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"Totally," I agreed, a little too overenthusiastic. "I mean, we got along just fine yesterday," I added, making my voice calmer.
"Exactly. I can't imagine it will be too much longer before people start missing us, worrying about why they can't get in touch. Then something is going to start happening."
"And until then, we will be fine," I agreed, not wanting to entertain the idea of being found out, having to possibly go back to our old lives just yet.
I just wanted another day of the fantasy.
Then I could deal with the sad reality.
"Yeah. I think we probably have two days worth of gas. Especially if we turn it off at night. We will make it work. You'll be dying to get back to civilization by the end of this," he joked.
"I like it here," I told him. "It's, ah, you know... it's peaceful. Not having all the demands of normal life is kind of, well, refreshing."
I went ahead and left out the fact that, if it were not for him, I would have been going stir crazy by now.
I liked to read a lot, sure, but I also liked to binge shows on Netflix or mess around on social media apps. And, of course, keep in touch with my mother.
He was right, though.
My mother had to be worrying by now.
In another day, she would be crawling the walls, calling my work, finding out if my plane landed, if I had picked up my rental car, if there was anyone who could confirm that I had made it to my destination.
If any of those things couldn't be confirmed, she would be on the phone with the local authorities, and hopping on a plane herself.
This could very well be our last day and night fully alone.
I should have been happy about that.
But, God, I just wanted more of this fantasy life where I was more than the shy office girl, where a man like Rush Rivers could notice me, want to be around me, could maybe even be in bed with me at night.
"What's the matter?" Rush asked, reading me a little too well for my comfort, especially seeing as I was having a lot of mixed feelings around him, ones I didn't want to have to explain to him. "Thinking about the cannibals again?" he teased, seeming to sense I didn't want to talk about it.
"Yeah. You know... they might be drawn by my cooking. Maybe I shouldn't do that anymore," I teased, smiling when he clutched his chest.
"You can't say things like that," he told me, giving me that boyish smile of his. "Besides, they don't want to eat your cooking. They want to eat you," he said.
It was immature at best, the way my body responded to that turn of phrase, to the ways it could be interpreted.
But regardless of that, heat bloomed in my core, spreading outward until it overtook me completely, a fever that made me feel warm instead of freezing for a change.
It must have shown on my face, too, because Rush's eyes went a little warm, the teasing smile fell, replaced with a seriousness that I didn't know how to interpret coming from him.
"Bet you'd be a lot sweeter," he said, voice a low rumble that turned my belly to liquid. As he said it, I would swear there was actual hunger in his eyes.
But no.
That didn't seem right.
He was just playing around, teasing.
Or he was saying it because we were in forced close proximity.
Because I was female.
He was male.
And there were parts that could fit together.
I didn't have much pride, but I had enough to know that I didn't want to be the woman a man reached for just because she was there.
I turned away from that look, from the desperation I felt for it to be true, for it to be directed at me in some sort of solid way, but knowing it wasn't how things were.
"They'd go for you first," I declared, reaching for a rag to wipe down the counter.
"How do you figure?" Rush asked after a short pause.
"It's the first rule of cannibalism—go for the person with more to consume," I said, shrugging.
"You're aquatinted with the rules of cannibalism, huh?" he asked, voice once again light, teasing.
"It's your usual common sense."
"And you think cannibals have basic common sense?" he pressed, smirking at me.
"Well, actually no. They'd probably be riddled with Kuru."
"Kuru?" he repeated, brows furrowing.
"It's a Prion disease," I supplied.
"Gonna need more than that, I'm afraid."
"It's a neurodegenerative disease that comes from eating the brains of humans."
"How the fuck do you know something like that?" he asked, scoffing.
"I watch all the documentaries that hit my streaming services."
"And there was a documentary about Kuru?"
"Well, no. I mean, yes. There was a documentary about cannibalism. In particular about the funeral rites of the tribes of Papua New Guinea until like the nineties, I think. The women would remove the brains of dead loved ones and cook and eat them."
