Chapter 4:  Finding our Footing

I remember waking up a few times in the night and I was pretty sure it had been every time he moved. It's been a while since I've had someone in my bed for the night. I was awake again. I could see that it was just about dawn outside, so I turned my head to see the clock. 5:52 a.m. Still beat the wake-up call. I was on my back now and Jake was sound asleep, his head lying on my chest, softly snoring. I looked down at his head and smiled; this was a really nice thing to wake up to. I didn't want to disturb him, but three things needed to happen. I needed to get to the phone when it rang, I needed to piss something awful and I'm pretty sure I have his gift from last night leaking out of me. I reached up and started running my hand on the top of his head, feeling the soft fur that currently qualified as his hair.

"Jacob..?" I said softly. "Hey sleepy head; you awake yet?"

He moved a little and mumbled something, then went back to sleep.

"Jake? Time to wake up, sexy man. I really hate to, you look so sweet and peaceful where you are, but the phone is going to ring in about six minutes. I didn't want it to startle you, so I'm giving you fair warning."

He stretched a little and moved his head about two inches. "I'm awake – I think." Another small stretch. "Good morning... What time is it?"

"It's five `til six. I have a standing wake-up call for six, so the phone's going to ring. How'd you sleep?" I was still running my fingers in his hair.

"Arrrggghhh. I slept great, thank you; how `bout you?" One more small stretch.

"I was exhausted, I slept like a baby." OK, so a small little lie; sue me.

"Mmmm, me too. Last night was wild. You're a fuckin' animal." He giggles. "I was glad I could keep up with you; had me worried for a minute." He giggles again.

"You keeping up with me? I've been worried about being able to keep up with you. You're in the middle of your sexual peak; I'm on the downhill run..."

"Yeah, right... You wore me out, you perv." More giggling.

"Yeah, well... I was just testing your Marine training. You passed. I need physical therapy though."

"Can I be your therapist?"

"I was counting on it. I so love this right now; your head on my chest, our morning afterglow and everything else, but I have to break it up. I need to piss like a race horse and I'm really certain I have your gift running out of my ass and down my leg."

He laughed, the little shit. "Really? Sounds like you have several problems."

"You're going to have one if I don't get up soon. I'm going to piss all over you, and in the position you're in it will go right in your face."

He got up and sat on the bed looking at me and smiling. He pulled the covers off of me.

"Yuk! OK, you can leave now. Please." He laughed again.

I got out of bed and started heading towards the bathroom; behind me I hear more laughter.

"Oh man! You perv! You left a stain on the sheets where your ass was!" He laughs again.

I stop and turn around.

"It's your cum, baby; lick it up!"

I continue heading into the bathroom.

"Gross!!"

 While I was in the bathroom I heard the phone ringing.

"Hello?" Long pause. "Let me check. Baby! Can you take a call right now!?" I hear him giggle.

"What!? It's just the wake-up service. It's a fucking computer, just hang up!" He giggles again.

"He can't come to the phone right now, he has my load dripping out of his ass; can I take a message?"

"What the fuck!?" Who the hell are you talking to?"

He probably could have carried this off a little longer if the phone didn't start ringing again. I just started laughing. Apparently he'd been holding the button down while trying to talk shit about me.

"You are so busted, dude! I'll remember that!" I yelled from the bathroom. I hear uproarious laughter from Jake in the bedroom.

"Fuck! The damn computer called me back! You about done in there; I need to piss too?"

"Yeah, just let me flush and it's all yours."

I finished up and walked to the doorway of the bathroom and looked at him with an evil grin on my face.

"Nice try, dipstick! You must've hung up too fast on the wake-up computer so it called you back. Classic!"

I walked out of the bathroom as he was getting up and heading toward me. As he walked by me he stuck his tongue out at me and I smacked him on the ass as he passed by.

"Ouch! Damn, that stung! Don't start something you can't finish, Mr. Slap my ass harder..." He laughs again while continuing into the bathroom.

I pulled some underwear on, not sure if it were his or mine, threw my robe over myself, grabbed his wadded up shirt and headed into the living area. Our dishes with dried food on them were still on the table, his tunic was hanging on the chair and his shoes were on the floor in front of the couch. Being horny makes people messy, I decided. I started cleaning the dishes up a little and set them back on the tray to take out to the hall. He was standing at the bedroom door leering at me.

"Nice outfit. Hey, I'm gonna grab a shower; I need to get back to the base by 0800 so I can change my uniform and be at work at 0830."

"OK sexy man. Have fun. I'm just gonna try to clear some of this shit out of here." He turned and headed back to the bathroom.

I got the dishes all loaded up on the tray and carried them to the door. I had to figure out how I was going to open the door while I held the tray. The door was spring loaded and closed itself when you let go. I managed to grab the handle with my finger while balancing the tray and pulled the door open. I set the tray down in the hall and as I was standing up a guy came out of the room next to ours. He looked at me and smiled broadly.

I smiled back. "Guten Tag".

He replied in English. "Good Morning! And may I say... Bravo!"

I knew exactly what he meant and my whole body turned beat red. I looked at the floor for a second, admiring the pattern of the dried food.

"Don't be embarrassed. Hell, I'd be strutting around if I could manage three hours and forty-five minutes. That was truly legendary! Besides, I owe you a debt of thanks."

"I have no idea how to respond to all of this. I feel mortified; and how on earth could you owe me a debt of thanks?" I asked him, my color trying to return to normal.

"Let's just say your boisterous and amorous activities gave my wife something to think about and I got lucky for the first time in a month. I couldn't possibly hold a candle to you guys, but I'm a happy man this morning. So, thank you."

My red color returned with a vengeance. "I... ah... well... I'm glad we could help, I guess. You're welcome."

"I know this may be a bit of a personal question..."

I interrupted him. "Believe me, you and I have gone way passed personal questions, go ahead and ask"

"You look to be about my age... How the hell did you manage almost four hours?"

"I ah... I have an incredibly sexy, horny 20 year old Marine in my shower right at the moment. It was our first night together and I wanted him to have fun. Now I'm worried I may have set the bar a little high and he will expect this kind of performance every time. I am forty years old; this is going to take me a month to recover from."

He chuckled. "No doubt. Well, it was nice getting to meet you. Congratulations on the 20 year old Marine. I hope you guys are happy together; and good luck with the, ah, bar..."

"Pleasure to me you too; and congrats on getting laid. Have a good day."

I walked back into the room and closed the door, leaning up against it. Oh man... that did not just happen. I had never been that embarrassed in my whole life, and I've done some crazy shit in my time. I tried not to think about it anymore and pushed myself off the door and went to pick up Jake's shirt. I stood there holding it up by the collar wondering how picky the Marines were about wrinkles and missing buttons.

I thought I remembered seeing an iron somewhere around here so I went in search of it. I couldn't do anything about the buttons, I didn't even know where they'd landed, but I could work on the wrinkles. I found the iron and an ironing board in a little closet designed for just their purpose. I pulled the board down and plugged the iron in to get it hot. While it was warming up I went and looked around on the floor in the area I thought I'd heard the buttons hit when Jake ripped his shirt off. I did manage to find one of them, but the other seemed to be truly MIA. I didn't know how I was planning on attaching the button to the sleeve, but at least I had it.

I tested the iron and it was hot, but I needed to pour some water in it so it would steam out the wrinkles. I grabbed a bottle of water from the bar and poured some into the iron, listening to it steam and hiss as I did so. When it was done belching and gurgling I set about ironing out Jake's shirt. As I was ironing a sleeve he walked up behind me wearing just a towel and put his arms around my waist. He smelled good.

"Wow! Sexy and domesticated; how lucky can I get? Thank you for doing that, it's really nice of you."

He kissed the side of my face and just kept hugging me from behind. After my conversation in the hall I really needed this right now.

"You're very welcome, Jake. I didn't know the Marine policy on wrinkles, but I assumed they kind of frowned on it. I did find one of the buttons to the sleeve, but I don't know how we're going to get it back on; I don't have a needle and thread with me."

"Well it's really kind of hard to even see the sleeve with my jacket on so we won't worry about it right now. Thank you for finding it though. I suppose the second one is MIA?"

I smiled, thinking he'd used the same term I'd thought about. "Yeah, I couldn't find it anywhere, but I'll keep looking for it after I get back from taking you to work."

"You don't have to take me to work, Mike; the bus runs all the time in town out to the base."

I set the iron up so it wouldn't burn his shirt and turned around in his arms. "Stop telling me about the damn bus. I rented a car Monday afternoon and I am taking you to the base. We're a team now, and I want to do this for you, so... shut up!" I smiled to let him know I was kidding about the shut up part.

He kissed me hard on the mouth. "Well alright then, dammit!"

"Well alright; fine!" I kissed him back.

I turned back around and continued ironing his shirt. I was thinking I may as well do his pants while I had the iron hot. He was still standing right behind me with his hands on my hips.

"So what did you rent; a Kia?" He laughed in my ear.

"Well, sort of. It's a new Mercedes... Actually it's an E-Class turbo Diesel. It made me think of you when the lady said she had an E-Class available."

"Awesome! I get to go to work in a new Benz. The other girls will be so jealous."

"Shut up..."

He swatted my butt lightly and laughed. Then he walked back to the bedroom. I finished his shirt and hung it on the chair and went to grab his pants. I also took a look at his jacket to see if it needed a quick steam; in for a penny... The jacket looked fine, but there was a bulge in the pocket and I stuck my hand in to see what it was. I pulled out a wrinkled tie that was still in a knot. Kids... I took the knot out of the tie and took it and the pants with me to iron them. I finished ironing his pants and tie and hung them both up neatly on the back of a chair. I unplugged the iron, put the board back up in its cradle and walked into the bedroom. I didn't know if I should tell Jake about my conversation in the hall. I'd been thinking about it while I was ironing, but I guess I had come to the conclusion that no good could come from telling him. It would just embarrass the hell out him.

He was standing naked in the middle of the room. Hell yeah, what a nice image to walk in on.

"You present the appearance of a very hot man who has lost something. Can I help?"

"I can't find my underwear. It's weird, they were on the floor by the bed last night; I remembered seeing them during a position change, and now I can't find `em."

I smiled and opened my robe. "Look familiar?"

He looked at me and got huge grin on his face. "Nice... Are you keeping them?"

I hadn't thought about it. "Yes, I am! I can give you a nice clean pair if you'd like."

"Well that's not exactly a fair trade. You're getting sweaty, dirty, cummy ones and all you're offering is clean and pressed in return?"

I laughed. I couldn't help it. "I could also offer sweaty cummy ones if you'd prefer. I don't know exactly where they are at the moment, but they are available."

"If you don't know where they're at, then they're not available. What kind of deal are you trying to pass on me here?  What else have you got?"

I laughed again. "I'm not trying to pass any kind of a deal on you. Possession is nine tenths of the law and I'm in possession of your drawers at the moment, so you really have no legal standing. You could always go to work commando; you are a Marine after all."

He started laughing. "Nah, commando makes my balls itch in those uniform pants. What else have you got?"

"Oooo. I know. You'll like this offer, I hope. I was wearing a jock strap when we were on the train together." He grinned. "I haven't washed it since I took it off, so it should be sweaty and dirty, though I don't know about cummy. I did get hard a couple of times when I'd sneak a look at you sitting in the corner with your legs spread, but I don't know if any pre-cum leaked into the pouch."

He wagged his eyebrows at me and laughed. "Fuck yeah! Bring me the jock!"

I laughed and went to my duffle bag where I keep my dirty clothes and searched for the jock. I found it. It was a white one, and I looked to see if there were any cum stains on it. I couldn't tell. There were a couple of stains on it, but I didn't know if was piss or cum. I turned around to face him and stuck the pouch up to my nose and sniffed. He broke up laughing. I walked over to him and handed him the jock.

"I couldn't tell if the stain is cum or piss, but here ya go."

He held it up to his face and sniffed it. I smiled. Then he stuck his tongue out and gingerly licked it. I raised my eyebrows. He smiled at me and crammed the pouch into his mouth. I moaned.

He pulled the jock out of his mouth. "You perv! I recognize the taste of your pre-cum on here. You were scoping out my ass on the train and oozing into your jock! Geez, you were sitting there perving on a sweet, innocent boy, getting your rocks off into your jock strap. Sweet!" He stuck it back in his mouth. I busted up.

"And you call me a perv. Fuck. I'm going to take a shower. Besides, if I see you wearing that jock you're not going to make it out of here on time."

I turned and went to the bathroom and closed the door.

I was just rinsing my hair off when he barged into the bathroom. He opened the shower door, looking kind of stressed out.

"What happened to my tie?"

I looked up with water running down my face. "It was hanging on the back of the chair with your pants; maybe it fell off and you didn't notice it?"

"No, I have it, I was wondering what happened to the knot. I had it tied."

I was unclear what the hell he meant for a second. "I pulled the knot out and ironed it, it was all fucked up; looked like it had been in your pocket for a year. What's wrong?"

"I uh... don't know how to tie a tie. A buddy tied it for me and I've never taken it out because I don't know how to get it back. I just loosen it and slip it on and off my head." He looked worried.

"Baby, don't worry about it. I spend almost every day of my life wearing a suit; I've gotten really good at ties. I'll tie it for you."

He stopped short and then grinned.

"Oh, OK." He gave me a quick kiss and walked out of the bathroom.

Wow. My man gets easily stressed out I've discovered.

I finished my shower and stepped out and dried off. I walked naked back into the bedroom, but he wasn't in there. I didn't hear him out the other room either. Maybe he went for a coffee or something. I decided I'd wear a suit for him and show him the mystery of the tie. I'd made sure I kept his underwear in the bathroom with me hidden under a towel, so I put them back on, got hard, and then put the rest of my best suit on. I left the tie just hanging around my neck, untied. I was standing in the outer room fully dressed when he came in. He stopped dead in his tracks and whistled at me. I turned crimson.

"Damn, baby, you are fucking hot in that suit. I didn't know I was turned on by guys in suits but you definitely pull it off. That's a sweet looking set of threads you got there."

I was still a little red. "Thank you. I'm blushing, dammit!" He smiled at me. "It's my best suit, I'm glad you approve."

"Very nice, baby; come here." I walk up to him; he puts his arms around me and kisses me. "You smell and taste as good as you look. Damn!"

"You do too, you sexy fucker! Are you ready to go grab some breakfast and get out of here? It's about five after seven."

"Yeah, but you still have to tie me up, uh, tie my tie for me." He shoots me an evil grin.

"Where's your tie?" He points to the chair where his jacket is still hanging. "OK, let's do this."

We walked over to the chair and I grabbed his tie and slipped it around his neck and flipped the shirt collar up to get it under it. I flipped the collar back down, adjusted the tie to the right length and started to tie it. I couldn't figure it out; it was all wrong. Damn. I'd never tied a tie for someone else before. I looked him in the eyes and blushed. He laughed. I spun him around and reached around him. He giggled. This made more sense to me; it was just like doing it for myself, just further away. I got his tie tied in no time and spun him back around. I adjusted the knot, pulled it up to his throat, patted his chest and kissed him.

"There you go, sexy. All tied up."

He looked at himself in the mirror and nodded approval. "Very nice, baby. Thank you."

"You're welcome. Do you have everything you need; I wasn't planning on coming back to the room after we eat breakfast?"

"I just have to put my jacket on and grab my cover; everything else is in my pockets."

"Sweet."

I tied my own tie and looked in the mirror to see how I checked out and nodded approval at myself. I patted my pockets to make sure I had the key to the car and my cell phone and we were ready to go.

He was back in full Marine hotness; I almost started drooling. Walking down the hall to the elevator together I noticed that I was walking a lot straighter and taller, feeling very proud indeed to be walking next to this sexy Marine. When the elevator doors opened our next door neighbor and his wife stepped off. My heart sank. I heard the woman catch her breath. They both said good morning to us, the man nodded at us, and they continued walking down the hall. Whew! We got on the elevator and headed to the lobby. When the elevator stopped and we stepped off it seemed like everyone in the lobby stopped to check us out. I did not like being the center of attention, and I was really hoping it wasn't because of our noisy love making. We turned and headed to the restaurant, and I swear I could feel every eye in the building on us. Maybe I was just being paranoid. I hoped to god our neighbor hadn't been telling everyone he saw what we were doing last night. We got to the restaurant without anyone making a comment. They had a small breakfast buffet set up and we helped ourselves to it and sat down.

I looked over at Jake. "Do you normally get this kind of attention wearing that uniform?"

"Most of the time. Why? Did someone give us a dirty look or something?"

"No. It just seemed like every eye in the building is on us. I don't know how you got used to it; it's disconcerting. I mean I understand why they're looking at you; you're hot as fuck, but it's kind of nerve wracking, isn't it?"

"Thank you. Glad you noticed; I was working for hot as fuck while I was getting dressed." He just grinned at me and watched me turn red. "But seriously, I never pay any attention to it; it's just something that comes with the uniform. And it's not just me they're looking at, you're looking pretty hot as fuck yourself there, stud. And together we make one sexy fucking couple." He just smiled at me and took a bite.

I turned even more crimson. He just laughed. I dug into my food and tried to ignore everyone around us. It was a little comforting to know that he drew this kind of attention when he was in uniform; it allayed my fears about everyone knowing we fucked each other's brains out last night. The discomfort passed fairly quickly because I was starving; I needed to replenish some of the calories I'd burned last night, so I just ate my first plate of food and went back and got more. I finished it off too. Jake did pretty well for himself as well, polishing off two plates of food and two bowls of cereal. Ah, my growing boy.

We finished breakfast, grabbed a couple of cups of coffee to go and headed out the door to the parking garage. The Kia Benz was right where I'd left it. I pulled on his sleeve to stop him.

"Hey, over here." I pulled the key out of my pants pocket and offered it to him. "Do you wanna drive? I know how you've had your heart set on a new Kia Benz."

He laughs. "That was a good one, I like it! But I can't drive a civilian vehicle in a foreign country; I don't have my driver's license. They made me send it home and gave me a military ID. I would love to though. I don't know why you don't like them; I think it looks sweet, for a sedan."

"Bummer. That sucks that you're not allowed to drive here. Well hop in; you're playing navigator today."

I popped the door locks with the remote and we both got in the car. I got it started and backed out of the parking space. We headed out of the garage and he told me to turn right and go straight. I laughed. He gave me a weird look.

"Never straight, baby; always forward." It took him a second to get it, but then he chuckled.

We made pretty good time to the base with him providing directions; it was still only seven fifty. I'd been trying to pay as much attention as possible during the drive so I could find my way back. The car had sat-nav in it but I had no clue how to use the dumb thing; what's wrong with a map, I wondered. I saw the sign on the road that said the main gate was a half kilometer away, but he told me to pull off the road here. I was wondering what he was up to. I pulled over to the shoulder of the road and put the car in park and turned to look at him.

"Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, no problems, I just didn't want to drive in yet."

"OK." We sat quietly for a moment. "I had an incredible time last night, baby. I'm sure glad you called me. I was going crazy wondering if I'd ever see you again. I missed you so much it hurt."

"Yeah, it was fucking amazing. I still can't believe some of the things we did..."

"Hey, are you OK, Jacob? You seem like you have something on your mind."

I could tell he was looking for words; he stayed quiet for about a full minute.

"I... I... I don't know... I'm just... I keep wondering if all of this is just a dream and I'm going to wake up when I walk through that gate and you won't be there. And the whole night, everything we said to each other, will be just a faded memory. I know I'm just being a dumbass, but it scares me a little."

I took my seatbelt off and turned in my seat to face him. "Look at me, Jake. Last night was very real. Last night was day one! Last night was the beginning of our journey together. I meant every word I said to you last night. I want you to be my partner, my best friend, my lover, my reason for getting up in the morning. I love you. I am so in love with you that my heart aches. No, we don't really know each other that well. We had six hours on a train together talking and we had four hours of hot, sweaty man sex. Can you build a relationship from that? I sure the fuck hope so, because I plan on doing it. I need you there with me though. We need the time to learn about each other outside of the bedroom. We have our whole lives in front of us to do that though. I want to know everything there is to know about you. I want to know your joys and your fears. I want you to know everything there is to know about me; how much I really hate mornings, how anal retentive I can be about the dumbest things, how much I love to fly, how much I love to explore new places, especially this country we're sitting in right now. We both have a lifetime of experiences under our belts and a whole lifetime of new experiences to share with each other. You want to go back to Berlin to explore more and learn more about Hitler and the war. I would be truly honored to be able to share that with you." I had felt my future being threatened and I felt I was fighting for my life.

He sat there staring at me with tears streaming down his face. My heart broke all over again. I took his hand in mine. I wanted to just pull him to me and hold him, but parked outside a military base, repeal of don't ask - don't tell or not, it didn't seem like the brightest idea. I just took his hand in mine then laid my other hand on top.

"Jacob, it's our lives I'm talking about. It's you and me against the world; and together we can accomplish anything. I need you. I need you in my life."

We sat in the car just looking in each other's eyes, both of us crying. After a few moments, I smiled big for him, through the tears.

"I want to see you again tonight. I will be out here at the gate at 1700 hours sharp. We're not fucking tonight. We're going to go out to dinner, where we will talk, telling each other what we want the other to know. Then we will leave the restaurant and go for a walk, and we will talk some more. Bring some civilian clothes with you and we will hold hands while we walk." He smiled. "After we walk around the city for a while we will return to the hotel, go up to OUR room, make out for a little bit because I have to feel your lips on mine, and then we will talk some more. When we are too tired to talk anymore we will go to bed where we will spend the night holding each other. If you have a problem with these plans, keep `em to yourself."

He smiled and laughed once. I felt better. It was so nice to see his smile again. He squeezed my hands with his and pulled one out to wipe the tears from his face. He looked back into my eyes.

"You are a force to be reckoned with, aren't you? Wow. Thank you. Thank you for every single word that just came out of your mouth. I needed to hear all of them. I'm sorry too. I know you don't like me to say it, but I'm saying it anyway. I'm sorry. I'm sorry I scared you. I'm sorry I was being a dumbass. I'm sorry I doubted us. It won't happen again. I was scared, plain and simple. The closer we got to the base the more scared I got. As we were driving along I just kept running all these stupid scenarios through my head that last night was nothing more than a good fuck. I'm sorry. My head runs away on occasion. And I get stressed out easily sometimes, you may have noticed." I smile. "Yeah, you noticed. My heart has been aching since Sunday afternoon when we got off the train, and after spending the night with you I just couldn't believe that the aching could be gone in just one night. I felt like I hadn't paid a high enough price to make that much pain go away. There had to be something, some kind of payback that was going to bite me in the ass. I just started to think that maybe the whole night wasn't real; that the dream was my payback for letting myself believe that the ache in my chest had stopped. Like I said, I was being a dumbass. I really am sorry I scared you. And, yes, I agree with every one of your plans for the evening. I will be at this gate by 1710 if I have to chew my way out to it; and I will have a knapsack with civvies in it. I want to hold your hand in public. I want to kiss you and hold you in public too; so that everyone knows you're mine. Just not the Marines; I'm sorry. I'm not ready for that yet, baby."

"I know. Don't worry about that. I thought about that when I saw you crying and wanted to pull you into a hug. Then I thought, no, not outside the fence of a military base; really bad idea. You feel better? You ready to go inside and get to work?"

"Yeah, let me make sure my face is completely dry. Marines aren't supposed to show up for work crying you know; it looks bad on the Corps." He smiled at me.

We both dropped the visor mirrors and checked to see that we were presentable. Agreeing that we were I put my seatbelt back on. Before I could put the car in gear he touched my arm and I looked at him.

"I love you, Michael."

"I love you too, Jacob; always."  There had been something I was going to ask him before we stopped and I finally remembered what it was. "Hey, are you allowed to make or receive personal phone calls while you're at work?"

"Yeah, but you can't give any indication about the real us. I don't know if they listen or not."

"Are you allowed to have a cell phone?"

"Sure, but I didn't bring mine with me; I didn't figure it would work here anyway."

I reached into my jacket pocket and pulled out my cell phone and handed it to him. "Take this; it works just fine here. If you get a call from someone asking for me just tell them I'm not available to take their call and take a message if it's convenient for you to do so. I will go get another cell phone this morning for you. And don't worry, I'm not some silly teenage girl that's going to call and text you 65 times a day; I just want to be able to get in touch with you if I need to. And sometimes, just to hear your voice. OK?"

He smiles. "OK."

"So what happens at the gate? Do I just drop you off or do I get to go in and take you to your apartment? I know I won't get to kiss you bye, thankfully we did that before we left the hotel."

"You just drop me off at the gate. No civilian traffic without permits is allowed on the base. I don't think it would be worth it for a rental car, but once you get the car you want I can get you a permit for it and you can drive me all the way to my door. You can even come up to my apartment to see it; and kiss me passionately if you want to."

"Oh I want to, baby, I want to. Believe me I do. I'd like to right now. OK, I'll keep all of that information in mind. Thank you. You ready?"

"Yep, I'm ready. Let's go. It's starting to get late, and I still need to get out of this monkey suit."

"I love your monkey suit, but okay, let's go."

I put the car in gear and pulled back onto the road. We were at the gate in two minutes. I turned my signal on and pulled in behind a big, green deuce and a half. I didn't see anyone in the back of it, so I reached out and grabbed Jake's hand squeezed it and then let go.

"Have a good day at work, dear. I love you."

He smirked, but softly said he loved me too. The truck pulled through the gate and I pulled up to the guard shack. Jake told me I could just turn left around the guard shack and pull back out on to the road. He took his seat belt off, opened the door, told me to have a great day and said goodbye, then got out of the car and walked over to the guard to show his ID. I put the car in gear, gave him a half salute through the window and made my way back to the road. The car felt really empty now. I looked in the mirror and could see him walking away from the gate. He turned around and waved at the car. I held my hand up and waved back, then checked for traffic and pulled back onto the road leading back to town. I had a lot to accomplish before five o'clock.

Thanks for reading. Any questions, comments or concerns can be directed to: 

Jeff

raudiv8q@aim.com