Anchor Line

by Dawne Walters

  “Really? Why?”

  “Because I’ll be there.” He offered.

  “And will you expect me to more every time you PCS if things work out for whatever this thing is between us?”

  “No.” He answered after a few moments. “This just makes sense because that i’ll be there and you have the opportunity to go there.” He rolled her over on her back and hovered over her.

  “What is it that you want from me Conrad?” She whispered, her hands coming up to cup his cheeks. Her hands feeling his day old stubble.

  “I want you.” His answer was simple. “Is that so wrong?”

  Surprised, her eyebrows shot up. “No, I guess not.”

  “So take the position, get an apartment and when I get there, I’ll get my apartment.” Conrad kissed her gently.

  Addie’s heart sank. She wasn’t sure why if he wanted to be with her that she’d need her own apartment. But in the long run, it was probably better than if things didn’t work out, that he’d have to move out. Realizing that she wasn’t kissing Conrad because her thoughts ran wild, she opened her eyes to find him staring at her.

  “You okay?” He asked, furrowing his brow.

  “Yes.” She smiled. Fake the funk Addie, she told herself. “I’m good.”

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Addie sat in her office looking over the job description for what she would be doing in Fort Polk. It was pretty much the same that she did now with a few additional things and that didn’t really bother her. Mr. Moore and Ms. Jenkins were huge advocates to her getting the job. She just wished that she could share it with someone. Well, the girls at the office here took her out to lunch and celebrated. She was to leave in two weeks’ time. The DOD would be paying for her to move, so that was easy. They’d come and pack everything and the next day they’d load it on a truck and take it down to Fort Polk. Then she’d drive down and check in to the apartment complex that she’d already called and had an apartment waiting for her and get her key.

  It had been a month and a half since she’d left Conrad in Italy. It had been a month and a half and she still hadn’t heard from him. She’d emailed him and told him that she’d gotten back to Fort Bragg okay. She got nothing in return. Tracy had told her that when Conrad had signed back in on leave, they were originally going to give him an extra day before they had to be in the field. The unit went back on their word, telling him that he had to be ready at six in the morning to be ready to roll out at seven thirty.

  She felt like a complete stalker when she looked up his Facebook page and noticed that while there were no posts in the month after she’d left, he’d responded to a few things that other people posted and he’d mentioned something about getting his orders to Polk deleted. That Steph chick who was excited to be reunited with her ‘Sir’ had posted on a few things that he had too, creating some sexually illicit banter. When she’d messaged with Tracy earlier in the month, Addie had told her that she wasn’t going to go to Fort Polk because she wasn’t sure it was the right thing to do. After signing the papers and scrolling through her Facebook feeds to see that Conrad was talking to everyone but her, she knew she’d done the right thing.

  Her curser sat over the photos button on his page, so she clicked it and saw that all of the pictures that she’d tagged him in when she was there were gone. Great. Out of site out of mind. Backing out to his main page she clicked the unfriend button and then blocked him. She wouldn’t be able to see him, he wouldn’t be able to see her. Out of sight, out of mind she told herself as tears started to come down her cheeks. She felt stupid for ever getting excited that he was going to be at Polk with her. Maybe that’s why her mood that day was so shitty.

  Getting up from her desk, she started to clear her office of all of her personal things and pack them in boxes. She’d started the clearing process and decided to take a week’s leave so that she could take her time driving down there. Her phone chimed with a Facebook message.

  Tracy James: Addie! What’s going on? Why can’t Conrad see you? He said that you dropped off FB.

  Addie Marshall: Nope. I blocked him.

  Tracy James: HOLY SHIT!

  Addie Marshall: He can talk to all those chicks that go to the Messo and he can’t even tell me he’s back in from the field.

  Tracy James: He didn’t? Did you check your other msgs box too? Spam in your email? Text on your phone?

  Addie Marshall: NOTHING! PERIOD!

  Tracy James: Weird. He came over here panicked and demanded to look at my FB.

  Addie Marshall: Please tell me that you didn’t let him look at it.

  Tracy James: Sadly…I did. :(

  Addie Marshall: Well, that’s okay. I haven’t posted anything but stupid shit on there anyway.

  Tracy James: Addie…I’m concerned.

  Addie Marshall: He’s a big boy. I saw that he said he was going to try to come here to Bragg. He’ll be in good company. Susan is still here and Lisa delivered her kid and she’s back here too. He’ll be alright. He always has the girls at the Messo.

  Tracy James: Honey…he was throwing up in our toilet bowl saying something about losing you or some shit. That you were going to leave him?

  Addie Marshall: Why was he in your apartment??

  Tracy James: Cal had to pick him up from the bar and didn’t want to leave him in his apt alone. He was drunk as hell.

  Addie Marshall: He already has lost me. A month and a half and I got nothing from him. Even after he’s been back for two weeks. He’ll talk to that chick Steph who is all about reuniting with her Sir. I’m done Tracy.

  Tracy James: Please don’t give up on him. PLEASE. He’s not perfect, but he does want you. I think he loves you and it scares him.

  Addie Marshall: He has a funny way of showing it. I’ve decided to go to Polk. I’ll be there in a few weeks. I gotta go pack my office. I’ll chat with you later.

  Tracy James: Alright. Let me know when you get there. I’ll talk to you later.

  Addie Marshall: Okay. Bye.

  Two months. She’d been here at Fort Polk, Louisiana for two months. Still nothing from Conrad. She’d settled into her office and absolutely fell in love with her Team Lead Liz. They’d sat together to make their office more efficient and streamlined to help out the Soldiers whether they were deploying or PCSing. The girls in the office were great too. Her front desk clerk wasn’t anything like Jess, but then, Jess was one of a kind. But, Verna ran the front with precision for a woman of her age.

  Addie had also ran into CPT Jim Crisman while she was in processing for her position as well. He recognized her from Fort Bragg and the two struck up quite the friendship. So far Addie had kept it to lunches when she knew that Jim wanted to rocket forward into a more steady kind of thing. But she’d told him that she really wasn’t ready for that and wanted to get a steady foothold of things before putting forth that kind of commitment. Jim said he understood, but still hovered a bit too much for her taste.

  Nathan had hit her up on Facebook to say that he was on leave and also very soon, on his way down to Fort Polk. He’d need a place to stay and asked if Addie wouldn’t mind the company. Overjoyed to have someone funny in her apartment, she gave him a resounding yes and couldn’t wait until he arrived.

  Other than that, it’d been quiet. Tracy would say that she’d spoken with Conrad and that he was back into playing softball again. It was something he’d missed since he was little. He and Addie had spoken about it while they were in Pittsburgh and again when she was in Italy. It used to be an outlet for him to stay out of trouble growing up. Now, it was a way for him to stay in shape.

  Conrad walked to the information desk of the big brick building that he hoped Addie worked in. As he walked through the door, he realized that with the refurbishment, it was definitely nicer than what he remembered when he was in Fort Polk when he had first joined the army. He decided not to sign in early and put on his khakis and a ribbed black shirt showing off his muscular physique. The elderly lady behind the desk w
as dressed in a hot pink suit, her white hair was pulled up in a bun. She looked frail, but gave Conrad a genuinely warm smile when he approached her

  “How can I help you young man?” She asked in a very strong, very clear voice that surprised Conrad.

  “I’m looking for Ms. Addie Marshall. I’m not sure where she works here in the building.” Conrad said smiling back.

  “Oh.” The lady exclaimed excitedly. “Ms. Marshall just got here about two months ago, lovely young woman. She’s right down the hallway here. In personnel.” She pointed to the hallway on the left. Reaching for her phone, she asked, “Do you want me to call her office?”

  “No, no. I’m a friend. I wanted to surprise her.” Conrad exclaimed putting a hand up to stop the lady. “Down the hallway you say?”

  “Yes.” She said as she got up from her chair and stepped out from around the information desk. “I’ll take you if you like. I need to stretch my legs anyway and say hello to Verna.”

  She winked at Conrad and took the arm he offered her. She steered him down the left hallway chatting about how Addie had been there only a few months, and how lovely she was, and brought coffee in and dropped it by the front desk every morning. She said her name was Clair.

  They walked the short hallway where it abruptly stopped and turned into the Personnel Center. She walked Conrad inside to a huge waiting room. The décor of it, like any other; beige walls, and military motivational pictures up, the burgundy and black chairs lined up facing a TV with Fox news on low.

  “Verna?” She called walking through the door and up to the desk on the right. “This is a friend of Ms. Marshall’s. He’s here to surprise her.”

  Verna looked up from her computer and stood up with a huge smile. Like Clair, she was older, only she had grey hair that was cut in a short bob, and was wearing a Navy dress.

  “Thank you so much Clair.” Verna said. “Follow me please. I don’t know if she’s left or not.”

  Verna stepped from behind her desk motioning for Conrad to follow her through the doorway off the waiting room to her right. There were several doorways that led off the hallway back to Addie’s office although these were empty as it was the beginning of the lunch hour.

  “She may have already left. There was a young Captain here earlier to see if she had left for lunch. He’s taken quite a liking to Ms. Marshall. I didn’t see if they had connected up or not for lunch.” Verna offered as she walked.

  The comment about the young captain didn’t miss the mark with Conrad. He’d ask Addie about it later, but knew he had nothing to worry about. He knew that he could trust her. If it was anything, it was someone she knew and was purely platonic. He was still confident that even though he was half a world away, she still wanted to be with him. The closer they got to Addie’s office, Conrad was thankful that the carpet concealed his footsteps because even on the carpet right now, his footsteps seemed to pound in his head like a drum. Not only that, but he had to admit that he was actually a little bit nervous.

  Verna knocked on the half open door. With no answer, she pushed the door open wide and verified that the office was empty. As she turned around, Conrad asked if he could stay a moment and write her a note. Verna moved her hand in a sweeping motion for Conrad to enter, pushing the door against the wall and said that she’d be up front and to take his time and left.

  As Conrad entered Addie’s office, he took a deep breath in and could smell Addie’s perfume, Coco Channel Mademoiselle. God, her perfume smelled arousing. His cock stirred to life with a maddening pulse for the first time in what felt like forever since he’d smelled it on Addie not that long ago. Man, it felt like for fucking ever since he’d seen her. The perfume took him back to the wonderful ten days he had with her in Italy and the time they spent together in Pittsburgh before he went back to Afghanistan.

  He looked around and saw that she had decorated much differently than when she was in Bragg. Gone was all of the Steelers memorabilia from the walls, she had a few of her awards and certificates that were given to her from Fort Bragg up on the walls as well as her diploma from Penn State. The cherry wood desk sat in front of a matching hutch toward the center of the wall that faced two burgundy leather wingback chairs that were up against the wall with a table with fresh flowers on it between them. He walked over and looked in the glass windows of the hutch and saw some of her smaller Steelers knick-knacks displayed in it, along with a few wine glasses from a couple of Military Balls that she was a guest at. On the long open shelf she had her framed pictures. He recognized a few family pictures from her old office. There were a few new ones of her and some girls from Fort Bragg and a new one of her and a blonde young man, which Conrad recognized as her older brother.

  He stopped short with the picture of Cal’s wife Tracy, sitting next to Addie at the table from First Sergeant’s picnic in Italy. He didn’t know who had taken it. Probably Nathan. They both looked beautiful though. Addie looked so happy. The next picture he recognized as well. It was of Cal, Tracy, Nathan and Addie they’d all gone out to dinner. It was from Italy as well. There were like twelve of them that went out that night. Nathan took the opportunity as always to wrap his arms around Addie and spoon her standing up. Conrad had taken her camera and started taking pictures…of everything and everyone. The next picture was of Addie sitting on the edge of a fountain from her trip to Italy. He remembered taking this for her. He lifted an eyebrow as he looked around the room noticing that there were some larger pictures of Italy up on the walls next to the window. He walked over looking at them. Ah, the sunflower field that they made love in. Conrad smiled as he remembered when she told him to pull over his SUV. She wanted pictures of the sunflower field. They ended up walking quite a ways into it and ended up making love in the middle of the day amongst the sunflowers. She had a few pictures of some of the buildings and statues in Vicenza and in Venice that she had fallen in love with. Addie had taken so many pictures, Conrad was sure that these ones weren’t even her best ones.

  Conrad had no intention of leaving Addie a note when he turned back and sat down in her chair. It was a padded black leather number that was worn from usage. Army standard issue, handed down to the next person to occupy the space. He looked across her desk and saw how neat and orderly she was. There was only one picture on her desk, to the left of her computer monitor; her, her brother and her grandmother. Conrad looked at the top drawer of her desk and after leaning over to look out of the open door to see if anyone was watching him, he pulled it open. Pens, pencils, paperclips, staples, a small notebook and… photos that were face down?

  He picked up the photos and turned them over. Conrad’s stomach felt like it sunk into his spine. A picture of he and Addie kissing at the picnic. Not just a photographic quick kiss, but a deep down, all-out assault of passion kind of kiss. His one hand around her waist holding her up against him and the other in her hair, holding her mouth against his. Addie’s arms were around his neck and she was on her tip toes trying to meet his height. Sitting back in her office chair he shuffled to the next picture and saw that he was in the kitchen in his apartment in Italy cooking. He had cooked for her several times, but this particular time he was making sandwiches and mac and cheese. He smiled remembering this particular time because he had just finished ravishing Addie for a few hours and he was wearing only a pair of worn out jeans with holes in them, zipped up but not buttoned. His dark brown hair was mussed and although you could only see half of his face, he had a look of total satisfaction on his face. As Conrad looked closer, he smiled at the scratch marks on his back and arm, made by Addie just minutes prior. He couldn’t help but chuckle. God how he loved it when he was deep inside of her and her nails scored him. He shuffled to another picture turning it sideways to see a close-up of him kissing Addie’s cheek. Ah, Nathan had taken this one. Addie was sitting in a lawn chair talking to some of the wives at the picnic. Conrad had come from behind her and wrapped his beer laden hand around her, while his other took her hand, fingers entwined and
brought it to her chest. His Steelers ball cap backwards so that he could lay a big wet kiss on her cheek. He laughed with a loud crack that brought his head up and looking out the door to see if anyone had returned. The last picture was one of him sleeping. He was on his stomach, naked as a jay bird, with the sheet twisted in his legs. Again, you could see the scratch marks from Addie’s small fingernails all down his back.

  He decided to put the pictures back where he found them instead of putting the first one up against her monitor to give her a clue that he was in town. He genuinely wanted to surprise her and the only way of doing that was to leave everything the way it was and come back after he unpacked some of his apartment. He took another quick sweep across her desk and saw her coffee mug with a little ring of lipstick on it. Sighing heavily, he reached out and touched the handle with two fingers.

  “Soon Addie. Soon.” He whispered. When did he become such a sap? He thought it best to head back to his apartment to unpack. Once he saw her, he’d probably want to lay her out and fuck her senseless until they were both raw, because just knowing that Addie was on the same continent and in the same town, his hand just wouldn’t do one more night. He’d come back closer to when she was supposed to get off work.

  After thoroughly looking around her office from her chair, he took in another deep breath and got up from the desk coming around it, his foot connecting with a box that was beside her desk. He looked down and saw a few framed pictures. The glass was broken like it had been dropped or smashed. He bent down and pulled one of the frames from the box. Immediately after looking at it, he felt another emotional punch in the gut. The picture was of him and Addie wearing their Steelers t-shirts at the picnic. Conrad was standing behind Addie with his arms around her, a beer in one hand, and her hand in the other, their fingers intertwined. His chin rested on top of her head to show just how small she was. He was smiling a genuine smile of happiness…and he never, ever, smiled in pictures. He leaned back over the box, and pulled the back of the frame off, and pulled the picture out wiping it free of glass, attached the back and put it back in the box.