“Yeah. Well. You’re not wrong. So, what about that makes me unexpected?”
“Well, for one, you used the phraseintellectually bankruptlast night.”
“My vocabulary is unexpected?”
“You’re a deeper thinker than it appears on the surface. Or rather, than stereotypes would suggest.”
“You like a stereotype, don’t you, Sam?” His mouth worked into a half smile, and her stomach went tight.
Whether it was discomfort brought about by the facial expression or from the observation, she wasn’t certain. But she was going to go ahead and let it be about the observation. “Why do you say that?”
“Because it allows you to make sense of things. You really want things to make sense.”
“Who doesn’t?”
“Me. I don’t give a shit. Here’s the thing. When you go through something in life that doesn’t make any sense, that has no meaning, you either go insane, or you stop expecting life to be what you ask it to.”
“See, this is what I never expect from you. The philosophy.”
“I have a lot of time to think. Thankfully, my job means that I talk to people in a limited capacity. The rest of the time I spend in my head or…”
“If you say ‘listening to podcasts’ then you’re going to move yourself back into stereotype territory.”
“Audiobooks.” He grinned.
“Just barely dodged the stereotype,” she said.
“Are you going to eat the rest of your biscuit?” He gestured to the half a biscuit that was still swimming in creamy gravy on her plate.
“No. But I would like to take some coffee to go.”
He polished off the biscuit while she got a to-go cup, and then they were back on the road.
They made empty conversation through Oklahoma, stopping at a hotel in Springfield, Missouri, that was affiliated with Bass Pro Shop. “Because you have to stay at the Angler’s Lodge,” Logan had explained.
“I don’t know that you do,” she said, wandering through the lobby, which was antler-heavy as far as the decor went.
When she got to her room, she found no different.
Though she appreciated that one of the throw pillows had antlers printed on it, just the right size for her to lay her head down and give herself the appearance that she herself had antlers. She took a selfie, sent it to her friends and her kids.
Her oldest son sent back a skull.
The other kids didn’t answer.
Her friends gave appropriate acknowledgment LOL’s and ha’s.
Fine.
She thought she was cuteandfunny.
The next morning, they drove through Missouri, up into Illinois, making the final push to Chicago in a particularly long and torturous day.
The city was a stark contrast to anywhere else they’d been on the trip.
The hotel they stayed in even more so.
The high-rise with a view of the river, close to the Magnificent Mile. While Logan made his exchange with the car’s owner the next day, she shopped, and wandered along the edge of Lake Erie. She had never seen one of the Great Lakes before. It was like standing on the edge of the ocean.
