Tina Has a Long, Strange Trip Home!

After a 15-minute detour passing by miles of cornfields and cow pastures, she reached another onramp allowing her to get back on the highway no more than 5 miles beyond the point where she'd gotten off. Tina was relieved to see a working onramp, and even more excited to see just beyond it another 7-11, identical to the one a few miles back. She was nervous about getting out to pump gas at such a busy spot, seeing at least a dozen cars and trucks either at a pump or parked by the store, but didn't see any other options. She pulled up to the island farthest from the store, which had two pumps at each side; her side of the island had a fence on the other side of her car, making her spot, exposed as it was, about as private as she could hope for.

Tina felt her pulse rising the moment she stepped out of her car. She left her door wide open to provide her a little bit of cover from being viewed from the store, and was somewhat hidden from most of the customers at other pumps by the pump she was using. Anyone pulling up to the other pump on her side of the island would have a great view of the naked brunette for however long she was operating the pump, but t here was nothing to be done about that. Her hands shook as she struggled to get her credit card out of its slot in her wallet; "why the hell didn't I take it out before getting out of the car?" she thought, quietly cursing herself. When she finally got the card out she flipped her wallet back into the car and stuck the card into the slot in the pump.

She could hardly suppress a scream as the screen on the pump methodically went through its process, asking her to respond to various questions:

"Credit, Debit or Pay inside?"

"Credit, you have my damn card already!"

"Card billing address Zip code?"

She hurriedly punched in the 5 digits.

"Do you want a car wash today?"

She jabbed the NO button.

"Remove card, lift lever and select grade.

"Finally!" she grumbled, sticking the nozzle in place, squeezing the handle, and waiting for the gas to flow. After 5 seemingly interminable seconds with no fuel flowing, she glanced at the pump's screen, nearly screaming out loud when she saw it flicker, pause, then display a new message.

"SEE ATTENDANT"

Going inside the store was just about the last thing she wanted to do; she was inclined to try her luck at another pump, but noticed that most of the cars which were parked near the store when she pulled in had left, and almost all the pumps were now in use. "I might actually be seen by fewer people if I go inside than I would be if I move to another pump," she thought, "and for all I know a different pump might not work any better." She considered going inside, trying to ignore the shiver produced by the thought of closer contact with either an employee or whatever customers were inside.

Tina decided to go deal with the attendant face-to-face. She reached back into the car, bending over to put her credit card away in her wallet and pull out a ten-dollar bill. The driver of the car arriving at the pump behind hers stared, amazed by the sight before him. Just when he thought he couldn't be any luckier, Tina stood up and turned away from the open door, letting him see the rest of her naked body! She couldn't help smiling when she noticed the stunned expression on the newcomer's face.

The forty feet between her car and the store's entrance seemed to Tina to take forever to cross; to the half dozen men who noticed her walking by as they were gassing up their cars and trucks, the time flew by. "Oh, my!" the woman behind the counter said when Tina stepped into the store, "Miss! You can't be in here like that!"

"Believe me, I wish I didn't need to be here, but the pump didn't work with my credit card, so I had to come see you," Tina said, adding an apology to the man already at the counter whose transaction the clerk had completely forgotten.

"Not a problem, sweetheart," the man replied, "anyone looking like you do right now is more than welcome to cut ahead of me."

"Thanks!" Tina said, then turned back to the clerk, asking, "Can I just get ten dollars worth on pump #9?"

"Fine, go ahead," the flustered clerk answered, taking the ten-dollar bill from Tina. She shook her head as she watched Tina trot back to her car.

Tina's purchase of a bit more than three gallons of regular didn't take long to pump, not nearly long enough as far as the man at the pump behind hers was concerned. She got back into her car, but didn't drive off yet, instead taking a few minutes to calm down.

Tina had put on a brave face when she went into the store, but her heart had been pounding, and she'd felt like she might faint. The other time she was naked in a convenience store had been less frightening, with a friend just outside ready to intervene if she had been in trouble; today she was completely on her own.

"It'll be a small miracle if I don't end up naked somewhere online by the time today is over," she thought, "and with nothing but sunglasses and a baseball cap to hide behind!" At first, the idea she might soon appear nude online was unnerving, but after a few minutes, she actually warmed to the idea. She chuckled as she guessed that almost nobody she knew would ever believe the quiet Regional Accounting Manager they knew would do anything so outrageous. She just hoped that if it did happen, the pictures or video were flattering!

While she was calming down, she checked to see if Darren's new flight home was still on time, but saw that it was now listed as delayed, pushing his return home back by at least another hour. She was sorry he was having a rough trip back home, but was glad to have a little more time to recover from her own travel complications before he would return. "Maybe I'll even be able to take a hacksaw to the troublesome padlock and put his backpack away before he gets home," she thought.

Tina started her car and maneuvered past all the other members of her latest audience, waving goodbye as she left. After the fact, she was glad the pump hadn't worked properly, admitting to herself that she'd enjoyed what was likely her last time today showing off for a small but appreciative crowd. Though she had no regrets about having been seen naked one more time, she wondered if she should have asked if the 7-11 had any kind of clothing for sale; a large t-shirt could be handy to have if this trip threw any more surprises her way. Not wanting to have to deal with the clerk again, she decided to go on as she was, and pulled onto the highway, looking forward to finally making it home and getting cleaned up before Darren arrived.

Tina's trip went more smoothly as the highway passed from farmland to several miles of suburbs, then through the heart of the city. The highway grew from two lanes each way to three, then four, moving slowly as the rush hour neared its end. When she passed the point she normally got on the highway during her commute home, she had a brief worry that she might be seen by a co-worker heading home themselves, but relaxed as she checked the time -- 7:20; everyone in her office would have cleared out over an hour ago, and by now the sun had set, making her harder to see anyway.

Right when the commuter traffic she was in was at its heaviest and most chaotic, Tina's phone rang, the screen showing Kristen's name. Keeping one eye on the road, Tina accepted the call and hit the button to put her friend on speaker. Kristen's voice came booming over the car's speakers, "Uh, hi. You called earlier, a couple times, but I couldn't answer then. Sorry to take so long getting back to you, it sounded kind of important, do you need something?"

"No problem. When I called you I thought I needed a favor, but I'm good," Tina replied, noticing another call coming in, this one from Darren.

Kristen was still curious about what Tina had needed, asking, "What were you going to ask me for? Dave is working late, so if you need me to come over, I could..." before Tina cut her off.

Sorry, but I'm getting another call, I'll explain later," Tina said, and tried to switch to the call from Darren. She was too late to pick up, but guessed he was calling to tell her about his latest flight delay, which she already knew about. A long blast from the horn of a pickup truck in the lane to her left brought her full attention back to her driving. She had drifted a few feet into the other lane while she was on the phone, and decided to put off any further use of the phone until she was home or safely parked somewhere. "I'm almost home, whatever it is can wait another fifteen or twenty minutes. I hope his flight's delay didn't turn into a cancellation."

As Tina approached her exit, she was surprised to see traffic backed up all the way to the start of the offramp, then remembered that there was a concert that night at the arena just off the exit, to the right. "No problem, I'm turning left," she thought. Despite the traffic turning left being a fraction of that turning right, her lane crept along while the two lanes turning right kept moving. By the time she was halfway down the ramp she saw why her lane was so poky; a pair of police officers were standing in the road directing traffic, favoring the concertgoers, both at her offramp and the one coming from the opposite side of the highway.

As she waited to clear the congested intersection, Tina was sure she saw a few drivers slowly passing by at her right do a double-take after looking her way. She enjoyed being part of the evening's memorable sights for at least a handful of concertgoers, but worried a little about passing the two officers directing traffic. A bit of bad luck left her first in line, right under a streetlight, waiting for the signal to turn left. Trying to avoid notice, she slouched a bit lower. Her attempt to keep at least this one man from seeing her uncovered boobs apparently failed; when the young policeman controlling the left turn lane motioned for her to go ahead, he laughed and gave her a thumbs-up sign as she passed!

Once she left the highway, Tina had only a half-mile stretch of a busy boulevard to cover to reach the street leading to her neighborhood. Lined with shopping centers and every kind of fast food joint imaginable, it reminded her of the place she'd first dared to flash her boobs in public. She thought it could be fun to repeat her first experience exposing herself at one of the burger joints sometime. Without even the minimal cover of her sunglasses now that night had come, and not having scouted anyplace to at least check for security cameras, doing something so bold so close to her home was definitely not happening that night.

Turning off the commercial strip into her neighborhood, she cruised slowly to her house. She was relieved, and honestly more than a little surprised to have made it home without any truly serious problems. She was particularly pleased that she'd managed to pull this adventure off on her own. She started to pull into their driveway, slamming her brakes on just in time to avoid crashing into a pallet of brick pavers blocking half of the driveway. With all her excitement today she'd forgotten about the scheduled delivery of pavers for the patio Darren was going to install.

Whoever dropped off the pallet of pavers had sensibly enough left it in the open side of the driveway instead of blocking in the only car present, Darren's old Cadillac convertible. The problem for Tina was how close to the street the pallet was; there wasn't even enough room behind the pavers to get the back end of her car off the street. Darren had parked the old convertible fairly far from the garage to allow him to move materials he was working with in and out of that side of the garage, so she didn't have a lot more room behind his car. She backed up a few feet and moved over to park behind the Caddy, getting her car safely off the street, but not by much, leaving the front of her car at least 50 feet from the garage door.

Tina shivered to think of what kind of show she'd have been putting on for the neighbors if she'd arrived before sunset and had to walk from her current parking space to the house! As it was, she was nervous about having to walk so far from car to house while naked. It was one thing to flaunt her naked body in front of a bunch of strangers she'd never see again, but another thing entirely to be seen naked by neighbors! "I'm lucky the nearest streetlight is a few houses away, and that all of our house's lights are off," she said to herself, giggling at the idea of, at 35 years old, having to sneak into her own house like a teenager out past curfew.

She gathered up everything she needed to bring in, putting her wallet and keychain into the small open pockets on the backpack and slinging it over her right shoulder. She looked up and down the street, and seeing no vehicles moving and nobody out for a walk, decided she'd be able to get into the house unseen.

She opened the car door, forgetting until it happened that two map lights and one dome light would light up the car's interior like it was daytime. She almost slammed the door shut again, but calmed down as she remembered that nobody was around to see her, lit up or not. "The lights coming on was actually a good thing; I forgot my phone until they lit up the interior," she thought as she stepped out of her car. She pressed the phone a couple of times as she closed the door, starting the voicemail Darren had left her about a half-hour earlier. She started walking up the driveway as she listened to his message:

"Hi Hon, just wanted to give you the good news. I lucked into a seat on a flight even earlier than my original one. It was a last-minute thing, there was no time to call you before we took off, and I forgot to call when we touched down, sorry. I've been home for more than an hour already, so I've been able to knock a couple of tasks off that long to-do list you gave me. I thought you'd be home by now, but I guess you're working late. See you soon!"

A few seconds after the voicemail ended, Tina knew what one of the tasks Darren had completed was. The broken light fixture above the garage door that she had been asking him to do something about had been replaced by a new motion activated fixture. The light now bathing her naked form and everything else between the driveway and the front door made the lights inside the car she had been worried about seem puny. She shrieked and dashed to the front door, fumbling with her keychain, desperate to get inside, away from the damned spotlight. Trying every key she had on the chain without success, it slowly became clear to her what the other task Darren had completed was.

"Wow, is she really your fiance?" Geoff, Tina and Darren's neighbor across the street asked, stunned by the quick look at Tina he got while her car door was open. The car's interior lights weren't all that strong, but he was pretty sure the shapely woman he saw step out of the car was naked! Before Darren could respond, the powerful floodlights he'd installed above the garage door an hour or so ago came on, giving Geoff a far more detailed look at the female half of the new couple across the street he and his wife had been meaning to introduce themselves to.

Seeing his new neighbor working hard, Geoff had walked across the street 20 minutes ago, introduced himself, and invited Darren to come over and have a beer. He hadn't expected his small gesture to welcome the couple who'd recently moved into the house across from his to be rewarded anywhere near so memorably.

"Yes, that's Tina alright," Darren said, stepping off Geoff's front porch, "When I saw her drive up, I thought I'd call her over to introduce you, but I think we'll have to do that some other time. I'd better go give her a key to our new locks. Thanks for the beer."