Reluctantly, but yes

Lauren sat there rereading the email a few times as her thoughts raced through her head. On the one hand, the thought about leaving her home first thing in the morning and riding through this whole town on horseback while wearing nothing but a smile was humiliating. Mortifying, even! This was the kind of action where, had she done this back in the city, she'd be fired, arrested, and **** to never live it down until the day she died.

On the other hand, that didn't seem to be the case here. Indeed, if she was understanding this correctly, this town seemed to allow a single person one free day of public nudity in exchange for reenacting the famous ride of their founder's ancestor. Plus, the fact that this honor was only given to whoever the town viewed as most beautiful did stroke her massive ego.

Still...

Lauren leaned back in her chair, rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly as she looked between Abby and Rachel. "For the record," she asked, "if I were to, oh lets say, call out of work sick tomorrow, would I still have to do this?"

"Unfortunately, the only way you can get out of this honor is if there's a pandemic, you're in labor, or you're on your **** bed." Rachel replied, lying through the skin of her teeth while smiling inwardly. The city girl was buying it!

"Yeah." Abby added, "I knew this one woman who was chosen two years ago who had to do it through a freak snow storm. Poor girl was nearly blue by the time she was done."

Lauren sighed as she leaned her head back. There really wasn't much of a choice then. "I guess if it's gonna be like that..."

"You'll do it?" Rachel asked as she and Abby watched Lauren stand up from her desk. "You are so much braver than I am!"

"And if the process of choosing your "Lady Godiva" is anything to go by, much more beautiful, too." Lauren added arrogantly with a chuckle, heading towards the door. Without looking over her shoulder, the woman waved at her coworkers and said, "Goodnight, girls!"

"Goodnight!" Abby called back just as Lauren left the station, the two girls watching as the city girl got onto her motorcycle and drove off down the road to her home. Once she was gone, Abby and Rachel turned and smiled at each other wickedly.

"Sucker!"