Waiting for Her Soldier (3 page)
Read Waiting for Her Soldier Online
Authors: Cassie Laurent
Tags: #BBW, #Curvy, #Erotica, #BBW Erotika, #Big Girl, #Big Beautiful Woman, #Rough Sex, #Plus Size, #Soldier, #Army, #Military, #Domination, #Curves
CHAPTER 5
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April 23, 2013
Darren,
Your war stories are giving me bad dreams, so we definitely should talk about me for awhile! After college I moved back home, wanting to be close to my parents and also because I was still looking around for a job. I was applying all over the place, going out on interviews etc., but the economy is so bad I felt really down on my luck.
One of my college friends, Chris, ended up coming to visit. He was in the area on business and needed a place to crash, so he ended up making a long weekend of it and stayed over at my parent’s house. I took him around town, showing him where we grew up; he’s from New York so he seemed pretty bored in our small town.
Chris was hungry and asked where we could get something to eat and I told him there wasn’t really much around town, so I took him back to my parents and made lunch myself. You know I’ve always prided myself on being good in the kitchen, so I tried to make Chris something special, him being from Manhattan and all. I wanted to show him that us small town women know what we’re doing! So I made him one of my sandwich specialties, and he was absolutely floored. I know you’re probably asking yourself why I’m writing a letter about a sandwich, but trust me, it will all make sense after a few more sentences.
Anyway, Later that night after we’d had a few drinks, Chris started asking me what my plans were now that school was over. I told him that I wasn’t sure, that I was trying to find a job in marketing, but that I was pretty much willing to take anything at this point. He asked me if I’d ever thought about starting my own business. I laughed. What kind of business could I start? I just had a bachelor’s degree in marketing, I didn’t have any ideas or anything.
He asked me if I’d ever thought about starting a restaurant. I don’t know, not really? I guess as a kid I sometimes played make-believe chef, but I never thought of it as a career move. But Chris was serious, he thought I should start a small deli or a sandwich shop. He told me I was making restaurant quality food and that I should take advantage of the situation. You know how there aren’t any real places in town, right? And I thought, what the hell, I’ll give it a shot.
So Chris decided to move to our town and we opened up a shop. He covers all the accounting and legal side of the business, haggling with the bank and getting us operating permits and all the little things that go into running a place like this. I’m managing the actual shop and I also designed the menu and all the shop décor. It’s crazy how fast it all happened. It’s a lot of fun, but I find myself super busy. I have four employees right now, mostly a couple girls who go to the local high school and then another girl named Betsy who’s my age and works full-time. It’s a lot of work. Truth be told, I never knew what was involved in being someone’s boss!
It’s been a wild ride, but so far it seems to be going well. We ended up turning a small profit in our second month! I like doing something I’m passionate about, it makes the long hours and all the little fiascos along the way seem much easier to deal with.
Wow, I wrote a lot more than I expected. I hope you’re still doing well! Please, let me know if I’m boring you, I know all of this must seem pretty mundane to someone who’s immersed in the daily heat of battle. Once again, please stay safe.
Love and miss you,
Lauren
CHAPTER 6
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April 29, 2013
Lauren,
You don’t know how excited I am to receive this letter. I’m really happy to hear that things are going well for you. I remember you making me amazing sandwiches so many times during high school, so I know you’re phenomenal in the kitchen. Honestly, I can’t picture any job better for you than running your own restaurant. It’s not surprising to me at all that your shop was a quick success. I can’t wait to get home and check it out—most of the stuff we eat out here is terrible, Army rations and the like. I haven’t had any real good cooking in a long time (well, I had a bowl of goat stew at a small Afghani restaurant, but I have to say that it was pretty questionable!).
Overall, life has been going well lately. We’ve gone on several successful operations recently and we’ve had zero casualties since I sent my last letter. Everyone has generally been in good spirits. All things considered, I’m doing pretty well, and I have to say that your frequent letters are doing a lot to lift my spirits.
I was just informed recently that I will be joining the operation in Kandahar. It’s a province in southern Afghanistan that is crucial to the security of the country. It’s an elite mission and I was handpicked by my lieutenant to join this new squadron. I just wanted to give you fair warning that it is also one of the most dangerous provinces in Afghanistan. I don’t want you to worry; I have a good head on my shoulders and the other members of the team are some of the best I’ve ever met, but nonetheless this is a dangerous mission.
I also don’t want you to be surprised when my future letters are short on details. Most of our operations are against high value targets: I’m talking upper echelon Taliban commanders. The operations are highly classified, so much so that you probably will never read about them in the paper or hear about them on the nightly news. But in reality, they’re some of the most important operations of the entire war.
Kandahar is a hell hole, the people are in poverty and have been victimized by the freedom hating Taliban. Afghani citizens live in fear of these monsters who rule by violence and intimidation, and it’s our job to eliminate them from the region. It’s hard to describe how bad it is over here, which is also why I like hearing your stories from home.
I’m so happy for you and your business, and honestly, hearing about it is something that drives me forward toward my goal. There’s no way these extremists would stand for a woman, a strong woman who’s got the brains and the drive to run her own business. I hope one day that the women here can be like you, proud and free to take control of their own destinies. In a lot of ways, I view it as my job to clear a path for them, to make that possibility a reality.
Good luck with your business. And, I don’t want to make you worry, but please pray for me. It’s dangerous here and I’ll take anything I can get to help keep me safe.
Love and miss you,
Sgt. Darren Henderson
My hand trembled. I don’t know what had come over me.
Love
. LOVE. Did he mean it?
Get control of yourself, Lauren
, I told myself. It’s just a common expression; it doesn’t mean a damn thing. It was just a word between friends; we cared about each other. That was it, right? It was good to care about someone again. I’d been so busy with the business lately and it was nice to have someone else to think about for once. It is what it is, I thought. But the pattering of my heart said otherwise. I ran to the desk in my living room and grabbed a pen, excited to respond to Darren with another heartfelt letter.
CHAPTER 7
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As the months went by, Darren and I continued writing each other back and forth like this. The letters got more and more in depth, and also more frequent. I started writing Darren almost every other day, as opposed to every other week. I lived for his letters, excited each time I opened my mailbox to see what he had written to me.
In early October, I opened one of his letters to find a photograph included inside. There was Darren, tan and smiling in desert fatigues as he stood beneath an American flag in the hot, desert sun. The glare ricocheted off his Oakley sunglasses, matched only by the bright white of his huge smile. The dark tan t-shirt practically exploded with the musculature of his biceps as he stood there, surrounded by the drab buildings of the barracks and then sand and mountains as far as the eye could see.
As I stared at the photo I felt my whole body flush. Damn, the Marines had been good to him. He’d always been athletic. I mean, what would you expect of a starting quarterback? But I could see that his Spartan life as a soldier was chiseling his body nearly to the point of perfection. And that smile, how could I have forgotten that smile? It was the same smile he’d flashed every time we saw each other in the hallways in high school. But now he looked more grown up—a man who had purpose and knew the importance of his task.
I could feel myself getting wet. I wanted to head upstairs to my bedroom and touch myself after staring at that picture for so long. But I fought the urge, telling myself it could never be; I knew Darren didn’t think of me that way. Besides, I’d put on weight since he’d last seen me—that was one of the negative effects of starting my own sandwich shop. I grabbed a pen and paper and decided to write him back instead.
The weeks went by and my life became even more hectic. Things were getting busier and busier at the shop, especially after we launched our website and received a positive review by a food critic in the local paper. But as busy as my life got, I still always made time to answer Darren’s letters. The fact was that he was becoming a bigger and bigger part of my life. I didn’t want to admit it—I didn’t want to get attached when I didn’t know if he felt the same—but I couldn’t help it.
I had Darren’s picture on my nightstand and every night, he was the last thing I saw before I fell asleep. I was falling for him, and the crazy thing is, it never would have happened if he hadn’t written me that letter. Through all those years in high school all we’d really felt was platonic friendship, but through his letters I was seeing the type of man he’d grown into. I wanted him to come home, and once he was home, I wanted him to be mine. But how long would I have to wait? And was it possible that maybe he felt the same about me?
In late October, I received a letter that brought an even bigger and better surprise than the picture.