Total pages in book: 16
Estimated words: 15337 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 77(@200wpm)___ 61(@250wpm)___ 51(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 15337 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 77(@200wpm)___ 61(@250wpm)___ 51(@300wpm)
“I don’t want to talk about it,” I murmured into his shoulder.
“Talk about what?”
Right.
Exactly.
I climbed off of him, keeping my back to him as I got to my feet.
“I need to get the cushions inside. It’s looking like rain today,” I said, seeing the clouds gathering.
So that was exactly what I did, busying myself with the task as Caleb came back down.
“I have to get some food for Toddy,” he said, a bit of tension in his voice.
“Okay,” I agreed, nodding. “Here,” I added, going into my stash and producing a weapon I’d sort of made with knives, an old garden rake pole, and duct tape. Like… a lot of duct tape.
“Thanks, Catie with a C and ie,” he said, giving me a smile that looked forced.
“No problem,” I said, nodding. “Try not to get eaten out there.”
“I’ll do my best,” he said, making his way out of the door without even looking around first. Toddy followed behind.
I only watched for a moment or two before going back inside to wallow in some self-loathing for a few hours that turned into a few days.
The loneliness that set in then was different. Stronger. Bolstered up by the friendship I’d just begun to explore, that a part of me had been hoping would be a bigger part of my future.
I’d wanted those adventures he’d promised, damnit.
But it looked like that wasn’t going to be possible anymore.
That fact had no right to send me into the downward spiral it did.
But there was no denying that was exactly what happened.
“Catie with a C and ie, do you copy? Over,” a familiar voiced echoed through my makeshift home, making me lift my head from the tile floor I was currently spread across in an attempt to cool myself down.
I always thought that I liked summer.
Until, of course, I had to endure it without the luxury of air conditioning.
I’d been sprawled out on the cold tile floor in my panties and bra since the sun came up, baking my home that didn’t have nearly enough ventilation to make it even remotely tolerable.
And water was such a luxury since it needed to be gathered and then filtered, a process that was dangerous and arduous, so I wasn’t about to use it to spritz over myself for relief.
I was half-sure I was hallucinating from my brain frying. The science behind that was unknown to me, but my head sure felt hot enough to actually start cooking braincells.
“Come in, come in, Catie with a C and ie. Over,” the voice called again, and that time I folded upward.
Over.
No one said over.
Unless…
I didn’t even think about it.
I flew up off the floor and through the building toward the Ham radio Caleb had set up in my kitchen.
I grabbed the little microphone thingy like a lifeline, pressing the button.
“Caleb with an x and qt, is that you?” I asked. Then, when he didn’t respond, “Over.”
“It is I, fair maiden,” he responded. “Over.”
“Is your brain frying from the heat too?” I asked. “And I think we can skip the whole over thing since it’s just the two of us.”
And what did this man do?
Start humming Just the Two of Us.
I was half-tempted to join in.
That was how giddy I was that he was still alive.
“Nah, Apocalypse Barbie. Rich dude has this place rigged up to stay cool in the summer. And I have the basement in the worst case. Stays a solid sixty there, no matter how hot it gets. You suffering?”
“If you call lying on the stone floor in my underwear suffering, then yes.”
“Which brings me to my idea.”
“Your idea?” I prompted when he didn’t go on.
“Well, actually, it was Toddy’s idea,” he clarified. “He thinks we should have a beach day.”
“Your cat wants to have a beach day?” I asked, smiling at the absurdity.
“Don’t stereotype him. He is a feline of refined and varied tastes. So what do you think?” he asked.
I thought it had been a solid two weeks since the whole rooftop incident. During which I’d beat myself up in every possible way. And then spent far too much time worried that he wasn’t still alive.
And now he was just going to call me up and invite me to the beach? Was I really going to just… say yes to that?
I mean, this wasn’t like friendships or dating back in the world-before. It wasn’t like anyone was going to judge me for being lured into his trap, being pulled into his games.
No one was around to know how tempted I was, how badly I wanted to say yes, how much I’d been obsessively thinking about him.
“Come on, Catie. You said we could have adventures. This is an adventure. And since you are always worried about those kinds of things, if the zombies show up, we can just hang out in the water until they go away.”