Prologue: Katie and Sienna are in Chicago for a reunion party at Lizzy’s house with 10 or 15 other friends. Because they both live by New York City, they carpooled in Katie’s car for the journey there. When the dinner event wraps up Katie gets an urgent call from her office. The call has a special ringtone, a ringtone that indicates that the situation is urgent.
Katie grabs Sienna by the arm and nearly drags her out of the room. “I have to go.”
“Katie, what happened? And go where? The plan was to stay at Lizzy’s house for the weekend.”
“I don’t know the full details right now, but it’s work and it’s important.” Katie turns to leave.
“You’re lying. It’s 8PM on a Friday night. You don’t have work. Every time I want to do something fun you always have work. I’m coming with you.” Katie starts to protest, but Sienna quickly ducks back into the living room to grab her purse and meets Katie outside at the car.
“Alright, Katie. Let’s go to ‘work.’” Despite her remarks, Sienna is surprised that the navigation predicts an arrival time of 11 hours and 30 minutes. Is the navigation set to New York? She starts having doubts about protesting that she come along. Sienna had been looking forward to this reunion for months.
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you. It’s going to be a long drive, so take a nap or something. It’s a good thing I didn’t take my backpack out of the trunk.” Katie pushes the clutch in, and the car starts moving. Once they turn onto the highway, she speeds up to almost 80 miles per hour, despite the 65-mph speed limit and wet, dark conditions. After a few silent minutes, Katie reaches for the radio, but then stops and frowns.
“Sienna, you should tell the group that we had to take off. I’m sorry, I know you really wanted to do this. But you did insist on coming with me.” Katie then plugs in her phone and starts Carplay.
“So you actually do need to work late Friday night?” Sienna’s eyes start to tear up.
“Yep.” Katie works as a forensic accountant at one of the biggest international banks in the world. Her job is tracking and recovering money that goes missing due to fraud or corruption. “I might have to take some conference calls too while we’re driving. A sum of money went missing three hours ago from a corporate client. An investigation is ongoing, but they’re calling teams into the office to track it down.” Sensing that Sienna is upset, she turns the music down. “There was always a chance this could happen. You didn’t have to come, you know.”
“I’m so sorry I didn’t trust you. Can you turn around and drop me back at Lizzy’s?”
“Sorry, Sienna. I have to get there as fast as possible. Look, we’ve driven 20 miles, and the next exit isn’t for a while. Turning around now adds another hour to my trip. My car has about a fourth of a tank left. That’s another 45, 50 miles. At the first gas station, we can change into more comfortable clothes.”
They reach the gas station, and Katie says, “I have to use the bathroom, the car takes 87 or 89 octane. If 87 is there, pick that one. I’ll grab my backpack out of the backseat and change inside.”
Sienna laughs. “You know I don’t trust these types of bathrooms. I’d feel better changing out here.”
“Suit yourself.” Katie is glad Sienna’s recovered from having to leave the party so soon. Katie leaves, with her bag over her shoulder, and Sienna starts the gas pump and puts the nozzle into the car. She pulls off her tight-fitting dress and reveals that she’s wearing nothing underneath. Sienna grimaces at her nudity but would much rather wear no underwear than have her underwear show through her dress. She quickly looks around and makes sure no one’s watching her. The rain picks up, but she’s safe underneath the canopy of the gas station. She opens the trunk of Katie’s car and feels around for her duffel bag.
After a minute, she closes the trunk and opens the rear door of the sedan. Where is my bag? She tries to remember where she would have put it. SHIT! Sienna remembers that she took the bag into Lizzy’s house, despite Katie telling her that “It’s late, we can get our bags after dinner or even tomorrow morning.” Sienna starts to panic. She clutches her dress close to her chest.
Suddenly, one of the lights that was out powers up, startling Sienna. “AHH!” For all she knows, those could be headlights. She drops her dress and ducks behind the car. After the shock wears off, she pokes her head above the car, and sees no one. Sienna slowly stands up and picks up her dress. Just my luck! In her haste, she dropped her only clothes straight into a muddy puddle. As her heart races, she gingerly places her dress in the car, and wonders how to continue. She decides to stand behind the car, and crouches slightly to the point where Katie wouldn’t notice anything was wrong until Sienna was ready to tell her. I slipped. No, I tripped. Over my heels. And then my dress fell. And then I realized I had no other clothes. She tries to come up with a less-embarrassing excuse than being scared by a flickering lamp.
Katie runs out of the store wearing a plain white t-shirt and black leggings. She’s running to try not to get drenched, so she probably also changed into flats too. She has her backpack on her shoulder and a plastic bag in her hand. She waves at Sienna and points to her left. What? Sienna looks left but sees nothing.
“Sorry, couldn’t yell over the rain. It’s crazy out here, we might have to keep our speeds lower if we don’t want to hydroplane away. And I left the umbrella in the car. Anyway, the pump is done but you didn’t take the nozzle out.” Katie makes the same hand motion she made at Sienna when she was running towards the car.
“Oh, that’s what you meant with the wave. I didn’t notice.” Sienna blushes, getting a mortifying flashback of the reason she didn’t notice the gas pump finish. As Katie twists the fuel cap back into place, Sienna decides that she should start with her explanation.
“Uh, Katie?”
“Yeah?” She says, not looking up.
“I left my duffel bag at Lizzy’s.”
“That’s a shame. Well, I did say we can’t go back. That’s alright though, I just thought that changing would be a bit more comfortable for the long journey.”
“I’m also naked right now.”
Katie finally looks up and giggles. “Girl, how? On purpose or on accident?”
Worried that Katie got the wrong idea, Sienna quickly corrects her. “No no, on accident, I swear! Um, I tripped when taking off my dress. And then it fell into that puddle. Any chance I could borrow something?”
“Sorry Sienna, everything I brought on this trip was in this backpack.” She shakes it to make her point. “I’m the light packer, and you’re the one who brought a whole duffel bag for a one-night stay. I might have a pillow somewhere. Now let me see you.”
Sienna slowly stands up, revealing her breasts over the top of the sedan.
“Unless you’re driving, I need to be on that side of the car.” Katie laughs as she teasingly starts to walk around the back of the car. Sienna is quick to walk around the front and gets into the passenger seat, keeping her legs clenched together and hand over her chest as she fastens her seatbelt with the other hand.
“See, that wasn’t so bad, wasn’t it Sienna? Nudity is legal in most states too. You don’t have to worry about anything. Also,” Katie opens the plastic bag that she bought from the store. “I bought snacks! Chips, trail mix, and I got a coffee for me. Do you wanna go in and get a coffee too?” She ends with a grin.
Sienna shoots her a dirty look. “Just get moving.”
“Okay, okay. You’re naked! Enjoy it!” Katie pushes the clutch and moves her hand towards Sienna’s thigh. “Aah!”
“Calm down girl, this is called a shifter.” Katie pushes the gear shifter into first, lifts the clutch up, and starts accelerating.