‘I’m sorry for what I said earlier, Lukas, it wasn’t my finest moment.’ All he did was blink but she could tell he was listening, so she ploughed on. ‘I want to propose a truce.’
He looked at her then. Icy eyes piercing into hers. A shiver ran down her spine and she found herself leaning towards them just a little. She tried to pull away but couldn’t.
‘What do you think it was when I got you from that cabin, fed and warmed you?’ She had never heard his voice so low. So robotic.
‘I…’ What could she say? That she didn’t want to believe he could do anything kind or decent. ‘I didn’t see it for what it was,’ she admitted. ‘The attitude didn’t help,’ she added.
‘Fine. So you want a truce. What does that mean?’
‘It means that you’re right, we’re stuck here together and maybe we should work together to survive. I’ll admit that I am lacking in some skills, but I can make up for them in other ways. All you need to do is teach me and I can help. It will be a lot easier if we coexist peacefully than if we’re at each other’s throats all the time.’
‘Canyoudo that?’ He turned towards her, folding one leg under the other as he focussed all his attention on her.
Can I…ugh, why is he so insufferable?It took a Herculean effort not to snap at him. ‘I can try if you try too.’
He looked like he was thinking about it. It wasn’t lost on Katherine that he could kick her out and live comfortably until help arrived, but anything could happen out here, and it wouldn’t be smart to be apart when they could only rely on each other’s help.
‘I can agree to that. It’s just until we’re rescued, then we go back to our lives,’ he said.
‘Absolutely.’ Katherine held out her hand. Lukas looked at it before he took it in his own much larger, warmer one, and shook it, scorching her skin. She did well to hide her gasp and pulled her hand away.
As she flexed her fingers, she caught a flash of something in Lukas’s eyes that she didn’t want to question.
Katherine was surprised but pleased by how well she and Lukas did over the days that followed. He did well to measure his tone when he spoke to her and cooked all their meals.
In turn, she tried not to remember that he’d gotten her fired, which helped a great deal in them being civil. It didn’t help her blood pressure though. Being around Lukas was a constant reminder of what he had done. A constant reminder of the misogyny she faced. Of what her relationship with her father might become if she ever lost this career.
It made her burn, but they had a truce. A truce that ensured her survival, so as angry as she often found herself, as frustrated and bitter…she had to take a deep breath and force it all down. Still, her heart felt like it was constantly beating in her ears. Her stomach was constantly in knots. Even sleep was proving difficult.
The truce was temporary and soon they would escape each other.
Katherine was adding wood to the stove, feeding the fire, which was easy once Lukas had shown her how. And while she did that, he prepared their lunch.
‘Thank you,’ he said when she closed the door to the firebox.
‘Can I help with lunch?’ she asked, leaning over the counter.
‘You want to help?’ Lukas raised an eyebrow, incredulous. ‘We have to be able to eat it afterwards.’
She wished he never knew of her weakness. She was preparing to throw a barb of her own when she noticed the corner of his lips kicked up in the most delicious way and realised he was teasing her.
‘Don’t be an ass or I’ll eat all the yoghurt,’ she retorted, forcing herself to calm down.
‘Too late for that and you can help with the vegetables. Do you know what to do?’
‘I’ve watched you enough.’ She was watching him right now. The way he rubbed the marinade he had made with their limited ingredients over the chicken breasts. It was not normal to stare at his hands like this, so she yanked open the fridge. He was right, the yogurt had gone. In fact, a lot of the food had diminished. They were starting to run alarmingly low. Every meal was much smaller than Katherine knew he would really need. Obviously, he had to be mindful about how he rationed the groceries to feed them both. His supplies had been meant to be for him alone for no more than a couple days and the food he’d taken from the crew’s cabin had been meant to feed them for two more meals.
‘You know,’ he said as she began chopping, ‘that day in the paddock, I was talking to Dominic. I hadn’t realised that your producer overheard what I said at first.’
Katherine stopped breathing. Her knife pausing on the board. Her heart beat rapidly. They had avoided this subject since their argument.
‘When I did, I told him discreetly that what he heard wasn’t your fault. It had nothing to do with you. I told him that I couldn’t explain further than that and he said he understood. I knew they fired you. I didn’t know why.’
She handed her chopping board to him, careful to avoid his touch, careful to hide her shaking.
When he bent to place the dish in the oven, she asked, ‘Why didn’t you want to talk to me? We hadn’t met before that point.’
Lukas closed the oven door, regret etched onto his face. ‘It doesn’t matter why. I’m sorry that it happened.’
