Sue and the Light Blue Chevy Malibu

I asked about her mother, and Sue frowned again.

"Mom had a heart attack six months after Dad was killed. The doctor said the heart attack was because she was overweight, but I think it was stress. She couldn't get over losing Dad. I tried to help her, but she wouldn't try. She just stayed home by herself.

"I kind of blame myself. I was a senior in college when Dad got killed, and I didn't drop out to stay with Mom. If I'd moved back in with her, maybe I could have gotten her to make some friends and do something besides miss Dad. I told her I'd do that until she got back on her feet, but she told me she'd be all right by herself and wanted me to graduate. I went back to Dallas planning to stay there until I graduated. She died right before Easter. I was their only child, so I inherited the house. That's why I'm in El Paso."

I needed to change the subject because it looked like Sue was starting to tear up.

"So, what's your degree in?"

Sue sipped her milkshake again, then smiled.

"That's one thing I'm proud of. I have a degree in marketing. That helped me get my job at the PX. I figure out how to display what we have so people will look at it and hopefully buy it. I'd rather get a job at an ad agency, but there aren't many of those in El Paso."

I must have been frowning, because Sue asked me a question. It was a question that I'd been thinking about, but didn't have the nerve to ask.

"You're wondering why I was going to marry a guy in the Army instead of a guy with a college degree and a future, aren't you?"

I smiled sheepishly.

"Well, the thought had crossed my mind."

"I've been asking myself that since I got Tom's letter. I don't like the reason I finally decided on, but it's the only one I can think of that makes at least a little sense. I think I just wanted what any woman wants - to know someone loves her and needs her. After Mom died, there was nobody who needed me. Tom seemed to be that person. He kept telling me that he loved me and that he needed to be with me. Now, I think it was just about the sex. If it wasn't, he'd have kept his promise. I guess you live and learn, but sometimes the living and the learning really suck."

I didn't really know what I could say that would make Sue feel better, but I tried.

"Well, don't feel too bad. You're a pretty woman, and you're obviously intelligent too. You shouldn't have any problems finding another guy."

Sue laughed.

"Yeah, I get offers all the time at the PX. The only thing is, I'm afraid I'll end up in the same situation. I'll fall in love and then the guy will get sent somewhere I can't or don't want to go."

"Well, don't look for a guy in the Army then. There are a lot of men in El Paso who aren't in the Army."

Sue laughed again.

"Yes, there are. They're all under twenty and going to college. I'm twenty-five and they look at me like I'm old enough to be their mother."

I shook my head.

"Twenty-five is a long way from being old. I'm sure they don't think that."

"I suppose that's why they might look at me but then they go talk to the girls their age. I've seen them do that, and don't tell me to look for men my own age. I have. They're either already married or have steady girlfriends."

Sue looked up at me then and frowned.

"Here I am telling all my troubles to a man who kept me from doing something really dumb. I'm sorry Sergeant Houston. I'll take you back to the base and you can forget about me. I'm sure your girlfriend wouldn't like you being with me anyway."

I chuckled.

"What gave you the idea I have a girlfriend?"

Sue wrinkled her brow for a second.

"Well, you were so polite that night and today you haven't tried to ask me to do anything with you. That's what always happens with other men. We talk a little and then they start suggesting that maybe we should go out for drinks some night and see what happens. I just thought you're the way you are because you already had somebody."

I smiled.

"So, if I'd asked you to go out and have a few drinks, you'd automatically think I was trying to get you into bed? That's assuming a lot about a man you just met. By the way, I don't have a girlfriend, and I wouldn't ask you out for a few drinks. I'm not much of a drinker."

Sue grinned then.

"Just my luck. I meet a nice guy who doesn't already have a girlfriend and he won't ask me out."

"I didn't say I wouldn't ask you out. I said I wouldn't ask you out for a few drinks."

She was still grinning.

"Are you saying you'd ask me out for a different reason?"

Sue was waiting on my answer, but I'd thought a lot about getting involved with a woman long before I got back to Fort Bliss. As soon I ETS'd, I planned to head back to Tennessee and find a job. If I got seriously involved with a woman, she'd have to make a choice between staying with me and staying in El Paso. I didn't think forcing a woman to make that choice was fair to either of us.

It wasn't that I didn't like Sue. I did, though I thought maybe I was still feeling sorry for her a little. She was a nice girl, and like I'd told her, she was pretty and she was smart. In my limited experience, women like Sue didn't come along every day. I would have liked knowing her better, but she had to understand my future plans.

"No...well...maybe...if we knew each other better and I thought you'd like that. The thing is, in a few months I'm going back to Tennessee. If something was to happen and we hit it off, I'd be asking you to come with me. It doesn't sound like you would."

Sue chuckled.

"Now it's you who's assuming things about me. First of all, what makes you think things would get serious between us? Maybe we'd just be two people who enjoy each other's company. Second, what makes you think I wouldn't go to Tennessee with you if we did get serious?"

Well, that conversation ended with me sort of agreeing to take Sue to dinner the next Saturday night after she sort of asked me why I wouldn't ask her. It was all a little confusing at the time.

That first date was a lot of fun because I found out Sue could be a lot of fun when she wasn't thinking about her ex-boyfriend. We had dinner at a little restaurant that served real Mexican food, and the food was great. Sitting there at the table and talking with Sue was really great too. When she dropped me off at my company barracks, I asked her if she was free for dinner the next Saturday too.

For the next four months, we met for dinner on Saturday night and usually took in something on Sunday afternoon. We went to the El Paso Zoo, walked several of the trails in the mountains and along the Rio Grande, and made a couple of trips to the ProNaF center in Juarez, Mexico so I could get some things to take back to Mom and Dad. We thought about making a trip to old Juarez, but even back then, it wasn't a safe place to go unless you were in a group.

At the end of July, I had three weeks of service time remaining and those same thoughts about leaving Sue were haunting me at night. We'd become good friends, just like she said we would. She'd stopped calling me William and started calling me Bill, the name I usually went by. I really liked taking her to dinner and I really liked seeing the sights with her. It was going to be hard to say goodbye to her.

I had no illusions about anything else. We'd had a lot of fun together, but we'd never been intimate at all, not even a kiss when she dropped me off at the barracks. I figured that was because she liked being with me, but that was as far as she was ready to go. I hadn't tried anything for the same reason. I knew I liked Sue, but I wasn't sure it was any more than that.

My last week was a blur of a navigating the discharge process that would get me out of the Army. As always, the Army moves at its own pace, no matter what, so I ended up sitting for hours waiting for some Specialist to process my paperwork. I finished up at four that Friday, and when I walked out of the barracks with my dufflebag, I had the DD-214 that said I was honorably discharged and now a civilian. Sue was waiting in the parking lot in her Malibu.

I was going to go to a motel for a day to get my flight back to Tennessee arranged and to say goodbye to Sue. She wouldn't let me. She said she had a spare bedroom, and she wouldn't be a friend if she didn't let me use it. When I said I'd take her to dinner, she wouldn't let me do that either.

"Bill, I cook for myself every night, so cooking for us both won't be any more work. I'll just cook more and you'll save your money."

When we got to her house, Sue showed me her spare bedroom and where the bathroom was, then said she was going to start dinner. I changed out of my uniform and into civvies, then went to the kitchen. I knew before I got there I was going to enjoy dinner. I grew up eating fried chicken, and I could smell it as soon as I walked out of the bedroom.

Dinner was about like when we ate in a restaurant, except Sue didn't talk as much. I thought something was bothering her so I asked.

"Sue, is something wrong? You're not saying much."

Her eyes looked like they were brimming with tears.

"Yes there is. What's wrong is you're going to leave tomorrow and I'll miss you."

I reached across the table and put my hand on hers.

"I know. I'll miss you too."

"Is there a way you could stay longer?"

"I could, maybe, but it wouldn't change anything. I'd still have to get back to Tennessee and a job."

I didn't expect what she said next.

"If you can't stay, could I drive you home? I've never been to Tennessee and if I drive you there, we'd have a few more days together."

"Sue, that'll take you a week by the time you get me there and then come back. I can't ask you to be gone that long."

She smiled then.

"I already asked if I could take my two weeks' vacation and my supervisor said I could."

"What about your house?"

"My neighbor is a retired Army major. I asked him if he'd watch the house while I'm gone."

She seemed set on driving me home, and the more I thought about that, I liked the idea. I didn't want to leave Sue any more than she wanted me to leave. I'd had that feeling for the last month. When she dropped me off at the company barracks after our date, I didn't want to get out of the car. I told myself it couldn't be that I loved her. We hadn't known each other very long.

"OK, if that's what you want to do, but I'll pay for the gas. We'll have to spend probably two nights in a motel room. You have to let me pay for that too."

Sue smiled.

"I can be ready as soon as you are. I got my oil changed yesterday and I filled up my gas tank. I already scheduled my vacation to start on Monday in hopes you'd let me drive you back to Tennessee."

It took until nine the next morning to eat breakfast and for Sue to pack a few things. At nine, she locked her doors and gave her neighbor a set of house keys. Half an hour later, we were on US-62 and headed to Whitehouse, Tennessee.

We'd decided to take US-62 after I laid out our route the night before. I-10 would have been better driving, but it didn't look to me like there were any towns big enough to have a motel within the distance we could comfortably drive the first day. There weren't all that many on US-62 either, but I thought we could probably make Lubbock without stretching our driving time too much.

We drove into Lubbock about three that afternoon and started looking for a place to spend the night. The Best Western looked like a nice place and I was driving at the time, so I pulled into the parking lot and told Sue we'd see if they had two vacancies.

Sue looked at me then and the look was worried.

"Won't two rooms cost a lot of money?"

I shrugged.

"I can afford it, and I'm not going to ask you to stay in some mom and pop fleabag motel."

"I don't want you to spend that much money. We should just get one room with two beds."

I looked at Sue and she wasn't smiling. She was serious.

"Sue, we can't share a room. We're not married."

"No", she said, "but we're both adults. Nothing has to happen. We'll just wear our jammies and sleep in different beds. Besides, I'll feel safer if you're in the room with me."

Well, that was going to be a problem because I hadn't slept in anything except my briefs since I was twelve. I didn't even have anything that I could use for pajamas. All I had was jeans and shirts."

"Uh Sue...I uh...I don't have any pajamas. I never wear them."

She pursed her lips for a second, and then smiled.

"It'll still work. I'll change into my jammies in the bathroom while you undress and get into your bed. You tell me when you're in bed and then I'll come out and get into my bed. In the morning, we'll do the opposite."

So that's what we did. I was a little nervous, but the desk clerk apparently thought Sue and I were man and wife. He smiled, said "Room 106, have a nice stay", and handed me a plastic key card with holes in it. It had been so long since I'd rented a hotel room I'd expected to get an actual key and I wasn't sure how the plastic thing worked, but I wasn't going to embarrass myself any further.

I drove the Malibu to the parking space closest to Room 106. Thankfully, there were directions on the key card, and it did work. Sue and I carried our stuff from the back seat into the room.

Sue looked around and then said, "I'll take this bed. It's closest to the bathroom. What are we doing for dinner?"

Dinner was a small restaurant about two miles from the hotel. After we ate, we went back to the room and watched a little TV, but we were both tired. About nine, Sue asked if I was going to take a shower. I hadn't thought about how we'd arrange showers and my shaving in the morning. Sue had the answer to that too.

"You shower first and then put your pants and shirt back on. I'll shower when I change into my jammies."

I took my shower, but I shaved that night too so we wouldn't have to juggle the bathroom the next morning. When I came out, Sue said she was going to shower and change so I should get into bed.

I'd expected Sue to come out of the bathroom with actual pajamas on, like pajamas with long legs on the pants and long sleeves on the top. What she was wearing wasn't like that at all. Her pants were really little shorts and her top was just an oversize T-shirt cut pretty low at the neck. With her slender legs and her nipples making little bumps in the front of the shirt, she was sexy without trying to be sexy. I was glad when she turned out the lights, though she did leave the bathroom light on. She said that was so we could see if one of us had to use the bathroom during the night.

I slept like a log, and I was still asleep when Sue shook my shoulder.

"Bill, it's almost six. Time to rise and shine."

When I looked up, Sue was bent over the bed and the front of her T-shirt had fallen away from her chest. I was looking at her bare breasts. I couldn't see her nipples, but that was about all I couldn't see. I don't think the way I was rising was what Sue intended me to do.

"OK, I'm awake. You go change in the bathroom and I'll change out here. Then we'll check out and grab some breakfast."

By seven-thirty, we'd had a fast-food breakfast and were back on the road, this time on I-40. My plan said we'd drive to Little Rock, Arkansas and spend the night there. I figured ten hours would put us there in time to find a hotel for the night.

We rolled into Little Rock about five. We'd made better time than I thought we would, mostly because Sue tended to push the speed limit pretty hard. We found a Red Roof Inn with a sign that said "Vacancy", and pulled into the lot.

The Red Roof did have a vacancy -- one - and it had only one bed. When I said I guessed we'd look for a different hotel because we needed two beds, the girl at the desk shook her head.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. Somehow, there were seven conventions booked in Little Rock this week. Normally, we'd have several rooms because the convention people stay at the expensive hotels. What people are telling me is those hotels are all sold out and so are most of the budget hotels. You might find a room, but I wouldn't count on it."

I looked at Sue and she nodded.

"OK, we'll take the room."

When we carried our stuff into the room, I told Sue she could have the bed and I'd sleep on the floor.

She grinned.

"Are you that afraid of me?"

"No, but I'm...well, what you sleep in doesn't cover you up much, and I might...I tend to move around when I sleep...I think it would be better if I slept on the floor."

Sue laughed.

"You're talking like we're two kids in high school. We're both old enough to sleep in the same bed without anything happening. Now, I'm starved. Let's go get something to eat."

Bedtime that night was the same as in Lubbock except after I stripped down to my briefs, I climbed into the side of the bed farthest from the bathroom. When Sue came out, she was wearing the same little shorts and the same T-shirt with the same nipple bumps in the front.

"Is six OK for tomorrow morning", she asked. I said yes, so she bent over to set the alarm clock on the table beside the bed, then shut out the lights and climbed into bed beside me. She wiggled around a little, which did nothing for the way my cock was behaving, and then said "Night Night. See you in the morning."

I had a hard time falling asleep. Sue had left the bathroom light on again, and it cast enough light into the room I could see her laying on her back beside me. She'd only pulled the blanket up to just under her breasts, so I was watching them rise and fall as she breathed.

I finally did fall asleep, only to wake up an hour later because Sue had draped one of her legs over mine. As gently as I could, I moved her leg off me, and made my cock stiffen in the process. I should have just gotten up and slept on the floor like I'd planned, but I fell asleep again right after that.

I woke up again because it felt like something or somebody was laying on me. It took a minute or so before I figured out what was going on. Sue had rolled over toward me, had her arm over my chest and her breasts pressed against my side. When I tried to roll her back over, she just snuggled closer, put her leg over mine again, and then whispered, "Please don't, Bill. We have an hour before we have to get up and I like feeling like this."

I felt the hand slowly stroke over my bare chest. A second later, Sue kissed me on the shoulder.

"We could make each other feel a lot better if you want. I've wanted to since the second time we went to dinner."

I started to say no, but Sue put her finger over my lips. She kissed my shoulder again, and then whispered, "Please make love with me. I need to be needed again, and I need to be needed by you."

I asked if she was sure, and Sue answered me by pulling my hand to her breast. I felt the softness through her T-shirt, and then the firmer bump of her nipple. When I stroked that little bump gently, Sue sat up and pulled the T-shirt over her head. She pulled the blanket and sheet down to the foot of the bed, then laid down and worked her little shorts and her panties down her legs and off her feet. When she was done, she leaned over my chest and pressed her lips to mine.

I think it was then that I decided there was no way I could ever let Sue just leave me in Tennessee while she went back to Texas. It wasn't that she was kissing me, though that first kiss was nothing like I'd ever felt before when kissing a girl. Before, I'd always wondered what the big fuss was all about. Kissing was nice, but that's all it was. The way Sue kissed me wasn't just a woman kissing a man. It was a woman making love to my mouth with hers.

No, it wasn't that kiss and it wasn't feeling her stiff nipples raking through my chest hair. That was pretty arousing, but it was something else that told me I could never let her just drive out of my life. I didn't know what to call it. I'd overheard the girls in my high school and at college talking all the time about love -- how they loved this boy, how they thought they had loved this boy until he went out with another girl, all that. Like kissing, I wondered what they felt when they thought they were in love. Guys never talked about anything like that.