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)
“Charging things,” I said, shaking my head. “I don’t have solar.”
“I will give you a portable one to bring back to your place. Kinda useless as a whole. But if you have any music stored on your phone or something, it helps keep the walls from closing in. Do you have a Ham radio?” he asked.
“Who has a Ham radio that wasn’t, like, in the military or a trucker?”
“Well, I have an extra. I will give you one. Plus batteries. Then we can talk.”
I shouldn’t have agreed.
It was risky to get attached.
But maybe Caleb was right.
If this was all there was ever going to be, maybe finding ways to enjoy ourselves through it was the smart thing.
Just surviving hadn’t exactly been fun for me.
“Okay. I’d like that.”
“Did you hear that, Toddy? We made ourselves a friend! She said she’s going to have us over for pasta tomorrow.”
“I said no such thing.”
“And yet, I will be there. With a bowtie on. Now, let’s see if I can find something we can paint our nails with.”
I thought he was joking.
About the bowtie thing.
Early the next morning, I did slip all my armor back on. And he did walk me home carrying my new Ham radio for me.
And he did drop me off at my place and head back out to his mansion.
I even expected him to make good on his promise to come back for pasta. Because, well, pasta.
But I thought he was joking about the bowtie.
Until I opened the door to find him standing there in one. And Toddy was in his arms with his own little kitty bowtie as well. I mean, Caleb was also wearing hot pink shorts and a shirt with little pigeons printed all over it. But he’d actually worn the bowtie.
“Toddy and I were talking,” Caleb announced as he stood there, no weapon, no way to defend himself if a zombie popped up out of nowhere. “And we would really prefer Angel Hair if it is available. But we won’t be too disappointed if it is penne or linguine.”
“I definitely have Angel Hair,” I told him as I moved aside to let him in.
And then we just… shared a meal.
Played cards.
Talked about our old lives and what we’d wanted to do with our futures. We even got a little philosophical over a bottle of wine as we sat on the roof of the building, thinking about how insane civilization had become right before the crash of it all.
“We could have still been in the jungle, eating fruit, balls out, not a care in the world,” Caleb said, clucking his tongue. “But instead, we worked nine-to-five jobs we hated in hideous buildings, wearing uncomfortable clothes, too stressed out even to enjoy our days off.”
“I think your main objection to that life seems to be wearing clothing,” I mused, and a smile tugged at his lips as he looked over at me.
I don’t know if it was the wine, the moonlight falling on his face, or the fact that he was the first live, not bitten man I’d seen in ages, or what, but I felt a weird little flutter in my belly as he looked at me.
Which was weird.
Because guys like Caleb had never been my type before.
Light. Easy. A little frat-boy-like.
I’d always sort of leaned in to dark, distant, and a bit tortured in some way.
Hence my complete and utter failure in the relationship department. Because dark, distant, tortured men rarely cared about anyone but themselves.
It was kind of a shame that I hadn’t met Caleb a couple of years ago. I bet he would have been exciting to date.
But not during the end of the world.
There was no room for relationships in a zombie apocalypse.
“Come on, be brave with me,” he demanded a few hours later after suggesting we camp out on the roof for the night.
“Is it brave, or is it stupid?”
“There’s a fine line there,” he told me as he spread out the couch cushions he’d stolen from my living room. “I always err on the side of brave.”
“I’m not brave,” I told him, shaking my head as I pictured zombies somehow climbing the walls, or infiltrating the floor below, and mauling us in our sleep.
“You? Zombie Apocalypse Barbie? Master armourer? Ex-boyfriend head chopper-offer-er? Come on now.”
I would have laughed at that.
But then he reached up and pulled off his shirt.
See, the thing was, you didn’t really have a lot of a libido when you were constantly assaulted with the sounds of people screaming as they were being eaten, or the constant grumblings of the flesh eaters themselves.
So when it came back out of nowhere, yeah, it was intense.
I’d never been one of those girls who drooled over shirtless men back when the world was operating correctly.
Now, though?
Yeah, I was actively trying to not do that.