The Exception

'Knock knock'

She startled at the sound, closing the field of her bittersweet memories. Her hands still busy doing the dishes as she gets lost in her thoughts for what seemed a lifetime.

Stefan.

It has been weeks since she had sent the book to the headquarters where he was supposed to do whatever paperwork his country needed him to, where a contact in Berlin secretly messaged her.

She was wondering if she would ever get a chance to see him again, ignoring unknown answers of whether he received the book or if he was even still alive. No letter, no telegram. Nothing. The spy agent who informed her vanished. Just like she had. Gone. No news yet.

When she finally arrived in London she endured a dreadful debriefing from the secret agency that sent her to the Kaiser's house. 

Their concern or more accusations she may have turned her coat and collaborated with the enemy. After all, "Women are weak sometimes" they said.

She spit out all the details she could, talking everything about Captain Stefan Brandt, making sure to pass him off as a double agent, a traitor to his country who had saved her life. Saving her in so many ways. 

Her hierarchy had trusted her and due to her service's records, foreign languages skills and condition, hired her as a voice coach. Her duty was to teach the spies-to-be everything they had to know about German accents, habits and subtleties of dialect, depending on where they would be based or supposed to be from.

She also taught women the smartest way to use their ass and boobs to lure men. First and foremost, Officers or high-ranking Generals.

Men are weak she said, and stupid especially when it's about bang one out. Best opportunity for pillow talks.

She knew too well about what she was talking, not bothering to warn the ladies from falling in love. Because that's not something you could neither choose nor control. If only she wouldn't have falling for Stefan so deep and hard, she wouldn't have felt this alone and desperate. 

Her job provided her enough money to rent this place, relatively safe since they assured her she wouldn't go back on the field.

Being busy kept her from turning mad, she had so much work with the soldiers it really helped to fill her mind with something else other than him.

She already was preserving the memory of him in her mind and under her skin, literally.

Of course there were a number of suitors around her, all willing to put either her in their bed or a ring on her finger. After all, women like her were hard to find; Smart, Courageous, Beautiful, Single and Employed. 

But there was no way she could respond to any of those pretenders. 

She was his and only his. No one compared to her German Captain, ever.

She opened the door, still lost in her thoughts, her hand left the doorknob to finish wiping them on her white apron.

"Yes?" As it slipped through her lips before she lifted her gaze up to meeting her visitor's piercing blue eyed stare which she knew and missed so much.

She gasped in shock, her hands gripping her chest, her eyes widening and trying to focus on the man in front of her through fresh tears.

He was alive. And he was here.

She was as beautiful as he remembered. Even sweeter as it was the real her, not the ghost image which had haunted his dreams and thoughts for the latest 5 months.