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It’s not every day you graduate with your Master’s in Physics. To celebrate, your friends decided to make it a week long celebration.
While many other students your age would spend the celebrations crawling from bar to bar, you and your friends celebrated by sleeping in late and then heading to the beach. The four of you had all had busy schedules with school the last few years.
Of course, you loved to party and would join often in the dancing and drinking. This week however, you all just wanted to relax and reconnect as friends.
A few days ago you had visited The Hard Deck, a bar that was close to the Naval base. You each had enjoyed your drinks and even a few dances with some of the aviators that you met. You even got to hear someone playing Great Balls of Fire on the piano, but didn’t get a chance to see who it was.
Today you find yourselves at the beach enjoying the sun and waves. Not to mention the group of tanned gods and goddess playing a unique form of football not too far from where you were.
You had no problem staring shamelessly at them. Not a problem at all. You were studying them all for… research. As a student, you knew research of all kinds mattered.
You all continued to watch the game and laugh along with the pilots. Your eyes immediately fell upon a tanned man doing a little celebration dance. You don’t know what it was about it but it reaches you in places that had felt dormant for so long.
“You’re a pilot not a stripper Roos!” You hear one of the other pilots call out to the one doing his little dance and you can’t help but crack up at their interactions.
The wind carries your laugh over to the pilots and they turn to look at your group. They wave you and your friends over to join them. A blonde, green-eyed pilot, is bold and wraps an arm around your friend's shoulders. "We're heading back to the base but would you girls love to join us for drink later tonight?" He asks.
"Actually yeah. We came the other day and it was a fun environment, even the improptu piano playing and singing," you respond.
To your amusement, the pilot that had done the dance perked up at hearing you. "So you enjoyed the performance?" He asks smirking. "I'm Rooster by the way."
"I enjoyed your little dance even more,” you’re quick to reply, causing a slight flush to reach his cheeks. “I guess I’ll see you later Rooster.”
While she’s getting your drinks, you’re chatting with Penny, when you hear the pilots come in and your name being called out.
Penny raises a brow and smirks. “Second time here and already have an admirer.”
“What can I say? They just love me for my big brain and degree,” you teasingly reply before heading back to your friends, now surrounded by the pilots you met earlier.
As you’re setting your drink down, the jukebox is disconnected and, just like your first time here, someone starts playing and singing Great Balls of Fire.
This time you’re able to see that it’s Rooster playing and singing. Immediately, your smile widens and you go to join him by the piano to sing.
He winks at you when he sings the line “Kiss me, baby.” So you do.
Leaning down you kiss his cheek and he pulls you onto his lap as he continues to play. He finishes the song to the whole crowd cheering him on.
The jukebox is once again connected and he has one of the other aviators hit play on a song.
“So you think you can follow my lead and sing the next song?” He asks you. “Only sing if you’d be willing to go on a date with me,” he adds softly.
You Better Shape Up starts playing and you just about fall back with happy laughter. Never before had you felt such ease and freedom with a guy.
Yeah you had been busy with classes but you still had free time to date. But not even your last serious boyfriend just let you be yourself. Seeing Bradley also smiling back at you, you knew that you wouldn’t need to walk on eggshells with him.
“Darling, you're the one I want in paper rings, in picture frames, in dirty dreams. Oh, you're the one I want,” you tell him before leaning in to kiss him.
“Let’s find paper rings then.” Bradley is looking at you, and for the first time, he knows he found someone that would be the Carole to his Goose. He smiles tenderly at you before kissing you back.