Toys for Toots Ch. 01

This one particular Friday luncheon was when I became reunited with "Toots", so the place can't be all 100% bad in my memories.

Toots filled me in on the events of her life over the last three and half years or so. She was still married to Dennis, but in the three years that they had been married they had spent less than a month of total time together. They had never been able to manage to obtain a joint assignment together anywhere. Currently she was working ATC at Mountain Home AFB and he was at Langley AFB in Virginia. Once again, she and her husband were on opposite ends of the country.

Obviously, the perpetual long distance relationship wasn't working out well at all. They hadn't even been able to coordinate taking their thirty days of annual leave together. The glimmer of hope that she was clinging to now was that his USAF career was supposed to be up in a few more months. At that point he would get discharged and then come and join her here. She was even sending him money, a significant direct pay allotment right from her paycheck, so that he could pay off his car and some other bills before making the move to join her. I wasn't sure I liked the sound of that one bit.

Still, by every indication, the marriage was pretty much on the rocks — and had been virtually so since the start. She had heard rumors through the USAF grapevine that her husband hadn't been very faithful to her right from the very beginning of their separation. On their last meeting together for a week last Christmas she had detected innumerable signs that her husband had at least one other woman on the side, but couldn't get any conclusive proof. Tanya wasn't adamantly opposed to divorce, as her family's religion was Eastern Orthodox, but she had resolved that she would not file for divorcequiteyet — unless it waspositivelyestablished that Dennis was currently and actively unfaithful to her. Toots always did have an extreme sense of loyalty and patience.

Needless to say, Toots had remained faithful to her man — and would remain so ... for now at least. That didn't stop her from giving me a kiss on the mouth and holding my hand in the parking lot walking out to my car. It didn't take too long to drive her back to the Post and reunite her with her boss. They had just driven up for the day to handle a minor ATC coordination issue with the Army - it ran quite a few helicopters in and out of the Camp at all hours of the day and night, many to and from Mountain Home.

Most likely she would not be returning again to our little detachment up here semi-lost in the mountains, but armed with her telephone numbers and address on-base at Mountain Home, I told her to her considerable delight, that I would be a frequent visitor. And I certainly was.

She had a schedule of rotating shifts, sometimes working days then nights, and often also on weekends, but it was a rare Friday night when I wasn't either greeting her or waiting for her to get off of work at her on-base apartment. As a married junior NCO, she didn't have to live in the dorm. Since there was virtually no off-base housing available, she somehow managed to snag a small apartment in the BOQ (Bachelor Officer's Quarters). No one ever messes with ATC folk — they are too expensive to replace, too many folks lives depend upon them, and they have the single highest burnout rate of any profession. Even the stupider fly-boys, who tend to keep most of their blood in their cocks, didn't mess with their new and deliciously attractive new neighbor. If there was anything they liked better than fucking, it was flying — and Toots could 'ground' them in a heartbeat, if she chose to do so.

Soon I had my own key and spent virtually every weekend there — sleeping on her sofa. She was willing though, at this point, to bend a good many rules of a 'good married wife' (up to and including the elusive second base on occasion), but she was firm that she wouldn't be the one to commit 'proven' adultery first. Frankly, I didn't think it was fair that she would often tease me with a boob 'slip' when adjusting her towel coming out of the shower, so I retaliated by giving her some good looks at my firm and tight butt. Living up in the mountains with the constant exercise had definitely toned me up!

With her significant allotment deduction going to her hubby, her finances were in a bit of a mess so I did most of the paying whenever we went out. This state of affairs saddened her a bit more. She was terribly conflicted about her marriage and our 'relationship'. Each of us were making obvious and blatant hints about where we would like our relationship to go and we got to the point where we were just constantly exchanging wistful looks and deep heartfelt sighs at each other and waiting for the shoe to drop ... and eventually it did.

Toots had worked out a fragile network of communication through the USAF grapevine and via a 'friend of a friend of a friend' got a message that her husband was taking a week of leave next week for a 'family trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina'. Heh, all of his family was supposedly from Michigan.

This really got the ball rolling. Toots worked out something with her boss (a decent guy) and took some quick leave herself. A phone call to her husbands First Sergeant at Langley revealed that his emergency contact information on his leave form listed his destination as the Bright Shore Motel, right on Myrtle Beach. She had just enough money for her plane tickets to get her there and back, but not much else. I took from my bank another $500 and gave it to her right before she got on the plane — neither of us had any major credit cards. In those days it was hard for enlisted military folks to get decent credit cards that weren't high-rate interest scams.

"Just in case." I said.

"I don't deserve you." She replied and kissed me as hard as she had ever done so before — including a good bit of tongue.

"One way or the other, there needs to be an end to this." I'm not sure now who said this ... but it was definitely what we were both thinking. She left me to board her flight with crossed fingers and the first real look of hope I'd seen on her face in years.

For me it was a rough week. I was on pins and needles all week long jumping every time any phone rang anywhere. I made my usual Friday drive down to Mountain Home and stayed in her apartment for the weekend, but she wasn't back yet when I left Sunday afternoon. Those mountain roads are just a bit too windy for me to enjoy driving on them at night.

The next week was even rougher for me. I was certain that she would be back but it was too difficult for either of us to phone the other at work. In ATC she was prohibited (and far too busy) to accept personal phone calls. Our detached computer hut at work didn't have a direct phone and I hadn't given her my other two alternative work numbers. My dorm had a common use phone down on the first floor ... and was invariably always in use, day or night. Getting a phone message there was virtually impossible. This was back before everyone had a personal cell phone! I waited on pins and needles for the next Friday and after a stop for lunch at Zipper on was on my way to her apartment.

She wasn't in, but the sight of her bags, still packed on her coffee table told me that she was back but probably at work. I waited for her and eventually fell asleep and was woken up by a pair of soft lips kissing me sometime in the early morning hours of Saturday.

"Sleepy lover? Want to get some more rest now or do you feel up to a late night drive to Las Vegas to get my divorce?" She said with a wink and a smile.