Perfect Soldier: The Complete Story (5-Part BBW Military Romance Novel) (10 page)

Chapter
Three

Colton

After dropping off Cat, I drove over to
the University. I didn’t know exactly where the Registrar’s Office was, but I
figured I could find it quickly enough. Unfortunately, I was working against a
bit of a deadline, seeing as how the office closed around 5 PM.

As I drove through campus, I came across
a man in a tweed jacket walking down one of the sidewalks. He looked like he
must be a professor, so I slowed down the car and waved him over to get some
directions. The Registrar was about 500 yards ahead, around a bend in the road.
Couldn’t miss it. I thanked him and continued on my way.

The campus was nearly empty since
classes hadn’t started yet. This meant there were plenty of open spaces outside
the Registrar’s Office. I parked and went inside, finding a pleasant,
middle-aged woman behind the desk.

“Can I help you?” she asked cheerfully,
putting down the book she’d been reading.

“I sure hope so. I’m looking to pay for
classes for this upcoming semester.”

“OK, what classes do you want to sign up
for?”

“Well, it’s not actually for me. The
name is Cat, I mean Catherine Simmons. She signed up online earlier today, but
she hasn’t paid yet,” I said, pulling out my wallet.

“Alright,” said the woman. “Is that
Katherine with a ‘K’ or Catherine with a ‘C’?”

“With a ‘C.’”

“OK, just one second please while I pull
up her info. Alright then, I see her down for Intermediate Biology and an
introductory Anatomy class. Is that correct?”

“Yes,” I said.

“OK, so that’s going to come to $5065.
That’s $2500 for each class plus an administration fee of $65,” said the woman.

“Can I pay for three classes actually?”

“Of course. What will the third class
be?”

“I’m not sure yet. But can I pay now and
she can sign up for the third course online?” I asked.

“Sure, we can do that. You’ll just pay
for the credits now, and it will forward an e-mail to Cat’s account and she can
sign up for the additional class. So the new total will be $7565. How would you
like to pay?”

“Can I used a credit card?”

“No, I’m sorry. Check, debit, or cash.”

“Alright, debit then,” I said, pulling another card
out of my wallet to hand it to her.

I thanked the woman for her helpfulness
and walked out of the warm office back to the car in the parking lot. I sat
there for a little while, thinking about things. I didn’t know how Cat would
react to what I’d just done. I kept mulling it over, playing out the
conversation in my head. Would she be angry that I’d gone behind her back?
Would she think I was pressuring her?

Of course I didn’t mean it that way. I
simply wanted her to have the freedom to go after her goals next semester. And
maybe there was a bit of a selfish element as well. I knew that work and class
would steal her attention away from me. But without a tuition bill to worry
about, maybe she could afford to take some time off at the bar.

That would be nice, wouldn’t it?
Home-cooked food, nightly dinners together, pleasant evenings spent watching
movies and romping in the bedroom. That sounded like the perfect life. I hoped
Cat would agree. If she could understand that, then she could forgive the
secretive way I’d gone about things. Only time would tell. I shifted the car
into gear and headed back to the apartment. It was still awhile before I’d make
my way over to the bar, my nightly routine of keeping Cat company while she
worked.

***

Catherine

Around 10 PM, I was relieved to see Colt walk in
through the doors of the bar. My night thus far has been steeped in absolute
boredom. As it stood, even at this hour there were only about ten people in the
bar, mostly huddled around tables, drinking and talking in pairs or small
groups. No one was sitting at the bar counter.

I didn’t know what to blame the slow night on. I
guess it was a combination of it being a week night and that there were no
significant sporting events being aired on television. Even the dinner time and
happy hour crowds had been slow. Either way, the end result was that it had
been a poor tip night, even by weekday standards.

As soon as Colt walked in, I poured a pint of
Budweiser and set it down at the end of the bar, his usual spot.

“I’m so glad to see you,” I said with exaggerated
exasperation. “I’m dying of boredom here.”

“Yeah, it’s dead in here,” he said, taking a sip of
his beer. “Think you might close it down early?”

“I’m gonna try. If we don’t have more than twenty
people in here by eleven o’clock I’ll probably start getting ready to close.”

“Good.”

It was nice having him come by the bar, and on
nights like this it certainly gave me a distraction. Tending bar is one of
those jobs where if you’re not busy, there’s no point in being there. You get
paid to be busy, so when it’s slow, it feels like a gigantic waste of time. If
there had been another bartender on staff, I would have asked them to cover for
me and slipped out early. But the other girl scheduled tonight had called in,
so I was the only one working.

The next hour passed a bit faster than before now
that I had Colt around to talk to. Some more customers walked in, and for a
small stretch of time it looked like things were picking up. But soon they
started heading out just as fast as they’d come in. By around 11:30, there were
only a handful of people left sitting at a table away from the bar.

I couldn’t exactly kick them out, unfortunately.
Instead I settled for turning on the lights and announcing last call.
Technically, last call was supposed to be at least 12:00 AM on weeknights,
later if it was busier, but I didn’t see the harm in closing a bit early.
Besides, these people looked to be on their way out sooner rather than later
anyway. Instead of getting another drink, they came up and settled their tabs
and headed out the door.

Colt went outside to warm up the car while I tidied
up the bar and counted the cash in the register. Fifteen minutes later I was
locking the back door, happy to be running through the frosty parking lot to
the comfort of the heated car.

***

Colton

When Cat got inside I almost blurted it out right
then, almost told her about the Vegas money and the tuition payment I’d made
earlier at the Registrar’s Office. I felt slightly guilty about keeping it from
her at this point. It’s not that I think I did anything wrong, but I felt bad
about not telling her first. Maybe it was something I should have discussed
with her beforehand.

No, I thought. That would never have worked. Cat was
too proud, she wouldn’t have accepted the money otherwise. Still, I had to
figure out a way to tell her, one that would show her that I’d done it because
I cared about her, that I’d done it so she could focus on her studies, and so
that we could spend our finite time together. But the best way to tell her
these things eluded me right now. I was never very eloquent with my words. I
still needed to mull it over for a while.

So instead we drove through the night in silence,
tired and content to be heading home to the apartment we shared. Once we were
home it was straight to bed, sex and sleep. It seemed to be all we could handle
at the end of a long night. But I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Chapter
Four

Catherine

The next morning I woke up feeling sore from the hot
sex of the night before. It was our typical routine carried to a passionate
extreme, climactic and cathartic sex that had us both lost in a whirlwind of
lust and fury. I yawned, looking over beside me at Colt laying there asleep. I
had half a mind to wake him up and give it another go. That was his effect on
me: making me sexually insatiable. The more he fucked me, the more I wanted to
be fucked.

But there were things to do today. I needed to go to
campus and pay for classes. I might as well get that out of the way now, so
Colt and I could spend some quality time together before I had to go into work.
I threw on some clothes, opting to skip a shower and breakfast for the time being.
I figured I would stop at Starbucks for a coffee on my way in to the campus.

I arrived about thirty minutes after the Registrar’s
Office had opened, a hot cup of coffee in hand. I figured getting in early
would make this a quick and relatively painless process. That was good, since I
usually hated these types of administrative errands.

I walked into the building, shocked by the
difference in temperature between the inside and the chilly weather outdoors. A
woman sat behind the desk, reading a book. When she noticed someone had walked
in she looked up and smiled warmly at me.

“Can I help you?”

“Yes, just coming by to pay tuition.”

“What’s the name?”

“Catherine Simmons. I’m taking two courses this
semester, if that helps.”

“Just a second, let me pull your file up.”

I waited patiently as the woman tapped away at the
computer.

“Simmons. Simmons, Catherine. With a “C”, correct?”
she asked, looking up inquisitively.

“Yes.”

“OK, let’s see here. Alright, looks like you’re all
set.”

“All set?”

“Yep, you’re all taken care of.”

“What do you mean? I haven’t paid yet,” I said,
pulling my wallet out of my purse.

The woman looked slightly confused. She looked down
at her computer screen as if to verify something.

“Nope, says right here you’re all paid up,” she
said, giving me the same smile.

“There must be a mistake. I mean, I’m not one to
turn down free tuition, but I definitely haven’t paid yet.”

“It says you’re paid up. Let me check and see if we
have the receipt, or a copy of the check or debit card number or something.”

I watched as the woman scrolled through the computer
system, clicking now and again before finally coming upon the sought after
information.

“Alright. Says right here paid by a Colton Bradley.”

“Huh?” I said.

Obviously, I recognized the name, but I was
shell-shocked. What was going on here?

“Ahh yes, now I remember. Handsome young man came in
here yesterday and paid. Tall, short with his words. Is he your husband?”

“No,” I said. “Boyfriend.”

Though I had to admit, husband had a nice ring to
it.

“Now, I should actually tell you he paid for three
courses, so you need to go online and select another one. You should have
gotten an email actually. Did you get an email?”

“No. Or, I don’t know, actually. I haven’t checked,”
I said.

“Well, be on the lookout for that. There’s a link in
it that will take you right to the place you need to go. If you don’t receive
that by, say, noon today, give us a call and we’ll figure out what the problem
is.”

“Alright,” I said.

There was no point in arguing with her. She seemed
to have all the documentation to back it up. But why did Colt do this? And when
had he found the time? I didn’t mean it in an accusatory way, I genuinely
wanted to know. And where had he gotten all that cash? $7500 just like that? I
walked back out to the parking lot wondering about this. Obviously, we needed
to discuss what had happened. I started up the car and headed back to the
apartment, nervous at the prospect of the confrontation that lay ahead.

Chapter
Five

Catherine

I walked in to find Colt over the stove cooking
breakfast. I had to laugh; he looked so helpless just trying to make some
simple scrambled eggs. I nudged him out of the way and set to work, giving him
a smile. But inside I was wondering how I should bring up what was on my mind.
And not just how, but when.

A little while later, as we sat down to breakfast at
the dining room table, I decided to just go for it right then and there. It was
pointless to let this dark cloud hang over things between us, better just to
get the issue out in the open so we could deal with it.

“So, I just came back from the Registrar’s Office…”
I said, looking directly at him to sense a change in composure.

I saw the subtlest change in his complexion, a
slight tensing that told it all. Colt just sipped his coffee, not saying
anything, but looking guilty as all get out.

“What’s going on?” I asked. “They told me you paid
for my classes.”

“I did,” he said calmly and quietly, looking down at
the black coffee in his mug.

“And you don’t think that deserves some sort of
explanation?”

Colt sighed, putting the mug down and looking me in
the eye.

“I was trying to do you a favor, Cat. And I was
planning to tell you. I didn’t know you’d be headed to the Registrar today,” he
said, his face solemn, but sincere.

“I can’t let you do that. It’s not fair, let me pay
you back.”

“No,” he said sternly. “It’s done. It’s paid for and
non-refundable. I don’t want your money. Consider it a gift.”

“A gift? That’s way too much money. I can’t accept.”

“Why not? I want you to have it. I want you to be
able to concentrate on classes. Now that you don’t have to pay for tuition you
can take more time off work. You can spend time studying,
or spend it with
me
.”

“I still have to work,” I said.

“Well, work less. Just work weekends. You were complaining
last night that weeknights are practically worthless for tips. Why not use that
time for yourself and what you really care about? Take the three classes
instead of two, get into Vet school faster. I’m trying to give you an
opportunity.”

“But it’s your money, not mine. You should be using
it on what you want.”

“This is what I want.”

I stayed silent for a bit, unsure of how to proceed.
He seemed to have made up his mind about this. The classes were paid for, there
was no getting the money back. I could try paying him back, but he said he
wouldn’t accept my money. There was still one thing though that bothered me,
one thing that weighed on my mind as I processed all this new information.

“Where did you get it?” I asked sharply.

“What?”

“The money. Where did you get all that money?”

Colt was evasive initially. I held my eyes on him
and finally he answered.

“I won it in Vegas,” he said. “It’s windfall money.
Lucky money. I want to use it for something worthwhile.”

“You should be saving that money. $7500 is nothing
to scoff at.”

“I won more than $7500.”

“How much did you win?”

“A lot,” he said, sipping his coffee. I saw an
element of cockiness come back into him.

“Like, $10K?” I asked.

“More.”

“Twenty?”

Colt made an upwards motion, moving his arm up and
down while holding up his thumb

“Fifty? Oh my – I can’t believe this.”

He made the motion once again and I damn near
fainted.

“How is that even possible?”

“I’m good at cards.”

“That sounds like an understatement. So I ask you
again, how is that even possible?”

“I was there for a week, Cat. I won some, I lost
some. But the hands I won were bigger than the ones I lost. And I left at the
right time before I had a chance to lose it all back to the house.”

He said all this matter-of-factly, as if he didn’t
understand the momentousness of his own accomplishment. As if this was just a
common occurrence for him. Suddenly, that lavish celebratory dinner made a lot
more sense to me.

“Why didn’t you tell me about this before?” I asked,
somewhat hurt.

“Look, we were still getting to know each other back
then. I didn’t want the money to complicate things, didn’t want the money to
throw us off. If I told you about it, I could never be sure if it was me or the
money you were into. Now that I know for sure, I want to share it with you
because I care about you so damn much. You deserve it, babe. So just take the
money.”

That explanation did make sense to me, so while I
was sort of troubled he’d kept it from me, I understood why.

“Alright,” I said. “I just wish there was a way I could
repay you. I feel guilty taking your money like this.”

“It’s because you’re a proud woman, and I like that.
But the truth is, there’s nothing better that I can think of to do with this
money. There is a way you can pay me back though,” he said.

“How?”

“Do well in your classes. And take time off from
work,” he said.

“I don’t know if I can take time off. I don’t think
Mike will let me.”

“Well, all you have to do is ask. You can’t take
three classes and work 50 hours a week. It’s just not humanly possible. See if
you can keep it to weekends. Friday and Saturday. Two nights per week, three at
most.”

“But I need the money, I can’t just depend on you.”

“You’ve got money. All that cash you were going to
pay for tuition, now you can save it. Besides you know weeknights are never
good moneywise. The time is worth more than the money.”

“You’re sure about this?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said plainly. “I think this is the best
thing for you. For both of us.”

“Alright, I’ll talk to Mike.”

“Good.”

I got up from the table and stood behind him,
leaning down to wrap my arms around my neck and kiss his cheek. Colt held his
arms over mine. We stood there for a few moments, this awkward embrace that
somehow felt quite alright.

It was as if our relationship had passed over to a new
phase. There was no denying how significant Colt’s gesture was. It was
something that linked us together, something that told me he believed in me,
that he believed in
us
. I was looking forward to taking the time off
work, that would be a nice change of pace. More time for us to spend together
and keep building on what we had. I felt good about things.

“I still wish there was something I could do to
repay you.”

“Well, I’ve got an idea,” said Colt. He turned
around and winked.

I knew exactly what he had in mind.