Ready To Go by Stephanie Mann

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