Chapter One - There Was This Girl, Nine - Bethany

I was pissed. Really pissed. I loved my career. I loved my life. As simple as it was, it was enjoyable… And it was all mine. My attitude sucked right then, but normally I was a fairly, mostly anyway, content guy. I was pissed about being there. I didn’t hate being there. I liked it there. I hated WHY I was there. I’m sure my aura wasn’t the light golden pink color they show around happy people in the movies.

A little voice behind me, dripping in saccharine sweet artificial politeness, asked, “Hey, can you pass the mustard, mister?”

“Bite me!” How juvenile of me, I know, but it just slipped out. Without looking, I handed someone the mustard bottle over my shoulder, then felt a strange sensation on the tendon running from my neck to my shoulder. I jerked away. Someone was biting me! They bit me!!!

I turned quickly. There was this girl.

All I could see was a vision of extreme cuteness before my eyes.

“Did you just bite me?”

“Yes, Charlie, I did. And if you say ’bite me’ again, I’ll do it again. Maybe someplace more interesting?”

“Bethany? Bethany Ann Swanson? Is that you?” She nodded. “How the hell are you, sweetheart?” I pulled her into my arms and gave her a huge hug. I kissed her cheek while I felt her return the hug, three-fold.

Bethany Swanson was my long-ago girlfriend Annie’s little sister. Prettier, cuter, and yes, older now than she was before I left home to conquer the world some seven years prior. Hard to imagine her in this way, for sure. I had seen her briefly a few times while I’d been home on leave over the years, but not quite this ‘up close and personal’. What a difference!

“Better than you are, by a long shot, and way better than I was just ten minutes ago. I’m so glad you came home, Charlie, but… yet… I’m not, if that makes sense. It’s good to see you. Really good, but I wish your mom and dad were still here, you know? I loved them, Charlie. They always treated me so well when I hung out with you and Annie at your house. Hell, I felt like I was their daughter sometimes. Your Mom even took me shopping for my prom dress last year. That was fun.”

She told me the story of her helping my mother clean up our yard after a storm came through. Her mother was in Pennsylvania with her ailing grandmother at the time and my father was away on business. The two of them were chatting about girl stuff and the need for the dress came up.

“I’d love to see a picture of that, Bethany.”

“Pick me up tonight around six. Dress nice. I’ll take you to dinner then we’ll go to my place and do just that. Mom and Dad would love to see you.”

“Sounds like a winner. Hey, kiddo, how’s your sister?”

“Kiddo? Charlie, I’ll be nineteen next month. I’m in college for Christ’s sake.”

“Sorry. You have grown up. Quite nicely, I might add.”

She giggled. “Thank you! It’s important for you to understand that at this point. Ironically Charlie, Annie’s in Tucson, Arizona, married to an Air Force pilot there. I guess she has a thing for them, even if they weren’t in the service yet.” She smiled at me and batted her eyes a bit.

I had been flying since I was fifteen, licensed the week I turned seventeen, and after my college days in Colorado Springs at one of my broke ass uncle’s universities, he let me play in his fleet of toys. I had taken Annie up a few times in my father’s old plane during our senior year in high school. That was before she advised me that she had no intention of trying to maintain a long-distance relationship while still in her youth. It would be hard for me to explain to anyone how happy I was to hear that revelation, but I didn’t dare share that with her. Best to let her think I was heartbroken.

We went out a few times while I was on leave during my freshman year at the Academy. Even doolies get a bit of time off. It came to nothing, though, and when I came back that summer, she was seeing someone else she had met while attending our state university. Interestingly, he was a local boy, having been a couple of years ahead of us at a different high school. No problems. I was pretty wrapped up in making sure my attendance as a legacy at the academy wasn’t squandered on stupidity or a lack of trying.

My father and my grandfather were both graduates of the Air Force Academy, my grandfather becoming a Major General before he retired. My father retired as a Colonel to run our family business when Grandpa died. I had a lot to live up to without a doubt.

Which brings us to the subject of my tome. I was home, burying my parents, when I ran into Bethany, certainly a breath of fresh air in the stench that was currently my life. I had just been promoted to captain and was going to be trained, then transferred back to a fighter wing, after serving as a VIP aircraft pilot for a few years. I had been flying everything from T1As to C-20Hs to C32s and C40s, mostly right seat. In civilian lingo, biz jets, 737s, and 757s. I was just recently assigned as the AC, aircraft commander, of a C-12J, a twin-engine turbo prop, and was shuttling Military and State Department VIPs from Joint Base Andrews to New York City when I got the call about Mom and Dad being in a massive interstate pileup during a dense fog event. A truck hit them from behind and smashed them into the truck in front of them. They died immediately, instantly on impact, from what I was told. After seeing the pictures of the accident, I could only pray that was true. Gruesome was an understatement.

“Bethany, I would love to do just that. I miss the little munchkin that used to traipse all over town with us, but to be honest, I don’t think I’ll be seeing her again. You really have changed. Are you sure you want to waste your time with an old fuddy duddy like me?”

“You have no idea, mister. Be at my house at six. Look good. I want to show you off.”

“I’ll do my best, hon, but I don’t have a lot to work with.”

She laughed. “Shut up. You’re all that. If you don’t know it, it doesn’t matter. I do. I have to run. Kiss me goodbye, Charlie. Please?” I kissed her on the lips, briefly, she smiled dreamily, touched my cheek, and out she ran with her friend, giggling and carrying on, holding the bag she had placed her sandwiches back into after she used the mustard on them.

Wow. That was an interesting meeting. Almost nineteen, huh? I guess that means last time we spent any time together she was pushing twelve. Oh, my, what a thought.

I went back to the house and went through some more of my parents’ things, trying to decide what to keep, pitch, sell, give away, or just let sit in the corner collecting tears and dust. My commander knew I was resigning my regular commission and due to the circumstances, moving back home. I was going to need to spend at least a few years in the reserves to square my deal with Uncle Sam and would be living in that house while I did. I always jio’;ip0p’thought I’d probably do a lot longer than that, but one never knew. We had a reserve outfit close by, they had a spot for a Major that I could fill and grow into, I just had to learn how to pass gas. Oh well, the life of an air refueling pilot couldn’t be all that bad… Could it?

Bethany’s mother, Elizabeth or Liz, met me at the door a few minutes before six. She let me in, hugged me, kissed my cheek, and started fawning all over me. She mentioned how much she liked my parents and how much she was going to miss them, then just hugged me and we held each other for a few quiet moments.

Her parents were always nice to me when Annie and I dated, then when she cut me loose, it was me that wound up explaining the breakup to all of our parents. Her father and I were probably the most relieved. I could see it in his eyes, and he could see it in mine, I think.

I’m sure he knew that even though I was happy with Annie, she was a loose cannon and wasn’t going to settle down anytime soon. A couple of years ago, maybe three, he told me over a glass of really good scotch that she was on her third fiancé after a total of about ten ‘quote serious unquote’ relationships. That’s how he put it, too. He was on my side, though, he said, and was glad I didn’t get pulled down into the mud with her.

He came into the room and shook my hand. Once he’d made sure I was still amenable to it, he pulled me back into his study and the booze came back out. “She’ll be another fifteen minutes at least, Charlie. She thinks this is a date, so you’ll have to suffer like it is one. Let’s have a drink and talk for a bit.” His taste in whiskey is as good as his taste in scotch. Maker’s Mark on the rocks. I liked it. “I already miss your old man. Believe that. He was the only honest golf partner I had in this town. Damn it to hell anyway. Charlie, IS this a date, by the way?”

“Sam, you need to ask your precious little girl about that. I doubt she knows that I’m leaving active duty and moving back here yet, so there is that. If she does know, or thinks she knows, it may well be a date. She’s a doll, sir, and a man could do much worse than having you and Mrs. Swanson as in-laws.”

I heard a voice behind me, startling me just a bit. “Charlie, just call me Liz. Please. Trust me, it’s a date. I’m sure of it. You have our blessing if I’m right. If I’m not, and it happens later, you’ll still have it. OK?”

“Yes, ma’am. Thank you.” She raised a wine glass and the three of us toasted that announcement.

“So, you’re moving back. Leaving the service?” Liz asked.

“Kind of. I’m switching to the reserves and paying off my debt. It’s a commitment I made when I went into the academy, and I need to repay it. I may just stay in the reserves for the duration. I don’t know yet, but I can do my thing on weekends, a few weeks a year, and anytime I get called up to fly. Who knows what’ll happen, but it should be interesting. I haven’t exactly been flying combat missions up until now, so anything will be exciting. I think.” I smirked and got a couple of acknowledgements and smiles in return.

“So, I won’t have you all to myself, then?” Bethany heard most of that, evidently. We turned to see her standing at the door.

“Bethany Ann, have you been eavesdropping?”

“Pretty much. I understand. I don’t care. I just want to spend some time with my biggest crush for like the last seven or eight years. I was ten when they started dating and eleven or twelve when Annie kicked him to the curb. I’m finally here to pick him up, brush him off, and take him to dinner. Come on, Charlie, let’s blow this pop stand before these old people talk your ear off. We can all look at pictures and tell lies when we get back. That OK, Mom? Dad?”

“Of course, sweetie, but keep in mind I ain’t THAT old. I can’t even join AARP yet. Don’t forget that. And you aren’t too old to spank, you know!”

“Ackkkk. Charlie, save me from him. He’s an ogre. Daddy Shrek. He’s terrible!” She ran over to him, pulled him down by his ear and kissed him on the cheek, hugged her mother, and off we went on a brand-new journey. I noticed then that she was wearing all black. Dress, choker, bracelet, stockings, shoes, everything was black. I appreciated that. She was showing me that she cared. I was in black as well, save my shirt. The tie was black and graduated stripes of gray, but we were a pretty dark couple, for sure.

Bethany told me she made seven o’clock reservations at Frankie’s, a popular and very upscale steak house on the outskirts of town. I have been there several times. Homecoming was held there, as well as Christmas parties with my parents. Prom dinner, with her sister, come to think of it, was at Frankie’s. It really was the place the kids with a few bucks went to impress their girlfriends, and I guess families with some means spent family time there as well.

“Why Frankie’s, doll face? Why not Burger King or Mickey D’s?”

“Please don’t tell me you’re that ignorant, Charlie.”

“Oh, so your mother was right? This is a date?”

“If there is a God, and she loves me, yes, this is a date.”

“I’m rather glad to hear that, Bethany. That means I get another kiss tonight. A kiss goodnight, at least?”

“At least,” she said with a guilty grin.

We sat at that table eating, talking, drinking, and laughing until after they closed at nine o’clock. I’d never been more comfortable with anyone before. I took care of the bill, then on the way to the car she asked if everything was going well.

“I’m going to tell you now, young lady, since you asked, but I will preface my answer with a statement about myself and something I need to find in the person I’m in a relationship with. I assume you are asking if this can be one?” She nodded, a worried look on her gorgeous face. “One thing I need is honesty. One hundred percent honesty. I’ve been in a couple of relationships before, and that value wasn’t practiced. They were short lived. The relationships. So, doll, honesty above all else?”

“Yes, Charlie. I can promise you that.”

“Good. I was just telling myself that I’m more comfortable around you than I ever have been with anyone. Ever. I’m thinking we can give it a go.”

“Take me home. We need to look at pictures and tell lies. My parents await.”

I walked her to the car noticing more about her appearance. She was trying very hard to be all she could be, to coin a phrase. The little black dress was short. Very, very short. Her heels were high. Very, very high. Thinking back carefully, all the way back, including the young puppy love girlfriends I had even before Annie in high school, I had to admit Bethany was the most beautiful, striking, magnificent creature that has ever held my hand, let alone kissed me. She was most definitely taking my mind off my troubles and the reason I was there in town at all.

“I’d be more than happy to, sweetie. Has anyone told you how pretty you are tonight?”

“Only with their eyes. The way you look at me is telling me just that, but to be honest, the words sound good, too. Thank you.”

We crossed the parking lot, stopped at the car, and just before I opened the door for her, she turned to me, wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me like she knew what she wanted, and it was me. Our tongues met, her moan vibrated through my core, and I became very uncomfortable just below the belt. I’m sure she felt it pressing into her mid-section just above her hip bone. Bethany was not a tall girl. She took after her mother that way, whereas Annie took after her father.

Her hand was on the back of my head, fingers caressing it through my hair while we kissed. Much like my observations of her, it was by far the most intimate, stirring, most exciting kiss I’d ever shared. My day, that day, proved to be a milestone in my life. Just ten hours after biting me, her venom had reached my heart and I had succumbed to the vixen that was Bethany Ann Swanson.

We made it to her house, finally, and sat with her mother and father for another two hours talking about my parents, the trouble all of us kids got into, and what my future looked like.

I left at eleven-thirty, heading back to our family home, being sent off with another searing kiss and a thank you for letting her make a run for my affections.

Sleep came quite slowly while I laid there wondering what was happening and why it was happening so quickly. I was going back to work for at least a month or two while my separation was being processed. I still had a few weeks of leave accrued so coming back before then was a possibility. I wasn’t all that worried about it, though, as Bethany had mentioned over dinner that she knew full well we’d be apart for most of the next several weeks as well as a lot of weeks off into the future. Her maturity was showing.

Then I thought about her legs in that dress as she sat next to me and the wonder of her body, her shape, her build, as she’d lean forward toward the coffee table, showing me glimpses of her chest, and the black lace peeking out of her dress at me, while she was pointing at a picture, then turning to me with a genuine smile while we talked about it.

I woke up late the next morning to a text. It was from Princess Bethany. ‘Thank you. Please don’t be a dream.’

I responded with, ‘come pinch me this afternoon and we’ll see.’

‘Sounds like fun.’

I had to agree, it did.

The funeral was scheduled for the next afternoon. No doubt it would be a huge affair. Mom and Dad were well known, even loved, by a lot of people. The plants would be on skeleton crews, as the employees’ council had requested, and been granted, they be able to attend. That would be over a hundred attendees right there. In the meantime, I was turned loose and told everything was being taken care of and all I needed to do was show up early and stand with my parents’ closed caskets as people paid their respects, then I was to lead the procession to the cemetery. Until then, I was back to going through their things and making plans.

At three-thirty, Bethany knocked on the door, I opened it to find her looking good enough to eat. My first thought was that I hoped she didn’t dress this way for class, but then I thought better of it. She was gorgeous. Let it happen.

“You look simply delicious, Bethany Ann.” She smiled and held her hands out for me. I just looked some more, ogling her wonderful self, getting her to giggle. “Do you always dress like this?”

“Only when my boyfriend is in town, boyfriend. Is it too early to use that term?”

“After a lot of thought about the subject last night, I’d say ‘no’. Or ‘absolutely not’. One or the other. Here, pinch me, then I’ll do you, just to put paid to your fears that we’re stuck in a dreamscape.”

She laughed and hugged me. She was wearing a sleeveless thin white fitted waist length blouse above blue microfiber knit hot pants and natural leather high heeled sandals. I was, in a word, enchanted. Was this all about her good looks, her alluring clothes, her sexy body? No. Not entirely, but I’ll admit, it got me started. Her words, her kisses, her gestures, expressions, eye movements, smiles… All that together created a tsunami of emotion I couldn’t deny. After only one day, I was in love with this creature. She hadn’t been in my life but for a few moments each year or so, since before she turned twelve, but now? Now she was there, and in a big, big way.

“What are you thinking right now? Your smile is telling me one thing, but your eyes are far away. Please tell me.”

“I was thinking how I was falling for a girl I hadn’t spent any real time with since she was eleven or twelve, and how quickly and deeply I was falling.”

“Good. I thought maybe it was something bad. You know, I would have done or said something earlier, but both our mothers told me it would be a good way to get you kicked out of school!” She laughed. “They both knew I was crushing on you and have been since even before my sister dumped you. I’ve always thought you were the real deal. Always. I watched as Annie threw away the nicest person she’d ever met. I know that for a fact, by the way. I’ve watched the others. Just boys. Crude, impolite, full of themselves. Even the one she’s with now. He thinks his poop don’t stink. Thinks he’s God’s gift to flight. Whatever. I know. I’ve always known. You’re different. Humble. Modest. Selfless.”

“I’m not THAT good. You have no idea what I was thinking sitting next to you in that little dress last night. You know I love heels, right?”

She nodded. “I remember. You like heels and hose. Annie liked flats. She wore heels because you liked them. She resented it. I heard her a couple of times. I remember telling her that you never told her to wear them, you just said you liked the way they looked. She got mad at me for saying that, I remember. I do, too, even if she didn’t. I like heels. And stockings and lingerie, and… I’m going to get myself into trouble. I like all that stuff, Charlie. Annie wanted to please Annie. I want to please Charlie. If I do a good enough job, maybe he’ll fall in love with me and keep me for his very own.”

“Maybe I will, and then again, maybe I will.” I chuckled at my own comment, getting a smirk and a slap on my arm for my effort.

I also got a kiss. “I hope so. This is new for you. It’s not for me. You have no idea how afraid I’ve been that you’d show up with another woman. You don’t have one, do you?” I shook my head. “There isn’t one, is there?” I shook my head again. “Whew. I just had a scary thought pass through my feeble little brain.”

“Yeah, right. Salutatorian? Feeble little brain? I don’t think so, darlin’!”

She laughed. “Around you it is. Can we do dinner out again tonight, Charlie, and I’d also like to ask, since tomorrow is going to be a bit rough for you… For all of us, actually. Can I be with you, stand with you, hold your hand tomorrow? I want to. I think if you’d let me, I’d feel better. If I told you I think that’s my place already, to be at your side, would you think badly of me?” Her face showed a question. I didn’t want that. Not at all. She had a point. If not her, who, and if not now, when?

“I’d love that. Please, though, let’s ask your parents for that privilege. I think if we do that it will mean quite a bit to them. We have their blessing, after all.”

She nodded, then after a big hug, stepped around me to see what I’d been doing in the house. “Charlie, do you need any help with this? Sorting or anything? I’ll do what I can. This has to be tough.”

“I have about a week to do some of it, but there’s no hurry, baby doll.”

She gasped. “I love when you call me things like that, Charlie. Am I? Really? Can I be your baby doll?”

I nodded and pulled her to me. “Let me show you.” I went to the kitchen counter and wrote down a code on a yellow sticky. I handed it to her with two keys. “Doorknob, deadbolt, and access code for the locks and the garage entry door. You now have access to my house. You are my baby doll.” We kissed again, one of those loving, her hand in my hair, my hand on the top of her butt pulling her to me, kisses. I got uncomfortable again.

“I feel that lump, big boy. Be careful, Charlie. I’m not a little girl, and I know how to make one of those go away. I take that back, I am a little girl, but I’m not a kid. Let me know when you want that. I already do. Not all the way, but I know some things that will help.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. I have a week, like I said. Many more of those kisses, though, and I’ll be in a bit of trouble, pain wise.”

“No, not blue balls! Anything but blue balls!” She started laughing and kissed my cheek. “Let’s talk after dinner. Now, get your mind out of the gutter and tell me what you need help with.”

“Laundry. All the sheets and clothes in their room, their bathroom, the kitchen, and the miscellaneous stuff strewn about the laundry room. I need everything cleaned and separated until I can decide whether I want their room or mine. Mine is almost as big, everything being considered, and I have my own bathroom, too. Never mind. I can deal with that later. Laundry. You any good with that kind of stuff?”

“Are you asking if I’m a domestic goddess? Of course. My mother taught me well. I’ll get things started.” She ran off upstairs and did just that.

We took a break a few hours later for dinner at a local Italian place, then went back to the house and did some more.

“Charlie, take me home, please. I’m going to get a dress and some shoes and things for tomorrow, and if you’re serious about what we’ve talked about, and what you’ve told me so far, I’d like to spend the night here with you and be with you all day tomorrow. Is that asking too much? Too forward?”

“No. Let’s go talk to your mom and dad.”

We did just that. I asked for their permission to have her with me all day at the funeral and such, and she asked them if they minded her spending the night with me.

“That’s a pretty big step, Bethany, but you’re an adult, and your choices are yours and yours alone. Thank you for trusting us enough to ask. Both of you. Charlie, we’d be honored to have our daughter stand with you tomorrow. Bethany, you’ve been looking forward to this day for seven years, whether you thought of it like that or not, but we talked after Annie gave him up. You said he was a dreamboat, and you wish you were old enough to be there for him. Seven years later, here you are. You’re old enough to be there for him. Do that. Do just that and share one of the worst days he’ll probably ever have. Help him through it.” Her mother hugged her and helped her pick out her clothes for the funeral and the gathering afterwards.

Her father hugged me. “We’ll be there, too, Charlie. Off to the side, but we’ll try to be there for you if you need us for anything.” I nodded, thanking him, then when my girlfriend came downstairs with a garment bag, I took it, took her hand, bid farewell to her parents, and off we went into the future.

On the way home, she made sure we both knew we had limits. “Charlie, I’m not ready for… I’m not prepared… I’m…”

“We’re fine, baby doll. I’m not either. I’ll hold you if you’ll let me, probably cry in your hair, and go to sleep. If you want to stay by yourself in their room…”

“No, Charlie. God, no. Together is fine, I’m just not ready to have sex yet. All the way. I know I said something about taking care of you, but the weight of the events… this may not be the right time for that.”

“I agree. Tomorrow morning we’ll get ready, and you can hold me up all day. We’ll talk about tomorrow night, tomorrow night. Does that sound OK?” She nodded.

That was a preview of There Was This Girl: Bethany. To read the rest purchase the book.

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