Sleeping with a "co-worker" was the best thing I chose to do in my entire lifetime. Laura managed one of my company's motorcycle shops. I was a stock-holder and worked in the corporate offices. I had met her once when she came (I don't know why) to visit our main shop. I was taking photos to be used in an article I was writing for a trade magazine. Struck by her looks, I asked her to be a model. Her 'role" was to be "selling" a BMW to a customer. She portrayed herself well. The article was published.
Months later, Our driver (who was called "Pirate," his bike club nickname) was sick and couldn't deliver a shipment of new model year bikes and accessories to Laura's store. I was the only one at the headquarters who had a license to operate trucks in Germany, so I substituted. Pirate was also to "do a show" at Laura's store, which meant staying in Nurnberg for the weekend. I took my bike (an R100RS) along thinking I'd have a chance to tour around Nurnberg. (I did, with Laura on the pillion.)
During a lull in business, she asked me if I'd arranged for a hotel. I told her I planned to after the store closed. She looked at me suspiciously and asked "Did Hoffman (Corporate Manager) tell you to stay in my guest room?" I admitted he had.
She was obviously perturbed. "I'm tired of his inviting employees to do that, but okay, you can stay at my place but you have to take to dinner at my favorite restaurant." Her husband, an Army Captain, was "in the field."
Laura's favorite restaurant was the only Mexican restaurant in Germany (I believe). Having lived in New Mexico, I had grown fond of Mexican food. We spent four hours after Fajitas sipping beer and deeply involved in each other. Besides telling each other about our lives, I learned that she and her husband had decided to divorce. She had agreed to stay together until he was reassigned to Fort Ord which was to happen in a few weeks. He would arrive at his new base as a single officer.
Our company was planning to open a new (and largest) store in Kaiserslautern. Laura was one of our best organized managers so I urged her to apply. She interviewed with Hoffman and got the job. Laura and I found an apartment half-way between our offices in a small town named Kirschheim-Bolanden. We each drove 32 kilometers to work.
That was the beginning of thirty wonderful years together.