Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 68509 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68509 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
“Hey, I was pretty much cursing your existence for the first few days, so this is a lot of progress,” I quipped.
But the fact of the matter was, there was a lot I wasn’t saying. There were a lot of feelings that I’d barely managed to acknowledge, let alone wrap my head around.
“That’s true. And I did make you believe we were stranded on an island…”
“I wonder how Hank is doing,” I said as I watched Wick get to work on my replacement shoe.
“Eating bugs, enjoying the sunshine, missing your chest…”
I smiled as I carefully reorganized his pack, then did the work of squeezing out the water filter into our bottles before moving out to fill the bag back up with the waterfall water.
By the time I was done with all of that, Wick had something resembling a shoe forged out of duct tape, cardboard, my bra strap, and, it seemed, the cut-up material of one of my socks.
“Did you sew that in?” I asked, inspecting his work.
“I had the kit,” Wick said, shrugging off his work. “Want to try it on?” he asked, holding it out for me to slip my foot into.
It was a snug fit, but in a not-unpleasant way, but more so a way that made me confident it would stay on my foot no matter how fast the pace was.
“This is great,” I said, flexing my foot. “Thank you.”
“While I wouldn’t mind piggybacking you, this will let us keep our usual pace.”
“Yeah, I think… oh my God,” I gasped, whacking Wick across the chest.
“What?” he asked, looking at me while my gaze focused out of the waterfall.
“Look!” I said, literally crawling closer to the water to see better. “It’s those giant guinea pig things.”
“Capybaras?” Wick asked, crawling up beside me to look out as one of them walked over to the water’s edge to sip.
“Oh!” I gasped when another walked out to join her. Then, a second later, a whole group of baby ones came forward. I swear my heart melted. “Listen, I know we have to respect the environment and animals belong in the wild and blah blah blah… But I want to throw one in my backpack and smuggle it out of here.”
“They’re really cute,” Wick agreed.
“Oh, oh, they’re gonna swim,” I cooed, crossing my legs to watch as the mom slid into the water, followed by all her little babies, swimming around happily for a few moments before climbing back out. “Are you seeing this?” I asked.
“Yeah, duchess,” he said, but when I turned, I found his gaze watching me, not the capybaras. “I’m seeing it.”
I was going to say something. Maybe even talk about what was happening with us.
When my stomach let out the growl to top all growls, making Wick’s lips curve up. “I guess I should feed you, huh?”
“Wait, you’re not leaving, are you?” I asked when he started to get to his feet.
“I won’t go far. I think I saw an açai tree not too far away.”
“We should stay put,” I insisted.
“You are going to,” he said. He grabbed one of the plastic bags from his pack, but left the backpack itself.
“Wick, we shouldn’t split up.”
“I know where you are.”
“But what if—“
“If you hear something, you stay your ass in here, do you hear me?”
“Wick…”
“We don’t both need to die.”
“Um, I’m pretty sure I’d die without you here too. I’m not exactly Rainforest Survival Barbie here,” I reminded him.
“You don’t give yourself enough credit. But I don’t plan on dying out there. So just wait for me, okay?”
“Fine,” I grumbled, feeling a little guilty about how much I wanted to stay put.
“I won’t be long,” he assured me, giving my hip a squeeze. He looked like he wanted to kiss me, but neither of us had gotten a chance to brush our teeth yet.
“I’ll be here,” I told him, reaching to give him a bottle of water.
Then he was gone.
I watched him through the waterfall as he disappeared, then went ahead and brushed my teeth, not wanting to miss another opportunity to kiss Wick if it popped up.
Finished with that, I sat back down and worried a lot more than I could have anticipated.
I was so lost in my worst-case scenarios that I nearly jumped out of my skin when a strange squeak sounded right near me.
“Jesus Chri—oh,” I said, pressing a hand to my racing heart when I saw the source of the sound.
A little… frog? I mean, I was pretty sure that was a frog. It was hideously cute, looking more like a little ball with an angry face than a normal frog.
“Listen, I’m cool with you being here so long as you don’t try to, like, wipe me with your hallucinogenic goo or something.” To that, I got another squeak. “You sound like a dog toy,” I told him when he let out another surprisingly loud squeak for such a little dude.