The next day was pretty normal, she got up early, helped Sandy with Kyle and Erica's lessons, did some touch up cleaning, and made lunch for the kids. It was then that Sandy remembered that Leslie had been out late the night before and began to question her about it.
“So, what was the meeting at work all about?” she asked Leslie who sat at the kitchen grading Victoria's science homework.
“Oh, a couple of the kids families are being transferred and she needs us to step up and cover the shifts, I have to work Monday 6 to noon. I already found someone to come pick me up, so you don't have to drive me in that early. Speaking of which I've got to go change so we can leave.” Leslie said as she stood up and headed for the stairs, she hurried to her room and quickly changed. Less than five minutes later she was standing at the front door in her uniform ready to go, but as usual Sandy was not. Ten minutes later they were finally on their way.
The first thing she did when she got there was find Michelle and tell her that she would be able to take the Monday shift as well, then she headed to the front and started her shift. Knowing that Jamie was going to stop by made time seem to drag and she was really glad when they started getting busy because it took her mind off of the wait. Around 6 it started slowing down and she had a chance to restock the front and clean some tables, she was just finishing with that, when Jamie walked in. As he placed his order, Leslie found Michelle and asked if she could go on break, then she clocked out and ordered her supper. Jamie had slipped around the corner with his tray, so Leslie headed that way too.
“Hey,” she said, as she sat down at his table “Thanks for not saying anything in front of the others about us meeting for supper.”
“I kinda figured it would be better if they didn’t know you were having dinner with a guy.”
“That way they can’t say anything to Sandy” they both finished together.
Jamie asked if she wanted to pray for their meals, she hesitated for a second, but then went ahead and prayed. When she finished Jamie asked her why she hesitated.
“I was raised where, it’s the man’s job to pray over the meal” she answered
“Really,” Jamie asked “your mom never prayed for the food at your house?”
“Not, if my dad was home” she said “if he was gone, she could, but not if he was there.”
“Wow” Jamie said “at my house we all took turns praying, even Mom.”
“Well, my dad is a firm believer in the husband is the head of the home, and he made sure we never did anything that might remotely be construed as usurping that authority.” Leslie said, rolling her eyes.
Jamie laughed and they discussed what the headship of the husband really meant. They found that they agreed on what the Bible meant, that the husband and wife were partners, equal in every way and both needed to check with each other to see how they would be affected before making any decisions.
“It really ticks me off, when I see these men that take those verses about submission and beat their wives over the head with it, but completely ignore the verses about loving their wives as Christ loved the church.” Jamie said vehemently.
Leslie smiled “You just described my dad to a T!” she said wryly “I’m not kidding! he thinks women don’t have any purpose other than to keep the house clean and have babies”
Time flew as they talked, suddenly Leslie looked at her watch “Oh my gosh, I got to get back to work” she said jumping up and grabbed her tray.
“Here let me take that” Jamie said reaching to take the tray from her “I’ll see you later!”
“Thanks” Leslie said and waved over her shoulder, as she hurried back around the counter and clocked back in. There were several people waiting to be helped so she opened her register and started taking orders. Jamie dumped their trash into the trash can, refilled his soda and then stood back and watched her work. The customer she was dealing with couldn’t make up his mind what he wanted; Leslie smiled courteously and patiently tried to help him. Jamie straightened, smiled and waved at Leslie; she met his gaze and returned his smile as he headed out the door.
They didn’t see each other again until Friday, Jamie called her about 10 in the morning.
“Hey you about ready to go?” he asked when she answered the phone.
“I don’t know I will have to ask”, Leslie said for the benefit of Victoria who was standing close by. “Hold on a sec.” she told Jamie and laid the receiver down. Turning to Victoria she asked “Where’s your mom?”
Victoria shrugged “Out back, I think” and then headed upstairs.
Leslie ran out the side door and into the back yard, where Mrs. Holland was helping the youngest two kids move their pet bunny’s cage to some fresh grass. “Hey, Sandy” Leslie said as she ran up, pausing to take a deep breath “Burger king just called, they are short staffed this morning and want me to come in a little early.”
“How early is a little early?” Sandy said, irritation visible on her face.
“uhm…, I think they want me to be there by 12” Leslie hesitated “Michelle said she might be able to send someone to pick me up, if that was ok with you.” she finished with a smile.
“Did you get the kids papers graded?”
“Yep.”
“Well, if they’re sending someone to pick you up I don’t see why not.”Sandy said grudgingly.
“Thanks, Sandy!” Leslie said as she turned and raced back into the house. She was breathless when she reached the phone. “Hey, you still there?” she asked into the receiver
“Yeah, what’d she say?” Jamie asked
“I can go!” Leslie was almost squealing, she was so giddy.
“Ok,” Jamie said “I’ll see you in about 20 minutes”
Leslie raced upstairs to her room her eyes sparkling with excitement “I can’t believe I’m going to pull this off” she whispered to herself then quickly looked around to make sure no one else was around to hear her. She quickly brushed her hair, thankful that she had had the foresight to dress nicely that morning, she looked critically at her reflection in the mirror. She was wearing a jean skirt and patriotic t-shirt, her hair was pulled back in a pony tail. “It will have to do!” she muttered as she stuffed a clean uniform into her back pack and grabbed her purse. She tore back down the stairs, and saw Victoria coming out of the family office she wondered if she had been listening in on her conversation with Jamie. Sandy and the kids were coming inside as Leslie ran out the front door.
“Where are you rushing off to?” Sandy hollered after her.
“My, ride’s meeting me at the train station” she yelled back “I don’t have time to change so I’ll change when I get there!”
As soon as she was out of sight of the house she slowed down a bit, but she was still too excited to just stroll along, Apparently Jamie was excited to ‘cause when she arrived at the station there he was waiting for her.
“Hey, beautiful” he said as she climbed into his pick up.
Leslie blushed at the complement, “Hey, yourself” she replied as Jamie started the car and they drove off. “We might have a little problem” she told Jamie.
“What’s that?”Jamie asked.
“When I was leaving I saw Victoria come out of the office, I think she was listening to our conversation on the other phone. Not that we said anything that would make her suspicious, but if she gets mad at me there’s no telling what she might twist it to mean” Leslie grimaced at the thought of the stories that Victoria could concoct if she wanted to.
Jamie smiled as he adjusted the volume on the radio “Well,” he said, as the Backstreet Boys singing “Anything for you” came over the airways, “There’s only one thing to do in a situation like this…”
“And that would be?”
“We’ll just have to stop and get you a cell phone” and with that Jamie pulled out on to the Autobahn and headed back towards the base. But when they came to the PHV turn off he kept going. Leslie looked at him questioningly “We’re going to the Heidelberg Shopping Center; it’s close to the movie theater we’re going to. You can look for a cell phone until it’s closer to time to meet the guys for the movie” Jamie said, he could see that Leslie was nervous and having second thoughts about coming with him today and he was trying to put her at ease.
When they arrived at the Shopping Center they headed straight to the cell phone store and after talking to the clerk for a few minutes, she decided to get a simple Motorola camera phone, with a pay as you go plan. Nothing really fancy but enough that she felt confident in being able to get a hold of someone when she needed to, it also gave her the feeling of being cool and grown up. After they finished up there, they went into Popeye’s Chicken to grab a bite to eat. When they got their food, Jamie prayed for the meals and then helped Leslie set up all the functions on her new phone. Then it was time to go meet the guys, Leslie was really nervous, for two reasons, though she was really comfortable with Jamie, she hated meeting new people and was constantly wondering what they were thinking of her. And secondly, she was concerned that the more people that saw her with Jamie, the bigger the chance that Sandy would find out about it and throw a fit. However she did her best to hide her feelings and smiled bravely as they drove to the cinema complex.
“It ok, relax Les” Jamie said, as he parked the car and walked around to open her door “I told the guys you were coming. They’re cool with it.”
“Are you sure?” Leslie asked, ashamed that her feelings were so visible on her face, but glad that Jamie saw her concern and was trying to put her at ease.
It was easy to spot the other 3 guys as they were the only ones standing outside the theater and even though they weren’t wearing uniforms, Leslie could tell that they were military just by the way they were standing.
“Hey, guys what’s up?” Jamie said as they walked up to the entrance.
Leslie scanned the group, trying to remember their names as Jamie made the introductions; Chad was his roommate and best friend, the only blonde in the group. Justin was the shorter one with the dark black hair and Blake was the biggest of the 3, and had dark brown hair, and a fiancé at home in the States.
“Well, there seems to be a little problem.” Chad said as he and Jamie greeted each other with a typical male hand shake.
“And what would that be?” Jamie asked, putting his arm around Leslie’s waist and drawing her closer to him.
“Well, I was talking to Jim and he said he had seen a film here that was in English, I assumed that it was a regular occurrence. But when we got here nobody even speaks English and when I asked them if they showed any English films they said Nein” Chad finished exasperated.
“Oh great,” Jamie said frustration showing on his face, Leslie smiled as she stepped away from the group and into the building as the boys tried to sort out who’s fault this whole mess was. They were still arguing when she returned 5 minutes later tickets in hand.
She stepped up to Jamie who turned to her trying to apologize for the mess when she hands him the tickets. “If you guys still want to watch the show you can, I got us the tickets and I talked to the Manager and he said that they could turn on the English subtitles, but they don’t have the English version” They all turned and starred at her.
“Ok let’s go!” Jamie said and they all headed inside. During the movie, Leslie would occasionally giggle and lean over to Jamie and explain the way the words were coming out in translation.
As they left the theater Justin turned to both of them and asked “What was all that whispering about?”
Jamie smiled “That is for me to know and for you not to find out!” he replied as he helped Leslie into the truck.
Leslie smiled and waved to the guys standing in the parking lot as they drove away. In no time they were back on base and after they parked the car close to Jamie’s check point station, he kissed her good-bye and then he stood and watched as she walked down the street. They had decided it was best for her to walk to work so that no one would see him drop her off and tell Sandy, it seemed lately that they made a lot of their decisions based on what Sandy might find out. It bothered Leslie a little bit, but not enough to stop seeing Jamie “Besides” she told herself “if she wasn’t such a stick in the mud about boys I wouldn’t have to sneak around”
In spite of having spent most of the day together Jamie was having a hard time waiting to the middle of his shift to make a coffee run, to Burger King of course. He knew no matter what they called it, he was in love, he was pretty sure Leslie felt the same way, he wanted to tell her the truth, he wanted to tell the world that he was in love and this was his girl …his and his alone! These were his thoughts as he walked into the restaurant, his face lit up when he saw the lobby was empty and Leslie was working the front counter. She had her back to him filling a milk shake and called over her shoulder “Be right with you!”
Jamie smiled mischievously and said, in his gruffest voice “I need two large coffee’s on the double!”
At the sound of his voice Leslie spun around nearly spilling the milk shake, she rolled her eyes at him and said “Maybe you should work on your manners, sir” as she walked over and handed the milk shake to the customer at the drive thru window.
When she returned to the front counter she took his order, she turned to the coffee pot and said “This stuff is a little old would you like me to make some fresh coffee?”
Jamie smiled “Sure, I can wait.” He said and then dropped his voice to a whisper “especially if it means I get to spend more time with you.” He winked at Leslie, enjoying the blush that colored her cheeks.
“Shsh” she scolded “Michelle might hear you.” In spite of her protests she walked around the counter and snuggled against his chest.
“I missed you” he murmured against her hair “I wish I could go with you when you go home this weekend, I don’t know how I’m going to manage 3 whole days before I see you again.”
Leslie grinned at him “Well, you have my cell phone number, you could always call me.”
Jamie smiled back “Or you could call me, since I would have no way of knowing if you’re free to talk.”
“hmm… that would work” Leslie said as she moved to pour the coffee in to the cups. “Are you working tomorrow night? she asked “I don’t want to call when you might be busy.”
Jamie thought for a moment “yeah I’m on duty tomorrow night and Sunday afternoon the guys and I are going to get together for a Bible study thing we do, but if your free and need to talk you can call anytime”
“Ok” Leslie said “I’ll try and not call at those times.”
“Alright, see ya later!” Jamie said and picked up the coffees. As he was walking to the door he saw Leslie’s boss walking toward the front of the store so he smiled and waved to Leslie as he walked out the door.
“So who was that?” Michelle asked as Leslie headed past her.
“Who?” Leslie asked innocently, a smile creeping onto her face in spite of her best effort to hide it.
“That guy you were talking to, he seemed nice.”
“Oh, him, that's just the guard at the check point I come in at. He recognized me from my picture in my Passport.”
“Ah, is that all huh?” Michelle teased, she really liked Leslie and enjoyed giving her a hard time.
“Yep,” Leslie answered “that's it. Besides you know the rules: No Boyfriends!”
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