They met shortly after completing boot camp. She was on a high from a new level of physical fitness, one she enjoyed maintaining. She was also enjoying the brief moments out of uniform; for the first time in three months she was able to slip into a pair of jeans, a low-cut top, and slick some plum lip gloss on her full lips.
She wasn't pageant material, at least, not until you truly got a good look at her. Her long chestnut hair, finally free from braids and buns, swept her high cheekbones, which were just barely sprinkled with the lightest freckles. Bright baby-blue eyes set above a button nose and a brilliant smile that made you look twice and realize she was really a knock-out. Her newly sculpted and honed figure didn't hurt, either.
She first caught sight of him when rushing to get back to base from Chicago. On a precious liberty weekend, she had finally been able to go out drinking with her girlfriends and truly let her hair down. He was tall, a Puerto Rican, given his honeyed skin tone and the small flag pinned to his satchel. His deep dimples flanked gorgeous full lips, and his shirt was just form-fitting enough to reveal an impressive body. She stopped, almost tripping into the train, as she saw him watching her, and a small blush crept up her fair skin as she rushed to meet her friends on the train.
She could barely carry on a conversation with her friends on the forty minute train ride back to the base. She even tried to think of excuses to walk up into the other train cars to see if he was on this train, but she realized that would be incredibly obvious and didn't want to look like some kind of psycho. So she settled back, listened to her friends giggle and gossip while she watched the scenery roll by.
As they exited the train, she scanned the platform but didn't see him, so she pulled her jacket around her and hurried to the gate and on to her barracks. The sun had gone down and it was getting chilly....plus the girls still needed to find their stashed uniforms and change, as they were not supposed to be off base out of uniform. The four girls huddled behind a large group of bushes at the edge of a small grove of trees and took turns quickly changing into uniform, shoving their civilian clothes into their backpacks. Quickly twisting their hair into loose buns, they began making their way into the barracks.
She was going to take the opportunity to have one last cigarette before going to bed, so she struggled to pull out her pack of smokes (without dumping her civvies everywhere) and patted her pockets for a lighter.
"Looking for a light?" she jumped and turned to stare into the most gorgeous chocolate brown eyes she'd ever seen. She almost lost of her train of thought, stammered, and finally managed to squeak out, "...yes..." He walked with her to the smoke deck, where they shared a cigarette in silence. As her cigarette burned perilously close to the filter, he finally broke the ice and asked her name.
"Tell me yours first..." her characteristic impish flirting caught him off guard and a slow, broad smile spread across his face. "Lupe...and....you?"
"Megan." She smiled and her blue eyes flashed with the fun of the game, and as she leaned forward to crush her cigarette into the ash tray, he saw the swell of her breasts and the belt cinched tight around her trim waist and he felt himself start to stir.