artist: Carl J. Franklin

First
Edition

©2013,
Rebel Ink Press, LLC

www.rebelinkpress.com

To Dad, I know you are looking down from heaven and smiling about all this.

To Breanah, you will always be Nana’s angel.

To Alexandra, Kira, and Kolten, you light up my life. (But you still can’t read my books.)

To Susan, it may not be ‘your’ story, but you were the inspiration.

To the entire Rebel Ink
Press staff for making a dream come true. Words can’t begin to describe the feeling when that first email finally arrives with the words “Contract” in the header.

It was late fall in southwestern Oklahoma, the time of
year when the air is crisp in the evenings and the leaves have just started to turn their annual shades of red, orange and yellow. Late one Friday morning, Army Major Jessica Walsh noticed the leaves on the tree outside her window and sighed knowing winter was just around the corner. She looked away from the window and glanced distractedly at the mound of paperwork piled high on the gleaming wood of her well-worn, cherry desk. She’d been staring at it without actually seeing it for most of the morning. As she wearily pushed it aside and looked at her watch, the door to her office suddenly swung open and Major Melissa Roberts poked her pretty blonde head in. They’d been friends a long time and were currently stationed at Fort Sill.

“How about breaking for lunch, Jess?” Missy asked a little too cheerily for Jessica’s sour mood.

“Sure, I’m not getting much done here anyway. Maybe a break will help.” She sighed. Stopping at her assistant Karen’s desk on the way out, she informed her, “I’ll be at the commissary having lunch.”

“Okay, Major Walsh. I’ll see you later,” Karen replied with a smile as she looked up from her filing.

The women strolled the distance from their office building to the post commissary. There was a small café there that served the best blackened chicken salads in town.

“What’s up with you, Jess? Something is definitely off
,” she asked in a concerned voice.

Missy
and Jessica had been friends since they joined ROTC years ago in Spokane, Washington. Jessica hailed from Vancouver and Missy had been raised in Portland. They managed to follow each other to the same posts throughout their careers, even doing a tour of Iraq at the same time. Missy usually arrived at the new post a few months ahead of Jess, so was able to fill her friend in on the hottest men in the area by the time Jess arrived.

Jess
ica took a sip of her iced tea and pushed back a strand of her brunette hair before answering. “Dan cheated again. I’m done this time. I see no future for us.” Her green eyes flashed with anger as she looked at Missy.

Missy looked at her friend with understanding. “I don’t blame you and I know it’s taken a long time for you to realize it.”

“The first few times I told myself it was no big deal because we weren’t serious, now it’s different. Every time he swears it won’t happen again, but it always does. I pity the poor girl who marries him. It won’t be me. I’m just glad we’re at different posts so I don’t have to run into him every day.”

“Good girl
,” Missy said as their salads were served. She thanked the young waitress and poured a generous serving of honey mustard dressing on her salad while listening.

“I’ve made it this far without a man. And I always have my career.” Jessica’s defiance was a bit lacking in conviction as she dipped a forkful of chicken into a
cup of vinaigrette and took a bite.

“Tell yourself that on a cold winter’s night when you’re all alone in your bed, my friend.”

“Good morning, Majors,” Colonel Rachel Lindsey interrupted as she walked by.

“Good afternoon, Colonel.” Jessica
forced a smile as she saluted her superior.

“Good afternoon, Colonel
,” Missy piped up as she too saluted the other woman.

“Enjoy your lunch. It’s good to see both of you.”

As she walked away on the arm of her handsome husband, Jessica remarked, “Now there’s a woman who has it all. She’s moved up the ranks, well respected, great husband, and two adorable kids. How’d she get so lucky?”

“We just haven’t met Mr. Right yet.” 

“I guess not.” Jessica wondered if she’d ever meet Mr. Right. “And you know the sad thing about Dan and me is that I’m beginning to doubt I ever really loved him. I think he was, how should I say it, a suitable prospect for a husband.”

“Really, and you put up with his little affairs all this time anyway?” Missy asked in awe. “I just thought it was because you were so much in love that you chose to overlook the other women.”

“Like I said, he was a suitable choice. We’re both career oriented, both Army, I don’t know. I’m mad as hell he cheated again. I’m sick of his little guilt gifts and I just think I’m ready to move on. It’s the same old scene, time and again, he cheats, he either gets caught or he confesses. Then he’s all lovey-dovey for a while, begs me to forgive him and its wine and roses until the next fling.”

“And if you marry him, nothing will change
,” Missy remarked, taking a sip of her Diet Coke.

“Exactly right and I’ve decided I deserve more. I deserve someone who loves me and only me
, if someone like that even exists. In the meantime, I have my career.”

“Your career won’t keep you warm on a cold winter’s night, Jess.”

“I know, but I won’t settle for less. My mind is made up. Colonel Dan Anderson and I are finished, once and for all.”

“What are we doing this weekend
, then? You’re not staying in if I have any say in the matter.” Missy informed her friend.

“I don’t know. What would you like to do?”
Jess was uninterested as she pushed her salad around on her plate.

“
We could go bowling, we haven’t done that in a while.”

“Okay, call me tomorrow. I’d better get back now if I want to go home sometime tonight.” Jessica
honestly could have cared less if she went out or stayed home that weekend.

She
walked back to her office to face the never-ending stack of paperwork once again. Stopping at Karen’s cluttered desk, she asked, “Were there any messages for me?”

Karen looked up from the stack of
manila folders covering her desk and taking the pencil out of her mouth she’d been chewing nervously and said, “Colonel Anderson called again.”

Karen’s dark hair fell just to her shoulders and with her pretty figure and constant smile, she was actually very attractive. Jess
ica had often wondered why she didn’t date more.

“If he calls again, tell him I am unavailable.”

“Yes, ma’am, I will,” Karen replied as Jessica walked into her office to face the afternoon, slamming the door behind her.

Sitting down at her desk
once again, she began to wade through the paperwork, putting all thoughts of Dan out of her mind until she glanced at the vase of red roses staring at her from the corner of the desk. She picked it up and dumped the whole thing in the trash knowing full well they were another one of his guilt gifts. The only time he ever sent flowers was after he’d strayed. It wasn’t long before his picture staring at her from the other corner followed the flowers into the trash.

“I’m done,” she told the things sticking out of her trash can.

At seven, she wearily locked her office door and walked to the parking lot toward her car. She’d fallen in love with it and bought it on impulse. She hadn’t regretted the decision as Dan had told her she would. It drove like a dream and came equipped with everything she needed. As she drove across the post to her quarters, she told herself she really needed to get a life
.

Letting herself into her empty apartment, she looked at the mess she’d left that morning. She hurriedly picked up the clothes strewn
across the floor and threw them into a laundry basket, put the dishes in the dishwasher, and walked into the bedroom. She stripped off her fatigues and went into the bathroom. Filling the tub with warm water, she decided on lavender bath salts. She went into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of French Lick cherry wine, a gift from a friend in Indiana, stopping to water the lone plant in the windowsill before going back into the bathroom.