Ready To Go (9 page)

“You need to put your clothes on,” he said.

She pouted. “Don’t wanna.”

“Come on, you don’t really want this.” He sat on the bed beside her, but made no move to touch her. He didn’t stop himself from looking, though, and she noticed.

“You want me,” she said in a singsong tone.

“Not like this,” he replied.

“I
owe
you!” she said. “’Cause you’re driving me.”

“I still want to be able to drive you, and you’re not going to let me if we do this. It’s not going to end well.” He sighed. “This isn’t okay.”

“You
want
me,” she repeated. She sat up and hugged him from behind, her breasts against his back. He didn’t move as she rubbed her hand along his arm, moved her touch lower. “I know you want me ‘cause I can feel it.”

He stood up abruptly. Her hand had gone to a dangerous place there. “
No
,” he said, not shouting, but stern, as if scolding a child. She brought her knees to her chest and lowered her head. He wasn’t sure what she was doing until he heard a small sniffle. “Oh, no, don’t cry, please don’t cry.”

“You think I’m ugly,” she mumbled. “You don’t think I’m worth anything.”

“Don’t think like that.” He gently placed his hand to her cheek, and she looked up at him. “You’re really pretty,” he said, “but you’re also really drunk. If you want to have sex with me tomorrow, when we’re both sober, I’ll say
hell
yeah. But not tonight. I know you don’t really want this.”

“Okay,” she mumbled glumly. “I’m tired anyway.”

“Come on,” he said, gently pulling her off the bed. He pulled down the covers for her and kept his hands on her waist to keep her balanced as she crawled into the bed. He pulled the blanket over her and as she closed her eyes, he gave her another kiss.

Damn. Where was he going to sleep?

Daniel woke up hung over. Good thing he’d thought to grab some aspirin at the store, but sleeping on the floor hadn’t helped. He hadn’t remembered the sleeping bag, so he’d created a bed out of the comforter and some extra pillows. At least his head had been clear enough last night to do that. And at least he hadn’t made a big mistake with Nicole.

He got out of the ‘bed’ and noticed that he’d gone to sleep completely clothed. Even his shoes were on. That was a little weird. He headed to the bathroom to get some aspirin and start a shower. As the water heated up, he began to strip off his clothes. He’d only gotten his shirt off before he heard the girl shriek.

Nicole didn’t know where she was when she woke up. It took her a minute before she could blearily remember the bar and how strong was that drink anyways? Or should she not have had four of them? All she knew was that she was naked in a hotel room. No matter how hard she tried to remember the night before, she had nothing. So of course she screamed, not knowing where she was or who she was with.

Daniel opened the bathroom door and leaned out, holding onto the doorframe for balance. Nicole clutched the sheets against her chest. Was he naked? “Calm down,” he said. He stepped out of the bathroom. Okay. He had pants. “I’m sure your head hurts, and screaming won’t help.”

“What the
hell
did we do?” she cried. Of
course
it would be him. She’d made it clear that she wasn’t going to give him sex in exchange for a ride, so he just got her drunk. How could she have trusted him?

“Nothing,” he said. Nothing? He held up one finger as a sign for her to wait, and then ducked back into the bathroom. He emerged a moment later with a glass of water in his hand, and walked over to her bed. She gathered up the sheets around her to cover herself even more as he sat down and held out the water to her. “I’ve also got some aspirin if you want it.”

“Thanks,” she mumbled, taking the water and the few small pills he produced. He wouldn’t be so nice to her if he had taken advantage of her. “Really, what happened? Did we sleep together? That would be so like me.” She sighed, and added to herself, “Not that I’d really know, but given…”

“You tried,” he admitted, interrupting her as he hadn’t heard the last bit. He was grinning slightly despite himself. “But all that really happened was we made out a little and I stopped you when you got naked. Can’t say I didn’t
want
to sleep with you, but you were drunk. I don’t take advantage of drunk girls.”

She smiled a little bit, mentally thanking the powers that be that nothing had happened. “Thanks. I mean, I know I can get a little slutty when I’m drunk, but I didn’t think I’d go
that
far. So really, thanks.”

“I would’ve felt
really
creepy doing that,” he said. “But it doesn’t matter. I didn’t do anything to you.”

“You kissed me,” she pointed out.

“Actually, you kissed me first,” he said. “You’re kind of terrible at it.”

She just responded by sticking her tongue out at him and lying down again, pulling the covers over her head. The light hurt. “We don’t have to check out soon, do we?” she asked, her voice a little muffled by the sheets.

“Another hour,” he replied.

She groaned. “You go take your shower, I’m going to sleep until you’re done. Just slam the door when you get out of the bathroom, that’ll wake me up.”

“Okay,” Daniel said softly. As he headed towards the bathroom again, Nicole sat up abruptly.

“Hey,” she called. “It does mean a
lot
to me that you didn’t sleep with me. Thanks.”

He grinned, and just repeated, “Okay.”

After they’d both gotten dressed, checked out, called a taxi to take them to Daniel’s car, they were on their way for the day. When Nicole put her suitcase in the trunk, she noticed the sleeping bag in there. “Okay, if you had this, why didn’t you use that instead of the comforter? They never wash those things, you know.”

“Because this was here,” he replied simply. “I didn’t know I’d be sleeping on the floor. Next time, I’ll bring it into the hotel just in case.”

“Oh no, I’m definitely not drinking tonight,” she said. “My head still hurts. I’m probably going to sleep for a while longer.”

“No way,” he said. “We’re stopping to get some coffee and then when your headache’s gone, it’s your turn to drive. I’ve driven two days straight, I’m sick of it.”

“Really?” she asked. “You want me to drive your car?”

“You can, right? I saw your license yesterday. And we’re in this together,” he replied. “It’s only fair you drive some of the time.”

“After coffee,” she said. “I can’t drive with this hangover.”

“That’s fair,” he replied. “You got a lot drunker than I did, it’s no surprise you’re more hung over.”

After they got coffee, Nicole claimed she still needed sleep, and would Daniel please continue driving for a while? He agreed, as long as she would be driving later.

He still had some of the brochures for the hotel, and one of them caught his eye as they drove. Something called the Corn Palace. It was a little out of the way—but really, was it out of the way if they had no destination in mind? With Nicole sleeping off her headache, she couldn’t complain, so he followed the little map.

“Are you insane?” Nicole asked him when the car stopping woke her up. They were at a parking lot next to the large building covered with ears of corn. It looked as bizarre as the name suggested.

“I thought we got over this, you’re okay with having fun now,” he said. “Come on, it’s a building that’s got corn on it. Isn’t that cool?”

“It’s dying,” she pointed out. It was clear that the corn had been on the walls for quite a while, and the colors were fading. “What is there to do here? Just look at dead corn?” Then again, she didn’t expect anything better from Nebraska or Wyoming or where-the-hell-ever.

“No, we can go inside and look at pictures of old murals,” Daniel said. He’d just picked up the brochure and was reading directly from it. “And, apparently this is the largest high school basketball stadium in the Midwest. Exciting, right?”

“Are you serious?” she asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

He just grinned. “No. But the corn’s kind of interesting. Let’s just go into the gift shop, at least. I want to stretch my legs a bit before you start driving.”

“Fine,” Nicole said, getting out of the car. “But you have to buy me a T-shirt, okay? I lost one just before I met you, I’d like a new one.”

“Sure,” Daniel replied. He followed her into the corn-covered building. The gift shop, just next to the entrance, was just a small room, but it was filled with corn-shaped and corn-colored objects.

Nicole stood at the rack of T-shirts, fingering the fabric. “This feels weird,” she commented.

A nearby salesgirl heard her comment, and said, “All our products here are made with corn! Including that shirt there!”

Nicole stepped away from the shirt. “That’s just…really bizarre. Why?”

“Because you’re at the Corn Palace!” the salesgirl said, an annoying amount of glee in every single word of her Midwestern drawl. Daniel just rolled his eyes, listening to their conversation as he checked out the corn-shaped, corn-scented bars of soap.

“Okay, it’s really just us in here, and I know
he
doesn’t care,” Nicole said. “So, you can drop the happy act. I used to work customer service. I know you’re not really that excited about corn.” She could never stand hearing fake happiness in someone’s voice. It felt like a lie, and she hated lies.

“Of course I’m excited about corn!” the girl said, just as chipper. “Corn is the greatest crop our state produces!”

Daniel tried to stifle a laugh at that, but still made a small snorting sound. He turned away from the two girls, as he was sure both were staring at him.

“This shirt is good for the environment,” the salesgirl continued. “It’s made from recycled corn fibers. That’s the ‘weird’ feeling you were talking about. But I can guarantee it’s super comfortable. Go on, feel my shirt! It’s the same fabric!”

Daniel turned around at that, and was honestly a little disappointed to see that all Nicole was doing was feeling the salesgirl’s sleeve.

“It’s softer than this,” she remarked.

“It gets softer after you wear it for a while,” the salesgirl replied. “It’s a great shirt, and a great souvenir. Would you like me to ring that up for you?”

“I’m not sure,” Nicole replied. She glanced over at Daniel, who nodded before approaching the salesgirl and the rack of shirts. He grabbed a random one off the rack and held it up for Nicole’s approval. “That’s way too big,” she pointed out.

“Sorry,” he replied. “What size are you?”

“Not double ex,” she said. “Medium.”

“Oh, we have a medium in that color right here!” the salesgirl said, pulling another shirt from the rack. “I’ll ring it up for you now. Would you like any caramel corn or popcorn with that? We have some delicious varieties right over there!”

Daniel glanced to where the girl pointed, and picked up a brightly colored triangle bag of caramel corn. “Sure, why not?”

“You’re crazy,” Nicole remarked. “But whatever. You’re paying.”

As they walked back to the car, Daniel eating handfuls of the caramel corn, Nicole asked him, “Can you drive for a little longer?”

“Will you wear that shirt?” he asked.

She rolled her eyes. “Crazy. Okay.”

“You can change right here,” he joked.

“No way,” she replied, but she laughed. She wasn’t going to take off her shirt in front of the guy, but she felt a sense of relief at finally knowing that he was joking. Still, she needed to change the subject. “So, why didn’t we just go to Mount Rushmore? If we’re in South Dakota, after all.”

“Well, that’s boring,” he said. “It’s just a big mountain to look at. This place had
corn!”

He liked that he could make the girl laugh.

Later in the day, after Nicole had changed her shirt at a rest stop, the two finally switched seats. Daniel watched as Nicole pulled up the driver’s seat, adjusted the mirrors, and turned down the radio. She was ruining his perfect setup, but if it meant he got to relax and sleep a little, he’d deal with it. She looked nervous, but he pointed out where the gear shift was, where the blinker was, and she calmed down a bit.

“I’m just driving us to a hotel tonight, right?” she asked. “Nothing else special?”

“Let’s see what’s around here,” he suggested, reaching for his neglected GPS sitting on the dash. He wondered why they never used this to find a hotel, but signs were everywhere. Following them was easier than typing into the GPS while driving. Now, he was just searching for attractions nearby. “There’s a zoo a few miles from here.”

“Zoos are fun,” she said. “Yeah, put that in. We’ll go there.”

He nodded, and set the GPS on the dashboard. A woman’s voice with a crisp English accented directed Nicole to turn left in five hundred feet.

“Any reason she’s British?” she asked.

Daniel shrugged. “Just ‘cause. It was the default voice.”

She nodded, and followed the directions. It didn’t take them long to get to the zoo, which didn’t look much like a zoo. It looked more like a forest or state park, but where there would be a visitor’s center sign, there was a wooden sign stating KONER PARK NEBRASKA ZOO.