Like Fine Wine

"Oh, wow. Looks like your membership expired yesterday." He turned the monitor around and showed her. "See? Right there." He pointed to the expiration date then said, "But you can go talk to Mike over there at the sign-up desk and he'll take care of the renewal for you. It'll only take maybe five minutes max."

Janice knew she didn't have the money to pay for an annual renewal. She was living on a meager allowance the judge had ordered after the divorce in which Tom had demonstrated the business really was on the verge of bankruptcy. He'd been ordered to pay for her all of her living expenses to include food, electricity, etc., and to give her a fixed amount each month. It was enough to get by on, but not enough to afford a luxury like this.

"Um, that's okay, Dave. I'll have to go back home and get my credit card and then I can take care of this," she said trying to avoid having to explain herself.

"Oh, no. We have your card number on file. We just need you to sign the new contract and you'll be good to go," he said cheerfully.

"Oh, well, I...."

"Can I sign her in as my guest?" she heard a deep voice say behind her.

"Well, yeah, I guess so," Dave said. "I mean, any member can bring in a guest once a week so...yeah, you can do that."

She turned around and saw the owner of the baritone voice. She hadn't seen him there before and it surprised her when told herself she'd have definitely remembered if she had. He was just over six feet tall with very short, very thick, very dark hair. She tried not to stare but she couldn't help herself. He was very nice looking. He wasn't just tall, he was athletic. Not like a bodybuilder on one of those flex kind of magazines, something she found almost grotesque. He was just nicely built and he had the kind of eyes (and hair and body and...) that always made her look a second time. Or in this case, a third.

"Ma'am? Would you like me to sign you in?" he asked. When he smiled, she couldn't help but notice he wasn't just cute. He was an incredibly good-looking guy. Like so many others, he was obviously way too young for her, but that didn't change the fact that his perfect smile and square jaw made him look like a male model with a haircut out of the mid-90s.

"Oh, right. I'm sorry. Um, no, you don't have to do that. I can um...get this taken care of later today or tomorrow."

"It's no problem. I'm here, you're here. We both want to work out, so why go all the way home and have to come back?" He swiped his card and said, "How do I sign her in?" He wasn't brash, but he was very self confident. Dave handed him the roster and a pen and he asked, "Okay, all I need is your name, Ms. ______?"

"Janice Jones."

He filled in her name, signed his, and handed the clipboard back to Dave. "Okay. We're all set. Shall we?" he suggested as he indicated she could go first.

"Okay, sure. Well, first of all, thank you. Second, that wasn't necessary, but it was very nice, and third, you know my name, but I don't know yours." She was also surprised to find herself smiling...like that. She couldn't remember the last time she'd done so and it felt very nice.

"My apologies, ma'am. I'm Luke Williams. I'm working, temporarily anyway, over at Offut."

"Oh, you're in the military then?" she asked. She should have known by the buzz cut he was sporting as their were white sidewalls on both sides.

"Yes, ma'am. I'm a Marine Corps officer and I'm here working on STRATCOM's Quadrennial Review for the next four months."

"Oh. Well, I have no idea what that is, but it sounds very important," she said still smiling.

He laughed and said, "I'm a first lieutenant and an infantry officer. I have no idea how or why I got drafted to do this. Most of the people working on it are lieutenant colonels and colonels from the Army and Air Force." He paused for a second then said, "I guess they needed someone to fetch their coffee for them." He smiled at her and she felt like she was back in high school. She felt...giddy. She felt...she felt something she hadn't felt in a very long time. She felt...alive.

"I probably shouldn't ask, but would you mind telling me how old a first lieutenant might be?" she said as she made a kind of face that said she didn't really want to know.

"I'm 25, ma'am," he said as he smiled that smile again.

"Oh, my goodness. I feel ancient," she said her eyes open wide with disbelief. "Especially with you calling me ma'am. Could you please maybe call me Janice from now on?" she asked with a hopeful look.

"Of course, Janice from now on," he said with a wink. "Sorry, I couldn't help it."

Janice laughed out loud at his corny attempt at humor and said, "I forgot how good it feels to laugh!"

He got very serious and said, "I tend to have that effect on women." He paused again for effect then said, "But enough about my looks." When he smiled again she couldn't help herself. She giggled like she was sixteen at something some cute boy said because she liked him. The again, it actually was funny because his looks would most definitely not make any woman laugh.

"That was just as corny as your 'Janice from now on' quip," she said. She hadn't smiled this much in so long her mouth was already hurting.

"You have a great smile, Janice, so I'm willing to risk a little embarrassment to see it again."

Her happy smile turned to one that implied a different kind of feeling. She was flustered and that just made whatever it was she was feeling more intense. She decided to change the subject and said, "I see you're carrying a racquetball racquet with you so can I assume you're playing today?"

"You may," he said. "I'm meeting my boss from work, an Air Force lieutenant colonel, who found out I play a little."

"A little? I played all the time in college, but haven't been on a court since."

They were standing in front of one of the empty courts. He sat his bag on the bench and told her, "Well then, it can't be that many years since you played."

Janice held up her hands and said, "Oh, yes it can!"

Luke looked around and said, "He's not here yet. You want to bat the ball around a little until he shows up? I've got a spare racquet and an extra set of safety glasses." He pulled them out and handed them to her and before she could say 'no' he was opening the plexiglass door to let her in ahead of him.

He tossed her a blue racquetball which she caught and bounced a couple of times using the racquet. She smiled at the flood of old emotions it brought back to her. She turned toward him and said, "I wasn't kidding when I said I haven't set foot on a court in a very long time. Twenty years to be exact."

Luke whistled. "Twenty years? Wow. I didn't know they had racquetball courts that long ago. They were really just caves back then, weren't they?"

She gave him one of those narrow-eyed looks meant to be a 'watch it, buddy' kind of look. "Well, they did. We just had to sign in using a chisel and stone tablet." She turned to serve the ball and said loud enough for him to hear, "Smart ass."

Before she could serve he said, "Are you talking about my ass already? Most women wait until the second date before they get so personal."

She looked over her shoulder at him and there it was again. That damned smile of his! She feigned being really angry and said, "Okay, watch out, Lieutenant!"

He called back, "Don't think I'm gonna go easy on you because you're a girl." She looked back over her shoulder at him to see him smile and then say, "Or because you're cute."

She quickly turned her head around, flipping her long, dark hair, which was in a ponytail, with it, then dropped the ball, waited for it to come up off the floor, then smacked it hard. Rather than striking the front wall and returning past the service line as she'd intended, it shot wildly to her right, hit the side wall, and bounced harmlessly against the front wall and died.

She spun around and saw him laughing. She put her hands down at her side and said, "No, I really did play in college. That was just some kind of freak accident."

He crossed his arms, cocked his head, and said, "Uh-huh. Sure you did. And I won the Super Bowl last year."

She made a 'grrrr' face at him and went and picked up the ball. She walked back to her spot and went through the same routine. This time, she delivered a decent serve with a little bit of oomph on it. Before she could say, "Take that!" he'd slammed a kill shot off the front wall that zipped by her so fast she heard it pass by.

"My serve," he said as he went to retrieve the ball.

"Show off," she growled as he walked past her.

"I can see you're a little out of practice, so I'll serve you up a soft one." He hit a soft lob high off the front wall. She seen that shot a thousand times and knew it would land a couple of inches from the back wall making it nearly impossible to return. Even at her best, that was a very difficult serve to return. She got into position, pulled her racquet back for a backhand return then dug it directly into the wall and then the floor while missing the ball completely.

"I know, I know," he said. "You haven't played in a really long time, right?"

She picked up the ball, made another face at him, then fired it right at him. Without so much as flinching, he deftly caught it and said, "One-zero serving."

This time, he hit an easy shot right at her which she did in fact return. He hit it back to her at a slow speed again and she managed to return this volley, as well. They did that several more times before he clearly missed a volley intentionally just to make her feel better.

Janice worked out regularly, but racquetball was an incredibly demanding sport. She was breathing hard after just five minutes of chasing the ball around and returning his softball serves. That's when they heard a tap on the back door and turned to see Luke's boss, who appeared to be maybe Janice's age, standing there. He cracked the door slightly and said, "Don't let me stop you. You guys go right ahead while I stretch out, okay?"

Janice smiled while Luke said, "Will do, sir!" which reminded her of who he was or at least what he did for a living. She didn't know a single person in the military although she'd visited the weather crew at Offut a couple of times over the years.

They batted the ball around like that for another five minutes before Janice said, "Okay, that's enough. I can barely breathe and I'm gonna be sore as hell tomorrow." She handed Luke the ball and said, "Thank you again for signing me in, Luke. And thanks for taking it easy on me. It really has been a long time."

He smiled and said, "I can tell you've played. You actually have good fundamentals. You'll be back up to speed in no time."

"I don't know about that," she said. "I'm not even sure I'll be back after today."

He opened the door for her to let her out and asked, "Why's that? I thought you just needed to renew your membership?"

"It's complicated," she told him. She held up her bare hand and said, "I'm just recently divorced, money's tight, and...yadda-yadda-yadda."

"Seinfeld fan?" he asked.

"The biggest," she told him. "No soup for you!" she said imitating "The Soup Nazi", one of the most famous episodes in the show's long history.

She gave him back his racquet and goggles and said, "I enjoyed it, Luke. Thanks again and maybe I'll see you around sometime."

She picked up her own bag when he said, "Listen. The courts on base are being renovated so they gave us free passes here, but they're supposed to be done by Wednesday. If you'd like to play again, we could play there...for free. I'd be happy to pick you up and bring you on base. I mean, if you're interested."

"Uh...I don't know, Luke. I'm really out of practice and out of shape and this can't be much fun for you."

He smiled at her again and said, "You might be out of practice but you're definitely not out of shape." He looked so boyishly handsome as he told her, "You were kinda/sorta talking about my ass, but I have to admit I was kind of...looking at yours."

She gave him an, "Oh, really?" kind of look before saying, "I'm not sure whether to be flattered or offended." She moved closer and said, "I guess that depends on what you saw."

"Oh, I can assure you it was very um...flattering. You know, for someone your age and all."

She made yet another face and tapped her toe and said, "You're very close to being in very deep trouble here, Luke. I'd watch my step if I were you."

"I was actually watching your step. Well, when I wasn't watching your ass, that is."

She feigned shock at his 'forward comment' then laughed. "Well, it's been about as long since anyone checked out my...ass...as it's been since I played racquetball so I guess I'll consider that a compliment."

"Trust me, Janice. It was most definitely a compliment."

"Well, I guess I do owe you one after you rescuing me and signing me in today so...okay. Yes, I'd like that."

He handed her his cell phone so she could enter his number while he did the same with hers and she felt a kind of flutter she hadn't felt in almost as many years as it had been since a cute guy had checked out her ass. "There you go," he said.

"You're not one of those guys who never calls, are you?" she asked.

"Oh, sorry. Yeah, that's a problem because—unfortunately, I am," he said with great seriousness. When she looked at him with that 'oh, boy' kind of look he said, "Yeah, I pretty much only send texts so don't expect a call." When she smiled again he said, "At least not until our second date."

"Second date? Dream much?" she said as she caught herself flipping her hair again like she really was sixteen. She was both embarrassed at having done that again and yet she was also feeling...excited...as she turned and walked away.

"Nice ass!" he called out. She turned to see him smile at her one last time and she couldn't tell if her heart was pounding from playing racquetball or if there was some other reason for it.

"So you're dating the weather girl."

"Sir?" he said to his boss.

"I've never met her but, I'm pretty damn sure that's Janice Monroe, the local weather girl. Or least she was for as long as I've been here which is going on four years. Come to think of it, I haven't seen her on TV for a while now."

"A local celebrity?" Luke asked him.

"Yeah, I guess. Or at least she was. Not sure what's going on with her. But I'll tell you what. She's hot as hell. If things don't work out for you guys, lemme know, okay?"

Luke laughed and said, "Oh, no. It's not like like that, Colonel. We played a little racquetball and we're gonna get together on base this weekend and play again. But that's all there is to it."

"Oh, really? Well that makes one of you who believes that." He pointed his racquet toward the court and said, "Come on Luke, I gotta kick your ass then get home and take care of some honey-do's."

After her workout, Janice couldn't get the handsome young officer out of her mind as she sat and stared at a mountain of paperwork on her desk. She knew she had to start looking for work, but she hadn't even updated her resume in well, ever. In fact, she only had a paper copy of the one she'd used to get hired so her first task was to re-create it on her laptop then fill it with real or imaginary bullets of things she'd done over the past 20 years. She spent several hours updating it but had no interest in doing any more with it the rest of the day. The only thing she wanted to do was daydream—about him.

That evening, she was eating dinner—alone—as she'd done for what had turned into several months—when she got a text from Luke. She anxiously opened her messages and read: "Hey! How about Saturday morning again? I'll pick you up at your place at 9am if that works for you. Luke."

She found herself smiling broadly as she tapped in her reply: "Sounds perfect. See you then." She also sent him her address and hit 'send.'

She sat there thinking about how they met and found herself wishing he'd text her back with the hope of being able to have some kind of conversation with him. She wasn't sure if it was just the constant feeling of loneliness or if it might be something more, but she couldn't stop wishing he'd text her again. That thought made her laugh out loud. He was 17 years younger than she was and he was attractive enough to have any girl his own age. In less than a minute, she'd convinced herself he wouldn't text her again and that, in spite of his apparent flirting, it really was all about racquetball and nothing else.

Over the next couple of days, she sent out a few resumes via a couple of on-line apps that shotgunned them out to a large number of businesses wondering whether that was even a viable means of getting a job. Perhaps it would be just as smart to pick up a newspaper and look through the help-wanted ads. She just had no experience with looking for work and after everything she'd been through recently, she just didn't have the motivation to get dressed and go out and market herself.

As Saturday rolled around, Janice found herself looking forward to playing again but even more so to seeing Luke. She really had been pretty good 'back in the day' and she'd enjoyed the one game she'd played with Luke even though he wasn't really trying. He was obviously a really good player himself and he was being modest when he said he'd 'played a little.'

She laughed at herself when she realized she'd tried on four different outfits in the last fifteen minutes. "Yeah, you're just going to the gym to play racquetball," she said to herself. "There's nothing more to it. Just bat the ball around for an hour and come back home alone. That's all you want this to be. Nothing more. Yep, you keep telling yourself that, Janice. Uh-huh."

She was pulling on number five when the doorbell rang. "Oh, crap!" she said out loud. She ran down the stairs and through the living room then slowed down and collected herself before she got to the door. She took a deep breath then opened it slightly.

"Hey there!" he said flashing that...smile. "Am I early?" he asked as he looked down at his watch.

"Oh, no. I was just getting ready. Come on in and I'll be right with you, okay?"

She let him in and offered him something to drink, but he told her he was fine. "You can say that again," she said to herself as she smiled and excused herself to go back upstairs.

She wanted to change a sixth time but talked herself out of it and stuck with the white top and the black shorts with her white shoes. She'd found her old racquet and it looked to be in pretty good shape, but it was a lot smaller and different looking than the ones Luke had or that his Air Force boss was holding. She had a racquet, but didn't own any safety goggles so she'd need to borrow Luke's again. She grabbed a sweater to wear inside then put on her coat to wear outside and headed downstairs.

"Okay, all set!" she announced.

On their way to the gym, Janice learned Luke was stationed at Camp Pendleton, California, and had just returned from a year in Afghanistan. He only been in the Marine Corps a little over three years and he was at Offut on a four-month TAD or Temporary Additional Duty assignment. His battalion had been assigned a quota to provide one first lieutenant to STRATCOM for this Quadrennial Review thing and Luke said he'd drawn the short straw.

"Short straw? Don't you like Omaha?" she asked.

"I've only been here two weeks so I can't really say. It seems nice enough. I'm actually from Iowa myself so it's not all that different. It's just that there aren't any Marines in Omaha and I really am kind of an errand boy here on this project, so yeah, it kind of was a short-straw sort of deal."

"So are you going to stay in the military?" she asked him.

"Probably," he told her. "I find leading Marines to be incredibly satisfying and it's hard to imagine finding another job I'd enjoy this much." He turned toward her as they drove and said, "I just can't see myself in a shirt and tie sitting in a cubicle somewhere all day, you know."