Page 48 of Stops Along the Way
I text Declan that I’m on my way to the third floor, and he meets me by the elevator. He’s wearing athletic shorts and aJurassic Parkshirt and holding a few soda bottles from the vending machine. “I hope you’re hungry, because Grady can never resist playing host.”
“Oh, really?” I ask, reaching for one of the drinks.
Declan and I approach the identical room, almost directly below where Amelia is upstairs, where Grady has an assortment of chips, crackers, and cookies on the wooden hotel table. He’s sitting in the rolling chair, ankle crossed over his knee, halfway through a pack of Doritos.
“You kids left the pool to do homework?” Grady smirks, holding up his cheesy fingers pressed together, hand outstretched like he’s in the middle of a stump speech.
“Hey, there’s a deadline,” Declan says. “We don’t have much time to throw this together.”
Now, standing shoulder to shoulder with Declan, I once again wonder if it’s obvious that we’ve kissed. Declan takes a seat atop the comforter, and with Grady already in the chair, my only seating options are the other bed or next to Declan.
Or the floor, but that’s nasty.
I take my time getting Amelia’s laptop out of her backpack and plugging it into the wall before sitting on the edge of the bed, opposite Declan. Grady tosses me some Oreos before opening his own laptop to do some other work of his own while Declan and I lean together to share a screen.
It only takes an hour or so to consolidate our individual notes and get an initial picture of how this board will come together.
“Like a country map,” Declan suggests, but not fully sold on the idea himself. “That seems a little too Ticket to Ride, you know?”
“Yeah, but I wouldn’t want it to be too Monopoly or Life, either.” I frown at the document. Declan leans back on his elbows, against my legs. I take a slow breath. “I guess it depends on the outcomes. Are the players all going on the exact same trip, or are there variations?”
“It would be nice to have different paths. That’s something we could manage with cards, though,” he suggests.
“And dice,” I tease.
“I think Ticket to Ride has a dice expansion, though…” He runs the back of his hand against his scrunched-up forehead,trying to think. “I mean, we’re not going to be reinventing the wheel here.”
“True.” If we’re having trouble differentiating enough anyway, maybe we need to pull even more familiar inspiration. An idea strikes then, and I’m giddy. “What if we combine it with something like Battleship? Like, what if there’s aliens on the ground on the road but navigators that are up in the sky, and it’s more of a cooperative game, but one that’s high risk because you don’t know if you’re going to be helpful or, like, accidentally smite your teammate somehow?”
Declan matches my energy immediately, sitting back up and pointing to the screen. “Then we can do maps, but separate ones that other players can’t see rather than a shared one on the table.”
“Exactly.”
We lock eyes, and I’m so entranced by how well we’re working together that I almost forget where we are—until Grady bursts out laughing at something on his computer. Declan and I smile, looking away, but his fingers graze across my hand on the keyboard.
Another two hours pass in a matter of minutes, and we’ve planned out this entire board game, complete with a quick mock-up we can print and assemble after more fine-tuning back home. But it’s definitely time to get some sleep because of the very real road we have to traverse tomorrow. Well,today, since it’s nearly two in the morning, not to get annoying-kid-at-the-sleepover about this.
“All that’s left is to figure out a name,” I say.
“That’s tricky.” Declan hides a yawn in his shoulder, mirroring the roaring dinosaur on his tee. “I’m not great with coming up with names.”
“Yeah,Numbers, I know that.” I save the files and reluctantly slip off the bed to put the laptop back in the backpack. “I’m sure we’ll think of something on the way.”
“And see if we can convince Amelia and Grady to make a stop or two,” he agrees. We researched and found some weird little roadside attractions as inspiration to incorporate into the game, a few of which might be reasonable to see in person on our final driving stretch back to Omaha.
Grady gets up to go to the bathroom and brush his teeth as I head over to the door and step into my shoes.
“Need me to walk you back to your room?” Declan asks, standing as well.
“Not really…” Until it dawns on me half a second later. “Oh, sure.”
“To the elevator, at least,” Declan says, grabbing his hotel key card and following me out the door.
Grady shouts something after us, which I can only guess must’ve been “Smooth!” So it seems he has sensed the dynamic shift.
Declan and I make our way down the hall, and it’s like I forget how to be around him. We walk several feet apart, not looking at each other or saying anything, and then out of nervousness, I hit the call button right away. I probably could’ve waited a minute or two to do that, but when I spin back aroundto face him, we fall into each other’s arms again, ignoring the elevator doors opening and closing behind us.
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