“Nah, farther east. When everything flooded, I came out this way.”
“And you’ve been living in the hills? Scavenging and hunting and stuff?” This is always what I’ve assumed about him, based on what he brings to trade with. Danny always calls himthe woodsman, and that’s exactly what he feels like to me.
“Y-yeah. Pretty much. Scraping out a life like everyone else.”
“You weren’t tempted to join the militia?”
“No fucking way.”
I sniff and cuddle into his warm body. “Good.” Then, after a beat, I ask, “How old are you?”
“Thirty-six.”
“Were you married?”
“What? Yeah, I was for a while. Got married in my early twenties, but the marriage was a bust in less than five years. I had a few girlfriends after that but nothing serious.”
“Oh.”
“What about you?”
“What?”
“What about you? How old are you? Were you married? What were you doing before Impact?”
“Oh. I’m twenty-seven. I never married. I dated occasionally, but I mostly just kept to myself. I was an accountant.”
“Really? So you’re good with numbers?”
“Yeah, I am. Not that it matters anymore. Talk about an obsolete job. But I made pretty good money for what I needed. I just had a small apartment and not much of a social life. The only family I ever knew was my grandfather, and he died when I was in college. So I just wanted to keep my head down and do my job.” I sigh and stretch my legs, rubbing one of my feet against his calves. “I guess that’s why I was in such a bad position after Impact. I didn’t have people. And we need people now to survive.”
“Yep. But you got them now, right?”
“I do?” I lift my head to look down at his face.
He frowns at me. “Sure. Seems like Nell and Pete and Danny and everyone here cares about you. Seems like they’re your people now. Aren’t they?”
I’d never actually thought about it before. I blink down at him as I say, “Oh. I guess they are.”
He smiles just a little, and I smile back.
“I don’t know why I’ve never thought about it that way, but I think you’re right. Maybe having people and taking care of them is another way to hold on to the parts of us that are important—no matter what crappy situation we’re stuck with.”
“That makes sense to me. And so is the way you go out on the roof every night and draw the stars and their stories. That’s you being you, no matter what you had to do earlier in the day.”
“Maybe that’s right.”
“Do you want to do that now?”
“Go out on the roof? Right now? What will you do?”
“I could go with you, unless you don’t want me to.”
“You sure you don’t want to fuck? Because I’m happy to?—”
“No way. I wouldn’t anyway ’cause I can see clearly you’re not in the mood. But honestly I’m not either.”
“In that case…” I’m weirdly excited as I climb over his body to get off the bed, going to open the window as he hefts himself to his feet too. I grab my sketchbook and pencil before I climb out the window, and then I snicker as it takes some doing for Cade to get his big body out the opening.
