"Your mother is going to be so happy to see you, Mandy." Her stepfather said.
"I'll just be glad to get home, Jack."
"Baring any traffic jams we should be there in three hours." He smiled.
"Geez." she brushed back her blond hair and cut him a sharp look with those blue eyes of hers. "And tell me why we couldn't have just flown back?"
"Your mother thought it would be a good idea for us to take a road trip together. You know like we did when you were a little girl. Just you and I."
"I was hardly a little girl, Jack. I was sixteen. Besides Mom was with us when we took these long trips, it was never just you and I."
"Well your mother is still in the hospital, darling or she would have joined us."
"You mean in the psych ward." she chortled.
"Do you think its funny that your mom is sick?" he asked calmly, trying not to lose it with his spoiled ass stepdaughter.
Mandy looked away, "No, Jack I do not think it's funny okay. But you have to admit that it's her own fault. She stopped taking her medications which caused her to have a mental break."
Jack shook his head his. Mandy was such a heartless cow but he needed to keep it together for a few more hours. "Lets just change the subject, shall we?"
"Yes lets." she huffed folding her arms across her large breasts.
Jack gave Mandy a side glance at the way she was dressed. Sporting a pink satin camisole and a pair of Daisy dukes was hardly the kind of apparel a proper young lady should wear around her step dad. But then she has never looked at him as any kind of a father though he tried his heart out. But she would never let him in. She loved her real dad and that was okay, Ben had been the best of fathers until his passing.
Mandy caught him looking at her and she huffed again, "Stop looking at me like that, Jack."
He rolled his eyes, "And how am I looking at you, Mandy?"
"You're leering at me with lust in your eyes and it's giving me the creeps. So stop it!"
Jack busted out laughing, "Are you fucking serious right now?"
"Well you were."
Jack shook his head, "Your nineteen darling and I'm fifty seven. Your a fucking child and you don't even act like a woman."
Mandy's eyes went wide, "I am to a woman, you old bastard!"
Jack chortled, "Well act like one then."
Mandy shuts up, refusing to be drawn into an argument. They still have three hours to go before they reach Hendersonville. After that she would give him a piece of her mind!
The sign for a rest stop ahead came into view.
"Can we get off at this rest stop I need to pee." Jack asked.
"Jack I'm not the one driving." she said without looking at him.
The lights for the rest area come into view and he pulls the Tahoe onto the exit. The Rest Area is packed with cars which seemed unusual since it was night. But then it was only seven.
He parked and got out then looked at Mandy, "Would you like to get out and stretch your legs?"
Mandy huffed and got out and slammed the passenger door. Jack shrugged and closed his door and pressed the lock button on the key fob. The vehicle chirped and he turned and headed for the restrooms.
He chose a urinal and unzipped his fly and pulled out his thick manhood and began to pee.
He hears two truckers talking to one another as they enter the restroom.
"I here its gonna snow like a bitch in the next hour or so." Trucker 1 says.
"Yeah I think it's part of that stupid winter vortex coming down from Michigan." Trucker 2 said.
"You might want to put on an extra layer of panties tonight." Phil
"Fuck off, Chad!" he laughs and glances at Jack. "I don't wear panties."
Jack shrugs indifferently.
"He wears thongs." Phil laughs.
Jack smiles at their banter and shakes his head his mind in on the winter vortex pushing through the southeast. He hadn't heard anything about it on the news.
well that's just great now it'll be just one more thing Mandy will have to complain about. He rolled his eyes and stepped out of the restroom and took out his cellphone to call his wife Janice, she picked up on the second ring.
"Hello?" she asks in a groggy voice.
"Hey baby."
"Jack! Oh goodness I hope you're not trying to get back tonight. There is supposed to be a bad storm and.." she starts but he interrupts.
"Yes and I'm looking at the 'My Weather' app as we speak. The app is showing a massive storm front coming in from the north and it's colored in pink and red which indicates that it's going to be bad. "They are calling it a Flash Vortex. Have you ever heard of such a thing Janice?"
"No. But Jack this storm is freezing people! It's unreal what's going on out there." Janice said. "They say its freezing power lines and..." Janice's voice is cut off when the call suddenly ends.
"Janice? Hello...?" He looked down at his cell phone, 'No services available'. "What the fuck, man!"
"Jack?!"
He suddenly turned to find Mandy standing behind him, "Unlock the doors, It's dropping in temperature out here!" she said rubbing her arms.
He didn't answer but hit the unlock button on the fob and she hurried to get in the Tahoe.
"Serves you right by running around half naked." he said under his breath.
He looks at his cell again and tapped google but got a 'no connection' emblem instead. "Damn!"
At that moment the two truckers amble from the restroom.
"Excuse me?" Jack asks. They stop.
"What?" Phil asks.
"I couldn't help but overhear the conversation the two of you were having in the restroom; about an Ice storm heading in our direction?
Phil looked at Chad and they both nodded.
"Yeah it's all over the CB man. All my brothers out there are worried sick about it." Chad says. "It's stranding truckers and four wheel drives alike. People are freezing to death in their vehicles man!"
"Shit!" Jack says shaking his head.
"We're going to wait it out here until the storm passes through and I suggest you do the same." Phil added.
The Tahoe's horn starts blaring and he looks over his shoulder to see Mandy waving for him to come on. Jack shakes his head and she pushes the horn again. He rolls his eyes, "I'm sorry guys I gotta go."
"I wouldn't travel, I would stay put!" Phil says as they walk away.
Jack watched them both climb into a big black Peterbilt semi with a large sleeper on it. Well at least they'll be able to wait it out in comfort. He walked back to the Tahoe and got in. "That was rude, Mandy."
"I'm sorry I hurt your delicate feelings Jack but we need to get going because..."
"Not happening?" he said interrupting her.
Mandy gave him a heated look, "What do you mean?"
Jack turned to her and looked her in the eye, "We're staying here until the storm passes."
"What storm?"
Jack tells her all about it and she looks a bit nervous.
"How long do you think we'll have to wait?"
"The Vortex is massive, darling. It could be hours or maybe even days."
"No way! I'm not being stranded in a fucking rest stop for two or three days. No fucking way!"
"Yes way!" Jack shouted.
Mandy looked at him wide eyed. He'd never raised his voice with her before.
"Don't yell at me Jack!"
"Then fucking listen for a change and stop acting like you know it all!"
Mandy's mouth dropped but before she could say another word.
"You don't have to like it but we are staying put! Do you fucking understand me?!"
Mandy took a breath and let it out slowly, "Okay." was all she said.
"Your not my wife, in fact your mother is not even my wife anymore, for that matter." he cranked the Tahoe and turned on the heater.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Your mother is divorcing me."
"What? Why?" Mandy appeared truly shocked.
"She met this other patient in her wing a little Hispanic fellow in his twenties and they've been going at it like rabbits. She told me this two weeks ago. I didn't want to believe it but her doctor informed me that it is true."
Mandy placed her hand on his arm, "Oh Jack I'm so sorry."
He nodded.
"But you just called her?"
"Yes I still love her, Mandy and I can't bring myself to hate her. Maybe she'll get this little Don Juan out of her mind and she'll come to her senses and..."
Suddenly a gust of wind hit the driver's side and it hit with such intensity that it slid the Tahoe against the curve.
"Fuck!" he shouted as he was thrown against the driver's door.
Ice began raining down on the hood and the roof and the sound was like that of someone shooting a gun. The front windshield cracked but thankfully it held in place!
Mandy screamed and put her head between her knees. "JACK WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO?" she had to yell to be heard over the noise.
