But suddenly she was thinking it would be nice to have someone who cared about her. The sex thing was different. She’d never really thought about pursuing it. How would that even happen? Was it a natural progression of dating? She had no one to ask. Unity hadn’t dated since high school and Keith found women online. That was hardly traditional.

Everyone else trooped back on the bus. Keith pulled out onto the street that paralleled the freeway, then merged into the southbound traffic. In the rear of the bus, Luka opened the Spanish language app on his phone. In a matter of minutes, all the kids were speaking along with him, teasing each other about mispronunciations.

Ellen shifted from her seat to the one behind Keith.

“How are you feeling?” he asked, meeting her gaze in the mirror. “You were quiet this morning.”

She grinned. “I had a hangover.”

“You sound proud.”

“I am. I’m better now.”

“Drink lots of fluids. You need to hydrate.”

“If I do that, I’ll need to stop more often and you know how cranky you get when we stop to let someone pee.”

He smiled. “I’ll make an exception in your case.”

“Thank you.” She thought about their conversation the previous night. “Thanks for listening. And buying me drinks.”

“Anytime.”

“I’m starting to get together a plan. For the list.”

His gaze met hers again, before returning to the road. “What does that mean?”

“I’m getting a tattoo. In San Diego. I’ve done my research and I think that’s the best place. There are a lot of tattoo parlors in the area because of the navy base.” She popped a can of soda and took a sip. “Although it’s not just military guys anymore. Everyone has tattoos. I want to say it’s a strange thing to do, but I guess we’ve been marking our bodies for thousands of years.”

“You don’t need me here for this conversation, do you?” he asked.

“Not really, but it’s nice to have you here all the same.” She took another drink. “I found the place I want to go to. It gets very good reviews.”

“You picked a tattoo parlor based on Yelp?”

“Not just Yelp. Other review sites. I don’t want to be disappointed.”

He shook his head. “What’s the tattoo?”

She smiled. “You’ll have to wait and see.”

More laughter erupted from the rear of the bus. Ellen glanced at the students, then back at the windshield. She thought about the magazine and the couple in the ad.

“Maybe I’m not a sexual being,” she said with sigh.

The bus swerved slightly. Keith glared at her. “Don’t say stuff like that while I’m driving.”

“What does your driving have to do with anything?”

“It’s distracting.”

“Well, I’ve said it now. Can we talk about it?”

“No.”

She ignored him. “It’s just why haven’t I found a guy to sleep with? Why hasn’t a guy found me? Why have I been okay with just masturbating all these years?”