The cold spell that had made the Impala run badly had worsened. Troy was happy to have had finished his work on the conversion van when he had. It would have been costly to rent space in a body-shop to do the work in some degree of warmth.

The beautiful paint job made the van look show-ready. If this project won any award, they could translate this into higher paying clients, which would make Troy very happy.

For now, his attention was slipping once again towards Sally. There was another bad weather system coming and he was worried about a woman who was not his lover or girlfriend.

They hadn’t spoken since Troy had seen Sally force the Impala to submit to her will. While this could bode really well for his fantasies, reality most likely demanded he forget about his fancies and cravings.

The Ice Storm

Jen and Sally were studying when their phones alerted them of the coming storm. A round of mixed precipitations with lots of wind was heading their way.

“Do you think we should call it a day?” Sally wondered out loud.

“Uh… you’re the driving expert… you tell me” Jen teased.

The hours flowed and it wasn’t long until the late hours started to lull the two students into a state of sleepiness.

The storm had arrived with fury. The wind slapped the window with sheets of frozen mixed precipitation. The howl sounded like a lonely wolf hungry for affection.

“Wouldn’t it be awesome if Troy was nearby to rescue us?” Jen sleepily teased Sally.

“Now, why would we need any form of rescue?” Sally hissed in an icy tone.

Jen had not let go of the notion of feelings between herself and Troy. Troy may have been a nice guy and all, but that was all it could be.

“After you drop me off, if you need help getting home, I’m sure you’d love calling Troy over” Sally added for good measure.

“Are you saying I can go for him?” Jen perked up in mock fan girl interest.

“Yeah… sure… while you’re at this, find me a date for your wedding to Troy” acid dripping from Sally’s voice.

It was not cool that her feelings for Troy seemed so obvious to Jen. If Jen could sense the growing curiosity, then Troy had to know, which gave him an unfair advantage.

“I know just the guy for you” Jen continued.

“Who is that?!?” snapped Sally as she whipped her head around to study her friend.

“Let me secure Troy first, then I’ll hook you up” Jen cautiously forwarded.

Pausing to mull over her options, Sally pretended to find the deal worthy of inspection. In reality, Sally was trying to figure out what Jen was up to.

“Here’s what we’ll do. Take me to my place and we can discuss it on the way” Sally concluded.

The weather had become very bad and the sooner they left the study halls and made their way to the dorms, the safer Sally would feel.

“Ok. But it would be really nice to see you blush as Troy walks you to the car” Jen gave a final tease with a playful flirtatious head nod.

“I’m done with you!” Sally giggled and grabbed her gear to leave.

Timidity has allure

Troy was a little worried. The weather was awful. If his gut was right, Sally would be out in this weather studying at one of the various halls on campus. Sally liked to study in a setting that most resembled the test site of any exams she took.

The science was backing up her claims that it helped with recollection and performance on exams. This could explain why Sally was consistently one of the top performers in any class Troy took with her.

The snow accumulating on top of a serious sheet of ice meant that driving in this weather was a very risky propositions.

Before heading out, Troy decided to modify his Civic for the weather. His place had a nice garage setup for two cars. He used it as his own shop whenever he couldn’t get to the shop his friend had.

Swapping out his all weather tires, Troy slapped on his ice tires. These were rally tires with metal studs designed specifically for ice racing. They weren’t street legal, as their studs were very aggressive in design and could damage asphalt.

However, there were no police officer out there who would take the time to verify that his tires were legal or not in the middle of a storm. They’d just be worried about him getting stuck somewhere, and Troy knew that wouldn’t happen.

Once on the way, Troy quickly zipped through the mess towards campus. He was glad he had made the switch to his rally tires. The roads were otherwise impassible.

With the suspension fully raised, the Civic made progress while still pushing a lot of snow out of the way with it’s front bumper.

The expensive all-wheel drive rally upgrade was proving every single cent of it’s worth.

Arriving to the campus, Troy slowed to inspect the various entrance options. The snow plows had completely covered the entrances. Even a good SUV would have troubles clearing the packed snow and ice walls. Maybe a lifted truck might make it through.

Just as Troy prepared to turn around for home, he heard the sound of a car’s horn being frantically tooted.