"Morning Phil," came the cheery greeting from Kelly as I entered the motel room.
My friend had still been asleep when I left in search of breakfast around half an hour earlier. But now as I returned clutching a bag of muffins and two sodas, she was wide awake and seemingly full of energy.
"Morning Kell," I responded, "Sleep well?"
"Certainly did," beamed Kelly as she got up off the bed and took the bag of food from my hand. "Muffins! Great stuff Phil I'm starving."
I chuckled. Kelly was always eating but never seemed to put on any weight to spoil her shapely figure.
"Good news too Kell," I said, "the gas station accepted my card so you can keep your clothes on!"
My reference to last night's incident at the diner when she had literally stripped for our supper brought a smile to her face. Then she playfully threw a muffin at me and said, "Your turn next time Phil!"
We hadn't really talked about what had gone on the previous evening. After leaving the diner I had driven us a few miles while Kelly slept in the passenger seat.
We had found this motel and having checked in to a twin-bed room quickly both crashed out without much discussion of any sort.
But now fresh from a good rest I wanted to know how Kelly felt about the events that unfolded the previous evening.
"So Kell what about last night?" I said probing the subject tentatively.
"What about it?" replied Kelly as she moved on to her second muffin.
"Come on Kell you know what I mean," I said. "You were naked in a diner in front of a bunch of dirty old men and me."
"Oh yeah I'd forgot," said Kelly sarcastically with a sly smirk and a little chuckle.
"Well?" Did you mean what you said that you actually enjoyed it?" I continued my questioning.
Finished eating for now, Kelly walked over to the mirror and started brushing her dark blonde hair.
Glancing at me in the reflection she said, "Yes I did. It was a thrill and a turn on. All those guys staring at me and wanting me."
"Wow Kell I never knew you were an exhibitionist," I said.
Moving on to fixing her make-up, Kelly laughed and replied, "Neither did I but I guess I am now."
"So you gonna do it again?" I said half in jest and half hoping she would say yes so I would get a chance to see her gorgeous body again.
"Maybe," she responded. "No forget that. Definitely. It was such fun Phil. I'm definitely going to do it again and soon!"
Surprised and excited I ran out of things to say and turned my attention to packing my bag.
Kelly finished getting ready and, after settling our bill at the motel reception, we were back in the car and headed out on the first full day of our road trip.
Not much happened for a few hours. We drove, chatted and finished off the muffins.
It was about 1pm and we were thinking of stopping for lunch when the car, provided for us by Kelly's uncle Dave the previous afternoon, made a sputtering noise.
"That doesn't sound good," I said.
"It doesn't," agreed Kelly.
Smoke began appearing from under the hood and it was clear there was something pretty wrong.
As luck would have it we had just passed a garage so, hoping the car would make it, I did a U-turn and we headed back in the direction we had come from.
The car only just made it to the garage forecourt before giving out another bigger sputter and coming to a halt.
Hearing our noisy arrival, a middle-aged looking mechanic dressed in blue, grease spattered overalls and a ball cap wandered out of the garage. We got out of the car as the mechanic neared.
"Sounds like you've a problem there son," said the mechanic stating the obvious.
"We do sir," I replied. "Can you take a look?"
I popped the hood and the mechanic, who identified himself as Matt, tutted. "Needs a new set of spark plugs and a few other bits," he said. "It's a bit of a mess in here."
"Expensive?" I asked.
"Since you seem like nice kids I'll sort it for 300 ok?" said Matt.
While that was probably a good price it was also a sizable chunk out of our budget for our trip. But knowing no car meant no trip anyway; I agreed and helped Matt push the Sedan into his workshop.
Leaving Matt and another mechanic looking into our car's engine, I went back to the forecourt where Kelly was standing sipping from a soda bottle.
"I think this road trip is cursed," I said glumly.
"What you on about Phil?" came the typically cheery retort from Kelly. "This is what road trips are all about. The unexpected."