As late as it already was, and with such an early flight the next morning, Katie resigned herself to another night camping out in an airport. She managed to get some decent barbeque for dinner just before the food court shut down, then settled in for the night in a rocking chair.
Other than waking up stiff and still tired, Katie’s Monday actually started off pretty well. She didn’t sleep through her phone’s alarm, waking at 4:20 as planned. She was onboard and seated by 4:40, and airborne by 4:55. The flight was quicker than advertised, and she was walking through the already bustling terminal at Reagan National by 6:50.
Her morning so far had gone as well as it possibly could, but Katie knew she didn’t have enough time to go to her hotel to clean up and get changed into office-appropriate clothing and still make it to the event at the Capitol anywhere near on time. Since her work assignment was the reason she was here, and she definitely didn’t want to make a first impression on the Congressman’s D.C. staff dressed as she was, she decided to try and find somewhere in the terminal where she could freshen up and get dressed.
“Right after I get some caffeine in me,” she thought, “I don’t want to be known as that ditz who fell asleep during her boss’s speech!” After downing a Starbucks double espresso and wolfing down an egg and spinach wrap, she began hunting for somewhere private to get out of her travel outfit and get dressed for work.
Katie had seen photos of tiny rooms available at some airports for rent by the hour, where a traveler could nap, work on their laptop or just get some quiet while waiting for their flight. “Or change clothes in a secluded space,” she thought. “kind of ironic, the last two nights I probably could have changed clothes right out where I ended up sleeping without anyone even noticing, but now that I actually need to change I’m in way too busy a space to try that!”
After wasting five minutes studying a directory to see if there was any place more suitable for changing her clothes, Katie headed to the first Ladies’ room she saw. The regular toilet stalls seemed kind of small, making undressing and changing clothes awkward, possibly even hazardous. The handicap-accessible stall was way bigger; Katie felt a little guilty about monopolizing the only accessible stall in the room, but not guilty enough to pass up the opportunity to take the large empty space.
Though very spacious, the stall had no shelf space, and just one small hook, which Katie hung her shoulder bag on. Another problem was a door that didn’t latch securely; not wanting to be interrupted in mid-change, she leaned her suitcase up against the door, and was relieved to see that it was heavy enough to keep the door from opening on its own. She knew if someone pushed hard enough she’d be having company, but was pretty sure her current setup was about the best she could do, so she moved on to her next problem.
“Where do I put my clothes,” Katie wondered. The floor wasn’t obviously dirty, but it had a sheen of some sort of smelly cleaning product which she didn’t want on any of her clothes or the inside of her suitcase. She came up with a solution, taking the various pieces of the one work outfit she’d packed out of her suitcase and draping each piece, aside from her shoes, over the top of the toilet stall’s partition. She placed her gray thigh-high stockings, black thong, matching black bra, black and white houndstooth skirt, and a charcoal silk blouse all in a neat row. With her work clothes ready and waiting, she went to work getting out of her travel outfit, thrilled to finally get out of the clothes she’d been wearing for the last 48 hours.
Katie’s traveling clothes had been as comfortable as any outfit could have been, but after two full days wearing the same clothes, she was more than happy to be done with them. She slipped her crocs off and dropped them into the empty main compartment of her suitcase, followed in short order by her socks. Working her way up her body, her leggings were next to be put away.
As she bent over to work her feet out of her bunched-up leggings, she wondered if any of the other women coming and going had noticed the weird little calf, ankle, and foot strip show she was putting on below the bottom edge of the door! “If anyone out there is watching, this should give them something to gossip about,” she thought as she let her panties drop to her ankles, then stepped out of them.
Naked from the waist down, Katie really hoped the stall door stayed put as she started getting her upper body uncovered. She wadded her hoodie up and stuffed it into her suitcase, followed seconds later by her t-shirt. She was particularly glad to finally be freed from her bra; it was normally a comfortable enough item, but it was never intended to be worn for as long as she’d been stuck in it; Katie shoved it into the open suitcase, even as she thought she’d rather dump it in the nearest trash receptacle.
Katie had a brief but vivid fantasy about leaving the stall to dispose of the hated bra in her current state, but with everything she’d been stuck wearing for the last two days stowed away in her suitcase, she smiled and filed the image away to think about later on. She noticed one of her stockings had slipped a bit and grabbed it before it could fall off the partition. Since by now she was ready to start putting clothes on she rolled it onto her left leg and pulled it halfway up her thigh.
Katie opened a small compartment at the front of her suitcase and pulled out a packet of wet wipes and a small deodorant stick. She gave herself as much of a cleanup as the small wipes could accomplish, then applied the deodorant, hoping nobody would be able to smell the effect of her two days of travel. Satisfied she had done what she could to make herself presentable, she turned back to put her toiletries away.
Though she noticed right away that her suitcase wasn’t where it should have been, she didn’t immediately grasp that it wasn’t anywhere inside the stall with her. Distracted by the case of the missing suitcase, she didn’t immediately notice a much bigger problem happening right in front of her. One at a time but in quick succession pieces of her carefully laid out, work outfit were disappearing over the edge of the partition. By the time she noticed what was happening, her remaining stocking, thong, and bra were already gone; before she was able to react her skirt also vanished.
She quickly realized that her blouse was the only piece of her clothing, clean or dirty, still within her reach, and lunged for it. She caught the silk top, but couldn’t pull it to her side of the partition. Whoever had already taken the rest of Katie’s clothing had a firm hold on the dark gray top and was determined to pull it to her side of the partition. Both Katie and her unseen opponent pulled hard, sliding the blouse a few inches one way or the other. Neither was able to get control of it. Eventually they slid it over to a narrow joint between panels of the stall’s wall and the blouse slipped down into the gap. The other woman hesitated, or maybe just gave up, right as Katie pulled hard.