Jason sank heavily into the chair and was immediately concerned the cheap frame might not hold up. Thankfully it did, and he breathed a long sigh of relief. He was five months in to his deployment with the Army, the unit's computer room was already desperately short on chairs, and the thought of having to lean over the desk or squat down if this one also broke was terribly unappealing to him.
Bringing up his email, he quickly scanned the list for something aside from junk. The past few days had been long and exhausting, and he hoped for word from home to lift his spirits. His mood soured a little more, though, as his eyes failed to find anything new from his parents, his older sister, or the few old friends he regularly corresponded with...
"Ah!" he thought to himself, as his eyes brightened a little. Down towards the bottom was a message from Miguel and Astacia, the couple that had "adopted" him from a list of soldiers the unit chaplain had sent to various groups and businesses. They corresponded fairly regularly, mainly through email and occasionally over the phone, and they sent him care packages from time to time. He had come to know the two decently well, and always looked forward to hearing from them.
He opened the message, and as the picture loaded he furrowed his brow at the short inscription heading the email, "Just thought I would give you a reminder of what's waiting for you at home tonight." Astacia sometimes forwarded encouraging messages & pictures, but that little voice in the back of his mind said that this seemed a bit odd.
When the picture finished loading a few seconds later and popped on to the screen, he understood why. Attached was a self shot of a grinning Astacia, her long dark hair down, the classic "come hither" gaze in her eyes, and one arm placed strategically across the nipple line of her ample breasts while the other held the phone. Although her breasts were partially covered, most of her smooth, faintly chocolate colored skin was exposed down to where the flare of her hips was covered by lacy red and black underwear at the bottom of the photo.
Jason's sat there slack-jawed for a moment, his eyes wide in disbelief at the stunning beauty exposed before him, before logic took a hold and he averted his eyes to a point above the screen while his mind tried to process what he had just seen.
And process it did. No matter how many times he blinked in shock, he couldn't erase the image of that lustful angel. He knew she was beautiful from the picture of the two of them that they had sent early on, but nothing like THIS.
Finally, rational thought fully kicked in. "Miguel's going to kill me... or her!" he said to himself in a half whisper as he went to close out and delete the message. "I am NOT going to be party to breaking up someone's marriage!"
As he moved the mouse pointer towards the "delete" button, though, his eyes fell on the address line. He paused and his brow furrowed again when he realized that both his and Miguel's names were there... and there was also a (2) indicating that there was a second message in the conversation.
Jason swallowed a lump of fear and trepidation as he scrolled to the bottom of the email and clicked on the second message. He had a number of different expectations in his mind, but not what was actually there.
The second message was from Miguel. "Hope you enjoy your eye candy! Stacia accidentally sent it to both of us, and you should see her now. She's gets beet red and is too embarrassed to even talk about it. I know you won't, but PLEASE don't share it around, and you'll have to let her know what you think."
He closed the message and sat there a moment, stunned at the implications. Another man told him to enjoy eyeballing his hot wife, and –
A voice from the door way interrupted his thoughts. "Hey, Jones! Sarge is looking for you."
___
Miguel laughed again and wrapped his arms around Astacia from behind in a comforting embrace. "Quit blushing like that. I keep telling you, you made his day. Probably even his whole week. No red-blooded man - heck, boy, he's not even old enough to legally drink, is going to be offended at a half-naked picture from a beautiful..." he leaned down and kissed her neck, then whispered in to her ear "And, might I add, drop-dead sexy..." He lifted his gaze to meet her eyes in the mirror, "woman like you."
Astacia blushed even deeper, closed her eyes and shook her head slowly. "I still can't believe I DID that." She pushed herself back slightly from the counter and turned around to face him.