Anna set her suede weekend bag in the cavernous passenger's side floorboard of Ryan's dusty old pickup truck, then, grabbing the headrest with one hand and the dashboard with the other, leveraged herself up into the cab. As she settled down onto the broad vinyl bench seat, she breathed in the old work truck's aroma; it was a pleasant scent, a mixture of of old tools, machine oil, grease, and sweat, with a hint of cigarettes and coffee from somewhere in its past. There was nothing really special about the decades-old Ford work truck, but Anna knew how much Ryan loved it. The truck had been handed down to him from his grandfather, and in the few months they had been dating, she had come to love it, too, albeit for slightly different reasons. Every time Anna climbed into the truck's cab, she couldn't help but be awed at just how overwhelmingly masculine the vehicle was, and something about that made her feel completely safe whenever she rode in it, despite its lack of any modern safety features. Sure, the blue paint was faded and the vinyl seat was worn and spiderwebbed with tiny cracks, but nothing bad could ever happen in this old truck; of that, Anna was absolutely sure.
As Anna was musing to herself, Ryan opened the other door and easily slid into the driver's seat, his extra six or so inches of height on Anna giving him the advantage of not having to hoist himself in like she did. The college junior was dressed comfortably in some loose khaki cargo shorts, a t-shirt, and a worn ball cap that looked even older than the truck. Anna was dressed fairly similarly, although her shorts and t-shirt were a great deal tinier and more form-fitting. Normally, Anna preferred dressing just a little bit more on the slutty side - short skirts, tight tank tops, no underwear - but since they were on their way to Ryan's parents for the long Labor Day weekend she had dialed back the sex appeal. For the ride, anyway; she had several scandalous articles of clothing tucked away in her bag which she was sure would peak Ryan's interest later, if she could find the right time and place to break them out.
Ryan settled the small cooler he had pulled in with him onto the wide hump between the driver's and passenger's side floorboards. The old truck didn't have air conditioning and, even though they were leaving right at sunset, it would be a hot three hour drive on sparsely travelled back roads with few places to stop for refreshments. Ryan had stowed a six-pack of Cokes in the ice, the kind in the little glass bottles he preferred. As hot as he was, he was tempted to go ahead and use the bottle opener his grandfather had mounted to the dash to pop one open but decided it would probably be better to wait until they at least got on the road.
"You ready to roll, babe?" Ryan asked as he looked over at Anna.
"Baby...," Anna pouted, "you know I like to sit in the middle. I get lonely sitting way over here by myself."
Anna reached down and pushed the cooler over to join her bag in the floorboard, then lifted her dainty feet over it and butt-scooted across the vinyl bench until she was right up against Ryan's side. Ryan chuckled and wrapped his right arm around her shoulders. Anna snuggled her head into his shoulder and chest.
"Now I'm ready."
Ryan fired up the engine, put the truck in gear, and pulled out of Anna's apartment complex. Within just a few minutes, they had navigated out of the small college town and were on the first leg of the rural, two-laned blacktops which traced the path to Ryan's hometown. They had the windows rolled down and a hot breeze blew through the cab, whipping Anna's fine, bobbed brunette hair around her face. The old truck's AM/FM radio no longer worked and neither of them owned any cassette tapes for the ancient tape deck bolted under the dash, so Anna played them music from her phone for the first twenty-minutes or so. Even with the phone at full volume, though, it was hard to hear with the windows rolled down, and rolling up the windows in the heat simply wasn't an option. Eventually, Anna decided it wasn't worth wasting her phone battery to keep fighting the road noise and shut the music app down.
The pair spent a few moments riding in silence before Anna reached down into the cooler and pulled them each out a Coke. She popped the caps off, letting them rattle down into the floorboard, then offered her boyfriend one. Ryan gratefully lifted his arm from around her and took a long pull of the cold drink. Anna took smaller, more ladylike sips from her bottle.
"God it's hot," she muttered, feeling beads of sweat running down from her hairline and between her shoulder blades.
"Ah, come on, babe. It's definitely warm, but with the breeze and the Coke it's not so bad," responded Ryan cheerfully.
Anna gave her boyfriend a sideways glance. His eyes were focused on the road, one hand draped over the top of the steering wheel, the other loosely dangling the now half-empty bottle. Occasionally, he would glance down at the instruments on the dash or into one of the mirrors, or at the increasingly rare passing vehicle, but then his eyes would quickly go back to the road ahead.
He's entirely too focused on things that aren't me, the petite brunette brooded. Well, I know how to do something about that.
Anna let out a long, exasperated breath. "I'm soooo bored. Are we there yet?" she whined in her best imitation bratty voice, hoping to get a rise, or at least a glance, out of Ryan. He just chuckled at her again.
"What do you want me to do about it? I'm driving, babe. You're just going to have to find a way to entertain yourself for a while."
Ryan couldn't have given his attention hungry girlfriend a better opening if he'd tried. Anna carefully considered exactly how to make the most of the golden opportunity her boyfriend had just presented, slowly glancing around the cab to see what resources she had available to work with. Once she had taken stock of her assets, a devious smile spread across her soft lips and she set her hastily concocted plan to "entertain herself" into motion.
"Well, I can at least do something about the heat," Anna purred seductively. She reached behind herself and quickly unsnapped her bra, then pulled her arms into her t-shirt one by one. As she began twisting around under her shirt, she saw Ryan's head pivot a few degrees towards her so he could watch what she was doing out the side of his eye. The subtle shift in his attention sent a thrill through her. "Gotcha," she thought.