Ready To Go (10 page)

“I guess this is it,” Daniel remarked.

Nicole nodded, and turned the car into the parking lot. There were a surprisingly large number of cars in that dirt parking lot, and she had to circle around a few times to find a space. Once she stopped and got out of the car, she stretched her arms over her head. “Driving is tiring.”

“I know,” Daniel replied dryly. “You’re still driving to the hotel.”

Nicole groaned. “Can we just get in the zoo? You’re paying, right?”

“Yeah, I am,” he said. The two walked to the small building that advertised itself as the entrance. Inside, the place was decorated with pictures of animals and the forest. There were racks of stuffed animals and key chains with the zoo’s name on them. At the opposite end of the room sat a desk with a sign for ticket prices and a little display of pamphlets. Daniel walked up to the desk as a young woman walked out from a back room.

“Oh, hello!” she said brightly. “Are you interested in purchasing tickets today?”

“Yeah, we are,” he replied. “Two. Uh, student prices.”

The girl took his card and ran it through the computer, then picked up a rubber stamp and inkpad. “All right, hold out your hand, please.” Daniel lifted his hand to be stamped, and Nicole made her way over to do the same. After stamping their hands, the girl picked up a pamphlet from the small plastic display. “The zoo closes at seven tonight, but the farm exhibit closes at six. Here’s your map, and please enjoy!”

Daniel handed Nicole the map, and the two went out a small door in the back with “Entrance to the Zoo” painted on it. They found themselves on a wooded path with a large cage beside them. Nicole consulted the map. “Okay, it looks like this is kind of a trail and there’s some animal exhibits along it. Like this one is the gray wolf. And the farm exhibit she was talking about is in some kind of field and there’s a barn, and-“

Daniel stopped her by placing his hand on her arm. “Look.” In the cage beside them, a large gray wolf was pacing by the bars. It stopped directly in front of them and stared at the two, and then lowered its head and went back to pacing.

“Cool,” Nicole murmured. “He’s watching us.”

“He’s watching his cubs,” Daniel corrected, pointing out a gray mound in the back of the cage. Looking closer, Nicole could clearly see the mound was actually a large wolf lying on its side with smaller wolves beside her. They all appeared to be asleep.

“I’ve never seen wolves before,” Nicole commented. “I’ve been to zoos before, but they had more exotic animals. Never seen a wolf.”

“They’re pretty awesome, aren’t they?”

“Majestic might be a better word,” she said. “Do you want to keep going or just stare at the wolves?”

“Let’s keep going,” he replied. They walked slowly along the trail in silence, not an awkward silence, but a silence that allowed the sounds of nature to be heard. Wind rustled the tree branches and a few birds chirped at each other. They soon arrived at another cage.

“Red fox,” Nicole said, consulting the map.

“Cage looks empty,” Daniel remarked.

“That’s because right now it is,” a third voice said. Both turned to see that it was a man in a T-shirt proclaiming the name of the zoo with a nametag reading TYLER on his shirt. “The fox and her pups escaped this morning. We’ve been spending all day looking for them. They’re Tagged. They can’t leave the zoo without us knowing, so just let us know if you see them, okay?”

Daniel nodded, but Nicole asked, “Are they dangerous?”

“Only if you attack first,” the man replied. “Just leave them alone and they’ll ignore you. They’re pretty used to humans by now, see them every day.”

Nicole nodded, and as they walked on, she asked Daniel, “Do you want to see the farm exhibit? Since that’s going to close early. It’s just up ahead according to the map.”

“Sure,” he replied. Nicole led him across a small bridge over a creek, which led the path to an open field. There was a barn there and a collection of old farm equipment, but not much else. “This is it?”

“Let’s go in the barn,” she suggested. “Maybe there’s animals in there.” She quickly crossed the field, Daniel following, to the large doors of the barn to find them closed and locked. “Okay, never mind.”

“You know, this is kind of a cool museum, zoo, whatever, but this farm thing isn’t worth it,” Daniel said. He walked to a picnic table nearby, apparently set up for families or school trips, and sat down on the bench. “I’m sure it’s cool to little kids. Everything cool is for them.”

“Why would you think about kids?” Nicole asked, but then the answer dawned on her. “Does this have anything to do with your job? Missing the kids?”

“Kind of,” he admitted. “I’m kind of missing my life. I’m pretty sure I’m crazy for going with you.”

“You are.” She smiled. “You could go back. I’ll just keep on hitchhiking.”

“I don’t miss it that much.” He grinned at her. “I want to keep helping you. I’m a little scared that if I let you go now, someone’s going to murder you.”

“Yeah, I’m a little scared that
you’re
going to murder me. I can’t trust anyone,” she added, but she was laughing. Murder was never so much on her mind as creepy lecherous stares—and he seemed to be done with those.

Daniel gave a scoff of mock indignation at that. “Hey! I am a nice guy. I’m driving you around for no reason, I didn’t sleep with you.”

She smiled. “I know. If you weren’t so nice, I’d be gone. Murderous creeps out there be damned.”

“No, don’t say that. Don’t let yourself be killed.” He put an arm around her shoulders in a friendly hug. He didn’t even try that fake yawning move, which he was somewhat proud of himself that he was better than that.

She looked at his hand resting so close to her chest and said, “Uh, what are you doing?”

“Sorry,” he said, quickly removing her arm. “It’s just. I like you, you know? Had a good time kissing you, and it made me forget that sober you doesn’t like me.”

She rolled her eyes. “It’s not that I don’t like you. It’s that I’ve known you for four days, and if we start something and then end it, I’ll be stranded.”

He grinned, apparently only hearing the first bit of her statement. “So you do like me.”

“I don’t dislike you,” she said slowly, choosing her words carefully. “It’s complicated, you know? I don’t have a life to go back to after this. A relationship just isn’t something I can handle.”

“Okay,” he said. “I get it.” He didn’t really, but he didn’t want to press her any further.

“Come on, can we move on?” she asked. “See the rest of the zoo?”

“Yeah, no problem,” Daniel said, standing up. The two went back into the forested part of the zoo, back onto that same path. This time they talked instead of walking in silence, but they kept their voices low. They ignored the moment that had just happened and instead talked about what kind of hotel they wanted. Daniel was still hoping for a pool. Nicole wanted an actual bathtub instead of just a shower, a chance to soak in bubbles and relax.

“You know, a place with a pool and a hot tub could solve both our problems,” Daniel suggested.

“Can’t be naked in a hot tub,” Nicole commented.

He gave a leering grin. “Well-“

“Don’t even say it,” she warned. He laughed in reply, but suddenly she grabbed his hand and hushed him with a loud, “Shh!”

“What?” he asked in a whisper, stopping in his tracks. She pointed ahead of them. Running across the path ahead of them was a small red fox. It stopped before reaching the woods on the other side, and it was soon followed by three smaller foxes, her pups, darting across the open path. The mother fox looked around, and followed her pups into the trees.

“Aww, the babies are so cute!” Nicole cooed, her voice still quiet but also rising to a squeal. She hadn’t let go of Daniel’s hand.

“Yeah, adorable,” he replied. He gripped her hand a little tighter, and said, “We should probably go to the front and let them know about the fox.”

“Yeah,” she said. She finally slid her hand away from his. He was admittedly disappointed, but he said nothing on that. The two headed back to the admission building, taking a different path so they could see the remaining animals. They passed some birds, a lemur, and finally went past the wolf again before going into the building. They didn’t run into any zoo staff along the way.

Daniel talked to the girl at the desk while Nicole poked around at the small gift shop. The girl seemed happy to know about the foxes, and pulled out a walkie-talkie to let the staff out in the zoo know. And in a few minutes, the pair left, heading back out to the car.

“You know, I’m okay with finding a hotel with a hot tub,” she commented as she started the car.

“I left the keys with you the whole time we were in the zoo,” Daniel noted suddenly. “You could have stolen my car.”

“Could’ve,” she admitted. “But I didn’t. Anyway, hotel with a hot tub?”

“And a pool,” he said. “Gotta have the pool.”

She laughed. “No, hot tub is good enough. It’ll probably have both, but the hot tub’s the only necessary part.”

“If you’re sure,” he said with a shrug. “Don’t you want a nice relaxing swim?”

“Swimming isn’t relaxing, it’s exercise,” she said. “And why are you so eager to swim anyway?”

“I was on the swim team in high school,” he replied. “It was great. I was trying to be a rebellious teenager, but I couldn’t with my parents planning everything. They let me join a sport, and they let me choose which one.”

“Your parents sound controlling.”

“They’re my parents, leave them alone,” he said. “Your parents probably aren’t perfect.”

“They’re
definitely
not,” she said, then sighed. “I’m sorry. You can continue your story.”

“Anyway, ever since high school, swimming relaxes me,” he said. “It’s my thing. No matter what happens, I can find a place to swim. Pool, river, whatever. Just being in the water, doing laps, it’s great.”

Nicole nodded. “Okay. Hotel with a pool. And hot tub.”

“Sounds great.”

They drove into another town, and didn’t look around too long before they found a hotel with a sign advertising a pool. It didn’t mention a hot tub, but Nicole pulled the car into the parking lot anyway.

“You sure this is good enough?” Daniel asked.

“You’re still paying?” He nodded. “It’s fine.”

He laughed and got out of the car, heading to the lobby to check in. Nicole stayed behind to grab her suitcase, and then followed.

“Slight problem,” Daniel told her as she approached him. “Only one room left tonight. Some big convention in town, anime or something. Are you okay with that?”

“One room. Does it have two beds?” she asked.

He shrugged. “Don’t know. But we’ve got the sleeping bag which I’ll actually bring in the room this time. It’s okay.”

“Yeah,” she said. “I don’t really feel like driving any more.”

Daniel nodded, and returned to the desk to reserve the room before meeting Nicole by the elevators.

“So is it one bed or two?” she asked again.

“One,” he replied. “So good thing we got the sleeping bag.”

“And is there a hot tub with the pool?”

“I didn’t ask,” he admitted. “After we put our stuff in the room we can go check it out if you want.”

“Yeah, sounds good,” she said. She was tired. Relaxing in a warm hot tub sounded great to her. They got to their room, and as Daniel set up the sleeping bag, she rummaged through her suitcase for her swimsuit. Good thing she’d thought to bring that—she really didn’t wear it often. Once she headed into the bathroom to change, Daniel pulled the trunks he’d bought out of the shopping bag and quickly pulled them on.

They were garishly bright, with a Hawaiian print. When Nicole came out and saw them, she laughed.

“Hey, they were the only ones my size at the mall,” he said. “Are you even wearing a swimsuit?”

“Under my clothes,” she replied. She’d put her shirt and jeans back on, just for decency as she walked to the pool. “You really couldn’t do better than orange flowers?”

“Don’t forget, I didn’t
plan
on coming,” he replied, heading out the door. “I got the room key. Come on.”

They went down to the pool together. Nicole cheered when she saw there was, indeed, a hot tub. True, the pool area was small and empty, but the water looked clean and at a comfortable temperature. Daniel went to the deep end of the pool and dove in, his body cutting a line through the blue.

Once in the water, he didn’t think anymore. He didn’t care that he got himself into a crazy mess by agreeing to take this girl across the country to some unknown destination. He didn’t care that he was probably going to fail out of his classes if he didn’t get online and get some work done soon. He just swam back and forth across the pool, letting the flow of his body clear his head. There was no need to go fast, like there had been in high school. He just had to go back and forth, back and forth.

As he swam, Nicole stripped down to her bathing suit and climbed into the hot tub. She didn’t want to admit it to Daniel, but she was glad that he’d gone for this hotel. The warm water swirling around her really was nice. She leaned back against the side of the hot tub, and watched Daniel as he swam. He really was attractive without a shirt—it was clear now why her drunk self had gone for him. But then again, she didn’t want to look at him as anything more than a helpful stranger. Maybe a friend. Not some guy that she actually liked. Yet here she was in her bathing suit in front of him. She didn’t have to be dressed like this, but she chose to anyways.

Her dad had always said she looked nice in that bathing suit. Nicole sank lower into the water. Why had
that
popped into her head? She shut her eyes and tried to forget about her family and Daniel and everything.

Daniel didn’t notice Nicole was there until he grew tired of laps, maybe ten minutes later, and he got out of the pool. When he saw her, he walked over to the hot tub and lowered himself in beside her. “Damn, this does feel good,” he said.

“Shut up and let me relax,” Nicole mumbled. A moment later, without opening her eyes, she said, “And quit staring at me.”

“I’m not,” Daniel defended. He wasn’t
intentionally
. “Will you stop acting like I’m a pervert?”