Three On A Bullet

      Johnny Lee had spent most of his adult either in the Army, four years of pushing papers for someone else. He had grown very tired of doing other people's paperwork, worst yet, counting their money. Generally a lot of it.

He was in his late 20's and was generally in good shape, the one good thing the Army had taught him was how to maintain one's body. Oh, and there were one or two other skills, none of which was generally not usable in civilian life.

Then he met Frank Foster. Frank Foster had a large business, which he ran with his wife Linda. They had built an empire of supplying boxes of all shapes and sizes to the entire eastern seaboard. Companies need boxes of all sizes and strengths for storage, shipping and for giving to the consumer for their use. He made those boxes he owned one of the largest cardboard and box factories on the east coast. Located in Virginia, it was easy to ship north, south and all points west, and across the sea.

Johnny was originally hired to help go over books and make sure they were ok. But as soon as he met Linda a dinner party a short time after starting at the company, he was memorized.

She walked into the room. Her hair was blazing red, the dress was a designer name. All Johnny Lee saw has her ankles as she walked down the stairs, they took his attention, the anklet was just the right the right touch. He was introduced by Frank. He stood looking at her almost unable to speak. Finally, he got some words out barely audio pleasantries. The rest of the event was a blur. He really didn't remember much after meeting Linda. He did know he didn't have any more alcohol afterward, he just couldn't remember if he made a fool of himself or not.

The next time was coherent enough to remember anything was at his apartment. All he could think about was Linda Foster. He knew he had talked to her, he couldn't remember what they said. They may have even danced, for all he knew. He kept picturing her coming down the stairs into the room, and finally coming face to face with her. It was like a short loop playing over and over in his mind. Sleep finally came, in spurts. He'd finally doze off, and he wake up and see the loop again in his mind. Once when he was finally good and asleep, he woke up to have to pee. that was the end of that, the loop came back, again, and again. Finally, it was morning. Johnny dragged himself into the bathroom, looked at himself in the mirror. He looked like heck like he'd been on a two day drunk. He knew what a two-day drunk looked like, and this was worst. In two hours he had to be at Frank's office to work. The clothes came off, naked he still didn't look much better. Like he'd been ridden hard and put away wet, as he heard the saying go. The shower was next. soaking in the water as hot as he could stand it as long as he could stand it helped, some. Out of the shower, he almost didn't dare to shave for fear of cutting himself. But he managed to find his face on the short growth of beard that was already starting without nicking himself. The clean suit and food did wonders. If shut his eyes the loop came back. He couldn't shake her.

Two hours later, a clean suit, and breakfast and a very quick look at his email, he was at his boss's office. To his surprise, Linda was there. it turned out that she was very involved with the day to day operation of the main office. He found it impossible to keep his mind on what was going on while Linda was in the room. The morning dragged on. Lunch was ordered in. In the form of a local upscale restaurant delivering it piping hot and serving it in the empty conference room.

Johnny Lee could feel the tension building between him and Linda Foster over the next several weeks. It was bad enough, he had a serious problem focusing and functioning when she was around during the day at work. But at night he couldn't get her out of his mind, He kept seeing the loop, of when he first saw her in his mind, then other loops of her, as they were together over the weeks.