We'd been driving most of the day and were still hours away from our destination. Right now we travelling along a lonely highway the last town fifty miles behind us and the next one at least fifty in front of us. We had trees in front of us, trees behind us, trees to the left, and more blasted trees to the right. Coming over the crest of a hill the road was a long thin ribbon running dead straight to the horizon and beyond. As far as I could tell we were also the only car on that road.
"There's a truckies break area up ahead," I told Scott. "Why don't you pull in and we'll have some coffee and stretch our legs."
"I'm good," Scott said.
"You won't be if you don't pull in," I calmly advised him, "because if you don't I'm likely to pee my pants."
Taking the hint Scott pulled into the rest area and I promptly used the facilities there. Coming out I found Scott walking around, getting the kinks out. I promptly joined him.
"Want to take a short walk in the forest?" Scott asked. "There's a trail over there. We could wander down and see what we can find."
"Probably lions and tigers and bears," I told him. "I'm staying here."
"Oh, come on. Get real. We don't have any lions or tigers or bears."
"Only because the crocodiles have eaten them all. That track undoubtedly leads to a nice river just loaded with the beasts. Even if there aren't any crocodiles then we'll meet giant iguanas, poisonous monitor lizards, and snakes of all sorts, each one more venomous that the others."
"So that's a no?"
"That's a no. I will have some coffee, though. Want some?"
It was iced coffee, but with the current heat iced coffee was what was called for. I poured a couple of cups and we relaxed a little, enjoying the break.
It was overly hot now that we weren't in the air conditioned car. I was starting to perspire lightly. I undid an extra button at the top of my blouse, exposing a little more cleavage than I normally do, and rested the cold cup against my chest. Quite a lot of cleavage, actually, as I wasn't wearing a bra. Scott wiggled his eyebrows, giving me a lascivious look. I just smiled and ignored him.
We were about ready to resume our journey when we heard the thunder of engines and two motor cycles pulled into the stop. They were beautiful bikes, big and black and powerful. The riders dismounted almost in unison, taking off their helmets and placing them on the saddles. I quite liked those helmets. One was painted as Hulk while the other was a tiger's head.
The two men walked past us towards the facilities, looking me over as they passed and making sounds of appreciation in a rather crude manner. I pointedly ignored them while Scott fumed. My husband is rather short-tempered and jealous where I'm concerned, even though I've never given him cause for jealousy.
"Button up," he snapped at me. "How dare they speak to you like that?"
"Relax," I told him. "They didn't exactly speak to me. Just made pointed comments to each other, loud enough for me to over-hear. In their own way they were just being flattering."
"Yeah, but if they say anything else I'll be flattening them," snapped Scott, looking belligerently towards the amenities block.
Scott was quite proud of his prowess as a martial artist. He practiced regularly and told me about several awards he'd won, not that I ever went to watch his fights. I'm not a fighting enthusiast.
"Yes, well we were about to move on anyway, so let's go," I said peacefully.
"What? Let them think they've driven us away? We'll wait until they leave."
Scott had the pig-headed note in his voice that meant he wasn't changing his mind any time soon. If I had time I could talk him out of it but not in a couple of minutes. I threw my hands into the air and made sure that our stuff was packed and any rubbish was in the bin provided.
The men came strolling out of the facilities a couple of moments later. They glanced towards me and one of them gave me an evil smile. OK. He smiled. I just interpreted it as an evil smile.
"What's with the buttons, gorgeous?" he asked. "Undo them again and give a couple of lonely men a treat."
I smiled and shook my head and Scott erupted.
"Alright, that's enough. Get on your bikes and get out of here."
They both turned to look at him, both of them now smiling. I guess I could understand that. Even though Scott was fairly big both of these characters were bigger and heavier than him. They probably thought him challenging them was hilarious.
"And if we don't?" asked the man who'd queried my buttons.
"Then I'll dump you on your bikes, bruised and bleeding," said Scott, sounding extremely confident.
"Woah. We have a fighter on our hands. Do you want to fight, Mike?"
"Not particularly, Frank. You?"
"I'm with you in this matter. See how he stands. He's probably one of those martial arts experts. He might just kick our butts."
"No might about it," snapped Scott. "A couple of scumbags like you wouldn't stand a chance."
"Scumbags? Fair go, mate. We're a couple of respectable citizens. No harm in us admiring a pretty young thing, even if she is wearing too many clothes. I'll bet she's sensational in the nude."
For a moment I thought Scott was going to attack them. He took a big breath and glared at them.
"Just go," he practically hissed at them.
"Ok. Ok. Go easy, mate. No offence intended. We're leaving. I can see you're a born scrapper so we won't put you to the trouble of proving it. Shake."
He grinned and held out his hand and before I could yell out to him stupid, stupid, Scott actually went to shake hands with him.
As soon as Frank's hand closed over Scott's he jerked him forward, his knee coming up smartly at the same time, connecting squarely with Scott's testicles. Mike and I both winced in sympathy (and outrage where I was concerned) and Scott went this odd shade of pale and sank to the ground, clutching his gonads in a death grip.
Frank and Mike both picked up Scott and carried him over to the car and tossed him in. Frank turned to me, holding up Scott's keys.
"Is your car a single lock or a double lock," he asked me.
I just looked at him blankly.
"Ah, the locks are on the doors. You just press the button on the key too lock them."
"I know," he said dryly, "but do you press the button once or twice?"
I shrugged. "I press it once," I admitted, "but Scott presses it twice. He says it give extra security which is silly. Locked is locked."
"There is a small difference. Pressing the button once locks the door. Pressing it twice double locks it. A double locked car can only be opened with the key, even if you're inside the car. The internal openers won't work."
I didn't know why that mattered but then Frank showed me the reason. He pressed the button twice and I heard the clunk of the lock followed by a second smaller clunk, presumable the second lock whatever it was.
"I'm afraid your boyfriend is now stuck in the car until we give you the key to let him out," Frank said smiling.
"Husband," I snapped. "Give me the damned key and I'll unlock the doors as soon as you're on your bikes. He's going to be fighting mad when he recovers. That was a dirty blow."
"It was, but effective though. He was being excessively rude. We were just passing a few compliments and he could have just ignored us and we'd have gone on our way. As it is he threatened us and called us scumbags."
"You goaded him," I pointed out. "You know you did."
"Only after he started it," Frank defended. "Anyway, I assume that he told you to fasten up your buttons. He seems the kind of asshole who would insist on that sort of thing."
I refrained from commenting.
"Now that he's out of the way I'm sure you want to get more comfortable. Feel free to undo those buttons again."