Karen felt someone tapping her on the shoulder. She had been fast asleep, and really did not want to wake up. It had been a great three months of fun with both of the Taylors, especially with Jon being away working in China during most of that time.
She heard a whisper, "Karen, who is that lying in our bed next to you?"
Karen's eyes opened to see her husband Jon standing over her. Next to her lay Heidi fast asleep.
(About two months ago)
This time, Jon stayed home for about two weeks before he had to fly back to China. He went to the Sears service center and picked up the lawn mower, something that Karen had never found time to do. They had repaired it and it worked just fine.
Meanwhile, the Taylors kept to themselves, figuring Karen would let them know if she wanted some action from Fred. From what they could see from their home, Karen and Jon spent most of his visit in bed, which Heidi and Fred thoroughly enjoyed watching.
(Two weeks later)
Heidi stood at her living room window, behind the curtains, watching Jon and Karen say their good-bys. Heidi had experienced the same thing dozens of time when Fred left for deployments around the world. Maybe this would be the opening she could use to get with Karen.
Heidi would have to talk with Fred about this tonight when he called. Fred went to Washington two days ago to a good friend's change of command ceremony and getting promoted to be a three star general.
Fred was supposed to come back tomorrow, but last night, he found another classmate had a sudden heart attack and died. Fred was going to leave DC tomorrow morning and travel up to the Boston area for the funeral and wake, and would be gone for three more days.
Heidi would have traveled to Massachusetts, as Fred and she had been stationed with the classmate and his ex-wife back in the late 1980's. Heidi liked the ex-wife, but tolerated the classmate only because he was Fred's friend. She also knew that several of Fred's other classmates would likely attend, this being the rowdy and drink heavy crowd that she did not always like to be a part of. Let Fred have a good time in a bad situation, she will just stay home.
Heidi looked out the window, and Jon's car was gone. Karen was sitting on her steps, and looked like she might be crying. As Fred would say, time to make something happen, as opportunities like this might not happen again.
(A flashback to the late 1980's)
Heidi was German-born, in her early forties, naturally blonde hair, blue eyes, a small buxom (34c), stood five foot four and was only ten pounds heavier than when she met Fred at a base in Germany twenty one years ago. She had gone to work at the NATO headquarters in Stuttgart after finishing high school, and with her being fluent in French, English and Italian she worked with many of the senior and mid-grade officers there. There, she discovered that she was attracted to many of the older men, and something that a shy German student never knew -- she attracted them like flies to honey.
Heidi started working there, and quickly started receiving invitations to dinner and shows. Most of the time, she double dated with another woman in the office, and this allowed her to maintain her reputation. She enjoyed the attention, especially from the more senior officers, but most of them had been divorced at least once, and a few were on unaccompanied tours (their spouse and family were in the states). Heidi was most discrete, only going to bed with four of them during the first two years working there.
Fred joined the staff as a senior Captain recently selected for promotion to the rank of Major. He was a dashing older man with a quick wit, but extremely respectful of the female military and civilians working at the headquarters. Heidi and Fred had spoken several times and had worked on a couple projects together during the first six months of his assignment there, yet he never had asked her out. She had been at the officer club a couple of times with him sitting at a large table with eight or ten friends, and she had one dance with him during the Oktoberfest party. Heidi had been careful with her relationships, not letting any of them get too serious, as she wanted to pursue a civilian career with NATO, not to become an officer's wife.
Captain Taylor and Heidi were working with three other staff members one evening finishing up a presentation that would be made to several ambassadors the next morning by Fred's boss. After finishing the work, Fred and Heidi had decided to unwind at a local German restaurant, while the others went home. It was that evening that they found they had a lot in common, and Heidi began to fall in love with her American soldier. The courtship was quiet, as the chief of staff frowned on internal staff affairs and might reassign one or both parties. It was three months of going steady before Heidi went to bed with Fred. They quickly discovered that they shared a lot of ideas on what would be now called an open marriage.
Fred had graduated almost eleven years from college and had been assigned to Korea, in Texas and North Carolina and now in Germany. He had had plenty of time to sow his oats, dating and bedding dozens of women and several couples. He had also observed up close some of the typical military marriages, with separations and husbands and wives cheating on their spouses. He had decided that if he found the right woman, that he and she would agree to be open and honest about this situation, and allow the other to be free to explore and have fun.
