“Dean!” I cried horrified and immediately dove down to grab my phone. I picked off a piece of lint that had become trapped in the corner of the case.
“No,” he said, grabbing my phone this time and placing it on his lap, “we don’t need that.”
“Uh, yes we do, if we don’t want to get lost.”
“Don’t you see, Willow, getting lost is all part of the fun. Sometimes you have to get lost in order to be found.”
“I hate it when you speak in riddles,” I mumbled under my breath.
“Just hear me out, okay?” He turned in his seat and draped his arm across the back.
I pulled in a lungful of air. “Okay. I’m listening.”
“This,” he held up my phone, “will take us anywhere we want it to. This,” he lowered the phone and waved the map around, “can take us places we would never normally go.”
“Dean, you’re not making any sense.”
He waved his hand around, urging me to shut up. “I’m not done. You see, with this,” he waved the map around again, “we can point and choose.”
“Can’t we point and choose and then put the place in the GPS?” I reasoned.
“Ah, we could.” He held a finger in the air and smiled, like he was pleased I had posed that question. “But you see, the GPS will take us the most direct route and then we’re just there. Whereas with the map, we pick a place and then have to figure out the rest ourselves. We might see a place we would’ve otherwise missed.”
“I get where you’re coming from,” I nodded, thinking it through, “but it makes me nervous.”
“You? Nervous?” He grinned mischievously. “I thought you were the adventurous one while I was the level-headed one. I must say, I’m quite enjoying this role reversal.”
“Just give me a minute.” I held up one finger and wiggled it around.
Going off grid, so to speak, was scary. We could end up in the middle of some scary ass place with no cell service. No. Cell. Service. And that would be the very time something bad would happen.
But Dean was also right when he said I was normally the more adventurous one of the two of us.
Honestly, this sounded like something that would be my idea, not his.
Maybe college had made me soft.
That was a dreadful thought.
“Okay,” I nodded. “Let’s do it.”
Dean grinned triumphantly and fist-pumped the air before performing some sort of happy dance.
He looked like he was having a seizure.
“Alright, Will,” again with that horrid nickname, “let’s pick.”
He spread out the map of the United States.
“Close your eyes,” he whispered.
My breath stuttered but I did as he said and closed them.
“Now pick.” His breath fanned across my cheek.
I swirled my finger around and then stabbed the map.
I opened my eyes and read the name of a city I’d never heard of. “Palatka, Florida.”