This is a first try for me at erotic fiction. The following story is as the movies are fond of saying "inspired by real events." Those readers who look for DDD breasts begging Peter North x3 style ropes of cum should seek entertainment elsewhere.
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"He's just out of the service and he's looking for his fun..." The line from Ian Tyson's song "Someday Soon" echoed in Paul's head, but he was definitely not having fun right now. Not unless he considered a boring dissertation on the use of call options for risk mitigation and return enhancement having fun. Three weeks into a four-week training stint in Manhattan before he could return to Silicon Valley and try to make a living as a stockbroker.
Four months ago, Paul O'Brien resigned his Army commission after seven years. His dream of a 30-year career as an Infantry officer was shattered on the reality of the post-Vietnam military. The draft had ended. And the Army was stumbling through the transition to an all- volunteer force. To say that morale in the military was lower than whale shit would be a gross understatement.
It certainly had not seemed that way to Paul in 1968 when he pinned on his gold second lieutenant bars. Then, unlike so many in his generation, he was ready to go out and defend his nation's freedom. Officers' basic training was followed by parachute training. Upon the successful completion of his graduation jumps, he entered the most physically demanding, mentally challenging eight weeks of his life: U. S. Army Ranger School. Most people are aware that Ranger training is the most difficult course in the Army. Paul weathered the duration of it, and standing on an airfield in northern Florida, had the coveted black and gold Ranger tab pinned to his shoulder.
His first posting out of training was a year with the mechanized infantry in Germany. This was an accompanied tour, so he was able to bring his wife Karen along at the Army's expense. Paul and Karen had met in college and got married immediately after Paul's graduation and commissioning. Their year together in Germany was delightful for the most part. Like those in many marriages, they discovered they really did not know each other as well as they thought. And a year is not a long time accomplish that discovery process. As 1970 approached, the orders Paul anticipated and Karen dreaded arrived. Paul was being reassigned to Vietnam.
While Paul was off in the jungle, commanding men in combat, and doing his best to get them all back to the U.S. alive, Karen went back to college to finish her degree. She had been a year behind Paul when they met, and she left after her Junior year to marry him. On-campus culture had changed dramatically in three years. Smoking dope was accepted and pervasive. The beginnings of the feminist movement had sprouted, and Karen became immersed in all of it. Always a bit impressionable, she became swept up in the tide of change occurring. He found out through friends on campus, she also became swept up in the arms of a graduate student who talked her out of her pants. She claimed it was only a one-time thing, but like virginity and pregnancy, fidelity is an exclusive condition. Paul forgave her, but the shadow was cast.
When Paul returned, he had not only been isolated on Army bases or out of the country for the better part of three years, during those three years the country had changed more culturally than it had in the previous decade. Karen was a stranger to him. They went through the motions, but something was missing. They had fallen for each other as undergraduates, but their experiences were now so different. Those experiences informed their outlook in very divergent ways. Paul remained committed to his military career. However, Karen was looking for her freedom to live life outside of the strictures imposed on an Army Wife.
With no children and few possessions of any real value, the divorce was uncomplicated. Just prior to Paul completing the Career Course at Fort Benning, everything was arranged. Paul was being transferred to California, and Karen was moving back to her family in New Hampshire.
Life at Ft. Ord on Monterey Bay was like paradise for a bachelor captain. The Monterey Peninsula was crawling with young women eager to volunteer to fight in the Sexual Revolution. Paul had lots of opportunities from which he could pick and choose. He picked a lot. Few meetings resulted in more than three or four dates. He was polite and always complimentary, never wanting to burn a bridge. Then there was Annie. Mary Anne White was a nurse at the post hospital. She was a First Lieutenant and legal territory for another officer. The term Friends with Benefits came along several decades later, but that described their relationship to a T. Their sexual styles meshed. Their pure sexual enjoyment was not constrained by any emotional ties. Perfect for Paul; entanglements of that kind could wait.
After three delightful years in Monterey, Paul was an ex-captain of infantry. Seven years of military experience and three years commanding various units, the respect of his men, all the confidence in the world going forward, right? Wrong! Paul was scared shitless. As he progressed through his training as a stockbroker, it became clear he would have to convince people, persuade them to take his recommendations. No more could he order a man to walk point with the force of law behind the order. Paul concluded he could tell someone to buy stock and the client could lose money, but he would not die as a result. He had that going for him.
Back in Manhattan, the options class finally ground to its conclusion. Paul could hardly wait to get out of corporate headquarters and release his tensions. Back on the subway to his hotel, Paul recalled the burger bar he had visited a couple weeks prior. Great burgers and reasonable beers represented an attractive proposition. What had attracted him the first time he visited was a friendly local ambiance. The kind that welcomed rather than excluded newcomers. The place was crowded when he walked in so he saw a two top and seized it. Not long after, she walked over and asked if the other seat were taken. "It's yours", said Paul. She sat down, and Paul remembered seeing her playing backgammon with another young woman on his previous visit.
"Joannie," she said introducing herself.