A large beach towel!

Zoe's scrounging produced almost nothing. The best cover she had was a translucent beach ball, until she spotted the sign of an old rag near the area where the beach lifeguards kept the ATVs.

When Zoey picked it up and began inspecting it, she could tell it was actually a towel! She sighed with relief, before holding it out, and pulling it against her body. Sure enough, the towel was a beach towel that was plenty long, and wide enough to cover her body! It was absolutely hideous, the background of the towel being white and dotted all over with little red hearts. In fact, she was pretty sure that was the exact reason it hadn't been claimed in the first place. But, Zoey was more than grateful to have a towel to wear. It wasn't exactly normal to walk around in just a towel, but Zoey figured that anyone who saw her would think she was wearing a strapless bikini top.

Zoey practically skipped her way out of the garage, locking the door back behind her as she walked along the path back inside the office. Zoey was so caught up in the relief of finding a suitable towel with absolutely no functional issues covering her body, that she didn’t notice the back door of the office firmly shutting onto the bottom corner of her towel. It took no more than a second step forward for the towel to instantly be yanked off of her body, and fall to the floor. Zoey was left stunned for only a moment, before blushing red and quickly yanking the towel out of the door, so she could re-wear it. She decided right then and there that despite how well this towel was doing at covering everything, she would have to dedicate one hand at least to holding the towel closed so it wouldn’t come flying off her body at the slightest touch.

Zoey began gathering all of her things, and did her last minute walk through of the building to make sure everything was cleaned up, and that nobody else was inside. After running through her checklist, Zoey walked out the front door with a smile on her face.

So began her drive home, a short 15 minute drive home along the coast-side roadway. Her left hand was steering her jeep, while her right kept an iron grip on the top fold of her towel. Zoey made it about five minutes down the road, when a loud ringing sound from her phone cut through the air. She was startled at first, and looked down at the passenger seat to see who was calling her. When she saw it was her mom, Zoey knew that not picking up wasn’t really an option. So she quickly reached down, and put the phone up to her right ear.

“Mom?” Zoey answered, looking around her as she came to a stop sign.

“Hey, you should be leaving work about right now right?” Zoey’s mom asked. It took little guessing from Zoey to know there was some sort of request coming her way.

“…Yeah I’m like 10 minutes down the road. Why?” Zoey asked.

Zoey’s mom offered a winded sigh. “Well, I ran to the grocery store today, and knew I forgot something. Well, multiple somethings I guess. But I need that stuff tonight so I can prepare for the group brunch I’m having with the book club tomorrow morning.” Zoey’s mom asked. “Is there anyway I could convince you to drop in at Gina’s store on the way home and grab me the stuff I texted you? I’d owe you big time!”

Zoey knew Gina’s as the island’s convenience grocery store. It wasn’t necessarily the cheapest, but it capitalized on lazy tourists and locals who didn’t want to try the 30 minute bridge drive to the next grocery store. Normally she would only have some minor gripes about the slight detour. But a look down at her already drooping towel caused her to raise a new concern: Shopping dressed as she was would almost be inviting the chance for an unintended exposure.

“…Can’t I just grab it tomorrow? They’re supposed to close in 30 minutes…” Zoey complained. “Not to mention I’m still wearing my work clothes. I can’t just walk in there wearing my swimsuit.”

Her mom scoffed. “Look, some of this stuff needs to be prepared overnight! Waiting until tomorrow isn’t an option I have…” She explained. “And secondly, you and I both know that the ‘work clothes’ excuse has long expired. Miss Gina let’s any of the beach tourists pop in wearing bikinis that cover less than what you wear for work all the time. And let’s not forget you’re little ‘accident’ a few weeks ago. So don’t try to cop out because you’ve got to walk in wearing your swimsuit!” She griped.

Zoey winced and blushed at that last bit, at the mere mention of her embarrassing streak down the private beach path. She shook her head, and prepared herself to continue protesting as she began to drive off. That was until she felt the towel on her body quickly fall down off her body, and begin sliding away with the motion of the car.

With one hand occupied at the wheel, while her other hand was stuck holding her phone, Zoey watched in horror as she tuned out her mom, watching the towel begin to slide out of the jeep. She was doing her best to hold it in with just her left foot, but it was losing hold quickly. In a spur of the moment decision, Zoey hastily wrapped up the phone call.

“Alright I’ll run to the store, bye!” Zoey yelled, dropping her phone down into the passenger seat as her right arm practically lunged for the towel. It was airborne briefly as it began to fly off into the ocean breeze, before her fingers managed to snatch it back into the Jeep’s cabin.

Zoey ignored the honk of an impatient driver behind her as she refitted the towel, having narrowly avoided a disaster. She breathed a very nervous sigh of relief as she began driving once again, having rushedly agreed to pick up some things from the grocery store.