Ready To Go (7 page)

Daniel followed her out of the lobby and towards the rooms. He stayed silent, though, aware that she didn’t want to talk to him anymore. They’d said their goodbyes, and he was okay with it now.

He entered his room. It was small, just a bed, a small bureau with a television on it, and a connecting bathroom. He stripped down to his boxers and climbed into bed. The day had been long, and he was ready for some sleep.

Nicole, on the other hand, was nowhere near ready to sleep. After all, she’d been able to catch a nap in the car. Before hitting the bed, she was eager to head to the shower and wash the grime of the day away. She still felt a phantom wetness on her stomach from whatever had been in the library’s bathroom. As soon as she could, she scrubbed that spot on her stomach until it was raw. She left the shower with red skin from the hot water, but she wrapped herself in the ratty motel towel and felt as comfortable as if she was home.

Daniel woke up disoriented the next morning. He expected to be in his own bed, waking up to his alarm and the sounds of the city, so waking up to the sound of his cell phone ringing in a quiet part of the country was bizarre.

He groggily reached for his phone on the bedside table. What time was it?

“Hello?” he asked.

“Hey, it’s Rachel,” came the voice on the other line, a little fuzzy and tinny. “I just wanted to know if you’re coming in today. Some of our funders are coming to see how the exhibits are doing, and I just want everything smooth today, so let me know now if I need to call someone else in.”

“Yeah, you’re going to have to,” he replied. “Sorry. I’m just going through something a little crazy right now.”

“Do you want me to take you off the schedule until you’re feeling better?” Rachel asked.

“No, I’ll definitely be back Monday,” he said. “And if I’m not for whatever reason, I’ll let you know that before the museum closes today.”

“Thank you,” his boss said appreciatively. “I hope everything goes all right for you, okay?”

“Thanks,” he replied before hanging up the phone. He pulled the covers back over himself, wanting more sleep. But after a few minutes of turning back and forth restlessly, he sat up. He had to get going if he was going to make it home by tonight. That was if he even wanted to make it home.

He’d had a pretty good time yesterday. He was away from his responsibilities for a while, and he was with a pretty girl who he liked talking to when she wasn’t all shy and quiet. He had the money to take a break—he did still have that savings account from his parents that he’d never tapped into, even though they kept adding to it. Why not use it now? He had a card in his wallet for the checking account linked to it. He could easily take a break from school and help this girl across the country. He’d always said his car could drive across the country and back, and he felt like this was the time to test it.

He thought about this decision while he showered and dressed. He knew it was a crazy idea, but the more he thought about it, the more he thought it was a good idea. He had the money, and he could always make up the classes that he was inevitably going to fail. He had his laptop with him, maybe he could persuade his professors to let him finish online, or at least give him an extension. It was just going to be about a week, probably, so that dead grandmother excuse could probably stretch that far. And he did want to spend more time with Nicole.

Daniel left his room, making sure to take all his stuff with him. He would be checking out soon anyway. He strolled over to the next room and knocked on the door.

There was no answer. He had to laugh at himself. All his planning and he hadn’t bothered to think about if Nicole had gone on without him. Still, he could drive around a little bit and look for her before heading back. Maybe buy her breakfast.

He went to the lobby to check out, handing back his key. The clerk, the same one from the night before, told him to come back soon and yawned.

He got in his car and headed back towards the highway, or at least where he thought the highway might be. His stomach grumbled, but he didn’t feel like getting breakfast just yet. He either had to find that girl or get on his way home.

Daniel found a sign on the side of the road pointing towards the highway. Standing beside it was Nicole, holding out her thumb to catch another ride.

He pulled the car over by her and rolled down the window.

“No,” she said, before he could speak. “You’re going back to Pittsburgh, I’m going west. This is the end of anything for us.”

“Breakfast?” he offered. “I’ve got an idea you’ll want to hear.”

“Fine,” she said with a sigh, opening the passenger side door. “Breakfast, then drop me back off here. I’m pretty sure your idea is crazy, though.”

Daniel didn’t reply to this, but drove back into town to find a place that was open for breakfast. He soon spotted a sign for an IHOP and found his way there. The parking lot was half full and the place looked fairly busy. “It might be a bit of a wait.”

“You can tell me your idea while we wait, then,” Nicole replied.

He parked the car and got out. She followed, at first pulling her suitcase out with her, but then paused for a moment before setting it back inside. They went in the restaurant together, and Daniel gave his name for a table.

“I want to keep driving you,” Daniel said after they’d managed to find a bench by the hostess’s podium, waiting to hear his name called.

Nicole laughed. “No way. You have a life to go back to.”

“I’m sick of that life,” he said. “I’ve got enough money to get both of us hotel rooms and food for a while.”

“How?” Nicole asked. “Didn’t you say you were working at the museum to be able to afford school?”

“Yeah, but no,” he replied. “They pay for school, and I pay for my apartment, and all the books and things for school. They’ve set up this savings account I’ve never tapped into that’s supposed to be for all the stuff I’ve been paying for. I’ve got money from that without the job.”

“Yeah, okay, but you’ll lose your job if you come with me,” she pointed out.

“I know,” he said. “My boss has been okay with me taking off a few days, but you’re right, she could fire me. But if I lose this job, I’ll find a new one. You’re very reluctant to take any help, aren’t you?”

“Daniel, party of two,” the hostess called.

The two walked to their table. While they looked over their menus, Nicole abruptly set hers down. “It’s not that I’m reluctant to take you up on this offer. I know it would be great to have food and hotels this whole trip, and I can see it would be kind of fun. You’re not a bad guy, at least not today. But it’s
because
you’re not a bad guy that I’m going to say no.”

“I don’t get it,” he said, slowly laying down his menu. “And what do you mean, at least not today?”

“You’ve got a life,” she said. “You’ve got a job and school and your parents counting on you. You shouldn’t just throw all that away for me. You don’t even know me.” She wasn’t going to answer that question. She meant what she said: right now he wasn’t a bad guy, but in another few days, he could be.

“I want to know you,” he said. He paused, thinking over what he’d just said, and continued, “That sounded strange. What I mean is, you seem like a great girl. I need a change from my life, and I think you’re worth changing my life for.” Another pause. “I promise I’m not always this creepy.”

She laughed. He was glad to see she didn’t seem as uneasy around him now, even though he kept screwing up and coming off way worse than he meant everything. “Fine. I’ll play along with your psychotic breakdown, on two conditions.”

He nodded. “What are they?”

“One, if you change your mind, please leave me in an actual town instead of the side of the road,” she said. He replied with a nod. She continued, “Two, I am not going to repay you for this with money or sex. This is out of the kindness of your heart.”

“Got it,” he replied. “I won’t expect anything from you.”

She smiled, and said softly, “Thank you. So much. It’s going to be nice not doing this alone.”

They ate their breakfasts while having a silly conversation about the things they’d dreamed the night before.

“I finally managed to be a doctor,” Daniel said, “But my tools were all toys. You know, like those plastic ones that would come in a kid’s doctor set?”

Nicole nodded. “I used to have a set like that.”

“But in the dream, I was operating on patients who had real problems, and I couldn’t actually do anything. I had to cut a guy open to do heart surgery and ended up poking at his chest.” He poked at his eggs for emphasis.

“That just sounds weird,” Nicole said. “But I dreamed I was living in a cloud city, so I can’t talk.”

“What was that like?”

She shrugged. “All the buildings were made of clouds, and we got around on Pegasuses. Pegasi. Whatever. I was mostly scared of falling off the whole time.”

The conversation meant nothing, but the tension between them had suddenly relaxed. Both were looking forward to continuing on this journey, wherever they were going.

They didn’t drive for nearly as long as they had the day before, but they talked more. They kept the conversation away from their lives, kept it on an argument over which was the best Harry Potter movie—he said the second, she said the last two—until Daniel suddenly saw a sign for a cheap tourist attraction that he suddenly
had
to go to.

“Where are you taking me?” Nicole asked when she realized they were turning off the highway.

“You’ll see,” he replied. “It won’t take long, trust me.”

About ten or so minutes later, though he could see the attraction much earlier than that, Daniel parked the car at the base of a large green statue.

Nicole laughed when she got out of the car. “Isn’t that the guy from the frozen vegetables?” She looked up to see the giant’s face, but could just see the back of his jolly green head two stories above them.

“Green Giant, yeah,” he replied. “I saw a sign for this, and figured it couldn’t hurt to stop at something cheesy. Took us a little north, but since I have no idea where you’re going, it can’t hurt.”

“I guess not,” she said. “I really should figure out where I want to go. I’ll do that later.”

“No rush,” he replied. “Come on, let’s go climb it.”

He was disappointed to learn that they couldn’t actually climb it, just go up to a little platform that stood under the giant’s legs. He noticed Nicole glanced up the statue’s tunic.

“Curious?” he teased, but he couldn’t resist taking a peek upwards as well. Of course there was nothing there. The skirt of the giant was a flat solid across the bottom.

“It’s really tall,” she said. “Why are we here?”

“Because it’s really tall,” he said, laughing a bit. “Oh, come on, you can’t hate me so much that you can’t have any fun with me.”

“I never really thought about
enjoying
this trip,” she admitted. “But this is kind of fun. For looking up a statue’s skirt.”

“I’m pretty sure it’s a toga,” he said. “But see? I’m paying for everything-“

“This is free,” she pointed out. “You just parked and we walked up the steps there.”

“I’m paying for everything,” he repeated. “So let’s just have fun together. If I’m just going to be driving you and not doing anything else, there’s not much in it for me, you know? I want a vacation.”

“As long as I get somewhere eventually,” she said. “This could be fun. Okay. Make as many random cheesy stops as you want.”

“I’ll be making a lot of them,” Daniel promised. “Oh, hey, that reminds me, I don’t have any other clothes. Do you mind stopping somewhere so I can get some?”

“You’re driving, so it doesn’t matter if I care,” she said, heading back to the car. “We’re done here, right? I mean, it’s just a statue.”

“It does matter,” he called out to her as he didn’t move from under the statue. “And no, not done here. If this is a road trip, we need cheesy pictures.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Nope. Get back here.”

She gave an exaggerated sigh before walking back up the few steps to the base of the statue. “Do you have a camera?”

Daniel pulled his phone out of his pocket. “Good enough.” He leaned close to Nicole and held the phone up like a shot from a girl’s cheesy Facebook picture. “Smile.”

When he checked the picture, he noticed that she was grinning like they really were just friends on a road trip. But when he looked back at her, she’d stopped smiling. “Are we going now?”

“Yeah, fine,” Daniel said. “Anyway, I’ll be with you for what, a week?”

“About that, yeah,” Nicole said.

“So I’ll need a week’s worth of clothes,” he said. “I can’t just wear this the whole time.”

“Yeah, let’s do a shopping trip,” she said. “I need a few things too. I keep noticing things that I should have thought of before starting this, and I’ve got enough money at least for those.”

“I saw a sign for a mall in a few miles,” he said. “Let’s go there.”

Nicole nodded. “Don’t let me spend too much,” she said with a grin. “And don’t say it’s your treat either. This is why I have money.”