Casey was waiting out on the sidewalk in front of her apartment building by 5:45, embarrassingly eager to see Josh again. Josh was already waiting outside in his truck when she walked out of the building which was gratifying.
She wasn't sure what she had been expecting out of his car, maybe just a sedan, something basic, but he had an old F150 from the 90s, with a red stripped side paint job that reminded her of her childhood and camping. She clocked it as soon as she was outside, she always noticed trucks like that because she was fond of them and was startled by a whistle from the driver's side door, Josh getting her attention.
He looked loose and natural, outside of kitchen clothing for the first time that she'd seen, a well worn Guns and Roses shirt she imagined was a high school Hot Topic relic based on how threadbare it was and jeans that, she noticed while climbing into the truck, were ripped and repaired at the knees. Beat up sneakers on his feet.
"Hey teach," he drawled at her, leaning over her to pull her seatbelt on and click it.
"I am responsible, I would have put my seatbelt on. And you don't need to keep calling me that." She felt a little defensive for some reason. He looked so good and she already wanted to call off the date and drag him up to her apartment, surely he couldn't win at everything, be the most charming and cute and the sexiest and the best at eating pussy and a good chef, on and on ad nauseum. She felt bad for being snappy as soon as she said it though. She did LIKE that he had helped her with her seatbelt, and she found the nickname endearing.
"Well, first, the seatbelt can be kind of tricky, so I thought I'd be helpful so you didn't have to embarrass yourself while being so responsible. Second," he said while turning the key and starting the engine, "I don't know your name."
"You don't know my name?" Josh had started driving in the direction of the bridge crossing the river leaving the city so he didn't immediately notice that Casey was staring at him in shock, but after a beat he glanced over at her shocked face.
"You introduced yourself by your last name in class and you've never mentioned your first name. I don't know what it is," he shrugged as if that barely mattered. And Casey supposed it didn't really matter in the grand scheme of things but it was a shocking testament to how out of order and strange their "relationship" was shaping up. She wondered if he wanted to know what her name was, she wondered if SHE wanted him to know what her name was now that she was aware that he didn't know it.
"I like your dress," Josh offered a little awkwardly after the silence had dragged on a little too long, dragged on while they crossed the river and moved along I-75 towards more rural portions of the state. He nudged a bag over to her, that she'd barely noticed on the bench seat next to him, a fast food bag from In-A-Tub. Casey quickly dug into the bag and pulled out the cheese powder covered tacos from within.
It was a good way to change the awkward silence to a comfortable one as they both ate their tacos, him one handed while driving down the interstate, the windows partially rolled down in the summer heat as it started to turn from afternoon into evening. They made short work of them and rode along contentedly, full and happy. Eventually Casey started to get curious about where they were headed. He'd already provided food, it would still be sunny out for another hour or so and they were getting further out of the city. Josh turned the blinker on for an exit that Casey recognized for a small historic touristy town that was big business in the fall and known for its distillery.
"Where are we headed?" She finally caved and just asked.
"Do you trust me?" He grinned over at her, very obviously goading her to say no. He laughed at the pause she left. "You don't, I fucking know that you don't. Look, there's a bar I want to take you to and then there's something else I was thinking you might be interested in that would make your kinky little exhibitionist slut soul happy. I just don't want to explain it because I think you'll talk us both out of it if you know in advance. Feel free to say no when we get there later, but I don't think that you'll want to."
Casey shivered in the hot summer air. She liked him calling her a slut and she liked that he had a secret nighttime plan. One that was based in the past two experiences that they'd had together, the most exciting sexual experiences she'd probably ever had. She felt the butterflies start up in her stomach again.
THEY WERE having a lot of fun so far, without Josh revealing his big plan yet, but the night definitely felt less natural than the rest of the time that they'd spent together. Probably because this was the most that they'd ever spoken and because they were both a little nervous. Maybe spontaneously hooking up a couple times wouldn't translate to a date, maybe real conversation would reveal they weren't compatible, it was a risk. He was surprised at how nervous he actually did truly feel.
He'd brought her to a weird underground bar in a small town near the city. A literal underground bar from the prohibition era. They played live music and had a pretty nice kitchen that served nachos which they'd shared while talking about casual date things. He didn't know whether this was officially a date in her eyes or not but they discussed her childhood dream of being a truck driver, their favorite regional fast food restaurants, their shared former jobs of being Subway sandwich artists, traded info about their families. It felt like a date.
He was enjoying himself but still felt anxious about how she would react to the rest of the night and he was having a hard time relaxing. He wasn't drinking because he'd have to drive them home that night and she sweetly decided not to in solidarity so they didn't even have that social lubricant.
He found himself feeling a little gangly and awkward like he had on dates when he was in high school. He had a hard time not staring too hard at any one part of her. He wanted to stare at her cute face but knew that would be uncomfortable and his eyes kept bouncing down to her cleavage showing above the neckline of her dress and then to her thighs and then to a random innocuous and non-sexual body part to balance it all out. After a while when they'd hit a lull in the conversation she reached over and put her hand up high on his thigh and slyly asked if it was time for her surprise yet. His stomach fluttered at the touch.
CASEY GENUINELY did not know what they were doing an industrial plant out on a rural Missouri highway at 10pm. Josh opened the truck door for her and helped her down as if she was descending from a carriage and not the runner of his pick up.
She looked around, taking in her surroundings. It looked like a rock quarry, with elevator conveyor belts leading up to silos scattered around, everything painted metal with rust streaks and incredibly bright floodlights that made it almost as bright as the daytime in the pitch dark moonless night.
On their way here they'd pass an absolutely hideous metal sided mega church building and her stomach had dropped at the thought that he was potentially taking her there but now it didn't seem quite as bad.
There was something strangely romantic about it though, something compelling that she found herself drawn to. It was almost like he'd found them a spot of sunlight in the middle of the night with no one else around. It was romantic in the same way that headlights illuminating a stationary spot could be romantic. The same way shadow puppets felt a little romantic.
She had walked away from him and the truck but he had simply moved around to the front of the truck and leaned against the grill right between the headlights, armed crossed, watching her.
"So...what's the surprise?" He rubbed his palms on the thighs of his jeans and nodded his head a few times. This scenario felt safe, from her perspective, she was comfortable with him, trusted him despite his earlier joking and he was standing far away from her, giving her plenty of space. But, from another perspective it looked kind of terrifying, and she had the sense that he was suddenly aware of that.
"Well," he huffed out an uncomfortable laugh, "If you'd like to, I thought you might want to take your clothes off." They both let that hang in silence for a moment.
"I used to live near here as a kid. This place is always lit up, bright as the sun, but at night there's no one around, no guards or workers and the closest house is like a mile away. Most people use the interstate instead of this back highway, and where we're standing isn't really visible from the road unless you're really looking. So I thought...I thought that it would feel really really public, like being naked in a work area in the middle of the day, while...actually being pretty private..." He sort of trailed off from there, the least confident that she'd ever heard him be.
She was shocked by how incredibly thoughtful it was. He had thought back to his childhood to come up with a safe but public space to indulge her proclivities. And it was really arousing. It was kind of intimidating. It would be like being naked underneath a spotlight in basically an open field.
"Hhhmm, this might not have been my best idea." He was backtracking now, Casey needed to act fast. She reached behind her back and quickly pulled the zipper of her dress down, pulling the straps down from her shoulders she moved the dress off her body in one quick motion, revealing her in only panties to the headlights and plant lights around them. The warm summer night breeze caressed her rapidly hardening nipples and made her shiver.
"Fuck." It was a succinct reaction but less than Casey had been expecting. She was already starting to get in her head about this, maybe he hadn't really believed she would do it, maybe he wasn't really that into her body after all. So far he'd only seen her mostly clothed, maybe she wasn't living up to his imagination. She started to cover her breasts with her hands, began to contemplate yanking her dress back on and demanding to be driven home.
