Ready To Go (4 page)

On the other hand, she really needed the ride. So she nodded. “Sounds good to me.”

He was staring at her. She crossed her arms over her chest, even though that wasn’t where she was staring. “Do you want to get some breakfast before we go?” he asked. “I’ve already eaten, but I can get you something if you want.”

She shook her head. “Don’t need charity. I’d appreciate if you could stop at a gas station so I could
buy
something, but you don’t need to pay for me. The ride is enough.” She paused slightly, considering saying more, but shook her head a little and stayed silent. This absolute stranger didn’t need her life story. One ride wasn’t worth that much—at most; it was worth the embarrassing tale of her eighth birthday, if the topic happened to come up.

“I can stop somewhere,” the guy said. His smile was fading. She had to get going before he changed his mind and she was stuck on the side of the road for another day.

So she smiled, and grabbed the handle to her suitcase. “You know, you’re giving me a ride, and I just keep calling you ‘the tour guide’ in my head. What’s your name?”

“Daniel,” he said. “What’s your name?” He could maybe stop calling her ‘the girl’.

“Nicole,” she replied. “And please, don’t even think about calling me Nikki. I can’t stand that name.”

He raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Wasn’t thinking it. Do a lot of people call you that?”

“More than you’d guess,” she said. “So where’s your car?”

“Parking garage a couple blocks away,” Daniel said. “There is a convenience store on the walk that opened about an hour ago, so we could stop there, get you breakfast.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Nicole said. “Hey, if you’re a doctor, are you going to make any sort of comment if I get the greasiest thing I can find?”

“Not at all,” he replied. “Greasy food kind of sounds good right now.”

“You said you already ate,” Nicole pointed out.

He grinned. “I’m a guy, I’m always hungry,” he said.

She laughed, but cut herself short as she glanced towards the exit. “How am I going to get out of here? The librarian might recognize me from last night.”

“There are a lot of librarians here,” Daniel told her. “Odds are the one you met last night isn’t the one at the front now.”

“True,” she replied, slowly nodding. “Then, let’s go, I guess.”

Daniel picked up his things and headed towards the front entrance. He heard Nicole following, but didn’t hear the suitcase rolling along. He glanced back to see that the girl had lifted it, apparently to keep quiet.

Once they were outside the library, Daniel didn’t even look at her before briskly walking down the street. Nicole knew he had to hear her suitcase rolling along and bumping against every crack. It was a battle to keep it from falling over.

Soon, he stopped. He gestured towards a brightly-lit convenience store he was standing beside. “Okay, get what you want.”

Nicole came to a stop in front of the store, unzipped the outer pouch of the suitcase, and pulled out a plastic bag holding her money. “How cheap is the food in there?”

“Pretty cheap,” Daniel replied. “A couple dollars. If you don’t have enough—“

“I
do
,” she sharply interrupted. She didn’t want to be treated like a charity case. She knew she should have taken the money and be grateful, but she just couldn’t do it. Something about the guy just made her distrust him.

“If you
don’t
,” he repeated, his tone just as sharp, “I’ll
loan
you the money. Okay?”

“Fine,” she conceded, heading into the convenience store. Daniel watched her as she browsed the selection of greasy, sugary foods. She picked up everything to see the price tag. He really wouldn’t have minded paying, if she’d just let him.

She picked out a cup of coffee and a hot English muffin sandwich. She never ate too much in the morning, which she was grateful for. She didn’t have to spend too much.

Daniel knew that he was acting kind of strange, but he genuinely wanted to help this girl. He wanted to make sure that she had a place to go, food, money, whatever she needed. The fact that the girl looked good may have had something to do with this, or the fact that she looked so innocent. She didn’t seem to understand how the world worked, but she wanted to travel it anyway. He just wanted to help—and if he got a day off for doing this good deed, that was just a bonus.

He walked slowly with her as they left the convenience store. If he could, he would have watched her bite into that muffin, paid attention to her pretty mouth. She’d end up with a small crumb on her lips that he’d want to wipe away. He wanted to know how she took her coffee, and how it would taste on her lips.

But he knew
that
was creepy. Really, what was wrong with him? So he ignored her while they walked. He was slower this time, staying beside her instead of ahead. The parking garage was only two more blocks ahead. She’d be finished eating by then, which was good. He didn’t like people having food in his car. One of those little pet peeves.

When they arrived at the parking garage, Daniel realized he’d forgotten which level he parked on. He didn’t want to let Nicole know this. Of course he knew that he wasn’t perfect and forgetting his car wasn’t that bad, and he knew that she knew that, but
admitting
it was something else entirely.

He led her in circles around the parking garage, and she figured it out. “Do you know where you parked?” she asked.

He couldn’t keep hiding that, so he just grinned and said, “Not really. Somewhere on this level, I’m pretty sure.”

“You know it’s this garage at least, right?” she asked.

He placed his hand over his heart in a gesture of mock offense. “Of course! I’m not an idiot, you know.”

She raised an eyebrow at him in disbelief, but said, “Yeah, I know. I’m essentially trusting you with my life, and I wouldn’t trust an idiot.”

Daniel smiled. “So maybe you’ll actually talk to me while we’re driving?” She could have been more grateful. After all, he offered to buy her breakfast.

“Will you stop being overdramatic?” Nicole asked. “I’m not a damsel in distress; you’re not my white knight. I just need a little help. The way you’re acting, it’s making me a little creeped out.” More than a little, but she didn’t want to offend him before he gave her the ride. But really, the guy had made up his mind to ruin his life for her before he knew her name. She trusted he was a good guy, but he was more than a little overbearing.

“
Me?
Overdramatic?” Daniel asked with a fake gasp. “Yeah, I know. I’m just in a good mood, and being in a good mood sometimes makes me a little silly. I’ll stop. I don’t mean to be creepy.” Did she buy that? He really was going to stop, now that he got called out on it.

“You don’t have to,” she said with a sigh. “I don’t know why you’re in such a good mood, I feel like crap. Is this talking enough for you?”

“It’s fine. And why?” he asked, even though the answer was obvious. The poor girl was apparently homeless and hitchhiking.

“Because I slept in a library last night,” she said. “And I have to rely on the kindness of strangers to do anything. Because I’ve only got a little money left and I know at some point I’ll have to stop my trip and get a job. And that job might be awful, worse than the crappy fast food job I left. And I’m going to hate myself. I know it’s going to happen; it just hasn’t totally sunk in yet. I’ll feel a lot worse when it does.”

“Or,” Daniel said, “you could take advantage of the kindness of strangers and not turn them down when they offer a free meal. Save your money, swallow your pride.”

“My pride is all I have left,” she muttered. “It’s the reason I’m not resorting to stripping. I don’t want to get
that
low.” Daniel couldn’t help but feel sorry for her, even though pity was the one thing she wanted least.

“All right,” he conceded. “Do what you want. I don’t know you; I don’t have any right to tell you what to do.”

“That’s right,” she said.

“But I will tell you to throw out the rest of that sandwich before we get in the car,” he said. “I have a no-food rule. The coffee’s okay, but not the sandwich.”

Nicole nodded, and quickly ate the last bite, crumpling up the paper. She glanced around the garage until Daniel pointed her to a nearby trash can. She ran over and tossed the paper wrapper inside. “Good?” she asked Daniel.

He nodded. “Thanks. I didn’t want to rush you, but I like my car. I try to keep it clean.”

“No, it’s fine,” she said. “I get it. My mom was always fussy about her car too.”

There were questions Daniel wanted to ask about that statement. Did she get along with her mother? Had she run away? And most importantly—‘was’? But he didn’t ask any of those questions. Curious as he was, he really could mind his own business.

He finally spotted his car in the next row, and headed towards it. Nicole followed behind, the sound of her suitcase wheels rolling on the concrete echoing through the garage.

Daniel pulled his keys from his pocket and pressed the button to unlock the car doors. All four locks sprang open with a click. He opened the driver’s side door and motioned for Nicole to get in the passenger side.

Nicole glanced around when she got in the car. “This is pretty nice,” she said.

“Thanks,” Daniel replied. “I know it’s not a real classic car, but it’s mine and I’m proud of it. So, where are we going?”

“West,” Nicole replied. “Just head west and I’ll make my way after you drop me off.”

He nodded, even though that wasn’t clear at all, and turned on the car. It had been making a strange noise that morning, but he had no need to worry now, as when he turned the key, the car purred to life. He buckled his seatbelt, and then set the car in reverse, looked over his shoulder, and smoothly backed out of the parking space.

He wasn’t quite sure which way was west, but he knew how to get to the major interstate. He’d take that west and see where he ended up. And if he was completely lost at the end of the day, he’d be able to use his GPS to get back. Or he could use it now, he realized, but what was the fun in that? California was as far as he could eventually take her, but “anywhere” was good enough for one day.

The two sat in silence while Daniel drove the car through the busy morning Pittsburgh traffic. One of the roads was blocked off so a pothole could be fixed, which created stop and go traffic on the surrounding streets. After about five minutes of just sitting, nothing but the loud horns honking from other cars piercing the silence, Daniel reached over to the radio and switched it on. The morning talk show hosts were talking about the upcoming election.

“What do you think of that?” he asked Nicole, nodding his head towards the radio.

She shrugged. “Don’t pay much attention to politics. Besides, I can’t even figure out what’s going on this year. Try to get an answer from someone and all I get is blah blah blah economy. Besides, I don’t know if I’ll be registered to vote anywhere. Next election, I’ll care.” She shifted in her seat, uncomfortable with the question. Why bother with state politics if she didn’t know what state she would be in by the election? She wasn’t even sure if she’d stay in this country.

“You don’t even support a side, even if you’re not voting?” he asked, but he honestly didn’t care much about the answer. He wasn’t much of a politics person anyway, just trying to talk. He heard too much about it all from his classmates, anyway. Didn’t really affect him. Okay, that was wrong, he knew it did, but he still only paid enough attention to decide to vote Democrat.

“I guess whatever side supports the right stuff?” Nicole said with a shrug. “I don’t know. I didn’t realize I was old enough to vote in the last election, so I didn’t. Now I can’t. So what does it matter if I can’t understand politics and economics or whatever?” She had the right not to vote if she felt like it, why was he bothering her about it?

“It will at some point,” Daniel said. “But if it doesn’t matter to you now, fine. I was just looking for something to talk about.”

“I went to a protest in Philly once,” she said. “They were trying to shut down a Planned Parenthood. I never had to go there, but I knew some girls from high school who did, and their lives probably would have been ruined without it. So I cared then.”

“I think I heard about that,” Daniel said. “Two years ago, right?”

She nodded. “That was it. Were you there?”

“No, but Pittsburgh is in the same state,” he pointed out. “I’ve lived here all my life. I hear what’s going on.”

Nicole just nodded and glanced out the window. The silence that fell between them was too awkward for Daniel.

“You can change the radio if you want,” he told her.

“Sure,” she said, reaching over to find a new station. She flipped through until a Lady Gaga song started playing. “Oh, I haven’t heard this song too much yet. You don’t mind music, do you?”

“No,” he said. “I’m just the kind of person who needs some background noise. Music or talk radio, all the same to me.” He wasn’t particularly a Gaga fan, but he kept that to himself.

“Good,” she said. She tapped her fingers on the armrest to the beat of the song. She smiled, appearing to genuinely enjoy listening to this music. Wasn’t quite Daniels’ taste, but hey, the girl looked more relaxed than she had all morning. He didn’t want to ruin that.

“By the way, if you were thinking I’ll sleep with you for this ride, you better drop me off now,” she said suddenly. She hadn’t really been considering that, but what if he
was
thinking it? Better to get it out of the way early rather than later.

His only response out loud was to laugh, though. “I wasn’t thinking that. It’s a completely free ride; you don’t have to do anything. But if you
wanted
to sleep with me…”

Nicole stayed silent, avoiding looking at him.

“Sorry,” he said, sensing her uneasiness. “It was a joke. Kind of flirting?”

“I get it,” she said, cutting him off. “I’m never going to see you again after today, there’s no use flirting with me.” And he was already creepy enough.

“You probably thought you wouldn’t see me after yesterday,” he pointed out with a grin. “And here we are now.”