"Here? Now? Really?" Emily asked, shocked at her husband's suggestion.
"Why not here and now, given your other options?" Paul asked, fully expecting his wife to reply to his seemingly casual question with a number of very sensible reasons, possibly adding a gentle punch to his right arm to be sure he got the message.
"Why not here?" Emily thought, going out of her way to consider husband's suggestion. In practically no time she thought of at least a half dozen good arguments against doing as he proposed, based only on their current location. As for the time, they both knew there wouldn't be any reason for them to be driving along this particular country road at any other time.
"If you'd just changed at your office we'd have been a few minutes late at worst." Paul reminded her. "I don't know why you insisted on going out of our way to get dressed at home."
Beginning to get angry, Emily replied tersely, "I wasn't expecting there to be a six car pileup blocking the highway, was I?" Though she was getting more stressed by the minute, she was thankful their car wasn't one of the wrecks she'd seen being towed away. They sat still for more than an hour waiting for the road to be cleared and assorted bits of debris swept away. She could think of little but how and where she'd be able to get out of her work clothes and into the outfit she'd chosen for the party.
As they sat helplessly waiting for the road ahead of them to be opened, Emily knew her options were steadily getting worse, with backtracking to either her workplace or their home effectively meaning giving up entirely on making it to the party. Eventually her choices seemed to have dwindled to a single, awkward one; having to ask Sandra, their hostess, for a place to change, with the party well underway.
Even when Emily wasn't asking Sandra for a favor, she'd often felt like Sandra was just tolerating her. She certainly never bothered to even pretend to be interested in Emily. Emily never understood what she might have done or failed to do to earn Sandra's disdain, but since she only had to see her once or twice a year, and then only because Paul was a valued employee of Keith, Sandra's husband, Emily didn't worry about it much.
Even though she'd given up on understanding Sandra's dislike of her several years ago, the prospect of showing up extremely late, clearly not dressed for the party, and immediately asking for a favor made Emily cringe. This party was an annual event, with over one hundred guests, making it extremely unlikely she'd be able to find any private space where she could change her clothes without help from the already busy Sandra or Keith.
As unpleasant as arriving in completely the wrong type of clothing and having to ask for a favor promised to be, Paul's suggestion had the potential to be at least as embarrassing.
Yes, they were almost a quarter mile from the long driveway at Keith and Sandra's property, with no other houses on this stretch of road, winding through a dense forest!
Yes, it didn't seem likely anyone would be arriving as late as they were, or leaving this early!
Yes, she grudgingly admitted to herself, given the tight space inside their car it would be less awkward physically to get changed at the side the road, using the car to shield her from view in the unlikely event someone did come by while she was changing!
The oddly sensible arguments for Emily to get into her party ensemble at the side of the road had to overcome a single but compelling argument against doing as Paul proposed; it would necessarily have her briefly standing at the side of the road completely in the nude! In her mind she went through the the details of what parts of her body would need to be uncovered, in what order, between the removal of her work clothes and putting on her party outfit. She wasn't sure how to estimate the time required; as jittery as she was just thinking about going through with Paul's idea, she was sure actually doing it would make her even slower!
Surprised that Emily hadn't answered his question, and not wanting to kill whatever slight possibility there was that she might actually step out of their car to use their current location as an open air dressing room, Paul pulled over to the side of the road. He knew there was no chance she'd get naked, inside the car or standing beside it, if he went as far as the open space in front of Deidre and Keith's house.
The trees lining the road they were now parked on gave way there to small shrubs and a large grass yard well before reaching the driveway, so the slim chance that he would even briefly be able to see her in the nude, bathed in moonlight, was sure to disappear if he drove too far.
Paul's interest in seeing her undressing there on the pavement was only very slightly related to the practical advantages of changing out in the open. He was, as she well knew, proposing she strip out on the road because the idea excited him. As he waited, fully expecting to be told to keep going and park near the house, Emily toyed with him for a long minute, withholding the obvious answer, teasing him a bit for even suggesting such a thing! As she held him in suspense, it occurred to her that she was glad to still be desired.
As she paused to let Paul believe, Emily thought back to how an earlier version of herself might have responded to her husband's suggestion. "Not really the same thing," she thought, "most of our fooling around that way happened, when we were newlyweds! Or even earlier, around when we became engaged." She remembered various tomfoolery back then; assorted moonings, boob flashes, late night skinny dipping in hotel pools, some of which she'd practically forgotten. "That all seemed to make more sense at 22 years old than it does now, at 39."
Surprised at how much her memories felt like someone else's story, Emily tried to remember when the daring young adult had morphed into the cautious woman cruising toward middle age. "It probably wasn't any one thing,"she thought, "getting an actual career type job, a mortgage, being known in our community, having kids, generally having a lot more to lose now than that 18 to 22 year old chick did!"
Paul had been married to Emily long enough to recognize the look of concentration on her face; he figured at best he was likely to be mildly scolded, and at worst, he decided not to think of the possibilities if she took offense at his suggestion. He stayed quiet.
Emily was surprised to find herself actually envying her younger self a bit, at least her younger self's lack of responsibilities. It occurred to her that while she'd probably never be as carefree as she was two decades ago, she and Paul were at an interesting point in their lives. Many things about their lives were changing, seemingly all at once, but the changes were good!
Although he hadn't given Keith his notice yet, Paul had accepted a great job offer several states away, and she was sure she'd also have one in their new city very soon if her most recent interview was any indication. Having grown up in Georgia, she was looking forward to moving back south after a couple of decades in the northeast.
Jason and Jack, their twin boys, were away at their first year in college, with most of their expenses covered by scholarships.
Their realtor had assured them that in the current market they would clear enough from the sale of their house to make purchasing one in their new area easy.
Emily suddenly realized what her 22 year old self hadn't; life was unpredictable, and hers right now might be as full of options as it was likely to be at any point in her future! "Why not indeed," she thought, "I doubt anyone will come by in the couple minutes I'll be showing anything, and if I see any headlights heading this way I'll just jump back into the car! It's certainly safer than some of the things we got up to when we were younger!"
She turned to give Paul a quick kiss, then opened her door and stepped out into the crisp October air. "Turn the lights off," she told him, "and roll the windows down so I can put my work clothes in where I can reach them quickly if I need to!" He was speechless, but nodded and did as she requested.
She began unbuttoning her blouse, working her way from top to bottom, then slipping out of the long sleeved gray silk top. She tossed it onto the back seat and moved on to unbuttoning and unzipping the zipper at her hip. The black slacks needed just a slight tug at the opposite hip to slip down past her ass; not wanting the garment to fall to the ground, she leaned back on the side of the car to steady herself while she slid her shoes off and and tucked her socks neatly in the the black loafers. She dropped her shoes on the floor of the car's back seat, then finally finished removing her slacks, folding them and setting them on top of her blouse.