Page 30 of Say You'll Stay

“Yeah.” She’s not, but complaining is useless and there’snothing to be done about ghosts.

“Not much else back here unless you want that leftover cake.”

Her nose wrinkles at the rotten evidence of an employee party. “I’ll pass. Let’s load this stuff up and check out the next store.”

The window glass is broken at the drugstore, and the shelves mostly empty but not everything is gone. After Cole puts down two stragglers, she begins browsing what’s left.

Instantly, she zeros in on a pack of condoms. The ceiling may as well have cracked to let in a single sunray highlighting the box for how quickly she fixates on it.

Her attention flits back to Cole, who’s none the wiser, three aisles over.

Quickly, Olivia rips open the package and takes one, shoving it in her bag before she can talk herself out of it. Doesn’t have any illusions that he’ll wake up one morning and decide she’s desirable enough to sleep with. No harm in taking one, though, even if she doesn’t think she wants that again from anyone.

Better to be prepared.

He’ll never know.

She veers away before having second thoughts and turns back to grab a small bottle of lube and rip open the magnum-size box next to the regulars, pilfering one of those, too. Cole’s got thick fingers and wide shoulders. It stands to reason that other areas might also be well endowed. Not that she’s been thinking about that.

Olivia shakes her head. The idea of a magnum-sized dick coming anywhere near her at the moment isn’t something she’s eager about, but the stirrings of attraction she’s been trying to deny are already brewing. As time goes on, she mayfeel differently. So, she has multiple condoms in her bag, in case the stars align in the distant future when she’s not such a damn mess.

“Sixty percent alcohol in that.” He points to Listerine on the shelf when she joins him again. “If we run outta other stuff, it’ll clean a wound. I found a small camping grill, too. Some matches. Once we find somewhere to hunt, I can get us real food.”

“You’re good at this. Knowing how to keep going and make it all work.”

He shrugs. “Not much different from how I lived before, just without all the dead people back then. It’ll be easier to hunt with a bow. We won’t waste bullets.”

“Then we need to find a hunting store?”

“Mhmm. Or a hunter’s cabin. Then we can take someone else’s stash. I think we’re still a while from good hunting grounds, though.”

“It’s okay. We’ll get there when we get there.”

He pauses, a crease forming on his forehead. “Do you hear that?”

She doesn’t hear anything and shakes her head.

“It’s coming from behind the building. Stay here.”

“What? No. No way. We stick together.”

For a moment, she expects him to argue. It’s safer in here with all the rotters managed. They have no clue what’s emitting the mysterious noise out back, but one thing she will never be on board for is splitting up. She’s seen that movie and it never ends well.

He only huffs and leads them outside and around the back, the high-pitched crying finally reaching her ears. It sounds like another baby, she thinks, hoping like hell it’s not. The lastthing they need is a second child to try to keep alive when the first one is already a full-time job. It’s only a mild relief when they’re greeted with the source of the commotion.

A small cat in a pink harness, tethered to its owner by a leash, hops in place across a pond.

“Nope.” Cole shakes his head. “No. No way.”

“I didn’t even say anything yet.”

“Well…we can’t.”

She sends him a side eye, noticing the worry in his face, how he’s begun to pace a few steps back and forth at the edge of the water.

“Fuck,” he growls. “We can’t just leave it like this. Have to cut it loose at least.”

“It’s pretty close. I don’t think the water is deep—”

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