It was hard not to check some of the other Marines out. They would often come out of there rooms wearing only basketball shorts. The shape of their ma...hood draped by the thin fabric that was those shorts. With fast promotions occurring rooms started to be doubled on. There was no way I was going to have an ugly roommate. Stephen had just been promoted so he had to be moved with someone of the same rank. He was 5'10" 165 pounds. He had a muscular swimmers build. He would joke that he could never. " Millie looked up from the register. "Remember, we're closed tomorrow so you can't hide in here." "Ignore her, Emma." Sol came up and, much to Emma's surprise, gave her a grandfatherly kiss on the cheek. "She's just an old grump, like me. You have a nice Christmas." Luke stared at his friend, stunned. Sol scowled. "What? I'm overwhelmed by the Christmas spirit." He pushed the door open and left. There was a moment of silence, and then Luke and Emma burst out laughing. Even Millie couldn't keep. She called me her ‘brother’ and referred to us as ‘family’, even saying things like ‘I love you’ at the end of our calls. I wasn’t there yet, and to be honest I didn’t have any intention of getting to that level of comfort with her. She doubled down on our bi-weekly calls with daily texts. To make things worse, Andrea was now talking to me too, also wanting to get to know me. This meant I was constantly repeating myself. I was answering questions about my life that I really didn’t even want. “Get undressed and get on the bed,” the wife said. “I’ll be right back. I’ve got a surprise for you.” I kicked off my shoes, dropped my pants, doffed my shirt and hopped on the bed. A few minutes later, she was back. I couldn’t believe my eyes. When she left the room, she had been dressed in the uniform of her downtown, financial-district trade – a conservative, but well-tailored, skirt suit; a white blouse and black pumps. This was a different woman. The business suit and sensible shoes were.