The snow began to ease up as they pulled into the parking lot of another Greek diner just off of I-90 in a town called Woodville. Lulu snapped a picture of the town welcome sign as they passed it by.
“So immature,” Drake said, shaking his head.
“It’s called ‘marketing’,” she replied.
Lulu almost slipped on a patch of slush getting out of the car.
Drake jumped up and around the hood to check on her. “You all good? Didn’t hit your head, did ya?”
Lulu steadied herself on the open door. She laughed and told him, “Still getting used to snow again. Shit!” She slipped and fell behind the door.
Without missing a beat, Drake rushed around to the other side of the car. He rounded the passenger side door and was blinded before he could register the snowball Lulu held in her hand.
She sat against the back door of the rental, holding her stomach, laughing.
“Got ya!” she called, already packing together another one.
Drake wiped the snow from his face. “Are you kidding me, Lulu?” Once he could see again, he was blinded…again.
Lulu laughed harder and scrambled to her feet to hide behind the trunk. “You just gonna stand there?”
“I’m going inside,” he replied. “You coming or what?”
She tossed the half-made snowball onto the ground. “You’re no fun.”
Drake held out his hand, then gestured for her to join him. “This snow is gross. People’ve been driving through it all day.” He held the door for her, and his hand almost touched her back as she passed him. Her glance back did nothing to restrain him. The look was almost inviting, or was he just telling himself that? Only with incredible willpower did he manage not to cross that line.
But then she dropped a line which he refused to look into. “So it can’t be fun if it’s a little used?”
Drake looked straight ahead and walked up to the maitre d'. “For two, please. A booth.”
Drake ordered a coffee, and Lulu ordered a hot chocolate. When asked for their lunch choices, Drake said he was fine with the coffee.
“Just get something,” Lulu insisted. “We’re already here.”
“The coffee is fine.” He said it more to Lulu than their waitress. “Don’t want you spending everything we’ve got right away.”
Lulu pursed her lips. “Suit yourself,” she said. Then, to the waitress, “Can I get the grilled cheese, a Caesar salad, and a vanilla milkshake?”
They both gave the waitress their menus, and under his breath, Drake muttered, “And there goes a place to sleep tonight.”
“What was that?” Lulu asked, knowing full well what he’d said.
He responded with another question. “How well can you drive? ‘Cause you might have to take over tonight.”
“Oh my god, I thought we were gonna be more optimistic.”
“I promised not to be a jerk, not that I have to buy into your delusions. How much have we got, anyway?”
Lulu unlocked her phone and searched for an internet connection. “We’re in luck,” she said with a grin. “This place has free wi-fi. Right now I’m at about twelve bucks, but give me a few minutes in the bathroom, and it’ll be a hundred and twelve.”
“You’re not actually going to do that, are you?” His crossed arms slid further across the table as he leaned in. The way Lulu registered his question, it came out almost like pleading. Here he was, still, judging her for her career.
And again, she thought of Marsha’s instructions. By any means possible.
“If it’ll get us to New York, yeah. I will.”
Drake lowered his voice to a whisper. “But what about your rule? I thought you didn’t go nude?”
Retaining her normal volume, Lulu insisted, “A picture of my bare ass won’t kill me. I won’t even have my face in it. I’ll be fine.”
“Hold on,” he said, trying to wrap his head around the business structure of that concept. “If you’re not even gonna show your face, why do you have to take the pic? Why not just get something off of Google and send that?”
“Other than the ethical reasons-”
Drake almost laughed. “Ethical?”
“Yes. Ethical. I’m being paid for a certain product. Myself. My ass. It wouldn’t be ethical if I didn’t deliver that. Besides, they can always reverse image search pictures if I got it off of somewhere else.”
The waitress returned with their coffee and hot chocolate. Lulu sipped at hers without giving it a chance to cool, and groaned with delight as it went down. “Holy shit. I haven’t had hot chocolate like this in forever. My mom used to take my brother and me to this hill outside of our neighborhood when we were kids to go sledding. My dad would get home from his job before us, so he’d always have hot chocolate waiting.”
Drake stared at her as she reminisced.
“It’s not that hard to believe, is it?” she asked. “Yeah, even I had loving parents. Not every girl like me has a sad backstory.”
His face hardened. “I guess that just brings up more questions. But, as long as it’s a new picture taken on your phone, it’s all good.”
“Uh huh…” Drake rubbed his chin.
Lulu sipped her hot chocolate then said, “Only a dollar a month if you’re interested.”
Drake sat back, looked around, then pushed out of the booth. “I’m not. Let me borrow your phone.”
“What? Why?”
He held out his hand. “I gotta call my brother. I’ll be quick.”
She held the phone close to her chest. “All my private photos need a password.”
“I’m not gonna go through your stuff. You owe me. I need to tell him I’m not dead somewhere.”
“You can’t call him here?”
“Lulu,”
“Fine! Here.” She unlocked the phone and gave it to him. “Just be quick. I need to get paid soon.”
“Thanks,” he said, and made for the back of the restaurant.
Lulu scootched closer to the window and watched the passing cars. No more snow came down. In fact, it looked like it was warming up. Sludge sloshed under the passing cars. Droplets of water were even dripping from the icicles on the diner gutter.
The waitress came back over with her food; two plates balanced on one arm, with a third in her hand, and the milkshake in the other.
“Here you are, sweetie. Anything else I can get you?”
Lulu shook her head, and the waitress dismissed herself.
A moment later, Drake returned and took his spot back across from her. He slid the phone across the table. “Thanks. Sure you’re gonna eat all that?”
She took her first bite of the Caesar salad. “Probably not. I don’t really like grilled cheese.”
“Then why’d you get it?”
Lulu pushed the grilled cheese toward him. “Because you need to eat, too. And it’s the cheapest thing on the menu, so you can’t fight me over it.”
Drake rolled his eyes and stared down at the sandwich. Admittedly, it looked pretty great. Crispy browned Italian bread, lathered in mayo before grilling, with white American cheese melted perfectly. The crusted flat caved in under his fingers when he picked it up, and cushioned his grip with still-fluffy bread between him and the cheese.
“I bet it tastes better than it looks,” she said, covering her mouthful of salad.
It did. He took a bite, then another, then scarfed the whole half down. “Holy shit.”
“Right? That’s why diners are the best.”
Drake picked up the other half of the sandwich. “I’m just hungry.”
“Sure. How’s your brother doing?” She asked the question at the moment her phone vibrated. A notification popped up from the FanGirlz app.
“I didn’t call my brother,” he said, starting on the rest of his grilled cheese.
Fear and anger welled up in her. She dropped her fork and opened the app. At the top of the direct message tab, there was an alert of a payout.
“Drake,” she began, slowly. “What did you do?”
He took a bite, chewed, then said, “I’ve been told by a few women before that I have a very nice ass. Probably not a great lookalike for yours, but it’s not got any hair on it.”
“Drake!”
“What? You get your payout without crossing your lines.”
Her phone dinged again with another notification. She froze, mouth hanging open.
“What is it?” Drake asked. “What’d they say? Think I’ve got a career in my future?”
Lulu gawked. A smile began to creep onto her face. “I… you might. He just left a tip.”
“Oh shit,” Drake said nonchalantly, and leaned over the table. “How much?”
She showed him her phone. “Another fifty.”
“Awesome,” he said, sitting back down. “We can now pay for half of a cheap hotel room.”
She continued to stare at her phone. Messages kept coming in from the subscriber, with another offer for another picture from another position. They were happy with the picture they got, but now they wanted more. And the money they offered wasn’t easy to ignore.