Brad's Road Trip Ch. 16

"Of course, Brad," she said. "I assume it has something to do with baseball."

"I can't have a career in baseball," I said. "Oh, don't get me wrong, I think I would be great at it. I could run numbers and stats with the best of them, and after a while I think I would get good enough at making the big decisions that I could be a general manager."

"So what's the problem?" she asked.

"I like it too much," I said. "It's my passion, and my hobby, and I want to keep it that way. Right now, I'm not forced to do anything with baseball. I can enjoy it as much - or as little - as I want. If it was my job, I'm afraid it would stop being fun for me."

"I see," she said. "You never wanted to play professionally, then?"

"Oh, I did," I said. "I'd like to be the lead guitarist for Van Halen, too. I don't have the talent for either."

"That would have made it your job, though," she said.

"That's different," I contended. "Then, I'd just be playing a game. Sure there's a business side to it, but then, my job would just be to go out there and play to the best of my ability. As a front office person, if the numbers and analysis ever got to be too much and I just wanted to take a break - and sometimes they do - I wouldn't be able to."

"Ah," she said. "So what do you want to do instead? You sound like you have a plan."

"I do, or at least, I have the very early beginnings of one," I said. "I've always been interested in aviation. I'm not a pilot, and I don't know a ton about airplanes, but I've always been fascinated with the logistics of air travel. I'd like to become a pilot down the road, too; it's just very expensive."

"So you want to work for an airline or something?"

"Kind of," I said. "I'm like you. You wanted to be in charge of your restaurant, so you have to own it. I want to be in charge of my airline, so..."

"There's a million restaurants in this country, Brad," she countered. "Not too many airlines."

"Always room for one more," I said. "It's not going to be a normal airline, carrying passengers in huge jets from big airport to big airport. It'll be a charter company. Smaller, faster jets flying high-end clients directly to their destination."

"Wow," she said.

"I served with a couple of pilots in Afghanistan," I said. "J.T. and Tim. I told you about them. I met up with them when I went to Charleston. They were there when I had my lovely shouting match with Beth."

"I remember," she said. "That was maybe the hottest story you've told me all trip."

"It was memorable, for sure," I said. "Anyway, we talked business, the three of us. J.T.'s dad owns one of the largest charter companies on the east coast, and both he and Tim fly for it. I'm going to drum up enough investment capital to start a subsidiary company, based somewhere out west, that hopefully will eventually grow into its own entity. When I had that business meeting a couple weeks ago in Tulsa that's what I was talking about. I served with an Air Force guy whose family has deep, deep pockets from being in the oil business. He moved back to Tulsa after he got out, but he always told me if I ever needed an investor down the road, to look him up."

"Wow," she said again. "That's pretty ambitious."

"It is," I said. "But I know I can do it."

"Oh, I have no doubts, Brad," she said. "I didn't mean it that way. I just meant that you have high ambitions. Just stating a fact."

"I've got a good mind for business, and I want to do something with it," I said. "I don't have to get rich. I wouldn't turn that down, of course, but I just want to build something and be successful."

"I hope you'll let me be a part of it," she said.

"A big part," I agreed.

"Hold on a second," she said. "I just got to my apartment complex. The front office left a message for me while I was working, to tell me that UPS dropped off a package for me since I wasn't home. Let me run in there real quick and get it."

Finally, I thought. "No problem. I can wait."

She was gone for a minute, maybe two. As soon as she came back on the line, my eardrum almost exploded.

"BRAD!!" she shrieked, likely scaring everyone in her apartment complex. There were people milling about near me, and I swear they could hear the scream too. "You are the best boyfriend ever!!"

If she hadn't had to work all day, I'm not sure I could have kept my mouth shut. I was glad I wouldn't have to do it for another day.

"What?" I asked as innocently as I could manage with a huge smile on my face. "I mean, point granted, but, why?"

"There are two! Both from you!"

"Oh?" I asked. "I don't recall sending you anything. Pray tell, what's in these packages?"

"I've got to drive back to my apartment, then I'm going to open them and find out," she told me, ignoring my feigned ignorance. "I'm so excited!"

The smile on my face could have been wider, but not without involving a plastic surgeon. A few minutes later she was in her apartment, and I heard the sound of packing tape being removed from cardboard.

"Oh, my, God," she said. "You didn't. Where did you buy these things?"

"Depends on which things," I said.

"Well, let's see. There's a long blue vibrator, looks like about 8 or 9 inches long and thick as my wrist," she said. "There's a flesh-colored dildo, a bit smaller but ribbed and shaped like a real dick. And then... I'm not sure what this last one is."

"It's a remote-controlled bullet vibrator," I said. "Don't open that one until I get there."

"Ooh," she moaned, already in the mood two minutes after getting home. "So, you stick that in my pussy?"

"If I remember correctly, it goes in your pussy so it'll hold in place, but there's an extension that slides up and over your clit. That's the vibrator. And then I keep the remote in my pocket and flick it on and off, high speed or low, whenever I get fidgety and need something to do with my hands."

"You feel fidgety very often?"

"Just about every minute of the day, sadly," I sighed. She just moaned again. "To answer your question, I went to Adam and Eve online, but I ended up having to call them. I had to carefully explain to the clerk that I wanted my name listed as the sender on the package, lest it get delivered while you were out and one of your neighbors get nosy and wonder why the first man and woman to be named in the Bible are sending you gifts. Now that I know they take them to the office if you're not there, I'm glad I did. I'd hate for your landlords to think there's a dirty, dirty girl living in their complex."

She giggled, and started in on the second. "What's in this one?"

"You know," I said, "if I wanted to tell you that before you opened it, I'd have done it already."

"You're no fun," she whined.

"Yeah, not the tune you were whistling last night, or yesterday morning, or this morning on my voicemail."

"Yeah, yeah," she said. "I'm just desperate, Brad. And anyway, I'm - holy shit!"

I chuckled. "You like?"

"Love," she said, then quickly added, "I love them."

"Tell me what you got," I said.

"There's a turquoise corset, several pair of lace panties in different colors, two pair of stockings, one gold and one tan, and - ooh, this one is my favorite, I think. It's a dark purple bustier, my favorite color. There are some other things, too, but you know all that."

I did, but I didn't know purple was her favorite color. Go me.

"How did you pick all this stuff out?"

"Well, remember I told you about the fashion show Ellie gave me the other night before I fucked her on the floor of her shop?" I asked, my voice a little low so as not to offend anyone who might be walking by.

"Fuck, I love it when you start talking about sex," Kelly moaned. "Yes, I remember."

"Kelly, that was for you," I said. "You are similar sizes, near as I can tell, so the stuff that looked the best on her was the stuff I picked."

"Not the same exact stuff, right?" she asked. I chuckled again.

"No, Kelly," I said. "As hot as she was, and as great as I think the two of you will get along, I draw the line at giving my girlfriend lingerie that's been worn by other women while I fucked them."

"Pretty solid call on your part," she said. "Wait, how did you even get my sizes?"

She blurted out 'Linda" just as I said 'my mom.' "That day she accidentally told me about Tyler, we'd been playing phone tag all day about your sizes. I'd left her a message to tell her thanks for all her help, and she'd answered with a message saying no problem, and oh by the way, Kelly and Tyler, etc."

"Wow," she said. "I'm really, really sorry about that, Brad."

"We're past it, Kelly," I answered firmly. "I hope now you know that you never have to keep anything from me."

"I do," she said. "Anyway, I love all your gifts, honey."

"I'm glad, but my motives aren't completely altruistic."

"How so?"

"You're going to wear all of it for me, right?" I asked, and she giggled. "And at some point, I get to take it all off of you." She moaned slightly. "With my teeth."

"Ooh," she said. "And the toys? Once you get here, won't be much use for them."

"I disagree," I replied. I stood up and walked away from the canopy and found some space to myself. "I only have so many things that can fill holes, Kelly. I'm better than any machine, but I don't mind using one or two of them to help me out. And then of course, there's the remote control bullet..."

"Fuck, Brad," she stammered. "You say two words, and I'm boiling over."

"There's another benefit, too," I said. "For the next few days, whenever I tell you to play with yourself, I'll know exactly what you're using."

And with that, I put her new toys to work.

***************************

"Crazy fucking people," I muttered to myself as I zipped up my tent, with me on the inside and everyone else safely out there. Despite the past few minutes, I was still smiling. Dumbasses could make their jokes, and petulant women could hold all the years-old grudges their little hearts desired. I was about to talk to my girlfriend, so they could all go fuck themselves. I hadn't even met her yet, but I knew she was hotter than any of the women out there, and definitely light years ahead of any of the women the frat-boy jackasses out there had ever conned into sleeping with them.

The concert had ended a couple hours ago, but I was just now making it back to the campsite. I'd rolled out my sleeping bag earlier, so all I had to do was take off my clothes. I stripped down to my boxers, and despite cleaning up a few minutes ago, I could still smell the sex on me. The thought would have made me smile even wider, but that was a physical impossibility.

I picked up the phone. I had a few texts and a voicemail, but nothing that couldn't wait. It was late - a few minutes short of midnight - but I knew Kelly would answer. She had planned to take a nap this evening, to be well-rested when I called, and she didn't have to work tomorrow, so she could stay up late. After I'd told her my plans for the evening, she was excited for story time.

What had actually gone down blew anything I'd been expecting completely out of the water.

"Hey, baby," she said when she answered the phone. "I missed you."

"Me, too," I said. "The fact that it's only been a few hours since we talked only makes that a little bit weird."

"Still too long," she said, and I silently agreed. "I'll admit, though, I wasn't expecting to hear from you for a little while longer, based on what you told me before. I figured that Marine girl would have more stamina than that."

"I could have kept going," I said. "But that would have involved waking some people up, and plus, there's this girl waiting for me to give her a detailed play-by-play."

"Oh, there is?" she asked innocently. "Should I let you go so you can call her?"

"Funny, funny girl. Just for that, I'm not letting you cum until Janine cums twice."

"Brad! That's not fair!" she pouted. Of course, I knew the second orgasm closely followed the first, but Kelly didn't. Not yet.

"I guess we better get started, then, huh?"

*************

FIVE HOURS EARLIER

*************

"Where r u?" Liz's text came in about 15 minutes before I was planning to go to the Marine recruiting booth.

"By merch tables," I texted back. "Near the stage. Where are you?"

I'd never been a fan of text shorthand. Kelly used it a little bit, and of course, it didn't bother me when she did it. If it was anyone else, though, I wondered why they couldn't be bothered to use actual English.

I didn't get a text back, and I shrugged. If she needed something that bad, she could call.

A few moments later, someone put their hands around my eyes.

"Guess who?" a feminine voice said. Since a lot of what I did at work revolved around voices - and I'd heard this particular one in my headphones countless times over the past couple of years - I knew it immediately.

"I dunno," I said. "Some hot girl who's always wanted to get with me, but never had the courage to ask?"

She scoffed and let me go. I turned around to see Sara standing there with Liz. Her red hair was in a ponytail, and the hundreds of freckles that dotted her face were even more pronounced thanks to the sun and her sweat. She wore about as little as Liz did, and I could understand why. Sara's body looked even better.

"Look who I found," Liz said in a singsong voice. I could tell by looking at her that she'd not only been drinking, she'd been chugging.

"Yeah, right," Sara said, ignoring her friend and lowering her voice for effect. "Try someone who did get with you, but had to leave while you were snoring to go get a toy so she could get some relief."

I sighed, but I didn't say anything. After all, how does one counter the truth?

It was November of 2004, and I'd only been stationed at Lackland for a month. I had just turned 20, and was still painfully inexperienced with women. At the time, I'd only been with two. I'd lost my virginity in a threesome with a married couple I met at the Monterey Aquarium in California, when I'd been stationed there for a tech school. That had gone fine, but I'd had another dude there to fill in the gaps for me. My second time had been with a Navy girl on the beach at Guantanamo Bay, but I was so drunk I barely remember it happening. I always assumed I wasn't that good since it never happened again.

I'd only been at Lackland for a month, and the Marine Corps Birthday Ball was coming up. I didn't have a date, but while having sex had so far proven to be a weakness of mine, talking to women had become a strength. So, I figured, why not ask the pretty Air Force chick that worked on the aisle behind me? I did, and Sara had eagerly said yes.

We had a great time at the ball, which was held at a hotel on the Riverwalk in downtown San Antonio. I used every bit of charisma and charm I could muster, and I had her laughing and flirting with me all night long. I had no doubt that when the ball was over, we'd head up to my hotel room and I'd fuck her so well that security would ask us to keep the noise down.

Yeah... that didn't happen. I was pretty nervous, and as it turned out, so was she. I was supposed to be the aggressive one, the one in charge, the one that was sure of myself and could work her through her nerves until she got comfortable. Instead, I fumbled around and acted like a high school freshman who was finally seeing a real girl naked for the first time. I ripped a hole in the first condom I put on, and once I finally did get inside her, I lasted all of a minute. I'd had so much to drink at the ball that I dozed off a little afterward. It was just for a few minutes and I woke up with every intention of making the second time count, but she was gone.

Shortly after that, I'd hooked up with a girl who was convinced that I could be great in the sack with a little guidance, so she'd given it to me. A few months after that, Chad and I had tag-teamed a civilian girl we met at the NCO Club, and I'd learned even more just by watching how he worked on a woman's body. Nearly three years later, I was a far cry removed from the sexual partner I was for Sara. More than one woman on this trip alone had told me I was the best sex she'd ever had.

I'd never tried to ask Sara out again, though. Thankfully, she was pretty cool about everything. She never mentioned it publically, and the only times she ever talked about it were if we alone on a midnight watch, and even then it was a joke. She had a boyfriend for about a year, but even when she was single, I only gave her a token thought before moving onto someone else. A small part of me thought she might indeed have a good laugh at my expense if I ever tried to ask her out again, but the bigger reason was pride. She was a failure, and I didn't want to revisit the scene of the crime.

"You words wound me," I finally said. "Besides, you know I'm not that guy anymore."

"Do I now?" she asked. "I know you Marines like to talk a lot of shit about how great you are, but I have first-hand knowledge, Sgt. Carver."

"You have first-hand knowledge of who I was three years ago," I said. "You don't have a clue what I'm about now."

"Oh, really?" she asked.

I stepped up real close to her, my voice barely more than a whisper in her ear.

"Really," I said. "And if you even knew the half, your cute little brain would just explode."

I stepped back and gave her the most predatory smile I could manage. She looked flustered and confused for a second, but I knew she'd have a comeback.

"You'd know all about explosions, wouldn't you?" She said it where only I could hear, but it still stung a little bit. I decided I would let her have this tiny little victory tonight, but I promised myself that before I left Grand Junction, I would make a believer out of Sara Winters.

"Sadly, yes," I said. "Anyway, I'm glad you got here safe. You get to the campsite?"

"Yeah, I'm parked right behind you," she said. "No Chad and Russ yet?"

"Not till later tonight," I said. "I'm guessing they'll show up just in time to get laid and get drunk."

"Sounds like them," she said. "Anyway, we brought a bunch of blankets from the tents. We're gonna get as close as we can and then settle in for the show. You gonna sit with us?"

"I am," I said. "I'll be there in a few minutes. Save a couple of spots for me, though."

"A couple?" she asked, a smug grin on her face. I figured I might as well start working on her now.

"Yes, Winters," I said. "There are a lot of women out there who would gladly give a guy like me a second chance. It's just a shame you aren't one of them. Yet."

I left without seeing the look on her face. When I got to the Marine booth out on the fairgrounds, Janine and one of the two I hadn't met earlier were just packing up.

"Hey, Brad," she said with a smile. "I was wondering if you were going to forget."

"Nope," I said, instantly joining in to help them. "Been thinking about it all day, actually. I would have tried to steal you sooner, but I'm pretty sure your Gunny could kick my ass."

"Yeah, he's got a black belt in just about all the MCMAP stuff," she said, referring to the Marine Corps' Martial Arts Program.

"So you understand, then," I said.

"Callahan," she said to the other Marine in the booth. "This is Brad Carver. He's a sergeant on terminal leave from an intelligence post in Texas. Brad, this is Tom Callahan. He works in the office with me in Grand Junction."

"Nice to meet you," I said. "You going to watch the show?"

"Can't stand country music," he laughed. "Just gonna head back to the RV to change, then go find somewhere to camp."

"You can't sleep in the RV?" I asked.

"I could," he said. "But I'm at a campground. I brought a sleeping bag. I'm sure I can find somewhere to roll it out."

"Fair enough." I said. We all chatted as we gathered all their material up. I told them my story - where I was stationed, why I was here and where I was going. I learned that Callahan had just started his assignment as a recruiter, and had been a special forces type stationed at Camp Pendleton before. Janine's first tour had been as an air traffic controller. With my future aviation plans in mind, I logged that little detail in my memory banks.