Chapter 14

Jack was in a really foul mood as he finally turned down the beaten and puddle covered track that he hoped would lead to the beach house. Since he'd left the library five and a half hours ago the trip had been nothing but trouble. Now having made several wrong turns and starving, Jack hoped to do nothing more than get out of the storm and crash with Denise.

As he'd left the library at 12:30, Jack had noticed the ominous clouds to the west. Hoping that the storm would be blowing quickly east and he could avoid most of it on his drive, Jack had hurried to his apartment for his bag, then run to his small gray car, which was parked outside his apartment. He was excited to be finally getting away, but that excitement drained into further frustration as he arrived at his car. The car was in fine shape with the front driver's side tire completely flat. Groaning, Jack tossed his bag in the back seat of the car and began rooting around under the hatchback gathering the spare and tools to change the tire. It took Jack almost thirty minutes to take the flat off as the last person to rotate the tires had used an air jack and the bolts were almost frozen in place. Cursing, Jack had finally resorted to jumping up and down on the crowbar while holding it against the bolt. Able to put his whole weight to bear at last, Jack had loosened all four bolts and removed his damaged tire.

It didn't take long to get the tire off and the spare on, but Jack noticed once he lowered the jack that the spare was pretty low on air, as well as looking fairly worn out. With a loud grunt, he'd tossed the flat into the back of his car. He was a mess and briefly considered taking a shower, but opting instead to just scrub the worst of the grease and dirt off in the sink. Jack briefly decided to head straight out after filling the spare, but upon further reflection of the worn out tire he'd placed on the car, Jack changed his mind and headed for the tire store. Fortunately, the shop was more than happy to fix the flat free of charge - as stated in the warranty - and at Jack's request not only filled the spare to it's proper value but they rotated the tires. With all that accomplished, and a quick stop at McDonald's for a bite to eat, Jack finally got on the road by 2:30. He was almost an hour away from his apartment when he realized that he'd never printed out the instructions that Denise had emailed him.

What he did remember of the directions had required him to head south to the coast then west from Lighthouse point so as to avoid Panama City itself as the house near on the eastern edge of the town. Jack had followed those instructions, but he couldn't remember what the name of the turn off was. Foolishly, he decided to follow the signs to Panama City and see if he could just guess where to turn. Two hours later in the midst of the flashing lightning and pouring rain, Jack reached Panama City with no clue as to where he should have turned to find the house. The last two hours had been the worst driving conditions Jack could remember ever being in. The roads were covered with huge puddles and visibility was reduced to almost nothing. Jack had been forced to drop down to 20 mph in some spots just to keep the car on the road and avoid hydroplaning through the large amounts of standing water. He briefly wondered if this is what driving in a windless hurricane would be like, a ton of water on the road and nowhere for it to go.

Without a number to reach Staci and Jill, Jack went in search of a library in the hopes he could access his email and look up the directions and maybe get a phone number to call to let the girls know he was ok and would be joining them soon. After twenty minutes of fruitlessly driving around, Jack had pulled into a gas station to fill up and asked the attendant where the nearest library was. Fortunately it was located just a few blocks away and Jack was able to find it rather easily. Without an umbrella, Jack had sprinted across the large parking lot, getting soaked, and entered the library just before they were closing for the evening. He begged the matronly librarian to allow him a few minutes to check his email and after he explained that he was a student, she graciously showed him to a public terminal. While Jack logged in and pulled up his email account, the grandmotherly librarian went back behind the circulation desk and located a small white towel, which she gave to Jack, allowing him to dry off a bit. Smiling she told him that she did have a few things to finish up, but when she was done, he would have to leave. Grateful for the few minutes he had, Jack feverishly scanned the instructions and located the street name for the house. Copying the directions short hand on a scrap of paper, Jack looked for a phone number. Denise had not sent one, so Jack checked his original instructions from Staci. No number there either, and not remembering Jill's aunt's last name, Jack realized he would have to find the house for himself. He had just logged off the computer when the gray-haired librarian reappeared. Thanking her profusely, Jack followed her to the door and back out into the storm.

The kind older lady happened to be parked near the building under an overhand and drove Jack over to his car. Thanking her again, Jack paused before jumping out of the woman's car.

"Ma'am do you know how to get to," Jack paused checking the scrap with his directions on it, "Orange and Bradford from here?"

The woman smiled, "Actually I do. Take a left leaving the library parking lot and at the fourth light turn right. That puts you on Orange and you should cross Bradford on the outskirts of town."

"Thank you again," gushed Jack as he exited the woman's car. Climbing back into his small car, Jack backed out of his spot and left the library parking lot. Following the woman's directions, Jack had headed down Orange Street in the pouring rain. Despite the weather, Jack still thought he would make it to the house soon. Unfortunately, he soon realized that he must have missed the turn because the street changed back into a state route on the outskirts of town. Doubling back Jack missed the turn a second time and found himself cruising back into town. Stopping at yet another gas station, this time filling his car, Jack asked the attendant where he could find Bradford. The clerk told him that the street was poorly marked, but just about a block away. Shaking his head, Jack drove back down Orange Avenue staying in the right lane and moving slowly. To his amazement, the street was indeed a block away and just as poorly marked as advertised. Taking the right turn, Jack drove down the beaten path, hoping that the puddles didn't conceal huge potholes that might swallow his car.

Meanwhile, Denise and Jill had left the house carrying an umbrella and walked down the beach to the swimsuit store. In spite of the overhead protection, the girls were both thoroughly soaked when they reached the weathered wooden deck surrounding the store. Climbing up the short flight of rickety stairs, the two girls closed their cream and brown golf umbrella and slipped into the store.

In spite of its external appearance as a hovel, Jennings Swim Wear was actually quite modern on the inside. The golden carpet on the floor looked to have been recently replaced and the overhead fluorescent lights were clearly in the process of being phased out for more modern lighting fixtures. The two girls stood dripping just inside the door as they waited for their eyes to adjust to the bright interior. Seeing potential clients shivering in the doorway, a cute brunette wearing a tiny turquoise bikini top and matching sarong waltzed over bearing two large towels.

"Hi there," she said in a musical voice as she handed the towels to the soaked twosome, "you two must be freezing. My name is Leigh and if there's anything I can do for you, please ask. Are you looking for something in particular?"

Denise dried herself off as best she could, noting that her shirt had become quite transparent walking in the rain. The water, combined with the sudden shock of the air conditioning had caused her nipples to protrude noticeably. Looking around, she noted that she and Jill appeared to be the only customers.

"Yes," she finally replied, "I am looking for something specific. I want a new bikini to surprise my boyfriend with. Something that will set off my tan, but I really don't have a lot to spend on it. Do you have a clearance rack?"

Leigh smiled, taking the now damp towels from the slightly less soaked Denise and Jill. "As a matter of fact we do have a clearance rack and we just moved a bunch of cute suits to it this morning. If you'll follow me, we'll see what we can find you. With this rain we haven't had many customers today so you should have your pick of any style and color you want. Did you have any trouble finding parking close by, sometimes the lot gets a bit flooded with all this weather."

"Actually," Jill piped up, "we walked. That's why we're so wet, but since y'all were so nice when I came in last summer, I thought we should come back."

Leigh stopped at the large round clearance rack and turned to look at Jill. "I remember you," she said suddenly, "you came in that day just wearing a large white towel. You said that your suit had... disappeared while you were swimming and you had no other clothes. I sold you that yellow bikini you're now wearing, didn't I?"

Denise paused in her search of the rack to regard Jill and Leigh with a small grin drifting across her face.

"Yes, you did sell me this suit," responded Jill with a lascivious grin, "I think it was the best job of salesmanship I've ever seen."

Leigh blushed deeply and looked at Jill with barely disguised lust. "Well, we do strive to please here and I wanted to make sure that the suit fit perfectly. Tell me something though, if you live close enough to walk here, why didn't you just go home that day and change before coming shopping?"

Jill laughed, "Actually it was a dare that I wouldn't go into a store naked. When I pointed out that I could get arrested for something like that, I was dared to come in here in just the towel and see if I could get someone to sell me a suit. Everything else that happened that afternoon was just a bonus."

Leigh blushed even more and excused herself.

Denise chuckled as she went back to examining the suits. Jill joined her a moment later carrying a hot pink bikini and a sexy black single piece that appeared to zip up the front.

"So," Denise asked, "what exactly happened with you two?"

Jill grinned, "I came in dressed in this obscenely short towel and started looking for a suit. Leigh came to help me. She was wearing a tiny white number with a short flowery side tied skirt with a long slit up the right side, kind of like you'd see on an island girl in a tourist picture, and asked what happened. I made up some song and dance about losing my suit while swimming and needing a replacement to get home in. Anyway, we looked through several suits and she led me to the fitting room. I tried on two or three, but having deliberately chosen ones with tops too small I couldn't make any of them fit. I picked this yellow number, but with a b cup on the top, so you can imagine my big ole boobs were just hanging out of it. I called her in to see if she could help me and you should have seen the look on the poor girls face. I was standing there in just the top with my tits threatening to burst out, struggling to tie it. Being a rather bright sort, Leigh told me to hold on a moment and came back with her tape measure. 'Let's remeasure your chest, ' she said as she shut the door behind her, 'cause I think that top is a bit small for you. So let's measure and get you one more your size.' So I took the top off again and stood there while she moved behind me with the cloth tape measure. Seizing the opportunity as she held the tape, I reached up and squeezed her hand to my tit. When I let go, she didn't and I knew I had her. Before too long, she was on her hands and knees licking me while I groaned above her. Once she got me off and stood up, I could see that she had soaked her thong bottom while kneeling down and her lips were protruding out the sides, so I felt compelled to clean her up. She was loud too. When we'd gone into the fitting room, there had been several people surreptitiously checking me out. When we came out, there were like forty men in the women's section applauding us while the women were giving us dirty looks. I didn't have a chance to see her again that weekend, and she was gone the next week. I had thought they had fired her."

Denise had been holding back her giggles throughout Jill's story and finally burst out laughing. "Only you," she said as she recovered, "would do something so bad! I can just see you getting off in a dressing room with an audience just a few feet away. You've probably damaged the poor girl for life."

Jill shrugged and handed Denise the two suits she'd picked out. Denise grabbed a ruby red bikini with a Brazilian bottom and headed for the fitting room with the suits. Leigh intercepted her on the way, holding a cute off-white number that Denise was sure would be far too small in more ways than one.

"Try this one too," begged Leigh, "I think it would look good with your tan and red hair."

Denise shrugged her shoulders and took the hanger from the cute girl, noticing that Leigh had added a small white short-sleeved blouse over her turquoise bikini top. The shirt did nothing to conceal the young lady's erect nipples. Smiling to herself, Denise allowed Leigh to lead her to the fitting room.

Stripping off her still wet tee shirt and khaki shorts, Denise realized that her thong was wet too. Hoping that the store wasn't enforcing any rules about wearing underwear while trying on suits, she pulled off the scrap of red cotton and tried on the black suit Jill had picked. She zipped it up and modeled it in front of the mirror. The suit had no top strap and although the underwire gave her some support, it just wasn't the look Denise wanted. Stripping it off, she next tried the ruby red Brazilian. Denise felt like she was bouncing around inside the top even though it was clearly marked as a b cup, so she took it off. Changing into the hot pink one Jill had picked, Denise was surprised to find it came with a tiny thong bottom. I'll never be able to wear this in public, she though, I'd be arrested for sure. She had just put it on to look, when someone knocked on the slatted door.

"Denise, it's Jill," came the voice, "I found another one."

Reaching over, Denise flipped the latch to allow Jill in. Jill shut the door and latched it behind her while regarding the redhead in the tiny bikini. She hung the pale lavender suit she'd brought with her on the hook and reached out to Denise. Denise turned around to give her the full affect.

"Ya know, I just don't think it's me," she said, "I just can't get excited about the g-string bottom and this barely covers my nipples. Besides you can see my tan lines, I don't like that at all."

"You know," replied Jill, "sexy as that looks on you, I think you're right. Don't want to get arrested for indecent exposure and I'm sure that the first time you jump in the water that top is going to be off to one side or the other. Have you tried the one Leigh picked for you yet?"

"No," sighed Denise as she slipped off the hot pink number, "I'm not sure that it's any better coverage than this one."