Ready To Go (6 page)

On the other end of the line, his supervisor asked him why.

“Personal reasons,” he said. “Should be back tomorrow. Really sorry about this.”

“Well, thanks for letting me know,” she said with a sigh. “I’ll call in someone else.”

“Thanks,” Daniel replied. “See you later, Rachel.”

“Girlfriend?” Nicole asked.

Daniel shook his head. “Boss. She’s dating someone, I think, anyway, if there wasn’t that whole 'no dating coworkers thing.' So, definitely not my girlfriend.”

“Do you have a girlfriend?” she questioned.

“Do you really think I’d be hitting on you like I was if I did?” He gave her a suave grin. She had to like him a little bit if she asked that.

She shrugged. “Kind of. You are a guy.”

“I’m not
that
kind of guy,” he said. He was a little bit offended that’s what she thought. “No girlfriend. No time for one, anyway.”

“Gay?” she asked.

He rolled his eyes. “Do you just not remember me hitting on you?”

“I’m just trying to figure you out,” she said. “Plenty of gay guys hit on girls to hide the fact they’re gay. Which, for the record, I don’t have a problem with it if you are.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter,” he said. “I’m not. I don’t have a problem with it either, but I like boobs too much.”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed you staring at mine,” she remarked.

“Sorry.”

“Hey, at least you
try
to be subtle about it. I’ve gotten too many open leers. It’s really creepy. You could try to stare a little less, though.”

“Maybe don’t wear low-cut shirts?” Daniel suggested.

Nicole rolled her eyes. “That’s victim-blaming. I can wear whatever I want; men have the willpower not to look because they know it’s wrong.”

“Oh, we know it’s wrong, but sometimes you can’t help but look,” he replied. “I agree, the guys who ogle you aren’t in the right, but there’s something about boobs that just attracts a guy to look at them. How long we look is up to us, but we can’t help looking in the first place. And trust me, I’ve gotten slapped by more than one girl for looking longer than a second or two.”

“More than one?”

He shrugged. “Two is more than one. And both times I was a teenager.”

“Uh-huh,” she said like she didn’t believe him.

He noticed that she’d turned away from him while he talked. Something out the window was much more interesting than him claiming he was really a nice guy. “You’re completely ignoring me now, aren’t you?” he asked.

She nodded absently, and still didn’t look at him, instead staring still out the window. He turned his attention back to the road. They sat in silence for some time, passing a few exits and signs advertising food and attractions.

The silence was annoying after a few minutes. He stole another quick glance at her. She looked so somber, staring out the window. He wanted to get her talking again, so he said the first thing that came to his mind. “You know, I’d just be leaving class and heading to work now.”

“Good for you,” she muttered. She didn’t look at him.

“Sorry,” he said. “You don’t care.” He watched the road again, and as they passed yet another sign advertising food, he asked, “So, do you want lunch anytime soon?”

“Well, yeah,” she said. “You didn’t hear my stomach just now?”

“Actually, no,” he said. He wasn’t
that
focused on her. He did have to watch the road. “But I’ve got half the vents pointed towards me, so there’s all the air, plus the windows rolled down, plus the radio…”

“You have the air conditioning on
and
the windows open?”

“It’s just the fan,” he said.

She shook her head at him. “Anyway, I am hungry, I do want lunch. Somewhere cheap, please.”

“How about not cheap and you let me pay?” he suggested.

“Somehow I think you’d think it’s a date,” she replied.

“Only in my head,” he joked. She glared at him, and he continued, “I won’t think it’s a date. I’m just helping a girl save her money and get a good meal. And maybe we’ll say it’s your birthday so you can get a free dessert.”

“You do that and I will kill you,” she threatened. “Not even kidding. I will take the knife from the table and slit your throat.”

He frowned. “You’re really serious?” Was it a mistake picking up this girl?

At this, she burst out laughing. “Of course not! Do I look like I could seriously kill you? I just have morbid humor sometimes. But for real, don’t say it’s my birthday. I don’t care about the free dessert. They’d sing, and it’d be terrible. Plus it’d be lying, and I don’t want to do that.”

“If you say so,” he replied, relaxing. “Keep an eye out for the signs and tell me if anything looks good.”

She nodded, and returned to watching out her window. They passed signs for attractions, signs for major roads, signs for gas stations, but no more food. Daniel saw nothing, but Nicole pointed out a sign. “Two exits ahead. McDaily’s Diner.”

“Sounds good to me,” he replied, veering the car into the next lane. She gripped tightly onto the armrest molded into the door as he cut another car off. “Ooh. Didn’t see that guy there. My bad.”

“Whatever,” she mumbled. He noticed she relaxed her grip. “Let’s just get food.”

A few minutes later, they turned off the highway onto a smaller road. A sign pointed towards the diner, and the car followed the sign.

“Keep an eye out for it,” Daniel said. “I need to watch the road. Lots of people walking here.”

“Okay,” Nicole said.

As they drove slowly along the street, Daniel wondered where exactly they were. He’d seen a sign saying
Welcome To Wherever
, but he’d forgotten the name of the state. It was like when he’d pull out his phone to check the time and pull it out again three seconds later because he’d already forgotten, but he couldn’t drive back to that sign now. The town they were in looked like a typical small town, a main street with a few small businesses, probably family owned. There was a sign strung over the road between two lights advertising a local fair. After they passed through this part of the town, Nicole suddenly pointed out a building with tables outside and cars in its parking lot. “Over there.”

Daniel drove into the lot and parked the car close to the entrance of the building, by a large sign naming the diner. “Looks good.” He turned off the car’s engine, and climbed out. Nicole followed, glancing around the parking lot, looking for something. Daniel couldn’t tell what.

They entered the restaurant. There was a handwritten sign on the front podium, please seat yourself. Daniel led Nicole to a seat by the window.

The waitress they got was the picture of a roadside diner waitress. She probably wasn’t more than thirty, but she already had graying hair and tired lines on her face from pulling long shifts. When she spoke to the pair, she called them “hon” and “sweetie pie”. She gave them a plastic smile and told them to take as long as they wanted. Daniel decided on a burger with a fried egg on top, and Nicole chose a tuna melt.

Nicole shuffled around the packets of sweetener in the little cup on the table, setting them all in order—yellow, then pink, blue, white last. Daniel watched her, until she noticed. “I’m bored,” she explained.

Their food came fairly quickly, which wasn’t surprising considering how empty the diner was. But the food was good, at least. Greasy, but tasty. Daniel finished off his burger quickly, but decided to savor his fries. Nicole ate small bites of her sandwich, alternating with nibbling on the fries.

“Not hungry?” he asked her.

“I’m enjoying my food,” she explained. “I’ll eat it. Don’t worry, your money isn’t going to waste.”

He shook his head. “I’m not worried about that, really. You could order more if you wanted.”

“No,” she said. “This is enough. I had that muffin this morning, remember? And even when I could eat what I wanted, I never ate that much. I like food, but my stomach is small.”

“That’s probably good though,” he said. “I mean, if you’re trying to save money. Small stomach means spending less on food.”

She gave a wry smile. “One good thing about it.” She ate another bite of her sandwich.

They finished their meals in silence. Daniel was growing tired of having to start every conversation, and he was running out of things to say. As he paid for the meal, he stole a glance at the receipt to figure out just where they were. Ohio. Okay.

The day and the road both stretched on. Nicole took a nap for a little while. Daniel turned down the radio to let her sleep. He let his mind wander. They’d been driving for a while, and it would be really late when he got back home. They’d passed through a few more states. He needed to take a break for the night. Would his passenger reject staying in a hotel tonight, if he was paying for it? Probably not. He didn’t want to say anything to her, but she did need a shower.

When Nicole woke up, she seemed confused, glancing around as if to get her bearings.

“It’s getting late,” Daniel remarked, glad to be able to talk again. He’d had to turn on his headlights to combat the dimming sky. The moon could faintly be seen hanging above them.

“You can drop me off whenever,” Nicole said. It was too late. Time to get out.

“I was thinking about getting a hotel for myself, since it’s way too late now to go back home today,” he said. “Would you like a room?”

“That’s way too much for you to give me,” she said. “But yes, I would
love
to sleep on an actual bed.”

“Not too much,” he replied with a grin. “I’ll just take you to one of those cheap motels. One of the rent by the hour kinds.”

“Separate rooms, though,” she said firmly.

“Of course,” he replied. “I haven’t said anything for hours, you should know I’m not going to try anything.”

“I’ve been
asleep
for hours,” she pointed out.

“Not hours,” he said. “Well, kind of. You kept waking up, remember?”

She nodded. She’d woken up at every bump, but had pretended to sleep so that she would fall back asleep faster. Apparently she wasn’t very good at pretending.

“You sure you don’t want to drive a little while longer?” she asked. “I mean, since you’re going to be staying the night out here anyway.”

“I can if you want,” he said. “We’re almost to Illinois anyway. We can stop there, knocks a couple of states out for you.”

“Illinois already?” she asked. “When did we
get
to Indiana?”

“After we passed through Ohio,” he replied.

“And when did we get to Ohio?”

“We had lunch there,” he said. “Didn’t you see the sign?”

She shook her head. She reached over to the radio, turning the music back up. Daniel could feel the vibrations from the bass through his seat. Ten or so repetitive pop songs later, they passed a sign welcoming them to Illinois.

“So, we’ll find a hotel now?” Daniel asked.

“Motel,” Nicole corrected.

“It’s not like there’s a difference,” he said with a shrug.

“There kind of is,” she replied. “Motels are cheaper. Also have less standards, but the cost is the important part.”

Daniel rolled his eyes, but motioned towards his GPS sitting on the dashboard. “You want to plug a motel in there?”

She glanced at the device, then back at him with an inscrutable look on her face. “You’ve had a GPS this whole time and we haven’t been using it?”

“We haven’t been going anywhere specific,” he said.

“Would’ve been nice to know what state we were in at least,” she muttered. “I don’t like feeling lost.”

“Get used to it, if you’re really going to hitchhike.” She seemed like she hadn’t thought very far ahead. Did she even have a map?

Nicole just sighed and reached over to the GPS device, typing in something. “There’s a Motel 8 about seven miles from here.”

“Sounds good,” Daniel said.

She pressed the button to choose the place and faced the device towards him again. He followed the directions told in the voice of a British woman, until they pulled up to the dingy looking motel.

“Actually, this doesn’t look too bad,” Nicole commented.

“Not rats in the bathroom bad, but I don’t think we’ll be getting a complimentary breakfast or anything,” Daniel replied.

“That’s good enough for me,” she said. “Remember, I spent last night in a library?”

He nodded. “So I guess anything is better for you.”

“Not anything,” she said. “A bus stop bench I’d say would be worse.” She smiled a bit and rolled her eyes again, but this time it was clearly in jest instead of the usual annoyance.

Daniel got out of the car and headed to the lobby of the hotel. Nicole followed with her suitcase.

There was a man sitting at the tiny front desk, watching a grainy television. He didn’t look up until Daniel reached over and rang the bell on the counter.

“Welcome,” the man said. “One room?”

“Two,” Daniel replied.

“Smoking or nonsmoking?” the clerk asked.

Daniel glanced towards Nicole, who shook her head. He turned back to the clerk and replied, “Both nonsmoking.”

“And your name?”

“Daniel Everett.”

“All right,” the clerk said, typing something into the computer that sat just under the counter. He handed two keys with attached plastic tags to Daniel. “Checkout’s at eleven. Have a good stay.”

“Thanks,” Daniel said before handing one of the keys to Nicole.

“Room 106,” she read from the tag.

“Room 108,” Daniel read from his own tag. “I guess we’re next to each other.”

Nicole rolled her eyes. “Thanks for the room and the ride. Now this is the point where I leave and don’t talk to you again. Thank you, Daniel Everett.” So she’d overheard him talking to the clerk, because he certainly didn’t remember telling her his last name. “If I ever come back to Pennsylvania, I owe you dinner.” She smiled at him.

“How will I know it’s you?” he teased. “There’s lots of Nicoles out there.”

“Allen,” she said. “I’m Nicole Allen.” She turned to walk away. “Goodbye.”

“But what if I see you getting ice?” he questioned with a joking smile.

She sighed with mock exasperation. “I’ll say hi and go back to my room. Good night.” She took a few steps, but then turned around. “Thank you. I can’t even say how much you’re doing for me. I really do appreciate it. I also think it’s really
weird
, but it means a lot.”