I let out a sigh of relief.But he’s still not lifting up from me.
“I’m sorry, baby.”
The words—and the humility I hear in his voice—instantly eliminates the awkwardness of the last four hours.
“It’s my fault,” I tell him.“I promised to follow your instructions and I didn’t.I’m so sorry.I know you were only thinking of my safety.Please forgive me for being so—”
He reaches up, pulls down my face mask, then his, and drops a hard kiss on me.
One of his gloved hands strokes my face while his lips move over mine.
The kiss isn’t sexual.It’s not like we could get naked in here even if the need struck.I think this hidey-hole is a sex-free zone.
Another reason we need to be rescued.
This kiss is meant to reassure me, and it does just that.
Evander raises up enough to slip an arm under me.He holds me close for a minute, then pulls up his balaclava and mine.
His eyes are smiling.My eyes smile back.
We share one can of Beefaroni—I take about a third of it and he takes the rest.Then we each eat a protein bar.I want to eat everything, but we can’t.We have no idea how much longer we’ll be out here, and with the shotgun out of the picture, there’s no longer even the remote possibility of hunting.
Since we have our masks lowered to eat, we talk.
“I need a steak,” Evander says.“I feel my muscle tissue breaking down from lack of protein and calories.”
“You said you’re a fan of intermittent fasting.”
He looks up and me and grins.“Right, but my version is twelve hours between steaks.Going eight hours between scoops of Chef ‘Boy-are-we-ever-fucked’ isn’t what I had in mind.”
I laugh.“You’ll be fine.You’ve consumed at leastsomeprotein and calories.Besides, it would take several days before your body starts breaking down muscle glycogen into glucose.”I finish the last bit of my protein bar.“I could really go for a cheese omelet with bacon on the side right about now.Maybe pancakes, too, with a lot of butter.”
That’s when I look up to see Evander staring at me with a puzzled look on his face.
“What?”
“It’sbeenseveral days.We’re heading into day four.”
He’s right.I sit there unable to move for a long moment.“I’m starting to get really scared.”
“I know.Come over here, Phoebs.”
I crawl toward him.He adjusts into a cross-legged position and pats one of his thighs.“Have a seat.”
“Did you just call mePhoebs?”
“Is that okay?”
“Sure.You can call me anything you want.”I’m smiling to myself.
“Are you okay with ‘baby’?”
“Yep, which is lucky for you, since you’ve already called me that.”
“I have?”
“I’m not a fan of ‘babe’, though.It feels a little cringey to me.”
