what's a taxi ride without some harmless, one-sided improv games?
george and clay stayed in the airport until night fell. nothing but darkness could be seen out of the plentiful large windows. the two men were sat in a random terminal next to the closed outlets in the duty free. george was sitting and charging his phone, while clay was staring out the window at the still heavily falling snow.
"where are you staying tonight george?" clay asked, breaking the silence that had fallen between them.
"hm?" george asked, not looking up from his phone.
"well i can't imagine you're going to sleep here," said clay, "you could be mugged, or murdered, or-"
"okay, okay i get the picture," said george, "well um, i haven't really thought about it much. air canada offered to put me in a hotel, but i don't think that the offer still stands."
"oh," said clay.
"what about you?" asked george.
"i've thought about it," said clay, "i'll probably just look for somewhere cheap, but nowhere too... sketchy."
"i can look up some places for you, if you want," george suggested, opening his search browser.
"would you?" clay asked, leaning closer to see george's phone screen.
"of course," said george, "i need a place to stay too. cheap sounds right up my alley about now."
clay chuckled as george typed 'cheap hotels near me' into google.
after a minute of scrolling, clay pointed to a picture of a cubic-looking building.
"that one looks half decent," he said, withdrawing his hand from the screen.
"the moda hotel," said george, clicking on the listing, "wow, it's only eighty bucks a night for a standard room."
clay was a little worried about that price. he could afford a hotel room, but for how many nights?
"how far is it from here?" clay asked.
"it says it's about a... twenty minute drive," said george, after quickly typing the address into google maps.
"well... that works for me," said clay, "would you wanna catch a ride together?"
"yeah, for sure," said george, "we can get an uber or..."
"there's plenty of taxis in vancouver i would guess," said clay, "we should be able to flag one down."
"sounds good to me," said george.
"hold on, i should text nick," clay said, grabbing his phone from his pocket.
"like, nick nick? made famous from the bet that lead to our meeting?" asked george.
"oh, yeah!" clay said, surprised george had remembered his friend's name.
"well tell him i said thank you," said george.
"...thank you?" clay asked.
"yeah... for making a stupid bet," george said with a smile.
"oh, i um- i will," said clay, slightly stumbling over his speech, "wh- uhm sorry. well... what about you?"
"me?"
"don't you have anyone to update, with the storm and flight cancellation?" clay asked.
"oh i texted my family ages ago," george said, "wait shit, i forgot to text alex!"
