Read Online Ready To Go by Stephanie Mann - Free Book Online Page A

from their lives, kept it on an argument over which was the best Harry Potter movie—he said the second, she said the last two—until Daniel suddenly saw a sign for a cheap tourist attraction that he suddenly had to go to.
    “Where are you taking me?” Nicole asked when she realized they were turning off the highway.
    “You’ll see,” he replied. “It won’t take long, trust me.”
    About ten or so minutes later, though he could see the attraction much earlier than that, Daniel parked the car at the base of a large green statue.
    Nicole laughed when she got out of the car. “Isn’t that the guy from the frozen vegetables?” She looked up to see the giant’s face, but could just see the back of his jolly green head two stories above them.
    “Green Giant, yeah,” he replied. “I saw a sign for this, and figured it couldn’t hurt to stop at something cheesy. Took us a little north, but since I have no idea where you’re going, it can’t hurt.”
    “I guess not,” she said. “I really should figure out where I want to go. I’ll do that later.”
    “No rush,” he replied. “Come on, let’s go climb it.”
    He was disappointed to learn that they couldn’t actually climb it, just go up to a little platform that stood under the giant’s legs. He noticed Nicole glanced up the statue’s tunic.
    “Curious?” he teased, but he couldn’t resist taking a peek upwards as well. Of course there was nothing there. The skirt of the giant was a flat solid across the bottom.
    “It’s really tall,” she said. “Why are we here?”
    “Because it’s really tall,” he said, laughing a bit. “Oh, come on, you can’t hate me so much that you can’t have any fun with me.”
    “I never really thought about enjoying this trip,” she admitted. “But this is kind of fun. For looking up a statue’s skirt.”
    “I’m pretty sure it’s a toga,” he said. “But see? I’m paying for everything-“
    “This is free,” she pointed out. “You just parked and we walked up the steps there.”
    “I’m paying for everything,” he repeated. “So let’s just have fun together. If I’m just going to be driving you and not doing anything else, there’s not much in it for me, you know? I want a vacation.”
    “As long as I get somewhere eventually,” she said. “This could be fun. Okay. Make as many random cheesy stops as you want.”
    “I’ll be making a lot of them,” Daniel promised. “Oh, hey, that reminds me, I don’t have any other clothes. Do you mind stopping somewhere so I can get some?”
    “You’re driving, so it doesn’t matter if I care,” she said, heading back to the car. “We’re done here, right? I mean, it’s just a statue.”
    “It does matter,” he called out to her as he didn’t move from under the statue. “And no, not done here. If this is a road trip, we need cheesy pictures.”
    “You’re kidding.”
    “Nope. Get back here.”
    She gave an exaggerated sigh before walking back up the few steps to the base of the statue. “Do you have a camera?”
    Daniel pulled his phone out of his pocket. “Good enough.” He leaned close to Nicole and held the phone up like a shot from a girl’s cheesy Facebook picture. “Smile.”
    When he checked the picture, he noticed that she was grinning like they really were just friends on a road trip. But when he looked back at her, she’d stopped smiling. “Are we going now?”
    “Yeah, fine,” Daniel said. “Anyway, I’ll be with you for what, a week?”
    “About that, yeah,” Nicole said.
    “So I’ll need a week’s worth of clothes,” he said. “I can’t just wear this the whole time.”
    “Yeah, let’s do a shopping trip,” she said. “I need a few things too. I keep noticing things that I should have thought of before starting this, and I’ve got enough money at least for those.”
    “I saw a sign for a mall in a few miles,” he said. “Let’s go there.”
    Nicole nodded. “Don’t let me spend too much,”